the_classicist

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Posts by the_classicist

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  20

  Are the 31 days up yet?? *grin*

  by missy04 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so when do we find out what happens after 31 days, simon?.

  i have more cookies that i am prepared to bribe with again.

  anyone know and wanna tell me?

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  the_classicist

  I think that the end of the 31 days is on "the memorial."
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  10

  Problem remembering my childhood

  by mtbatoon in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  i have a big problem remembering my childhood.

  it gets quite frustrating sometimes.

  every so often i get a flashback to a memory but only by triggers, usually smell.

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  the_classicist

  I know exactly what you mean. I think its partly because my childhood war really boring, though I kind of had a hand in making it that way so I won't try to blame the WT (well partly, I wanted to play softball and hockey, which I never could because a magazine that pretended to be God's channel was telling my parents not to).
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  3

  The Gospel Truth.

  by Blueblades in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  about the only term that the society does not use is, "the gospel truth".. what they do use in connection with their current teaching:.

  present truth, looking forward to new truths, their religion is the truth, infallible truth, revealed truths, rich truths, bible truths, great truths, precious truths, jewels of truths, unsealed truths, liberating truths, scriptural truths and established truths.. and that's "the gospel truth".would they lie?.

  blueblades

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  the_classicist

  From my greek textbook (classical greek with small passages of NT greek once in a while).

  Okay so euaggelion (pron. ow-ah-gelle-li-on) is translated good news and gospel and in the textbook after gospel is this note:

  (=Old English god, "good" + spel, "news")
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  24

  What is it all about? This life.

  by dh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you ever have those days, weeks, months, or even years where you just feel like your entire existence is completely pointless, when time has shot by and you feel like you have done none of the things that you set out to do so many years prior.

  when you feel like you have been standing still forever.. you work your routine and live your life, maybe have some friends, but when you go to sleep at night you still feel like there is nothing, no point or reason or meaning for any of it, like life is a void, and all your actions, feelings and everything about you is simply designed to distract you from the fact that there is nothing, and if you're lucky you're so distracted that you never notice it at all.

  it's like some insane cylce and you can never break it, no matter what you do or how you try.

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  the_classicist

  It's not a journey, its a trip.
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  30

  Will the Society come up with new prophecy to cover the lack of growth now?

  by AK - Jeff in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  was following mary's thread on the wt study of the annual report - what a hoot!.

  in follow-up; for years we have heard that the org's growth was 'proof' of the 'truth'.

  do you think the org will come up with some obsure scriptural/prophetic understanding to explain the reduced zeal for the 'kingdom' now?

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  the_classicist

  Maybe they'll use that "falling away" type scripture in this context. It kind of contradicts with "our numbers are growing because we are blessed by Jehovah" line.
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  63

  2 year old shot in head by 4 year old. (Houston, TX)

  by kwintestal in

  1. social
  2. current

  http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/articlenews/story/ctvnews/1110737306940_2/?hub=world toddler shot by 4-year-old brother: texas police

  associated press.

  houston ?

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  the_classicist

  Actually, one of the things many of us do fear is losing the rights we were guaranteed by our Constitution.

  Since when is the American constitution infallible?
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  42

  What's your take on morality?

  by Narkissos in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as former jws we were part of a highly moralising religion.

  we have experienced the disastrous consequences of it in terms of hypocrisy, judgementalism or pathologic guilt.

  most of us have changed our "moral parameters" drastically, but how far have we gone in questioning morality itself?.

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  the_classicist

  I think we must separate will from intellect. Will, I think, is what we want to happen, what we desire to come to be. You know beforehand that striking someone would be wrong, and supposedly you would stop yourself from such an action because of your knowledge that it is wrong and the displeasure you would get in doing something wrong.

  You do raise some really good points, I'm not smart enough to answer them though.
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  63

  2 year old shot in head by 4 year old. (Houston, TX)

  by kwintestal in

  1. social
  2. current

  http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/articlenews/story/ctvnews/1110737306940_2/?hub=world toddler shot by 4-year-old brother: texas police

  associated press.

  houston ?

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  the_classicist

  Canada: After enacting stringent gun control laws in 1991 and 1995, Canada has not made its citizens any safer. "The contrast between the criminal violence rates in the United States and in Canada is dramatic," says Canadian criminologist Gary Mauser in 2003. "Over the past decade, the rate of violent crime in Canada has increased while in the United States the violent crime rate has plummeted."

  There's a reason why Canada's "stringent gun control laws" don't work: they police citizens who have not committed crimes. You see, the so called "stringent laws" were just a gun control registry, one that was full of waste and abuse of funds by senior bureaucrats (but we don't have whistleblower protection in Canada, and basically the whole government is corrupt but those lefties in Toronto won't do anything about it).

  Canada's gun problems come mainly from the US. The criminals who do the shootings use weapons obtained in the US and smuggled over the border (you see it works like this: we ship pot down there, and you guys ship drugs and machine and hand guns up here). The registry doesn't work b/c criminals don't register their guns (so basically these "stringent laws" aren't really that stringent, and mainly useless as you pointed out).

  There are only three types of people that should have guns: cops and the military, and hunters (but the hunters only get rifles). I don't see why you need an Armalite to shoot down a duck. Handguns for protection? It leads down a slippery slope, especially when everyone gets handgun b/c they don't feel safe. Eventually everyone else gets handguns, especially the criminals, and no one feels any safer! Using a handgun as a remedy for fear is about as smart as using a bandaid to heal a wound that need stitches.
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  42

  What's your take on morality?

  by Narkissos in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as former jws we were part of a highly moralising religion.

  we have experienced the disastrous consequences of it in terms of hypocrisy, judgementalism or pathologic guilt.

  most of us have changed our "moral parameters" drastically, but how far have we gone in questioning morality itself?.

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  the_classicist

  I would have more issues with the_classicist's (classical, as ever) connection of morality with responsibility / accountability, and especially with point # 2 which makes "sufficient reflection" as a component of "mortal sin". I tend to think this traditionally Christian approach has actually produced or favoured much irresponsibility in the form of self-delusion, ignorance of one's desires and motives, and generally a twisted and sneaky approach to life, exemplified by the Pauline alibi ("in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me," Romans 7:17). To this attitude, I guess, responds Luther's famous formula, pecca fortiter ("sin bravely"). Moreover, hasn't psychoanalysis shattered the whole artifice, with Freud's motto Wo es war soll Ich werden (wherever "it" was, there I must/should be/come/become/stand)?

  Thanks for the compliment! What are we talking about anyways, a subjective or objective morality. Morality is subjective in some sense because it is bound to the human conscience whereas it can also be objective, if you believe in a moral system put in place by a higher being, a God figure if you will (credo in Deum, but I'm trying to be ecumenical).

  "Sufficient reflection" means that we must know the thought, word or deed to
  be sinful at the time we are guilty of it; and "full consent of the will" means
  that we must fully and willfully yield to it.
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  22

  Man am I bummed....

  by upside/down in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just got off the phone with my brother who lives in socal (nondub) and was informed that my dad just had a stroke!.

  he's my "dad", not the sperm donor that helped concieve me and my brother than abandoned us so he could "find himself".

  he's 74, very intelligent old school retired ex marine, that served in the korean war.

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  the_classicist

  Sorry to hear about that, he sounds like a really cool guy. I hope he gets better.

  Sounds almost exactly like my only grandpa (before he passed), even down to the marital situation.