Topics Started by Jeffro

40
Was it Designed?
by Jeffro in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
the jw website is currently featuring a piece: the shell of the diabolical ironclad beetle—was it designed?

it is part of their regular tedious 'was it designed?

' series that purports that very very specific animal species must have been specifically designed because of some seemingly amazing feature.. but they seem completely unaware that this directly contradicts their notion that only very broad 'kinds' were required on the mythical 'ark'.
6
ChatGPT analysis - Pure Worship
by Jeffro in
1. watchtower
2. bible
i provided chatgpt the text of the introductory ‘letter’ in pure worship, without any commentary to affect the context, and asked it to point out any errors, fallacies or other issues….

as an ai language model, i strive to be neutral and provide information without bias.

however, there are a few things in the text that could be considered fallacies or issues, such as:1. appeal to emotion: the text uses emotional language such as "thrilled" and "exciting" to describe the reaction of those who received the book.
8
"Congregation Bible Study" - Pure Worship
by Jeffro in
1. watchtower
2. bible
the pure worship book will be 'studied' at the weekly jw 'congregation bible study' starting next week.

anyone 'lucky' enough to attend might like to consider my review of the book for some salient points in the coming weeks.... .
20
240 'Lands'
by Jeffro in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
jehovah's witnesses are purportedly 'active' in 240 'lands', quite a remarkable feat for a planet with only about 200 sovereign states (206 if you count all that are recognised by at least one un member, of which jws are present in 166).

more than half of all jws worldwide are in just 10 countries.

over 90% are in 45 countries.. to achieve this mathematical miracle, various places that are not separate countries are counted as 'lands'.. tahiti is counted as a separate 'land' though it is part of the society islands, which is part of french polynesia, which is part of... france.
4
Yes, it's... ANOTHER problem with JW chronology...
by Jeffro in
1. watchtower
2. bible
according to the watch tower society, ahaziah (of judah) reigned for a single year, in 906bce.

the watch tower society also claims that judah and israel both used nisan-based dating for the start of reigns.. according to 2 kings 9:29, ahaziah's reign began in the 11th year of jehoram (of israel).

of course, if judah and israel were both using nisan-based dating, ahaziah's single year of reign couldn't have started in both years.
27
Yet another problem for Watch Tower Society apologists
by Jeffro in
1. watchtower
2. bible
amos 1:1 is set during the reigns of both uzziah and jeroboam (ii), "two years before the earthquake".. geologists* have dated this earthquake to around 760bce, with an error margin of plus or minus 25 years.. *steven a. austin, gordon w. franz, and eric g. frost, "amos's earthquake: an extraordinary middle east seismic event of 750 b.c.

" international geology review 42 (2000) 657-671. y. yadin, hazor, the rediscovery of a great citadel of the bible (new york: random house, 1975).

i. finkelstein, "hazor and the north in the iron age: a low chronology perspective," bulletin of the american schools of oriental research 314 (1999) 55-70. d. ussishkin, "lachish" in e. stern, ed., the new encyclopedia of archaeological excavations in the holy land (new york: simon & schuster, 1993) vol.
224
Another problem for JW apologists
by Jeffro in
1. watchtower
2. bible
the 2013 edition of the new world translation renders 2 kings 17:1 as:.

in the 12th year of king ahaz of judah, hoshea the son of elah became king over israel in samaria; he ruled for nine years.. this is in fact a better rendering than the previous nwt, which stated:.

in the twelfth year of ahaz the king of judah, hoshea the son of elah became king in samaria over israel for nine years.. despite their improved rendering, the watch tower society still claims that hoshea's reign 'really' began in 758 bce, but that it was 'established' in the 12th year of ahaz.
38
Question for JW apologists...
by Jeffro in
1. watchtower
2. bible
the new new world translation translates jeremiah 29:10 as follows:.

10 for this is what jehovah says, when 70 years at babylon are ful?lled, i will turn my attention to you, and i will make good my promise by bringing you back to this place.. the official watch tower society teaching is that by the end of the 70 years, the jews were back in judea, and that their actual arrival in judea marks the end of the "70 years".

*** si p. 85 par.
22
Are JWs creationists?
by Jeffro in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
if you believe what is officially stated on the jw website, jws are not creationists.

.

the fact that the exact jw belief is in fact specifically called "day-age creationism" seems to have alluded them.
22
The most important day of the year. Sometimes. Sort of.
by Jeffro in
1. watchtower
2. bible
for jehovah's witnesses, the "most important day of the year" is supposed to be the 'memorial'.

this 'sacred' event is to be held after sunset on nisan 14. except most of the time, it isn't.. as 'explained' in the watchtower, 1 february 1976, page 73, the "governing body" (not capitalised at the time) takes it upon itself to 'determine' the 'actual' date of nisan 14. they claimed in the article that the 'modern' date for the start of nisan in the hebrew calendar is calculated differently to the ancient calculation.

however, that's not actually the case.. the actual calendation for determining the start of nisan was (since at least the neo-babylonian period) and is based on the metonic cycle - a sequence that repeats every 19 years.. in the metonic cycle, the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years have an extra (thirteenth) month (adar ii, or veadar).