I was checking RunningMan's profile so that I could find the rest of his atheist bible chapters that I had not yet read, and discovered he had already started a thread on the similarities of the WCG to the JWs, and accuses the WTS of plagiarism. Here is the thread (the link may not work, sometimes when I attempt to post links they come up as regular text, not sure why)
AllAlongTheWatchtower
JoinedPosts by AllAlongTheWatchtower
-
21
Great video to open eyes, minds, and hearts
by Check_Your_Premises inhttp://www.livinghopevideo.com/wcg.htm
i have this video and give it my wholehearted endorsement.
it is the story of the worldwide church of god which was started by a man named herbert armstrong, who had the same self-aggrandizing disease shared by russel-rutheford-knorr-franz..... the church began to reform after his death (which was not supposed to happen because he was "elijah" returned in the end times to "set things right" before christ's return) the video is the story of that reformation.. i am sure they still have some problems.
-
-
-
36
Discipline or Child Abuse?
by Dimples ini remember spanking my son when we used to attend meetings and conventions because he cried and just wouln't sit still.
i was told that he had to be disciplined so he would learn to behave and learn what was being said from the platform.
now that i look back i realize that that was child abuse and i feel so horrible about it.do you feel guilty for spanking your kids during meetings and conventions?
-
-
AllAlongTheWatchtower
I was abused as a kid, and ended up in foster homes/group homes because of it. Despite that, I still believe that there is a difference between ordinary spanking and discipline, and abuse. However, I have read that abused children often turn out to be abusing parents, and that is one of my greatest fears. It disgusts and angers me when I am in a grocery store or other public place, and see some aggravated parent smack their kid for asking a question or begging for some candy that they see in the check-out line.
In my opinion, there is such a thing as acceptable spanking:
1) Should never be done out of anger or knee-jerk reaction. If need be, wait a few minutes, take a deep breath, whatever, until you can do it with rational thought.
2) Should never involve striking any body part but the buttocks, no slapping of the face or striking any other body part.
3) Should always be done with a bare hand, not with a paddle or any other object that amplifies the impact.
4) Should never involve the removal of clothing, this adds an element of shame and possible impropriety that should not be involved in disciplinary action.
5) Should always be preceded by a lecture on what the child has done wrong, so the child understands what the spanking is for. Not to be crass about it, but the equivalent of putting a puppy's nose to the wet spot when training them to go out. Otherwise they think they are being hit for whatever their last prior action was, instead of what the discipline is for.
-
40
Anyone try the new Coca Cola Zero?
by Elsewhere in.
i have to say: wow!
this new diet coke tastes very good and is almost as good as the "real thing".
-
-
AllAlongTheWatchtower
I drink diet coke on a regular basis, so when coke 0 came out I tried it-I like it much better than diet coke, it reminds me more of regular coke. I have noticed that the grocery stores often put it on sale much more cheaply than other coke products, so others must not like it much if it is selling so poorly that they have to constantly put it on sale in order to get people to buy it. One thing I have noticed though, on at least 2 occasions after drinking it, I nearly threw up. Not major throwing up, just that little bit where you feel it rising up in the back of your throat. Not sure why that is, or if it was coincidental, and I had eaten something else to cause it.
Some products just don't mix well with my metabolism apparently, 'Sunny D' is one of them, I feel nauseous every time I have ever tried to drink it. Coke 0 might be in this category too, not sure yet.
-
10
Are cellular (mobile) phones safe or not?
by greendawn in.
for a while now some scientists have been claiming that cellular phones emmit radiation that interferes with the brain and the immune system.
do you take such warnings seriously or do you think they are just alarmist and without any real basis.. http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2005/02/15/grave_cell_phone_dangers_revealed.htm
-
-
AllAlongTheWatchtower
I remember hearing about cell phone radiation as early as 98 or 99. Back then word had it that Nokia emitted the most radiation and therefore was the most dangerous. I haven't heard anything about it in the media for some time now, but I just now tried a Google search and got 593,000 results... The number 2.5 seems to be the standard answer on most of these websites, meaning a cell phone user is supposedly 2.5 times more likely to get a brain tumor than one who doesn't use a cell phone. Whether this is definitive or not, I couldn't really say. *shrugs* I also remember hearing as early as the 80's that saccharine caused cancer, but I have been using it (the ingredient in Sweet-n-Low) in my coffee and iced tea for years.
-
5
Exodus 16 - Manna
by rocketman inshortly after the exodus from egypt, the bible account of events records that god provided manna for the israelites to eat (exodus 16:10-15).
the israelites asked "what is it?
" (vs 15), and the word manna was derived from that very question.. could manna have been a naturally occuring substance?
-
-
AllAlongTheWatchtower
How odd that you should post this, I was actually thinking about this off and on for the last week or so. I think I first began wondering about it after reading one of RunningMans's Atheist Bible chapters about the Israelites and latrine practices in their camp. It sparked me to thinking about how much food and water a huge camp of people on the move would consume, and wondering where they would get it. I am atheist, so I don't buy the water from a rock story from the bible. And while they may have been able to kill some of their livestock along the way for food, obviously they would have to keep most of them alive (compounding the problem, cause then you have to account for the food for the animals).
I'm a big science fiction fan, and I love the Dune series by Frank Herbert. Much of the story is about a desert people called Fremen, who live in a desert so harsh that they distill water from the blood of their dead for drinking. A few times in the books, it mentions people going out every morning to collect the morning dew for water. I have a half-formed theory that the manna mentioned in the bible was actually just the morning dew, and that the Israelites would have needed to collect every bit of water they could possibly get their hands on for survival. Through the retelling of the story, and translation process, plus the addition of the mythical element of religion, I think that maybe them going out to collect dew for water somehow got twisted into god giving them food. Perhaps there was even a tradition of using dew to mix with flour to make dough? I'm sure its full of holes, but like I said, its only half-formed.
Come to think of it, doesn't the bible itself say something about the manna 'falling like dew from the heavens' or 'falling with the dew' or something like that?
-
37
Do you think the Watchtower makes up experiences by people ???
by run dont walk inin the may 1, 1988 watchtower, on page 22, a witness, matsue ishii, recalls her first encounter with the bible students in 1928: at the back of our house in tojo-cho, osaka, there was a house with a sign: "osaka branch of the international bible students association.
" assuming it to be a christian group, i visited the house.
"do you believe in the second advent of the lord?
-
-
AllAlongTheWatchtower
I can't say with any authority whether these experiences are made up entirely of whole cloth, but am I the only one that notices that perhaps they twist events in a positive light? For example:
"When we worked in Sendai for the first time, Mr. Inoue, the president of Tohoku Imperial University, granted me a personal interview. He accepted the books I had with me and then escorted me to the entrance to see me off."
Is it just me, or does it seem just as likely that a more truthful telling of this might have gone like this? : I was so persistant that Mr. Inoue finally allowed me to see him out of Japanese politeness. When he realized what I really wanted was to try to convert him, he became outraged and kicked me out of his office, following me all the way to the front door to make sure I didn't bother anyone else on the way. It was only after I was outside the locked door that I realized I had left my bookbag behind, but then thought it was just as well, since technically the literature was now placed, and I could count it on my field service report.
I remember once as a child asking my father to explain the word 'propaganda' to me. I was one of those inquisitive children of the sort that stumps adults with all kinds of questions, but my father was very good at answering them. Here is what he said: You like racecars, right? Well say the Americans and Russians had a race, and there were no other cars. Say the American racecar wins. Well, the next day the headline in Pravda (he knew I knew that Pravda was the state owned paper) would say "Russian car places second, American car comes in next to last".
I think that the WTS does things like that, making statements that are technically true, but yet still twist the truth.
-
61
Cigars...Cigarettes...Cigars...Cigarettes
by prophecor inregulars or menthols?
full flavor or lights?
kings or extra longs?
-
-
AllAlongTheWatchtower
I smoke Camel non-filters, though I am considering taking up pipe-smoking instead. The taxes on cigarette packs are just getting ridiculous, my theory is that smoking a pipe instead will save me a bit of money while at the same time making me look a bit more cultured, lol.
-
23
Does Anybody know latin???
by RichieRich in.
does anyone know what the latin word (if there is one) is for apostate??.
anybody in who knows other languages, please chime in with what apostate is in your native tongue.... thank you!
-
-
AllAlongTheWatchtower
From History class I know this one: Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori. Which means 'It is sweet and proper to die for one's country'.
And from being in the Marines I know this: Semper Fidelis = Always Faithful.
Hmmm...you could have it say Fidelis Apostata...Faithful Apostate.
-
25
When Did GOD Last 'Talk' To Us?
by Legolas inok i got a question for everyone....when was the last time god had dealings with mankind either through dreams or prophets etc... before jesus came?
and how long before that etc...?
-
-
AllAlongTheWatchtower
I have never understood how people can accept that god EVER talked to anyone from the bible who claimed he did. Take Abraham, for example. God supposedly told him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Try telling that to a modern day child custody court. Well gee your honor, I didn't ACTUALLY kill him, ya'see, I was gonna, but then god sent this ram to take his place, so I didn't have to. Whaddya mean, no visitation?!! I got rights! I'm not crazy, god really told me to do it!
Then of course there is the infamous "Virgin Mary". Please. She didn't even rate being talked to by god, just an angel. Then again, she was quite the clever gal to avoid being stoned to death for fornication in such a unique way.
And of course, there was Moses. Probably the person who holds the record for talking to god according to the bible. Hell, if I got lost in the desert for 40 years, I'd be looking for somebody to pass the blame off on, too. Lost? Who me? No, I'm not lost...see, god doesn't like some of the things we've been doing, there was that whole quail incident, and the golden calf, and well, in general he's pretty pissed, so he won't let us in to the promised land yet. (Aside to Aaron: Whew...I think they bought it...just act confident, and whatever you do, DON'T LET ANYBODY SEE YOU LOOKING AT THAT MAP.)
-
3
Cats?!?
by Momofmany inmy brother just sent me this link.
he is fading, but found this odd.
so he asked me if it is real, or a spoof.. http://dbhome.dk/carlo/cat.htm.
-
-
AllAlongTheWatchtower
Heh, I've never even been a JW, but I know from other posts on here; that is a spoof. It was created intentionally, to illustrate a point about WTS [il]logic, and how they twist, tug, and pull at something to make it fit what they want.