Terry is right, Davinci Code is based on Holy Blood, Holy Grail. I just watched a special on the Discovery channel about all this stuff the other night, and while it was quite fascinating, none of it could be proved to be true. One of the most damning bits of the story was when they played some audio tape that they said came from a radio interview with the perpetrator of the 'Priory Sion' story. He confesses that the whole thing was a hoax. The camera then pans to a picture of the man in his youth, standing next to a roadsign saying Sion 10km or something like that. Apparently he got the name Sion from a mountain near where he grew up.
AllAlongTheWatchtower
JoinedPosts by AllAlongTheWatchtower
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39
Nun confronts Hanks over 'Da Vinci Code'
by William Penwell inread this today on cnn.
the other night there was some catholic scholar referring to the book as being fiction.
i was confused as to whether he was referring to the "da vinci code" or the "bible"?
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Attn Unbeleiving Mates (ubm's): "I'm a dub! I'm right! Join or who cares!"
by Check_Your_Premises ina letter to my wife: .
i just want to say a few things to you.
i am writing to you since we just don't get to talk enough.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
Wow, that took brass ones, in my opinion CYP. I fear to confront my wife too much, thinking it will drive her further into the WTS. Here's hoping it brings good results for you. Maybe I will do something similar...
AATW, of the 'wants to confront his wife more but isn't sure he should' class
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7
What year was Jesus born? What year did he die? Do Witnesses know?
by garybuss inhere's the watch tower's date of jesus's death and installation in god's kingdom.. ************.
*** w82 9/15 pp.
12-13 the kingdom and a holy place ***.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
Robhic: I was raised in the WCG (Armstrong), and we were constantly preached to on the subject of how we, the church body collectively, were the "bride of christ". That always freaked me out, too. Funny in retrospect, but as a young preteen, I had some rather odd thoughts about how much it would suck if the "millenium" came before I even got to go on a date and have my first kiss, I would be married to a man (christ).
Garybuss: Raised in the WCG brand of "the truth", I was taught that christmas was wrong because christ wasn't born in December, but "probably some time in the spring". After I was excommunicated from the WCG, I did some research on the subject and found that the spring birth is probable from a scientific point of view... but as with most things biblical, nothing can be nailed down. (Heh, nailed pun not intentional, but it is pretty funny now that I've noticed it.) So not only is the year in question, but the month as well. Here's an interesting link on the subject:
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high gas prices? bah!
by doogie ini have a cavalier that i fill up maybe once a week (usually less than that actually).
this week i paid .10 more a gallon than last week.
you know how much extra the rise cost me?.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
While it is correct that a 3 cent difference is only a bit more than a dollar when you fill your tank over last week, it seems that it goes up 3 cents EVERY week. I still remember before the whole Iraq thing that gas was about $1 a gallon around here, over the past 3 years or so, its gone to about $2.35 in my area. That's a 135% increase. So no, that extra $1.20 doesn't kill me. But the fact that filling my 14 gallon tank has gone from costing $14 to 30 or more does HURT. I fill up about once in a two week period. So, 26 times a year. 14 X 26 = $364 vs 33 X 26 = $760, for a difference of nearly $400. My rent is $471, so there just went a significant portion of a month's rent.
And yeah, I'm one of those guys who will get gas at the cheapest gas station he can find, just on principle. It drives me nuts when I drive by a corner where there's 2 or more gas stations in competition, and the one that's a nickel higher is doing just as much business as the other two. A lot of people I know think that different companies have different gas, and that some gas is better. I always tell them that I used to work at a gas station, and out of curiosity asked the tanktruck driver if that was so. He told me that he has buddies that work for other companies, and they all drive in to the same place and shoot the sh*t while waiting to fill up before making their deliveries to individual gas stations. The only exception is Amoco ultimate gas which is actually clear, and is kept in seperate tanks. (And possibly Shell premium gas as well, they advertise that it has more detergents in it than other gas, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't risk a lawsuit by lying about that.)
The way I figure, if you don't buy the cheapest gas possible, you just encourage them to keep on gouging people because it doesn't lose them any business. Its like enabling behavior in dysfunctional relationships.
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Personality Defect Quiz
by the_classicist inhere's the quiz: http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=4741219933576750506.
robot.
you are 71% rational, 0% extroverted, 42% brutal, and 42% arrogant.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
Hand-RaiserYou are 100% Rational, 57% Extroverted, 28% Brutal, and 28% Arrogant.
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THE BIBLE ITSELF the rotten foundation of Watchtower theology
by Terry in(below continues an idea started in another post).
just consider the difference in meaning between these two renderings.
1.all scripture is inspired by god and useful for teaching, reproving and setting things straight.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
As an atheist, I wholeheartedly agree that the bible is riddled with errrors. However, I disagree with your thinking that the best way to refute JWs is to begin by refuting the bible. JWs are some of the most entrenched religious types there are, trying to begin by refuting their whole belief system has little chance of working. I think you have to break down the JW doctrine with them first, then you can try discrediting the entire bible. Baby steps. If you try to throw the touchdown pass on the first play (sorry if you UK folks don't get the reference), you will just waste a down.
Also, as many people have mentioned countless times in other posts, many JW doctrines aren't really bible based anyway. Or when they are, only marginally so, with twisted meanings added or invented by the WTS. I know personally, that if I discuss an issue with my wife, I have to step into a christian's shoes to argue a "legitimate" christian view vs a JW view, were I to give her an atheist argument she would just ignore it or say 'well, you know we disagree on that'. So for me, I am constantly speaking from a hypothetical standpoint.
For instance, the other day we were talking about the WTS stake vs the christian cross issue. Rather than approach it as an atheist, and say who cares, christ was just a man, I pointed out to her that the WTS has its own bible, which PURPOSELY mistranslates things when it suits them. (She still doesn't believe this, she thinks they just made it easier to read by replacing all the thees and thous with modern language. Though she doesn't outright call me a liar, I guess she just figures I am misinformed, or being atheist don't know what I'm talking about.) I told her that the WTS bible is the only religious book that I have ever heard of that calls what christ was crucified on a stake, rather than a cross. I told her to read a King James or revised standard to see, if she didn't believe me. She got a funny look on her face, I think maybe I got through and scored a point with that one. Not sure though, I guess this is what I've heard you guys talking about with cognitive dissidence, for shortly after that she found some reason to end the conversation.
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did you actually pay for magazines and literature?
by arwen inalthough i did put money into the contribution box untill i found out about silent lambs, i never really counted how many magazines and books i picked up or ordered and no one ever said anything about paying for them.
i just assumed one put in the box what one could.
did anyone actually figure out what they might owe and put that amount in the contribution box?
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
On another thread that I started, I asked people how the society made money... I was told that they made publishers pay for mags, then they were also supposed to collect money from the householders for placing the mags. That got me worried, because my wife has a milkcrate full of Awakes and Watchtowers, so I said something to her about it, but she said nobody has to pay for them. *shrugs* Maybe they're just being nice to her in the 'love bomb' stage I've heard of? She's not baptized yet, thank goodness. I kind of forgot about it until this past week I saw that she has some books that look as if they're valuable, leather-bound, etc, and I asked her again, but she said they were given to her.
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Dinosaurs On The Ark...LOL
by Valis in.
lol these guys are total morons.....they claim noah had dinos in the ark...lol....
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
T-Rex was eating grass, of course. They didn't have lawnmowers, after all.
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How long is too long?
by Insomniac injust a question, for those who might know.
how long should you hang onto a relationship, when it's becoming undeniably clear that it's going nowhere?.
i'm so in love, with the most wonderful person i've ever known.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
"Why in hell would he want anything to change? He's got such a hell of a deal: a woman who supports herself and has her own apartment, but who comes over three nights a week to clean his filthy house and cater to his sexual needs" I hate to sound like a cad, but I think you pretty well summed it up right there. A relationship (yet alone a marriage) is a two-way street, sounds to me like you're doing all the giving and he's doing all the taking. He's got every man's (selfish) fantasy, the only way he could have it better is if you had a sister or best friend and were amicable to a menage a trois.
IF you decide this is salvageable, I would say the 7 year mark is the breaking point. Some ways that might make him more open to the idea of marriage: You say you don't want to "shack up", but maybe invite him to stay at your place for a couple weeks only, as a trial. This way he doesn't feel any possible threat of 'invasion of territory', and knows he can leave. (Many men fear that once a woman moves in with them, they will want to change everything, rearrange furniture, make him throw out favorite items, etc. Also that if things go poorly, there won't be a way to get them to move back out.) Tell him if its being 'taken to the cleaners' that he fears, you will enter a pre-nup.
Beyond that, I can't think of anything that might help...and since it seems the gauntlet has been thrown down...it is possible that he will realize what he's about to miss out on and acquiesce. Absence (or threat of absence) makes the heart grow fonder, and all that. Then the question remains, 5 years from now, when you look back...will you be happy with a man that you know in your heart you had to FORCE into what should have happened naturally? I would call that a Pyrrhic victory, and I don't think you would find it very satisfying.
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72
What's your favorite music group that I probably haven't heard of?
by joelbear in.
i'll start.. guster.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
Monster Magnet.