Siettleniceguy (sorry don't know yet how to quote - make those yellow boxes) you sayed "Not believing in gnomes is the default position..." So that is what I mean... taking some default position based upon what... why this this position is good or better then positive position? This position is based actually on your own limitations (of knowledge, experience, you name it) to get the evidence or to understand evidence. If you say that there is no x-rays coz you never observed them (and it would be very right claim say 2 centuries ago) does this makes your position clever. Actually if people would believe in x-rays and tried to find them then x-rays would be discovered much earlier. See default "I don't see so it does not exist" position actually is putting breaks into your wheels. And here comes difference between God and unicorns... no matter how desperatly people seeked unicorns I don't hear about entire nations believing in them. Opposite is with God. So... may be your default state is just reflection of your ability to see and hear rather then reflection of reality?
Shazard
JoinedPosts by Shazard
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Another statistics
by Shazard inis here in this site or somewhere else shown some graphs how ex-jw divide into atheists (strange religion) and believers?
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"Misquoting Jesus" - New Book by Ehrman
by sir82 inthis book was just published in the last month or so, i'm about 1/2 of the way through it.. the author describes the difficulty in discerning what exactly really were the original, right-from-the-pen words of the original writers of the new testament.
basically, the oldest surviving manuscripts were written decades, in some cases centuries, after the originals.
all copies were made by hand by untrained amateur copyists for the first 3 centuries after the books were written (until professional scribes started copying).. by comparing the thousands of ancient hand-copied manuscripts that still exist, there have been found anywhere from 200,000 to 400,000 distinct errors in the copying process.
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Shazard
Simple argument - science & God. There is such science - history - part of it does just that - evaluating how precise is document. There are several factors - time gap between original and copy (less number, more believable is the copy), number of copies (more copies, more precise is copy) and so on - historicans can explain this. Also hermaneutics - science about getting meaning of texts which are writtne in other languages in other time in other cultural context. New Testament is most precise historical document of such age you can imagine. More then 5000 manuscipts, gap 25 years between original and copy... If you believe in science, you will admit that the new testament (original greek koine) is 99.99% original. And claims like "until 3rd century copies were done by unproffessional copists" ar just plain stupid... that seams more projection of your own attitude to New Testament then fact backed claim. And there is one small factor which is not present in any other historical text - God himself. Jesus promised that his Words will last forever. So if you believe in Jesus, you believe that he will look that nothing important is lost in his Word. If you don't believe in Jesus, then why do you care about New Testament anyway. BTW do you know that Book of Acts is one of the key books for 1st century Palestine historians even for those who are atheists?
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a look to Isaiah.
by mdb inthus says the lord [yhwh], the king of israel,.
and his redeemer, the lord [yhwh] of hosts:.
besides me there is no god.. isaiah 44:6. how many persons are speaking in isaiah 44:6?
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Shazard
Better is Genesis 19:24, where in one verse 2 persons are called "YHWH", to prove it, check context
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Who was Jesus really?
by Spectrum in1. was he the son of god and some kind of god himself?
2. was he an extremely intelligent man that manipulated people and made himself appear to be fullfilling the prophecies about the messiah?
3. was he a dellusional nutter?
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Shazard
This is very nice example on how people behave on limited information. 1st. There are several other options 2nd. By Default you do not allow that he can be more then one option at the same time. 3rd. I bet thet we even don't have agreement on what "Son of God" and "God" means. Is it... "Son of Peter" and "Peter" like comparison or "Son of man" and "man" like comparison. So we have to find out if God is nature or title in this case. Coz word "dog" can be nature or it can be title. Or even personal name of something else! And this is where stuff get's messed up. p.s. Most of traditional christianity understands word "God" as word for nature. That's where YHWH comes in... it is the name of this nature meaning - "the one who brings into reality" "the one who creates"... or... plain english - Creator :)
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Disfellowshipped Numbers ?
by Clam in.
do the wts release statistics for those disfellowshipped from the organisation.. i understood that they published the numbers of newly baptised and those attending the memorial, but what about the other side of the balance sheet?
i'm assuming they don't for pr reasons.
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Shazard
ofcourse no, coz then each one of us could calculate their growth/decline ratio and whatever it is I am sure WT does not wants us... and more... their misguided slaves to know
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Another statistics
by Shazard inis here in this site or somewhere else shown some graphs how ex-jw divide into atheists (strange religion) and believers?
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Shazard
yadda, atheism is just believing that something does not exist... it is faith too... just a bit strange faith, formulated actually in negative form, but faith... as can't be prooved too
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Quotes mirror
by Shazard inhi.
i managed to get qutoes mirror on a bit more stable server --- http://www.baznica.lv/ro/mulders/wachtowerquotes/ --- you are welcome
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Shazard
Hi. I managed to get qutoes mirror on a bit more stable server --- http://www.baznica.lv/Ro/Mulders/WachtowerQuotes/ --- You are welcome
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How do you think the world will end?
by free2beme ini was watching this national geographic program called "the end" the other day.
it showed different events that could end mankind and possibly the planet.
in each one, there is true in possibilities and they never showed an example of god destroying the world.
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Shazard
it will be eaten by big interdimensional space octopus
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Another statistics
by Shazard inis here in this site or somewhere else shown some graphs how ex-jw divide into atheists (strange religion) and believers?
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Shazard
Welll... if somebody says to me that I still don't know rocket science it isn't insult to me. Sorry did not wanted to insult anybody. Anyway if there is atheist it is one question, but if somebody recognizes higher beeing, then I allways asking him to tell about it and I ask question... what would do and how would behave your God if he would came in the flesh as human. Atheists is other picture... I sayed... very strange religion, they find their identity in refuting something they do not believe exists. Plain logical error. BUT please, do not continue this conversation, as I am not preaching here... just wanted some statistics, and did not (and still do not) want to turn this topic in atheists vs christians vs JW vs all other vs ME topic :( Sorry, did not wantet to insult anybody!
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Another statistics
by Shazard inis here in this site or somewhere else shown some graphs how ex-jw divide into atheists (strange religion) and believers?
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Shazard
Well I was interested in those who leaving JW found Christ and those who still didn't recognized Creator of the reality in him!