Will there be discounted admission for all the widows and orphans who could have truly benefited from $150 million?
~Sue
betterdaze
JoinedPosts by betterdaze
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91
Creationist Theme Park: "Ark Encounter"
by leavingwt insay hello to ark encounter.. .
kentucky governor unveils plans for creationist theme park complete with full-sized ark.
.. a joint project between beshear and answers in genesis -- a christian organization that also built a similar attraction, the creation museum -- the park will reportedly cost at least $150 million and create 900 jobs, according to the news release.. beshear's spokesperson kerri richardson declined to comment beyond what was in her office's news release on the project.. the amusement park, named ark encounter, will include all the modern recreation amenities, including: a full-sized wooden ark, a "walled city much like was found in ancient times, a replica of the tower of babel with exhibits, a first-century middle eastern village" and even outdoor parking.
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betterdaze
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Sisters no allowed in KH period!
by life is to short ini just found out during the elders school sisters are not allowed in the kh for any reason.
i have a girlfriend that i became really close to when i was at bethel.
we really were as close as real sisters, in fact i am still closer to her then my own flesh and blood jw sister but with my leaving the jw's it has been hard, she does not have a clue about my true feelings of this cult, i have tried to throw points out to her and she will not get them, she will not let her mind go there.. .
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betterdaze
The ideal Christian wife: barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.*
*Brain not required.
~Sue -
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NZ Mine Tragedy - Aussie miner was a JW
by 3Mozzies inhttp://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/aussie-miner-william-joynson-big-strong-but-trapped-in-dark/story-e6freuy9-1225958821843.
after a year in new zealand, australian miner william joynson and his wife kim had begun packing their belongings, ready to return to queensland.. the photo albums and other personal items had already been shipped across the tasman.. after sons jonathon, 13, and benjamin, 10, finished the school year, the family planned to leave their modest cottage and move home early in the new year.. the joynsons had shaped a life in new zealand, centred around the pike river coal mine and the jehovah's witness community, of which they were active members.. friends james ashby and rodger griffiths described the man they know as willy joynson as a "typical australian".. .
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betterdaze
A tragedy for all concerned! My heart is with the families for their losses, the Joynsons no more or less than the others, but for all.
May the miners rest in peace. Strength to their families.
~Sue
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How Eco-Friendly is the Watchtower?
by donuthole ini have plenty of anecdotal evidence of witnesses going through life with the attitude of "we'll just clean it up in the paradise.
" i wondered if this kind of attitude was manifest in the bethel homes and factories.
is recycling something that the watchtower engages in at its facilities?
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New Bible drops neutered language of controversial 02 version
by betterdaze innew bible drops neutered language of controversial 02 version.
by bob smietana, the tennessean.
the world's best-selling bible is getting an upgrade.. .
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betterdaze
New Bible drops neutered language of controversial ’02 version
By Bob Smietana, The Tennessean
The world's best-selling Bible is getting an upgrade.
At stake are millions of dollars in publishing revenue and the trust of millions of churchgoers.
Since its debut in 1978, the New International Version — known as the NIV — has been the Bible of choice for evangelicals, selling more copies than any other version. But a 2002 gender-inclusive edition bombed after being condemned as too liberal.
Translators hope their latest edition, which debuted online this month, will avoid a similar fate. They've retained some of the language of the 2002 edition. But they also made changes — like going back to using words like "mankind" and "man" instead of "human beings" and "people" — in order to appease critics.
It's available for preview at BibleGateway.com, with print versions expected in March.
Wheaton College Bible scholar Doug Moo, head of the translation committee, said the group tried to create an accurate English Bible without ticking off readers.
He thinks even critics will respect their work. Translators talked to them ahead of time and gathered suggestions for changes. Where there were disagreements, the two sides had civil conversation about it, he said.
"We really tried to get it right this time," he said. "We tried to be careful about not bowing to any cultural or ecclesiastical agenda. We also talked to anyone who wanted to talk to us."The Rev. Don Polk, pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, first read the NIV back in 1985. Before then, he'd always favored the King James version, but felt its language was too dated. So he switched over.
"I felt like it spoke better to our generations," Polk said.
In 2009, the NIV accounted for 28% of Bibles sold in Christian bookstores. That was followed by the King James, at 16%.
Today, the Committee on Bible Translation, which translated the NIV, admits Today's New International Version, the revision released in 2002, was a mistake. They substituted "brothers and sisters" where the New Testament writers used "brothers."
They also broke a promise they'd made to James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, John Piper, pastor of Minneapolis megachurch Bethlehem Baptist, and other conservative pastors, not to produce a gender-inclusive NIV.
In response, Dobson accused translators of distorting the word of God.
"They picked a fight they didn't need to pick," said Jay Phelan, senior professor of theological studies at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago.
Still, Phelan was a fan of the 2002 version. He worries that the translators have buckled under pressure from conservatives.
"The whole idea that we want to make this constituency or that constituency unhappy is wrong," he said. "You don't do a translation that way. You don't say 'this will make the liberals unhappy' or 'this will make conservatives unhappy.' Your job is to produce the most accurate translation possible."
Moo disagrees. He says that the new version of the NIV is accurate. But he also admits that the committee did some research to see what words evangelical Christians — who are most likely to buy the new NIV — prefer.
So far most of the critics of the last version have remained silent about the new one.
Focus on the Family had no comment. Neither did Piper or other vocal critics, some of whom have switched to the English Standard Version.
Denny Burk, a professor of New Testament at Boyce College, a Southern Baptist school in Louisville, has complained about one change in 1 Timothy 2:12. That verse from a New Testament letter from the Apostle Paul, used to read, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man." Now it says, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man."
The change from "have authority" to "assume authority" is huge, Burk argues. He believes that God gave men and women different jobs — and that women can't be pastors. Burk says the new Bible sides with his opponents.
"It appears, therefore, that the NIV 2011 comes down on the side of egalitarianism in its rendering of 1 Timothy 2:12," he wrote in a blog at BibleGateway.com.
But the debate on both the modern New International Versions hasn't been anything compared with how some Bible versions have been received in the past. Translators of the 1950s-era Revised Standard Version changed the Hebrew word "almah" from "virgin" to "young woman" in Isaiah 7:14, which some Christians believe predicts the birth of Jesus.
But Revised Standard Version translators believed "young woman" was more accurate.
With that one change, all hell broke loose. Critics said that the translators had transformed Jesus' mother from a saint to a sinner, said Peter Thuesen, professor of religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. One minister was so angry that he burned the offending passage in front of an Associated Press photographer. -
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iconoclast - breaking away from the tribe
by jgnat ini've recently finished the book, "iconoclast - a neuroscientist reveals how to think differently" by gregory berns.
he sure makes a person feel better for being a rebel.
the book moves quickly and is an entertaining journey through the mind an how it works.
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betterdaze
Hi jgnat! Berns was quoted recently in a magazine given to me by an awakening JW, of all people!
“When people change their opinions or behaviors to conform, they are doing it out of a deep fear of being excommunicated from their group,” Berns says.
“This has evolutionary roots because 100,000 years ago if you weren’t part of the community, you wouldn’t reproduce; you would die.”
Here's a link to the full article in Ode, "a community of intelligent optimists": In praise of dissent.
~Sue -
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betterdaze
Moreover, in our favor temomos Constitutional Law, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its Article XVIII, which provides us follow the religion that we want, of course, without suffering social ostracism.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 18.
• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 20.
• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
• (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association. -
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Republican Vs Democrat
by Bangalore ina republican and a democrat were walking down the street when they came across a homeless person.. the republican gave the homeless person his business card and told him come to his business for a job.
he then took twenty dollars out of his pocket and gave it to the homeless person.. the democrat was very impressed, and when they came to another homeless person, he decided to help.
he walked over to the homeless person and gave him directions to the welfare office.
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betterdaze
I'd like to hear about the everyday people that give, help out their fellowman, those that don't toot their horn about it, but I probably never will as they
give with the real spirit of giving, as a true gift.
These people are too busy actually making something happen to be concerned with who is doing more than the other.
Thank you, purplesofa, you expressed that so beautifully! Couldn't agree more. Your post reminds me of this classic credo from Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount":
"Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." — Matthew 6:1-4 (NIV)
In my experience, most who give from the heart (and are often in a position to give quite generously) do so anonymously, and without prejudice to recipients' political ideology or religious affiliation.
Conversely, attention whores who are inclined to shout about it from the rooftops and/or seek sinister motives in others, make public fools of themselves… though they're often the last to know it.
It takes all types to make the world go around. IMHO, assigning blame-'n-shame to one sort or another of "happy giver," is just pitiful quibbling when we can be actively doing to improve humanity's troubling situations.~Sue
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Son says he killed parents according to Jehovahs command
by betterdaze inmurder in gods name: son says he killed parents according to jehovahs command.
the number of people involved in sects in armenia reaches 368,000.. .
by gayane mkrtchyan.
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betterdaze
Murder in God’s Name: Son says he killed parents according to Jehovah’s command
The number of people involved in sects in Armenia reaches 368,000.
By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporterThe murder of two parents by their own son, who is a member of Jehovah's Witnesses sect, caused heated public discussions in Armenia.
Arman Torosyan, 23, killed his parents – 64-year-old Khachik Torosyan and 57-year-old Marietta Torosyan in their apartment in Sevan, as he says, “fulfilling the commandment of Jehovah.”
A criminal case was filed according to the Article of the Criminal Code of Armenia (“murder of two or more people”) in Sevan.
The murderer must undergo a psychiatric examination; meanwhile a new wave of complaints against sects and the negative impact of their activities upon people rose in Yerevan.
‘Yerevan-Moscow-Tbilisi-Kiev’ teleconference, held on Wednesday, discussed the issue of the real threats sects carry, and the means of struggle against them.
According to Alexander Amaryan, head of Center for Rehabilitation and Assistance to Victims of Destructive Cults, the number of people involved in sects in Armenia reaches 368,000.
“The main goal of sectarian organizations is the ‘reprocessing’ of people. There are no corresponding specialists in Armenia; there are no independent centers, which may carry out a struggle against preachers,” Amaryan says.
Psychiatrist Aram Hovsepyan, technical coordinator of the Armenian Psychiatric Association, says that murder and suicide cases, committed under the influence of sects, increases (even though there are no official data).
“Such patients develop a kind of disorder of mental dependency upon other people,” Hovsepyan says. “We have acute psychotic disorders, which lead people to unconscious aggressive actions.”
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Humanists Launch National Advertising Campaign
by betterdaze inhumanists launch largest national advertising campaign critical of religious scripture.
washington, d.c., november 9, 2010. a national multimedia ad campaign the largest, most extensive ever by a godless organization - launches today and will include a spot on nbc dateline on friday, november 12, as well as other television ads, that directly challenge biblical morality and fundamentalist christianity.
the campaign, sponsored by the american humanist association, also features ads in major national and regional newspapers and magazines demonstrating that secular humanist values are consistent with mainstream america and that fundamentalist religion has no right to claim the moral high ground.. the ads juxtapose notable humanist quotes with passages from religious texts, including the old testament, the new testament and the quran.
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betterdaze
Exposing Fundamentalism and Considering the Humanism Alternative
The Ad Concept:
The American Humanist Association’s Consider Humanism campaign, the largest nontheist advertising campaign in history, is a series of advertisements that feature two “sections”—one devoted to quotes from religious texts, the other to humanist principles.
There are millions of Americans of strong moral character who don’t happen to believe in a god. Humanists have always understood that you don't need a god to be a good person, but many other Americans have not, and that’s one reason we’ve been running ad campaigns in the past. This year, we’re going further in our attempt to challenge the intolerant view that atheist and agnostic humanists can’t be good without Bible derived morality. We’re taking a hard look at what is included in religious texts.
The first section of each ad displays one of several quotes from the New International Version Bible and a Qur’anic quote as well. A description accompanies each quote, naming the source of the quote. This section includes large-font text that reads, “What some believe.” The second section features contrasting quotes from humanist documents. These have been pulled from Humanism and Its Aspirations and from nontheist luminaries such as Katharine Hepburn and Richard Dawkins. This section includes large-font text that reads, “What humanists think” and “Consider Humanism.”
The Stiefel Freethought Foundation gave a generous $150,000 toward this campaign. A number of members of the American Humanist Association donated within the last month to help the campaign top the $200,000 mark. Please consider helping the campaign continue and expand.
The Outlets:
The ads will be featured in major newspapers such as USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle Times, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Village Voice, the Durham Herald Sun, the Arizona Republic and the Independent Triangle, and magazines such as the Progressive and Reason. The ads will also appear on buses and phone booths across Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, inside the Washington DC metro and bus system, on billboards in Moscow, Idaho and Philadelphia, PA, as well websites such as the Friendly Atheist. Consider Humanism TV commercials will appear nationwide on NBC’s Dateline, and stations such as MSNBC, CNBC and Bloomberg Business Television.
