PrimateDave

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Posts by PrimateDave

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  231

  Name Things JWs Believe That Are Not Actually Biblically Provable

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here's one example: being a congregation publisher.

  nowhere in the bible does it say you should be a "publisher" and turn in your time if you preach.

  they try to twist the scriptures by saying that numbers are constantly being recorded in the bible so then conforming to the rules of being a publisher is from the scriptures.. yeah, right..

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  PrimateDave

  One tradition that most Christians believe, including JWs, is that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. He didn't.

  Dave
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  14

  What "lightweight" but delicious foods do you enjoy?

  by compound complex in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  dear hearty appetites:.

  my weight-loss and toning-up campaign is proving successful.

  giving up a few of my fave foods peculiar to my ethnicity [temporarily because i tend to go overboard] has not been so hard as my current regime of complex carbs, fruits, vegetables, fish and fowl is satisfying.

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  PrimateDave

  Thanks Coco! Yes, pressure cooking is a time saver. I cook with propane, so it is convenient for me. I imagine my recipe would also do nicely in a slow cooker like a crock pot. I just had some of my soup with some warm, fresh bread. Yummy!

  I also enjoy making home made pizza. I make my own dough, which is really quite simple. I use prepared spaghetti sauce. I avoid brands that contain high fructose corn syrup. Always read the label! I top my pizza with finely sliced vegetables like onion, olives, peppers, and tomatos. I have used fake ground "beef" (soy based) sometimes. I would like to try some non-dairy vegan "cheese" too, but I haven't found any at the local supermarkets yet. One of these days I may start up some sour dough and try that too.

  Dave
• 
  14

  What "lightweight" but delicious foods do you enjoy?

  by compound complex in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  dear hearty appetites:.

  my weight-loss and toning-up campaign is proving successful.

  giving up a few of my fave foods peculiar to my ethnicity [temporarily because i tend to go overboard] has not been so hard as my current regime of complex carbs, fruits, vegetables, fish and fowl is satisfying.

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  PrimateDave

  I regularly make soup. I have a simple recipe that I enjoy.

  1/2 package (approx. 1 cup) dry green split peas

  1 large or 2 medium/small potatos (leave the peeling on and wash well for extra nutritional value) cut up into small pieces

  1 lb. package frozen mixed vegetables (like broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots)

  2 vegetable bouillon cubes

  oregano, salt, pepper and/or Mrs. Dash to taste

  Boil 6 cups water in a pressure cooker and add bouillon cubes, split peas, and potato pieces. Bring to boil again stirring regularly. Pressure cook for about 15 minutes according to your pressure cooker directions. (Pressure cooking is optional: After bringing to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the peas have mostly dissolved, stirring regularly.) Remove from heat and put under running cold water to allow the lid to be removed. Add the frozen vegetables and bring to a boil again. Remove from heat and season to taste. Remember to add a little salt at a time, stir well, and taste the broth. I use about a teaspoon of salt along with a generous shake of Mrs. Dash and oregano. This is a very low fat soup that is high in complex carbohydrates and soluble fiber.

  Dave
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  9

  Auschwitz survivor: "I can identify with Palestinian youth"

  by PrimateDave in

  1. social
  2. current

  auschwitz survivor: "i can identify with palestinian youth".

  "hajo meyer, author of the book the end of judaism, was born in bielefeld, in germany, in 1924. in 1939, he fled on his own at age 14 to the netherlands to escape the nazi regime, and was unable to attend school.

  a year later, when the germans occupied the netherlands he lived in hiding with a poorly forged id.

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  PrimateDave

  Auschwitz survivor: "I can identify with Palestinian youth"

  "Hajo Meyer, author of the book The End of Judaism, was born in Bielefeld, in Germany, in 1924. In 1939, he fled on his own at age 14 to the Netherlands to escape the Nazi regime, and was unable to attend school. A year later, when the Germans occupied the Netherlands he lived in hiding with a poorly forged ID. Meyer was captured by the Gestapo in March 1944 and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp a week later. He is one of the last survivors of Auschwitz...

  "'I have never been a Zionist. After the war, Zionist Jews spoke about the miracle of having "our own country." As a confirmed atheist I thought, if this is a miracle by God, I wished that he had performed the smallest miracle imaginable by creating the state 15 years earlier. Then my parents would not have been dead.'"
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  6

  Should I tell them the truth?

  by KDubbz in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok alright here it is.

  i was never bapitized or anything.

  i've got plenty of "worldy" friends and i am very happy with my life right now.

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  PrimateDave

  Can you give any specific teachings that they question you about? You might find ways to turn the question back at them in a way that makes them think.

  Dave
• 
  231

  Name Things JWs Believe That Are Not Actually Biblically Provable

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here's one example: being a congregation publisher.

  nowhere in the bible does it say you should be a "publisher" and turn in your time if you preach.

  they try to twist the scriptures by saying that numbers are constantly being recorded in the bible so then conforming to the rules of being a publisher is from the scriptures.. yeah, right..

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  PrimateDave

  All this back and forth bickering about what the Bible is supposed to say and mean...

  Is it any wonder many of us throw this baby out with the bath water?

  Here are things JWs believe that aren't Biblically provable:

  1. JWs believe that the creative days weren't literally 24 hour days but periods of time measuring thousands of years. Golly! The writer wrote "day," so that is exactly what he meant. Don't tell me that in Gen 2:4b, the word "day" that is used by some translators shows that the previous use of the word in Gen 1 can mean an undefined period of time. Remember that chapter and verse divisions are arbitrary and don't always conform to the original textual divisions. The first creation account ends in Gen 2:4a. My JPS Tanakh splits this verse with a large paragraph break. The second creation account begins in Gen 2:4b, and it reads, "When the Lord God [YHWH] made earth and heaven..." This is not refering to the previous account. It is the start of an entirely different story as any Biblical scholar familiar with J, E, P, D, and R can tell you. The placement of the first and second creation accounts in their current positions was made by a post-exilic Redactor. The original writer of the Javist second account was unfamiliar with the contents of the Priestly first account. The writers literally meant what they wrote.

  2 JWs believe that the Earth is a sphere. JWs believe that the Earth revolves around the Sun and the Moon revolves around the Earth. JWs believe that stars are very distant objects that are similar to our Sun. JWs believe that God resides in "heaven," but are unable to give a precise location where that might be. However, the Bible clearly demonstrates that the Earth is a circle. The sky is an inverted dome on which the celestial objects are fixed and placed as "signs." God resides on top of this dome. "Inspiration" tells us that Nimrod once organized mankind to build a tower designed to reach God. God was not pleased with this, so he confused the languages of the workers so that they would leave off building this tower. God also used openings in this dome to allow the flood waters to enter and cover the Earth below. Noah knew that the flood waters had subsided when he let a dove go, and it never returned. Since there were no mates for the dove or even predators to kill and eat it, one wonders why the dove disappeared and why this was taken as a sign that it was safe to exit the ark?

  Dave
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  6

  Paganism & The Goddess

  by LouBelle in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there was a program on t v last night that went into the paganism beliefs and practises (including wicca, etc) i have to admit i do still feel uncomfortable with thier rites and religious practises (well i guess i feel the same way about christians talking in tongues - just not comfortable with gibberish) - doesn't make sense and borders on the weird for me.

  i know it also stems from the unknown.. on the point of a goddess - that doesn't bother me because even though many picture god as male and showcase him as such, i am mindful of the scripture that says that spirit is neither male/female.. .

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  PrimateDave

  Goddess worship isn't really all that 'pagan' considering that much of what the Bible poses as 'history' was evidently revised by priests and scribes in the period leading up to and following the Babylonian exile. Consider the goddess Asherah. From the Wikipedia (Asherah):

  "The goddess, the Queen of heaven whose worship Jeremiah so vehemently opposed, may have been Asherah or possibly Astarte. Asherah was worshipped in ancient Israel as the consort of El and in Judah as the consort of Yahweh and Queen of Heaven (the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival)"

  The patriarchs such as Abraham almost certainly were polytheistic, and indications of that fact still survive in the scriptures today. The problem is that 'professional' translators continue to uphold the later monotheistic tradition that dominated post exilic worship.

  For example, at Genesis 21:33 it says, "After that he [Abraham] planted a tamarisk tree at Be'er-she'ba and called there upon the name of Jehovah the indefinitely lasting God." (NWT) In the Hebrew, the word for "tamarisk' is ashl, which is similar to the word that is most often translated as 'grove.' Why is that significant? Consider this passage from Is It God's Word?

  'Principal among the idols or images of their Yahveh (YHWH or Jehovah) were, throughout Hebrew history, the phallic objects of worship mentioned a thousand times in the sacred pages under the euphemistic and misleading terms "Pillar" and "grove." These so popular and venerated emblems were nothing more or less than the phallic reproductions of the erect male organ of procreation, the symbolic "staff of life, and the receptive and fecund female "door of life," to euphemize them ourselves.

  'In the English translations the term "pillar" is used for the representation called in Hebrew "mazzebah," of the male organ; and "grove" for the "asherah" or female organ of reproduction. For public and outdoor worship these images were of large size and bold design, often actual, sometimes conventional or symbolic, representations of the sex-organs. Smaller idols of the same nature, more for household worship, were images of Yahveh, the peculiarly sacred alias of the Hebraic El, with an enormous phallus, or male organ, erect in situ. The names given to these household images were "ephods" and "teraphim," words constantly occurring together throughout the Hebrew Bible to as late as Hosea iii, 4.

  'These phallic idols were used for worship, and for the purposes of divination or oracular consultation with the God Yahveh, in seeking his advice and receiving his awful decrees. Thus the religion and worship of the Hebrews and their Semitic neighbors were frankly and purely phallic. I shall illustrate this fact by a few instances from among hundreds in the Hebrew Scriptures. And first of the "pillars" and "groves" of almost universal worship.'

  So much for 'pure worship'! The Patriarchs and pre-exile Israelites were fertility worshippers, and sex was very much a part of their worship. On one occasion when Rachel took her father's teraphim idol, she sat on it to hide it from him while he searched the tent. Her excuse for not rising in respect for her father? "The customary thing with women is upon me." So, Rachel may have been using the teraphim with its carved erection to deal with her menstruation in some primitive medicinal way. Or, it could have simply been a way for the storyteller to insert some sexual humor into the passage: "Girl won't get up for her father because she's getting it on with a dildo."

  Anyway, back to Abraham and his 'grove' or 'tamarind tree.' The book quoted above continues,

  'The "grove" (asherah) or graven representation of the female "door of life" also makes a very early scriptural appearance, and runs hand in hand or, in phallic parlance, "linga in yoni" with the mazzebah, through the whole Hebrew Bible. In Genesis xxi, 33 it is recorded: 'And Abraham planted a grove [asherah] in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahveh [YHWH], the everlasting God [El]." To use the deceptive euphemism "planted a grove," as if it meant the commendable horticultural work of setting out trees, instead of the actual "erected an asherah," or visual phallic image of the female "door of life" penetrated by the male "staff of life," is another instance of "pious fraud" on the part of the Bible translators.

  'The idea of planting a grove of trees, besides being actually false, is negatived by so many expressions in sundry passages even in the English version of the Bible that the attempt to hide it becomes absurd. A few instances suffice to illustrate this: "And Ahab served Baal, and made a grove" (1 Kings xvi, 33); under Jehoahaz "there remained a grove in Samaria" (2 Kings xiii, 6); the children of Israel "set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree" (2 Kings, xvii, 10); the Prophet Ahijah had already declared: "Yahveh shall smite Israel ... because they have made their groves, provoking Yahveh to anger" (1 Kings xiv, 15).

  'A grove of trees could not be planted under a tree, nor would such innocent and useful work of forestation provoke the Lord Yahveh to anger to the extent of smiting his chosen Israel. In every one of the passages cited, and in scores of others, the word used in the Hebrew Scriptures is asherah or the plural asherim, which was the name in Hebrew for the Semitic object of phallic idol-worship representing the conjunction of male and female sex- organs.'

  This was all fine and good until the professional priesthoods of Israel figured out that they could make a pretty good living by demanding sacrifices for forgiveness of 'sins' against their angry god YHWH. Religion is the process or business of making a living (or a killing) off of people's guilt, real or imagined.

  Dave
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  17

  Thanatophobia, or fear of death

  by Hope4Others in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  thanatophobia, or fear of death, is a relatively complicated phobia.

  many, if not most, people are afraid of dying.

  some people fear being dead, while others are afraid of the actual act of dying.

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  PrimateDave

  The way I now see things, I was "dead" for all of time up to the day I was conceived. Then I gradually gained sentient self awareness as my brain developed. I still remember the day when I was a child that I first realized my existence. This self awareness caused me to ask myself, "Why am I 'me'? Of all the people who have ever existed past and present, why is my consciousness in this body at this time?"

  I didn't have sufficient knowledge to answer my questions at that young age. I think I do now. I now believe I am not as unique or special as an individual as I once thought. I see myself in other people. Our minds are a biochemical process of our central nervous systems and brains. Our brains and bodies are built on the blueprint of our genetic codes. Our genetic codes are nearly identical copies with less than 1% variation between individual humans. For all intents and purposes, I am 'you,' and you are 'me.'

  What does make me "unique" are my experiences and memories. I am hard pressed to think of any significant experience I have had in my life that is solely mine, that is, never experience by any other human past or present. If anything, I have come to see just how commonplace my experiences, thoughts and feelings are among others.

  What about memories? They are intangible and so easily lost. I do have a good memory right now. I'm surprised at some of the things I remember from decades ago. Sometimes I am surprised at the things I can no longer remember that happened in just the last year. If I am lucky, I may keep most of my memories until the day I die.

  If I die the death I expect to die, I will go from being fully sentient and self aware one moment to completely oblivious and brain dead in a matter of minutes. A lifetime of memories will be wiped out by the deaths of billions of brain cells starved of oxygen. And "I" will cease to exist for all eternity just as "I" didn't exist before my conception and gradual self awareness.

  I do not fear this for it is the nature of existence. I am not alone as I prepare to join my ancestors in their eternal sleep.

  Dave
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  12

  Who would WANT this wicked system to go on any longer?

  by JWdaughter in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  that is always the refrain of jws when confronting former jws who point out all the false prophecy, the false teachings and declare that they are not putting their lives in line with this religion simply because they say the end is near.. first of all.

  that is no reflection on me as saying that i think this 'system of things' is all hunky dory.

  crap happens.

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  PrimateDave

  Normal people in all parts of the world hate injustice and wickedness. The Witnesses don't have a monopoly on morality like they think they do. Nevertheless, simply wishing for a miraculous end to wickedness won't make it so. The supreme irony is that the Witnesses wish for wickedness to end in the most horrific and violent way possible: the death of the vast majority of humanity at Armageddon. I'm pretty sure that this won't happen. Technically, the human race has the capability of destroying itself, but I hope that won't ever happen either.

  Dave
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  52

  Did The Witnesses Predict the United Nations in Advance?

  by TD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's been reported on this forum that bethel speakers at this summer's conventions are asserting that the establishment of the united nations in 1945 was predicted in advance by the witnesses.

  this is being presented as validation of the claim that the witnesses are god's one true organization directed by holy spirit.. .

  the basis for this claim originates with a public address entitled, peace - can it last given by n.h. knorr at the new world theocratic assembly, on september 20 of 1942. .

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  PrimateDave

  bookmarked for reference...