Posts by Doug Mason

154

Need Help: My Correspondence with the Headquarters

by Lobsto in

a month ago i sent a letter to the us branch about 607. my purpose for sending it was because i wanted to show to my parents through the letters the truth behind the date system.

two days ago, i received a response from them.

i think this is gonna be the first of many.

Doug Mason

What an interesting response. Thank you for sharing.

There are so many issues so I suggest you focus on one and hang onto it like a dog with a bone.

If it were me, I would focus on their "year 537 B.C.E., the Jewish remnant had returned to populate once again Jerusalem and the land of Judah".

Previously, they had pointed to the 7th month when Returnees gathered at the temple site, some time after returning from Babylon. (7th month is about October, hence they pointed to October 1914). Note that Jerusalem was destroyed in the 5th month (about August).

Ask them how they can guarantee the returnees arrived in 537 BCE. There is no universal agreement on the year, ranging from 538 BCE to as late as 535 BCE. Keep it simple and do not let them slip around like a wriggling snake.

Doug

5

A look at the sins of the Governing Body members of the Jehovah's Witnesses

by Finkelstein in

the leaders of the jws and the ibsa had their own unique inherent sins ingrained in their teachings and established doctrines.. c t russell taught and preached pyramidology to establish the date of jesus's return and subsequent armageddon.

this fixated date setting carried over even when he passed on and the following leaders of the wts propagated new dates such as 1925, 1975 etc.

it would appear the leaders of the wts created more relevance and importance toward themselves than even jesus and his spoken words of direction and how to be one his chosen select.. it would appear also that the leaders of the wts/jws were more involved in creating their own power and money through the organization that they created in their endeavor as proliferating literature charlatans.. the doctrinal mistakes that have come out of these men are many, from setting dates of christ's return, to mistakes on blood transfusions, memorial mistakes, encouraging and influencing children to get baptized, over use of disfellowshiping , sometimes done so to protect their wrongly devised doctrines.

Doug Mason

The people who wrote the "Matthew" Gospel warned their people against listening to those who claimed to be "the Christ" (24:5).

This Greek word "Christ" means "the Anointed".

So, watch out for those who claim to be "the Anointed" even "self-anointed".

3

Sons of God vs Sons of Israel

by I_love_Jeff in

a brief overview of how the term "angels of god" mentioned at deuteronomy 32:8 was replaced by "sons of israel.

" textual evidence is explored in the targum and the septuagint versions of the bible.

who were the masoretes and what was their agenda?

Doug Mason

Firstly, the text was in a constant state of flux for a long period, with scribes thinking it was their responsibility to amend the text to suit their current understanding. (The WTS "text adjusters" are rank amateurs.) There is no way known that anyone knows what was originally written, whether it be in Aramaic, ancient Hebrew, Greek or whatever. Today there are arguments over the various Hebrew Scripture texts (Symmachus, various LXX, Theodotian, etc.) When the Masoretes decided on their Hebrew text they simply set a corrupted text in concrete (Emanuel Tov). Likewise with the Greek Scriptures, disagreements run over Erasmus' Textus Receptus, Westcott-Hort, Nestle/Aland, etc., or a mixture (eclectic).

Secondly, many/most of the concepts taken up by the very early Christians came from the material produced during the Second Temple Period,not from the Hebrew Scriptures. Typical of these include "Azazel/Beliar/Mastema/Devil =>Satan", also the idea of a "war inside heaven", and so on. We are speaking of Enoch, Jubilees, etc. The Book of Daniel was a late product of this heightened eschatology/demonology, even including The Watchers.

Deuteronomy was the product of the Josianic period and was greatly influenced during the neo-Babylonian period.

Doug

9

Looking for a quote by Francis Crick

by Doug Mason in

page 21 of the watchtower’s 2010 brochure, “the origin of life” says of the biologist.

“francis crick … decided that dna is far too organized to have come about through undirected events”.. i cannot find this quotation being made in writing by crick himself.. the wts’s brochure refers to the book, “the search for extraterrestrial intelligence – a philosophical inquiry”, by david lamb but it is not clear to me that the brochure is saying this view by crick is being cited in lamb's book.. where will i be able to read this statement being made by francis crick?.

and while we are looking at that wts brochure, page 16 makes some interesting claims about teaspoons.

Doug Mason

Anders,

If you email me, I am prepared to show you what I have done thus far, so that you could provide me with your considered criticisms and recommendations. I reckon I am about half way through and it will take me another 2 or 3 weeks before I come up for air.

https://jwstudies.com/contact_me.html

I never break confidences.

Doug

9

Looking for a quote by Francis Crick

by Doug Mason in

page 21 of the watchtower’s 2010 brochure, “the origin of life” says of the biologist.

“francis crick … decided that dna is far too organized to have come about through undirected events”.. i cannot find this quotation being made in writing by crick himself.. the wts’s brochure refers to the book, “the search for extraterrestrial intelligence – a philosophical inquiry”, by david lamb but it is not clear to me that the brochure is saying this view by crick is being cited in lamb's book.. where will i be able to read this statement being made by francis crick?.

and while we are looking at that wts brochure, page 16 makes some interesting claims about teaspoons.

Doug Mason

Anders,

Brilliant. Thank you.

Thank you!

Doug

9

Looking for a quote by Francis Crick

by Doug Mason in

page 21 of the watchtower’s 2010 brochure, “the origin of life” says of the biologist.

“francis crick … decided that dna is far too organized to have come about through undirected events”.. i cannot find this quotation being made in writing by crick himself.. the wts’s brochure refers to the book, “the search for extraterrestrial intelligence – a philosophical inquiry”, by david lamb but it is not clear to me that the brochure is saying this view by crick is being cited in lamb's book.. where will i be able to read this statement being made by francis crick?.

and while we are looking at that wts brochure, page 16 makes some interesting claims about teaspoons.

Doug Mason

There are two sentences in the brochure that relate to Francis Crick.

“Francis Crick, a scientist who helped to discover DNA’s double-helix structure, decided that this molecule is far too organized to have come about through undirected events. He proposed that intelligent extraterrestrials may have sent DNA to the earth to help get life started here.[26]” TOL, page 21

I can now see that the second sentence relates to Endnote 26, but I cannot see anything in Lamb’s book which relates to the first sentence. Thank you for making it possible for me to search Lamb’s book. That is invaluable. There is no appearance of “undirected” in the book and the appearances of the words “organized” and “events” are not relevant.

I can see Creationist sites making this same attribution to Crick, and perhaps he did write this, but theses sites do not give me the location where Crick wrote that statement. He was obviously a prolific writer.

====================

BTW. Does anyone know if this is the complete article (written in 1993 but ignored by Lamb):

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Anticipating-an-RNA-world.-Some-past-speculations-Orgel-Crick/a8a4c8521983efe740990963a01eed498e534b16

9

Looking for a quote by Francis Crick

by Doug Mason in

page 21 of the watchtower’s 2010 brochure, “the origin of life” says of the biologist.

“francis crick … decided that dna is far too organized to have come about through undirected events”.. i cannot find this quotation being made in writing by crick himself.. the wts’s brochure refers to the book, “the search for extraterrestrial intelligence – a philosophical inquiry”, by david lamb but it is not clear to me that the brochure is saying this view by crick is being cited in lamb's book.. where will i be able to read this statement being made by francis crick?.

and while we are looking at that wts brochure, page 16 makes some interesting claims about teaspoons.

Doug Mason

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I am so fortunate to have such good and knowledgeable friends.

Doug

9

Looking for a quote by Francis Crick

by Doug Mason in

page 21 of the watchtower’s 2010 brochure, “the origin of life” says of the biologist.

“francis crick … decided that dna is far too organized to have come about through undirected events”.. i cannot find this quotation being made in writing by crick himself.. the wts’s brochure refers to the book, “the search for extraterrestrial intelligence – a philosophical inquiry”, by david lamb but it is not clear to me that the brochure is saying this view by crick is being cited in lamb's book.. where will i be able to read this statement being made by francis crick?.

and while we are looking at that wts brochure, page 16 makes some interesting claims about teaspoons.

Doug Mason

Page 21 of the Watchtower’s 2010 brochure, “The Origin of Life” says of the biologist

“Francis Crick … decided that DNA is far too organized to have come about through undirected events”.

I cannot find this quotation being made in writing by Crick himself.

The WTS’s brochure refers to the book, “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – A Philosophical Inquiry”, by David Lamb but it is not clear to me that the brochure is saying this view by Crick is being cited in Lamb's book.

Where will I be able to read this statement being made by Francis Crick?

======

And while we are looking at that WTS brochure, page 16 makes some interesting claims about teaspoons. It points to Endnote 21.. However, Endnote 21 does not contain many of the words at page 16

The following words do not appear in the article listed as Endnote 21: dense, information, teaspoonful, instructions, building, 350, humans, alive, today, seven, billion, people, living, earth, barely, make, film, teaspoon.

So where did the author get his ideas from?

Doug

33

Why did Jesus piddle around for 40 days in the wilderness?

by nowwhat? in

after all he only had 3 and half years to perform his ministry so every day counted.

instead of witnessing to satan couldn't he have made better use of his time reaching as many people as possible?

just using some jdub reasoning on the matter..

Doug Mason

My views on the 40 days testing of Jesus by Satan will initially appear radical. I believe it is a parable with messages to their local, immediate hearers.As with any Scripture, our minds have to be transported to the times when they were being written, taking note of every local aspect.

In the story of Jesus' 40-day testing, Jesus and Satan reason with one another in a very gentlemanly manner, using Scriptures in the same manner as any good duelling Jews would. (It was written by Jews about a Jew.)

https://jwstudies.com/Is_Awake_accurate_about_Messiah_s_anointing.pdf

Doug

33

Why did Jesus piddle around for 40 days in the wilderness?

by nowwhat? in

after all he only had 3 and half years to perform his ministry so every day counted.

instead of witnessing to satan couldn't he have made better use of his time reaching as many people as possible?

just using some jdub reasoning on the matter..

Doug Mason

smiddy3,

Going by the Synoptics, his ministry could have lasted 12 months or shorter. John's Gospel alone has Jesus going to Jerusalem on three annual occasions. I do not have any details at hand. I read this a short while ago and when I come across it again, I will share it with you.

Doug