Gopher

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Posts by Gopher

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  45

  What Are Words That You Or Others Have A Hard Time Pronouncing?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it drives me crazy when people say "altimers disease".. or jewlery.. .

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  Gopher

  February.

  Library.
  
  Fleshly.
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  19

  Is DISMISSING others a really really BAD habit?

  by Terry in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  if the facts are on our side we simply present those facts and allow the evidence to speak for itself.. however, if we are short on facts--what then?.

  more and more i detect a trend among those who publicly disagree: they simply dismiss others without resorting to facts.. one's opponent in an opinion war is labeled as "unworthy" of being listened to.

  dismissed, shunned, shut down and waved away!.

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  Gopher

  Certain outlooks are held with a religious, absolutist view. People are taught they are right and that anyone who believes differently is a threat to them, their freedom and their beliefs. Paranoid fears lead to intolerance.
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  3

  "We the people" to make this wold better?

  by supernerdboy in

  1. social
  2. current

  [url]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/we-would-immediate-change-installed-tax-exempt-status-churches/06ccgmzm[/url].

  [url]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/replace-god-official-us-money-mottos-and-slogans/x8clzn8c[/url].

  i voted for these hoping we can get a change and stop the leaches from making this a "christian nation" and not a nation for all people.

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  Gopher

  The Treaty of Tripoli, signed by president John Adams, said this in 1797:

  "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..."

  There's not much room for modern-day believers to hope they can spin that into an idea that America was a Christian nation at the very start.
  
  If it was a Christian nation, then there'd be no room here for a wide variety of people with different ideas like Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Muslim), George Harrison and Julia Roberts (Hinduism) and an endless list of Jews who made huge contributions to American society in spite of early prejudice and resistance to their very presence on our shores.
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  46

  Glaring omission in yesterday’s Watchtower Study

  by Bloody Hotdogs! in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  [if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>normal</w:view> <w:zoom>0</w:zoom> <w:punctuationkerning /> <w:validateagainstschemas /> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:saveifxmlinvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:ignoremixedcontent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables /> <w:snaptogridincell /> <w:wraptextwithpunct /> <w:useasianbreakrules /> <w:dontgrowautofit /> </w:compatibility> <w:browserlevel>microsoftinternetexplorer4</w:browserlevel> </w:worddocument> </xml><![endif].

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  Gopher

  When Israel's neighbor nations sacrificed their children in the fires to their false god, it obviously was a sign of demonism and sickness. But when a king's actions sacrifice 70,000 people to the angry "true" God, it's obviously a sign of God's righteousness.
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  46

  Glaring omission in yesterday’s Watchtower Study

  by Bloody Hotdogs! in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  [if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>normal</w:view> <w:zoom>0</w:zoom> <w:punctuationkerning /> <w:validateagainstschemas /> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:saveifxmlinvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:ignoremixedcontent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables /> <w:snaptogridincell /> <w:wraptextwithpunct /> <w:useasianbreakrules /> <w:dontgrowautofit /> </w:compatibility> <w:browserlevel>microsoftinternetexplorer4</w:browserlevel> </w:worddocument> </xml><![endif].

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  Gopher

  Ezekiel 18:20 says "The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son." Unless of course, you want to let the father get off.

  Note also how David quickly stopped mourning after the child finally died, like it hardly mattered any more. As a man of war, David had seen a lot of death. So what's one more, to him? A small sacrifice for the good of the kingship.
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  3

  "We the people" to make this wold better?

  by supernerdboy in

  1. social
  2. current

  [url]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/we-would-immediate-change-installed-tax-exempt-status-churches/06ccgmzm[/url].

  [url]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/replace-god-official-us-money-mottos-and-slogans/x8clzn8c[/url].

  i voted for these hoping we can get a change and stop the leaches from making this a "christian nation" and not a nation for all people.

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• 

  Gopher

  As a skeptic and non-believer, I'd love to see an end to the loud love affair between the majority of American politicians and Christian religion. We are diversifying as more people immigrate here, and as more become unchurched and even unbelievers. And I'm in favor of having our voices continue to be heard through groups like the Secular Coalition for America. Because really, when laws favoring a religion or religion in general are enshrined at the state or national level, government loses its neutrality towards religion and therefore everyone becomes a little less free.
  
  So I'm in favor of having our voices heard to say "no more favoritism for religion". And in small ways the pushback is working. I don't think we can stop everyone from having a skewed view of history and spouting the thought that America is a Christian nation. It isn't, and wasn't at the first as was clearly stated in the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797. Yes we are a nation where the majority may currently be labelled Christian, but we are a diverse nation of FREEDOM - freedom to believe or not believe as one wants.
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  31

  How do these Hard Core JW's Function?

  by Zordino in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am a fader and through the years i've known and spoken to jw's who live their entire life around the religion.

  they live as though they speak with jesus himself!

  what really got to me was the other day me and my wife had to stop by some elder's house and it was a saturday night.

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  Gopher

  "But what about their family members who have to watch as a good woman fritters away her biological clock to pioneer?

  "What about the family member who has to watch as his loved one throws away his family relationships, a good job in a tough economy, to "serve where the need is greater"?

  "What about all the lost human potential that's come from their discouragement of higher education?"

  It's hard to watch family members who burn their potential and their lives serving an organization that really doesn't appreciate them and would quickly ast them aside if necessary.

  However...we must tread carefully with them. By speaking up when they aren't ready, it will tend to push them deeper into the comfort of their belief system. Only when people are really ready and give us a clear signal about that, then we can gently help them to see life outside the constraints and chains of the manmade organization can be okay and even can be very good.
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  6

  A thought

  by turtleturtle in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a thought regarding a recent public talk i heard:.

  .

  if christians are truly supposed to be odedient & faithful in all things (to the organization), because jah has always used an organization, then shouldn't the jews around jesus days have done the same thing towards the sanhedrin/priests (even though they were corrupt)?.

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  Gopher

  Hi turtleturtle.

  The incident about which I was thinking can be found in John 9:1-34, especially verse 34 where the account says that the man healed by Jesus was thrown out of the temple for saying that that is what happened.
• 
  1

  Interesting Parallel

  by turtleturtle in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the pharisees were very zealous for the law of moses, but they also considered themselves the guardians of the oral traditions that scholars developed over generations.

  the oral traditions interpreted the law of moses.

  for example, the law said to keep the sabbath.

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  Gopher

  Pharisees made long lists of complicated laws to control people, similar to what controlling religions like Watchtowerism do.

  Pharisees kicked people out of association in or near the temple, and it was devastating to the punished individuals. This is very similar to what the Watchtower does.
• 
  31

  How do these Hard Core JW's Function?

  by Zordino in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am a fader and through the years i've known and spoken to jw's who live their entire life around the religion.

  they live as though they speak with jesus himself!

  what really got to me was the other day me and my wife had to stop by some elder's house and it was a saturday night.

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  Gopher

  Factors:

  1. Fear

  2. The desire to advance in a man-made organization, to feel like you count there.

  3. The hope that they're really right, and that you're in a special place, with special knowledge, with the inside track to salvation.
  
  Back when I was in, I knew of some hard-core JW's who really had some nice things in their home, but because of their status were not viewed as materialistic.