What aspect/facet of "religion" do you wish to focus on? "Religion" is a vast topic with an ancient history. Are you talking about doctrine? Are you talking about believers' psychology? Are you talking about relgious rites, rituals, and practices? Also, there's a point where "religion" blends in with "culture." I think it's no accident - it's by no means mere chance - that the word cult and the word culture are linked; the word culture has its first four letters in common with the word cult. I think it's no accident that the two words share the etymological root. [In using the word cult, I don't intend it in its negative, pejorative sense. I'm using the word basically in its sense of relgious worship in general, no negative connotation whatsoever]. And "culture" is found the world over, just as "religion" is.
Rapunzel
JoinedPosts by Rapunzel
-
-
-
-
23
I got a jesus question
by lancelink inwith the memorial season behind now, there is a question i have that in over 30 years as a jw i never got a solid answer.
jesus died for our sins; he was the perfect sacrifice, etc, etc.
i always heard how tough it must have been for god to watch his only begotten son die the way he did.
-
-
Rapunzel
Ugh, J.C., you mention the "widow's might," but I think you mean the "widow's mite." That's m-i-t-e. I do so hate to be so nit-picky, but in writing the "widow's might," you're talking about her power and majesty, neither of which she had. So, it sounds kind of absurd, since the whole point of the parable is that she had almost no money at all, and thus no power. Your mistake surprises me because, after all, given that you claim to be J(esus) C(hrist) Anon(ymous), this is [was] your parable!!! You disappoint me, J.C.
Anyway, in Jesus' [your?] day, a mite was also known as a lepton. It was worth even less than a Roman quadrans. The mite was minted by a Judean king several decades before Jesus' [your?] birth. It was a bronze coin still in circulation when the gospel of Mark was written. The fact that Jesus [you?} should compare it with the Roman quadrans shows that the people listening to the parable were familiar with Roman customs and culture.
J.C., you, of all people, should know his. After all, you were there. It was your parable.
-
25
The greatest Witness supply shop in the world? Probably.........
by chikikie inhttp://www.servicesupplies.net/page04.html.
words fail me.....
-
-
Rapunzel
Yeah, I suppose that times do change. But then again, maybe not by that much. As it say in Ecclesiastes, "there is nothing new under the sun;" and hasn't the business of America always been business? Who was it that said Americans are basically a people who sit around and sell hamburgers to each other? Now, there are dubs who sit around and sell worthless stuff to each other. Is that any worse than "pet rocks" and chia pets?
-
25
The greatest Witness supply shop in the world? Probably.........
by chikikie inhttp://www.servicesupplies.net/page04.html.
words fail me.....
-
-
Rapunzel
Hey kids, be the first on your block to get a "No Blood" key chain!!!! It's a real conversation starter!!!! Use it as an intro to "give a witness." And, maybe - if you're
lucky,fortunate, blessed enough, you'll be able to sacrifice your life, all for a total misinterpretation of an ancient semitic dietary restriction!!! -
16
Retraining our WT-controlled minds - THE GAME 1
by Lady Lee ininspired by the thread about a mom wearing pants to the kingdom hall i thought this might be a good way to help many of us to see the absurdity of some of the wts/jw rules "principles" .
i'll post one "rule" a day.
so let's start with the way men have to wear their hair.
-
-
Rapunzel
1 Corinthians 11:14 mentions that men's hair should be shorter than women's hair.
-
12
Retraining our WT-controlled minds - THE GAME 2
by Lady Lee ini thought this might be a good way to help many of us to see the absurdity of some of the wts/jw rules "principles" .
women can't wear pants to meetings or service or i've heard even to go clean the hall.. what scriptures would the elders use to get a jw to conform.
you don't need to quote whatt he scripture and i certainly have no desire to do that but if you have the quotes handy feel free to post them.. the rule principle.
-
-
Rapunzel
1 Corinthians 11:14 does seem to prohibit men against wearing their hair long. Of course, one could ask: How long is (too) long? Throughout history, various groups of people have defined themelves in reaction against other - usually dominant - groups of people. So, perhaps the Roman men of that era tended to wear their hair long. I read somewhere that the ancient Egyptians used to shave their heads bald, hence the Old Testament regulation that Israelite men NOT cut their hair.
-
23
I got a jesus question
by lancelink inwith the memorial season behind now, there is a question i have that in over 30 years as a jw i never got a solid answer.
jesus died for our sins; he was the perfect sacrifice, etc, etc.
i always heard how tough it must have been for god to watch his only begotten son die the way he did.
-
-
Rapunzel
Burger Time:If you have not done so already, I would highly recommend that you read a book entitiled God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Imortant Question - Why WeSuffer, written by Bart Ehrman. This book deals with the issue of theodicy, which is the question of how a supposedly all-powerful and just God can permit the existence of evil and suffering in the world. Ehrman's thesis is that the Bible offers various and conflicting explanantions for the existence of evil in the world. Another book that deals with the same issue from a different perspective is Abraham's Curse by Bruce Chilton.
-
13
WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE USING CAPS NOW?
by Rapunzel inplease stop shouting; it hurts my ears.
by the way, i've been thinking of the so-called "liar's paradox.
" you know the one where the cretan [the man from crete] states: "all cretans are liars.
-
-
Rapunzel
Please stop shouting; it hurts my ears. By the way, I've been thinking of the so-called "liar's paradox." You know the one where the Cretan [the man from Crete] states: "All Cretans are liars." If the man is telling the truth, then the statement is false. But if the man is lying, then the statement is true. So, if the statement is true, it's false. And if the statement is false, it's true. I think it was Bertrand Russel who claimed that if a person thought about such paradoxes for enough time, he or she would be driven to insanity.
Another paradox is as follows -
1. The following sentence is true.
2.) The preceding sentence is false.
One way to escape the paradox is to state that, given the fact that the two sentences refer to nothing but each other, they merely constitute a self-referential, verbal "hall of mirrors" - a kind of endless "tape loop." Since neither sentence refers to anything outside of the other sentence, neither sentence has any real meaning at all.
-
8
Lies, Myths and fairy Tales....
by nomoreguilt inin order to avoid doctrine, dogma and interpretation i am going to quote this one scripture.
i will leave it to the rest of my esteemed colleagues here to apply it to the appropriate tale in the bible.
i will start with adam and eve and the garden.. isaiah 46: 9-10.
-
-
Rapunzel
"When one reads Bibles, one is less surprised at what the Deity knows than at what He doesn't know." - Mark Twain
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindicative, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sado-masochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." Richard Dawkins.
Your thread has not been "hijacked." On the contrary, you have received responses. But it seems that you don't like the answers. Too bad for you. As has been stated, if you consider the context of the passage in Isaiah that you quote, you will see that the passage refers to a specific group of people, living in a specific era in history - namely the Israelites living in the period of Babylonian captivity before their liberation by Cyrus. As the previous poster has pointed out, the Witnesses can be faulted for having lost sight of - or for having purposely concealed - the fact that context is crucial; it determines everything.
To restate Twain's idea in a different fashion, reading the Bible will leave you more surprised at what "God" does not know than at what "God" knows.
-
27
J.W's Forbidden To Use The Word "Lucky"
by Rapunzel inon another thread, a poster alluded to the witness prohibition on uttering the word "lucky," as the word "lucky" is associated with dreaded paganism.
as i recall, instead of saying "lucky", witnesses are "counseled" to employ the term forunate.
the problem is this - the roman goddess of good luck was named fortuna; her greek equivalent was named tyche.
-
-
Rapunzel
Velettan: It's unbelievable that the Witnesses should forbid the "faithful" using the words "dime" and "nickel". In fact, the word "dime" - in referring to one tenth (1/10) of a dollar - is not slang at all. The word "dime" is ultimately derived from the Latin word, decimus, which means "one tenth." Etymologically, the word dime is related to decimal and decimate - to reduce to one tenth of the original amount.
In truth, the word "dime" could be slang, if it used to designate a ten-dollar amount. If someone said: "This book was cheap; it only cost me a dime," meaning the book cost ten dollars, then that would be slang. But if they mean ten cents, it's not slang.
As for the word nickel, it refers to the metal from which the coins were originally made. It's not slang either if it refers to a five-cent piece. It's only slang if it refers to a five-dollar amount.
It's amazing how controlling the Witnesses are, to the point that they "micro-manage" every aspect of people's lives down to the level of the words that they are allowed to use.