being back in college after leaving the borg, one of the required classes for a degree at my college is ethics.
after learning a few things, i am curious where morality and ethics is heading for the future of humanity.
i wish i could find the source again, but several weeks ago i recalled reading a transcript of a very old document that talked about when christianity was being spread in europe, it brought civility and community.
"...decline of ethics and morals"
Huh?
You mean the decline of the dark ages, the decline of the inquisition, the decline of continent engulfing wars killing tens of millions, the decline of despots?
The only thing that's declining is religious superstition and incredulity, totalitarianism, utopianism and romantic nationalism. May they all rot in hell.
fine.
holy spirit appointed overseers to shepherd?
6:1, 2; jude 22) are these not good reasons for being obedient to those who are taking the lead?read hebrews 13:17.. .
"OBEY Jehovah's Shepherds." You've got to be kidding. As soon as I saw that title I couldn't stomach reading any more.
i ordered greg's book a few years ago and wonder if he will ever complete his book?
what is going on with greg, he's a great scholar and a decent bloke, i hope he is doing well heatlh wise and god is blessing him.
i knew this would be a giant task, i hope he did not bite more than he can chew..
He's written some great scholarly stuff and I think has a very balanced and fair view of JW doctrine, but a book on such an esoteric subject for such a narrow audience as Sharpe's Rule must hardly be a big priority. It took him a long time to finally release his 3rd edition of JW's Defended, and he wouldn't have sold many I'd say.
He started a forum on his elihubooks.com website and tried to start a "Christian Witnesses of Jah" thing, but he was quite controlling and rather heavy-handed at times in censuring posters on the forum, and now it's all gone quiet. People leaving a high control organisation like the JW's don't need that.
He has been outspoken in criticizing the Watchtower leadership and encourages JW's to leave the organisation behind.
this past weekend i wasted my time at another jw ca, during this time this is what our new do shared with all the drones and i just wanted to share with all of the current awaken jw's or ex-jw's.. .
public address: who is rocking the nations, and how?.
we all know the jw leaders love talk about numbers!.
The DO mentioned how in Mexico they allowed a 6 year old girl to get baptized.
Pathetic and disgusting! They are noticeably putting pressure on parents to get their children baptized. Anything to artificially boost the statistics. Won't be long until infant baptism is allowed.
today we know that matter and energy are interchangeable, hence they are there always in either form, they are eternal, hence requires no creator.
hence atheism is right in rejecting a creator, but failed in providing any motivation for people to do good.
religions, in their effort to provide a motivating factor for humans to do good, introduced creation stories and other myths; hence they too are right (as far as their intention is concerned), yet failed in producing any worthy resultsworld was steadily moving from bad to worse and from worse to worst!.
Abiathar, neither theism or atheism are needed for human beings to be "motivated to do good."
The only motivation needed to do good is listen to our natural, in-built instincts. To listen to our conscience. We all have a sense of right and wrong and follow basic ethics. Most humans by default have no desire to harm other people, realising that such harm can easily come back upon themselves. We understand that we harm ourselves when we harm others, and we are all born with conscience, a sense of compassion and empathy for the suffering of others, regret and remorse for when we cause suffering to others. When we witness terrible suffering of others we immediately empathise, because we are all the same and nobody wants to suffer. Family, community and society cannot function when we go around stealing, harming and killing each other.
This is the simple foundation of all ethics and morality: empathy, compassion.
No theories or science is needed.
fewer new zealand citizens affiliated as jws in 2013 than in 1996: over 15 years of successive decreases.
the first table shows the new zealand census from 1976 to 2013. typically, numbers of citizens affiliated with the witnesses are higher than the number of active publishers because it includes children and those who are affiliated with the witnesses but who may not be active publishers.. of note, more citizens were recorded as affiliated with the witnesses in 1996 (19,527) than in 2013 (17,931).
the decline in numbers affiliating with the witnesses in new zealand started in 2001 and has continued across two further census reports - so this is not just a temporary blip.
And didn't they close their Bethel recently and sell the property?
i would love to start a discussion (not a debate) with others that follow the gnostic writings from the nag hammadi library.
i am a believer that pretty much every belief has some truths and fallacies.
some say its a game of 'only taking what you like out of something'.....i say, its using discernment to find the 'pure nature' of what god would be and is.
The Koran is basically a sort of gnostic gospel. It even has some ridiculous accounts about Jesus in it that scholars note are borrowed from silly 3rd century gnostic gospel. And hundreds of millions of Muslims believe it's all historical truth.
Just shows that human beings are mostly just ignorant sheep suffering from cultural/sociological herd behaviour.
my wife was informed by her father that an old jw friend had died so she decided to text his daughter ( who lives abroad & is disfellowshipped ) her condolences.
immediately the daughter phoned my wife in great anguish as she hadnt been informed that her father had died ( bearing in mind this event had happened 3 days previously.
) of course any chance that she might have had for coming over for the funeral had past.. her two brothers are elders and her sister is a regular pioneer but not one of them had thought to let their sister know.
The media would LOVE this. She should tell her local newspaper.
tgif ........ here are some laughs for friday nite.
at home.
enjoy!.
LOL!
at the meetings i've noticed over the past 2 years or so brothers asking for 'special blessings' for the governing body.
it was everyonce in a while at first.
now it is almost at every single meeting!
I think it's entirely appropriate to pray for the GB, since Jesus said that those who break his teachings and stumble his little sheep will have a millstone put around their neck and be hurled into the sea without a trace.
