Posts by Heaven

52

Memorial 2017

by wifibandit in

instead of making a new thread for every little thing related to memorial 2017, i'm going to try to post here.

.

and to start us off.... cart artwork for 2017 memorial invitations.

Heaven

Hey wifi, that sure looks like a woman, maybe 2 women, in pants on that second page. Have they lost their minds?!

16

IBM CEO Sends Letter to President-elect Donald Trump

by Heaven in

link to the letter.. has anyone ever heard or seen this happen before?

for those of you who can't go to the site, here is the content: .

ibm ceo ginni rometty's letter to the u.s. president-elect.

Heaven

I think this is a first. Link to the letter.

Has anyone ever heard or seen this happen before? I have not. For those of you who can't go to the site, here is the content:

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty's Letter to the U.S. President-Elect

November 15, 2016

Washington, D.C. - IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty this week sent the following letter to the president-elect of the United States:

International Business Machines Corporation
Office of the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
One New Orchard Road
Armonk, New York 10504-1783

November 14, 2016

Mr. Donald J. Trump
Office of the Presidential Transition
1800 G Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20006

Dear Mr. President-elect:

Congratulations on your election as the 45th president of the United States.

Last Tuesday night you spoke about bringing the country together to build a better future, and the opportunity to harness the creative talent of people for the benefit of all. I know that you are committed to help America’s economy grow in ways that are good for all its people.

I am writing to offer ideas that I believe will help achieve the aspiration you articulated and that can advance a national agenda in a time of profound change. I do so as the leader of the nation’s largest technology employer, its leading patent creator, and the company that for more than 105 years has believed that prosperity and progress can be achieved by unleashing the potential of all people. Permit me to offer a few specific suggestions:

Creating “New Collar” Jobs
Getting a job at today’s IBM does not always require a college degree; at some of our centers in the United States, as many as one third of employees have less than a four-year degree. What matters most is relevant skills, sometimes obtained through vocational training. In addition, we are creating and hiring to fill “new collar” jobs – entirely new roles in areas as such cybersecurity, data science, artificial intelligence and cognitive business.

You’ve spoken about the importance of vocational education, and we agree. IBM has championed a new educational model for the United States – six-year public high schools that combine traditional education with the best of community colleges, mentoring, and real-world job experience. The first of these schools opened with IBM’s support 5 years ago in New York; we have hired some of the first graduates. There will soon be 100 such schools across the country. With your support, we could do much more. Let’s work together to scale up this approach of vocational training, creating a national corps of skilled workers trained to take the “new collar” IT jobs that are in demand here in America.

Building Intelligent, Secure Infrastructure
You’ve said we need to invest in America’s infrastructure, and we agree. As we build big, let’s also build smart. The country should focus on infrastructure investments that incorporate Internet of Things (IoT) technology and artificial intelligence to improve performance. And as infrastructure gets smarter, it also increases the need for cybersecurity, so that vital networks cannot be compromised. We recommend that your infrastructure package include incentives for states and localities to build intelligent – and secure – roads, bridges, buildings, and other public facilities.

Healthcare: Applying Lessons from Private Sector Experience
IBM operates one of the largest employer-sponsored health plans in the United States. In 2009, IBM offered 15 specific ideas for how America could save more than $900 billion over ten years through common-sense reforms to the healthcare system, leveraging lessons learned in the private sector. These included using data analytics to reduce fraudulent Medicare claims, improving the exchange of healthcare information among providers, and leveraging the government’s purchasing power to lower the cost of drugs and care. IBM will update its recommendations for the healthcare system and hopes to work with Congress and your HHS Secretary to drive better healthcare at lower cost.

Using Data to Fight Government Waste and Inefficiency
Eight years ago, IBM helped lead an effort to identify $1 trillion in savings the federal government could achieve through using advanced data analytics, data center consolidation, and the use of cloud technologies to improve the cybersecurity of key government systems. As part of the Technology CEO Council of which I am a member, we will prepare an updated set of recommendations for how you could use technology and fraud analytics to save the government more than $1 trillion.

Bringing Money Home to Invest in America
IBM supports your proposal to make American’s tax system more competitive. Many billions of dollars of American companies’ earnings do not come home because of an outdated and punitive tax system. Your tax reform proposal will free up capital that companies of all sizes can reinvest in their U.S. operations, training and education programs for their employees, and research and development programs. We will support the efforts of your administration and Congress to pass tax reform early in 2017.

Taking Care of Our Veterans – With the World’s Best Technology
All of us at IBM share your gratitude and devotion to the men, women and families who serve our country. More must be done to give our vets the best medical care possible. So we recently announced a pilot program with the Department of Veterans Affairs to help its oncologists treat 10,000 veterans through the power of precision medicine and genomic analysis powered by IBM’s cognitive computing system, Watson. We hope to work with your VA Secretary to expand this collaboration.

Mr. President-elect, IBM’s roots are in the United States. We are investing, hiring, and continuing to reinvent our company for long-term competitiveness. At more than 50 major locations across the country, we hired more U.S. employees last year than in the previous five years. We are opening new innovation centers and business units across the country. We are proud of the work we do here in the United States, just as we are proud of the work we do in more than 175 countries around the world.

In the years ahead there will be issues on which we agree, and issues on which we do not. But as you prepare to take office as our new president, I hope the ideas I have offered in this letter represent ways that we can work together to achieve prosperity that is broadly shared in our society.

Sincerely,

Ginni Rometty
Chairman, President and CEO, IBM

21

If you read the bible w/out instruction, what would you think?

by TTWSYF in

anyone reading [or did read] the bible without someone else telling you what it meant?.

would you be leaning towards the jws or baptists or lutherans or what?.

just asking.

Heaven

Saename said: I'd be wondering why the hell the God of the Old Testament is completely different from the God of the New Testament... (bipolar disorder?)

Yahweh was a god of war and wrought ugly, abusive things against many people. Isaiah 45:7 - KJV says he created evil as well. The Hebrews thought of God as being all things, both good and bad.

Logically this does not fit with the claims that he is the 'loving' Heavenly Father. So a new, better, less abusive god was created in Jesus.

Remembering that these 2 myths were created thousands of years apart also lends to the conclusion that religious beliefs evolve. They are adapted and often exaggerated over time to fit with new ways of thinking.

43

Why Is YHWH Used Regularly In OT and NEVER in NT?

by minimus in

jw
friends

and if the name jehovah is that important why is it that jesus christ never use that name in a record of scriptures?.

Heaven

Probably because he was the Canaanite god of war... which doesn't exactly fit with the new Christian god of love Jesus.

52

Memorial 2017

by wifibandit in

instead of making a new thread for every little thing related to memorial 2017, i'm going to try to post here.

.

and to start us off.... cart artwork for 2017 memorial invitations.

Heaven

Evidently, there will be no lawn mowers in the Paradise Earth.

25

Something funny about Armageddon

by evilApostate in

years ago, when i was still a publisher, i had a very interesting conversation with a lady in the field service.

we were talking about punishment for sin and so on.

she believed in hellfire.

Heaven

Hi ya evilApostate... there are other flaws in the logic as well such as...

Homo sapien has been on Earth for some 250,000 years. There are many people who have lived on this Earth well before a guy named Jesus of Nazareth was ever born. None of those people ever heard of him nor were they ever 're-born'. Christianity wasn't even invented at that time. We are still discovering indigenous tribal peoples on Earth that no one knew ever existed. So as you said, there are people living on Earth today that have never heard of him. Their ancestors never heard of him and their future offspring will never hear of him either.

When I was a teenager I figured out that the mathematics just does not hold up for JWs to be able to be the ones to accomplish preaching the good news to all the inhabited Earth, particularly with the door-to-door ministry, nor via their website. There are people who live in parts of this Earth today that don't know what a computer or smartphone or tablet is, let alone the internet. And 7 million JWs cannot possibly preach to 7-8 billion people, much less keep up with the birth rate on this planet.

31

New Religion where to look?

by Alostpuppydog in

has anyone found any religion that makes more sense than the watchtower organization?

obviously catholics make even less sense than them so don't say that.... the reason i ask is because i still believe the bible is the word of god, but just that the jw's have twisted it for their own benefit, as most religions seem to do....

Heaven

Instead of wasting your time on something based on mythology presented as factually true, why not create something based on the real world? Maybe grow a garden. Perhaps help feed less fortunate people with said garden. I think you might find it immensely more rewarding.

19

"It's a cult, mom."

by schnell in

my mom has been extensively texting me, trying to argue that the un ngo scandal is not a big deal and that the child abuse scandal is to instigate the great tribulation.

even worse, she kept saying how great it is that the gb is imperfect and fallible and that teaching changes all the time.

maybe it was aggravation or impatience, but i finally just snapped and told her, "it's a cult, mom.".

Heaven

schnell, we have to tell them. Yes, it might be as subtle as a brick up side the head, but those words need to be spoken. Good for you.

Back in 2011, I told my Dad that any organization that does not allow it's members to have anything to do with their friends and family that refuse to join said organization is a cult. He didn't like it but had no rebuttal... just the annoyed, pursed lips, the silence, and the deer-in-the-headlights look.

3

"Satan Did It!" -- Comparative Religion and Religion

by schnell in

it's been said that as early christians went to preach about christ and his virgin birth, his tests, miracles, death, resurrection, and divine pedigree, the people they were preaching to would essentially say, "oh yeah, we have that too!

it's almost a cliche to point out that mary and jesus resemble isis and horus, that gautama faced his tests as well, that heracles is the son of zeus and a mortal woman named alcmene.

but when this is pointed out, suddenly an intelligent design argument appears to explain it.

Heaven

Satan is a construct and a scapegoat to explain 'evil' and how the ancients and present day believers explain why bad things happen.

In Hebrew, the term is related to an Aramaic verb that means “to lie in wait,” “to oppose,” or “to set oneself in opposition to.” As a separate 'person' or being, he is not part of the Pagan belief system. Good and bad lie within all people. In the old testament, it is Yahweh who created evil (see KJV Isaiah 45:7). God was all things to the Hebrews. But Christianity was troubled by this logic. Loving does not equal evil. So Christianity adapted this by creating a separate being. They gave evil person-hood and elevated its importance by giving it a proper name - Satan, God's special but fallen angel. There... it's no longer 'our' responsibility. 'The Devil made me do it!'

I think it is essential for all believers to, first off, actually read the entire Bible. Many have not. This exercise alone has made many a believer an atheist.

Then research the history and origins of the Bible including the pre-Judaism beliefs. The Bible is not a book like we think of a book. It is a compilation of stories spanning 1500 to 2000 years. The "Egyptian Book of the Dead" was written before this and contains many similarities to the Jesus myth. I find Christianity to be an adoption and adaptation of previous beliefs. Bart Ehrman's research points out we do not have the original writings of the Bible. And, as you said, the authors of the gospels never met Jesus (actually, none of the authors of the Bible met Jesus). Their accounts are from oral stories passed down over decades even centuries later. What happens to stories handled this way? They change.

Put yourself in the position of the early Christians. How can they gain membership? Well our God is better than all the other gods. Exaggerations of Jesus' power crept in. And the elevation of him to a god occurred. They made him better than Yahweh, more loving and somewhat accepting of all because well, Yahweh was really a douche bag.

But when people didn't buy in at first, the early Christians physically tortured people who would not convert. Later, after that wasn't exactly effective, they decided to tell people if they don't sign up they will be judged upon their death and if found unworthy, tortured for all eternity in a burning lake of fire. Why is it religion has to keep sliding back to the ugliness of threats and hurting people to prop up their agenda? (As a side note, there are still polytheists in the world today. Hindus and Pagans do still exist. The early Christians were unsuccessful in wiping out 'the heathens'.)

So once you know all this (and there is much more I could state but won't for the interest of some brevity), you can't unknow it. And you come to a fork in the road - do you continue with the somewhat easy, but ultimately useless, delusional path of belief/faith or do you decide to follow the more difficult, logical, rational, fact-based, intellectually honest path. I think every believer comes to this point sooner or later.

schnell said: * As I wrote in another thread, I personally do believe there was a historical Jesus. However, I don't believe all that has been attributed to him, or in the integrity of the Bible.

Erhman agrees with you. He states Paul's letters are a kind of proof of Jesus' existence. He also states that Jesus was an apocalyptic Jewish preacher who thought God was going to fix all the world's problems in his lifetime. Sound familiar? I often like to think if Jesus of Nazareth were alive today, how many of us would consider him to be a religious nut bag?

To paraphrase Hitchens "Ask yourself the following question... What is more likely? That the laws of nature and the Universe have been suspended or that an unmarried Jewish girl told a fib?"

31

New Religion where to look?

by Alostpuppydog in

has anyone found any religion that makes more sense than the watchtower organization?

obviously catholics make even less sense than them so don't say that.... the reason i ask is because i still believe the bible is the word of god, but just that the jw's have twisted it for their own benefit, as most religions seem to do....