Razziel

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Posts by Razziel

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  18

  Anyone here truly understand Quantum Physics and M-Theory?

  by AK - Jeff in

  1. social
  2. current

  just beginning to read steven hawking's book the grand design.. will i understand these concepts better by the time i complete the book, likely?

  or do i need a primer to 'get it'?.

  jeff .

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  Razziel

  To agree with bohm, I had an Iranian quantum mechanics professor who said in his experience, Westerners have a more difficult time grasping QM because our culture biases us towards causality and concrete ideas, whereas Eastern thought is based more on abstract ideas.

  QM is very counter-intuitive and has few classical analogues to make it easier to learn without dumbing it down so much you lose what is really going on. Re-reading difficult to understand passages several times, and looking to a little outside research may help you as it helped me when taking the course.

  Another thing to keep in mind in your reading is to keep your ideas of QM and M-theory seperate. As far as new theory, the core of QM hasn't been an emerging field in a long time, though many of it's practical applications have just come into use in the last 2 decades and many are still waiting to be invented or become feasible. QM could be superceded someday as just a special case of another, more encompassing theory, but the important thing to remember is that QM is very refined, and it works.

  M-theory, on the other hand, has a lot of support in the scientific community as eventually leading to the best understanding of the nature and structure of the Universe, but it's going to be some time into the future before enough testable evidence is obtained to see if they're on the right track or if this is a dead end.
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  39

  Warning To All: Taxes Next Year (2011)

  by Scott77 in

  1. social
  2. current

  disclaimer: iam not the author but just merely sharing what i have just read.

  its up to each reader to form his or her opinion after reading it.. .

  in just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of america will.

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  Razziel

  Where did my paragraph breaks go? hah
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  39

  Warning To All: Taxes Next Year (2011)

  by Scott77 in

  1. social
  2. current

  disclaimer: iam not the author but just merely sharing what i have just read.

  its up to each reader to form his or her opinion after reading it.. .

  in just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of america will.

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  Razziel

  A dollar's worth of goods and services hasn't been directly tied to a dollar in the overall economy in a very long time due to fractional-reserve banking. It's actually worth many times that. This has been great for overall growth of the economy but it definately is a root cause of all the boom/bust cycles during the times there is a glut of commercial bank money chasing finite investment opportunities in goods and services. If you model the modern (consumer-driven) US economy as one giant company, with the taxpayers as shareholders, and the taxes as the investment, the greatest return on equity (ROE) is almost always given by providing the tax breaks to small businesses and the common consumer, not to large businesses or wealthy individuals. Many large businesses are already close to their terminal growth rate, especially in the U.S. market. Many are so awash in cash that they can no longer provide an acceptable ROE with their profits. They either buy back their shares, or return the money to their shareholders in the form of dividends, which lets the investor find a greater ROE elsewhere. Dropping a few billion in the back pocket of companies like these does little to stimulate the economy. Wealthy individuals (non-business owners) likewise do little to stimulate the economy when given extra money. Much of it goes into long-term investment vehicles and tax shelters, which actually serves to remove it from the economy in the short term. Short-term, the greatest ROE and stimulus is provided by tax breaks and stimulus checks to consumers. This money does not go into savings or get diverted to tax shelters. It's immediately pumped into the economy. Intermediate is to provide the tax breaks for small and medium sized businesses that still have large growth prospects (i.e. job creation), or the wealthy small business owners who then may plow some of that money back into their business. Long-term is to heavily subsidize and improve the education system. This has the longest time to maturity but also has the greatest potential return. It expands the consumer base, which drives long-term growth. It provides the technical skills necessary for the American worker to compete globally, and it will result in a reduction on entitlement benefits and social programs.
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  16

  JWs @ The Movies: Did you ever...

  by Open mind in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...know the exact layout of lower manhattan so that whenever a bethel building even momentarily flashed upon the screen you'd go "look, look, it's the watchtower!!".

  .

  about the only cool thing about jws was the awesome chunks of real estate they had in brooklyn heights.. .

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  Razziel

  Here's a JW movie story.

  I was in a smaller town with only a couple of movie theaters. I was an MS and regular pioneer at the time and had several young servant/pioneer friends in the hall that I was good friends with.

  Once or twice a year an R rated movie came out that we would just have to see. So we'd make a weekend trip a couple hours away to Dallas to see the movie where we wouldn't get caught. On one such excursion to see Scream, we ran into another group of elders/ms/pioneers from the hall across town that had driven up to do the exact same thing.

  It was very awkward after the movie when everybody congregated near the bathrooms. There was about 10 in each group and we kept about 20 feet apart and just completely ignored each other like they weren't there. Nobody ventured over and said hi or anything. I guess we felt acknowledging our brothers/sisters was like an admission of guilt.
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  35

  Is it socially and professionally acceptable to drink a beer during your lunch break?

  by miseryloveselders in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been watching my alcohol intake for dietary reasons.

  i've been limiting my consumption to a small half glass of vodka, or a shot or two of bourbon.

  alcohol just doesn't do well with the gains i want to make working out.

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  Razziel

  First and foremost, read your employee handbook. 5 out of 6 companies I've worked for tied their alcohol policy directly to the legal limit for intoxication for their state (usually 0.08%). That roughly correlates to 2-3 drinks for men and 1-2 for women within the span of an hour. In other words, a drink or two is fine, but don't come back to work sloshed!
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  64

  Help with irrefutable arguments- creating dissonance

  by confliction in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello- i'm arguing with my parents now... well, call it debating.

  i'm trying to give them a question they'll actually think about- something that will make them want to do more research.

  a question (or questions), that if right, will make them reconsider whether they are in the "truth".... .

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  Razziel

  djeggnog,

  In regards to your second to last post:

  I understand the point that you were trying to convey, that those following the prevailing truth of the "present time" are blameless for any changes in "truth" that occur afterwards, and would not be considered apostate by today's standards.

  However, I disagree that the answers to mentallyfree31's questions are subjective. It seems your argument is based on the supposition that if someone still believed the things taught be Jehovah's Witnesses in the early 20th century (or 20 years ago) without readjusting their viewpoint to updated "light", they were never really one of Jehovah's Witnesses to begin with in God's eyes. I think that line of reasoning is dismissive, dissembling, and had very dubious scriptural support to say the least.

  The teachings of Jesus were a paradigm shift from the teaching of Judaism, and in his reply to the Samaritan woman, Jesus included the worship of the Jews right along with the worship of the Samaritans. There are no further paradigms prophesied in the Bible until the mention in Revelation of "new scrolls being opened" after the start of the millennial reign (which may or may not be a paradigm). Anything else not expressly written in scripture that comes before that time is either human interpretation or false prophesy.

  By equating interpretational changes of Jehovah's Witnesses doctrine over the last century with the reply of Jesus to the Samaritan woman, you are elevating the interpretations of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses to the same status of God's appointed prophets and Jesus himself, a status which they have expressly denied and a status that finds no support in scriptural prophecy.

  In regards to your last post,

  Comparing a willfull visit to a known website for former JW's and a chance meeting in a public bathroom isn't even in the same ballpark. Pun intended.

  However young and full of "righteous zeal" you feel you are, keep in mind that many of the members here were not "fringe" witnesses swayed here and there by the waves of the sea so-to-speak. Many served faithfully as Elders, Regular Pioneers, Bethelites and other positions of responsibility probably for more years than you've been alive. (An educated guess, judging by your posts, and likely to infuriate you.) Arrogance is completely wasted on most of us.
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  39

  Do you know anything about Morocco?

  by asilentone in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  i am going to meet attractive lady that is from morocco on july 3rd.

  she teaches the language of french for living.

  i do not know anything about morocco culture or anything like that.

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  Razziel

  Love is a universal language. Just be yourself. If she decides she really likes you, she'll ignore or overlook any initial cultural slip-ups you make.
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  17

  Staunch JW Niece,getting a gastric bypass for obesity

  by aquagirl in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  so,why dont they all just wait for the "new system"surely,jehovahs wouldnt allow 350lbs+ women to suffer too long,would he?

  for that matter,if it is so close,why even have any medical attention at all?.

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  Razziel

  The wife of an elder in my mom's kingdom hall died recently after getting gastric bypass surgery. A couple of months after the surgery she had lost 30-40lbs, so she decided to reward herself and (from what I hear 3rd-hand) had a jug of coke and trashbag-sized popcorn at the local movie theatre. It caused her stomach incision to tear open resulting in an gangrene-type infection that killed her.
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  55

  JW replies on my Shunning article

  by besty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have a google article on shunning -.

  http://knol.google.com/k/why-jehovah-s-witnesses-practice-religious-shunning#.

  its had almost 15,000 page views :-).

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  Razziel

  From all the experiences I've read and all of the friends I've had who experienced JC's firsthand, I'd venture to say that repentance might factor into the JC decision half the time. And that's highly dependent upon getting truly sincere elders in your JC.

  Shunning is just the visible part of being disfellowshipped. The part not visible to the public is the intense guilt and condemnation that comes from the JC decision as being viewed as agreement with judgement in heaven from Jehovah that you are in a spiritually dead condition.

  If the elders disfellowship you, then in accordance with their beliefs, they are in effect acting as judge and jury and sentencing you to death. Since they can't take you out back and stone you, they expect God to be in agreement with their decision and act as your executioner at armageddon. In the mean time, you are treated like you are already dead.

  This is very pharisaical and I think Jesus would say "Ok, but let the sinless Elder cast the first stone."
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  16

  I started taking control of my life

  by loosie in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  5 years ago when i attended my last meeting.

  ever since i started making decisions, instead of waiting on jehovah, things have been happening faster for me, its weird.. all my life i was told just wait on jehovah, wait on him for a husband, wait on him for children, wait on him for a happy life.. well you know what i stopped waiting and i am happy!!!!.

  yes i did get a wonderful husband (who adores my every move) while in the org.

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  Razziel

  Even when I was a very active JW, the "wait on Jehovah" mantra didn't make sense to me. Most biblical examples of blessing were upon men and women of action. Those who "took the bull by the horns" and took decisive steps to do what needed doing or kill who needed killing. The "wait on Jehovah" stuff was for the old and decrepit who could do absolutely nothing about their circumstances.