i was reading in the spanish forum (http://www.extj.com/foro/showthread.php?t=15396) that an old sister died from a heart atack during the memorial, but that didn't stop the ritual.
i remember a lonley very sick sister calling for help to the kh during an emergency, and the elders told her, they were busy in an elder's meeting.
she almost died and was rushed into the hospital by 'worldy' people.
Anyone read the last study article in the October WT? "Maintaining Friendships in a Loveless World"
Paragraph 2 tells us: "However, during these last days, people in general are disloyal and fail to show natural affection. (2Tim. 3:1-3) The friendships they do form are often shallow and self-serving."
This is an out-and-out lie. The ratio of disloyal, selfish jerks in "the world" is no different, perhaps even lower, than that of "the truth." Statements like the above just sicken me.
i'm starting to think they're not the same being.
thoughts?.
Good ponts, PSac. Interesting perspective.
Sylvia, how do you reconcile that YHWH of the OT and Jesus of the NT are absolutely nothing alike in personality? Is it because the OT writers got it wrong, as PSac suggests?
Or could YHWH be a completely different god who is as petty and vengeful as the OT suggests? Is it possible that Jesus came to completely overturn not just the old covenant but the old covenant's god, as well? Did Jesus pray to YHWH or teach his disciples to do so? Or is his father someone else?
I'm not trying to make a point; I have no firm belief on the matter at the moment. I'm exploring possibilities.
i'm starting to think they're not the same being.
thoughts?.
I'm starting to think they're not the same being. Thoughts?
a study by researchers from chicago university and monash university in melbourne, published in the current issue of pnas (proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the usa) shows that believers tend to assume that god thinks what they themselves think: neuroimaging studies demonstrate that reasoning about their god's beliefs activates the same brain areas associated with self-referential thinking.
see abstract of the essay here:.
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/12/01/0908374106.
I was just considering this very thing while driving to work listening to Jethro Tull. Thanks for the link.
inquiring minds want to know.
.
om.
I get your point, OM, but if it's nothing but a pipe dream, go ahead and pass me the pipe.
as we all know the net is chock full in conspiracy theories, bible prophets and end of the world prognosticators.
some of the things being promoted are ufo invasions, end of the world in 2012, asteroid strikes, the rapture, aliens disquising themselves as humans, a one world government and a new world currency.
all this just scratches the surface.
I believe. . .
the return/enter key should be used for creating separate, easy to read paragraphs when I want people to read a long post.
No offense intended, but I saw the lack of format to the first post and just didn't bother reading it.
i missed this point the first time i read ray franz's book " crisis of conscience " 3 years ago.
but it leaped off the page at me the second time around reading it this time.
on page 28 in discussing how secretive the gb meetings are and only rarely will an outsider be let in to gb meetings to give a report- then were sent away out of the room so the gb could continue meeting in secret.. franz in discussing financial issues states on pg.
The GB aren't the corporate directors anymore, GL. Corporate leaders and religious leaders have been legally insulated from one another since earlier this century (was it 2002? someone correct me here). Thus, the reason this topic is of interest.
is anyone familiar with these writings?.
i've just been looking them up after i was talking to someone about them.
as christianity took hold in the west, the east developed their own form of christianity.
Looks very interesting. Google reveals quite a few hits. First link I tried I noticed an essay or blog by someone who translated some of these ancient documents. He says, "In the Sutras, Jesus is called “the Jade-Faced One,” because, for the Daoists, jade is the stone of immortality." I read that and am instantly reminded of the recent thread on "The Green Man" or Jack in the Green.
More to read. Thanks for posting this; I had never heard of the Jesus Sutras.
over the years here on the forum...i have read with interest many da letters.
brave people!!
not so brave.
More like decisions on what work you "can't" do and where you "can't" sit at the Kingdom Hall but it amounts to the same sort of oppressive control.
Can't work in a job that carries a weapon. Can't work in a job where you would dispense blood to patients. Can't sell cigarrettes. Can't wear a national flag on your uniform. Can't work in a job that requires you to miss a meeting. Etc...
Can't sit in the back row because that's reserved for whoever the elders decide to reserve it for (people with kids, elderly, DFd, etc.).
i was thinking of the ones who would say to me " i don't like to read/study" " i'm not really academinc".
are these people doomed to blindly follow the gb forever, thinking that all the study has been done for them and they will just belive what they are told?.
is it mainly the smart thinking people who leave?.
The Internet is becoming a great equalizer. Even the most uneducated people in civilization are online. So there is hope for all.
In the past, I think those with more education or at least more inclination toward learning had the advantage because they would be the ones in the library, at the college, reading the papers, etc.
