Posts by EndofMysteries

50

Freedom, Free speech, Censorship, Religion and Tight Pants

by Simon in

you would need to be living in a cave to not be aware of the turmoil happening in the world with groups like isis murdering cartoonists over their depiction of their prophet and sides being taken to either attack religion or to defend the right to practise it.. the battle lines appear to be drawn between those who believe in freedom and those who would see it curtailed to be replaced with their own version of what is and isnt acceptable.

most people want freedom and free speech but when choosing it are perhaps unconsciously judging it to only apply to things that they themselves believe in.. we need to be crystal clear what freedom and free speech were really talking about.

freedom itself is usually easier to define as there are some fundamental principles: you should be allowed to do what you want as long as you are not harming others.

EndofMysteries

How and why would any government ban the ability of this one group to follow this one behavior vs other groups and other beliefs?

People can be free to make their own choices and treat people how they choose to do so. But when the groups leadership puts in writing things such as, "Don't look for excuses to talk to your family, even by email", the government can put a stop to that. That order members to shun family be not allowed and each to decide on their own.

Tell us how it would be enforced - would a government official accompany you to someone's house and command them to talk to you?

The law could hold the GB and printers responsible for what they print. They could get things from jail time or even just loosing charity and non taxable status. If a charity is teaching hate and breaking up families, why should they be exempt from taxes? I bet that the $ would make the GB change their tone real quick!

What is the point of demanding something if it would be utterly and absolutely impossible to legislate? Have you read the articles on the florist who refused to give gay couples flowers for their weddings. Their beliefs weren't honored on them not believing in gay marriage. The law didn't tell them to just go elsewhere as many others would be willing to sell flowers. So when a religions leaders are instructing to do something harmful to children, families, etc, why would that be 'impossible' to legislate? It's far from impossible.

We have to be pragmatic - how would a court decide what was hurting vs "protecting the congregation" as the WTS would claim?

The court could make and force them to uphold what they claim and try to sell to the public their policies as. Since they try to make their policy under FAQ appear to be that family ties remain no matter what, only no spiritual talk, the court could force them to uphold it that way. They try to recruit members claiming worst case if anybody in the family leaves is no more spiritual talk but still family, that they abide by that. Or put a big disclosure on their study material like cigarette companies, etc, are required to do, "By joining Jehovah's Witnesses, if anybody in the family later on leaves, those who remain are required to shun them for life should they never return. It doesn't matter whether they break laws in the bible or not, we believe those who don't obey the Governing Body must be shunned." They can force a real disclosure of their true beliefs upfront instead of beating around the bush and trying to whitewash it.

50

Freedom, Free speech, Censorship, Religion and Tight Pants

by Simon in

you would need to be living in a cave to not be aware of the turmoil happening in the world with groups like isis murdering cartoonists over their depiction of their prophet and sides being taken to either attack religion or to defend the right to practise it.. the battle lines appear to be drawn between those who believe in freedom and those who would see it curtailed to be replaced with their own version of what is and isnt acceptable.

most people want freedom and free speech but when choosing it are perhaps unconsciously judging it to only apply to things that they themselves believe in.. we need to be crystal clear what freedom and free speech were really talking about.

freedom itself is usually easier to define as there are some fundamental principles: you should be allowed to do what you want as long as you are not harming others.

EndofMysteries

I once saw a statue of a man with his legs and arms fully stretched out in a big jumping jack pose inside a sphere or bubble. The caption said, "Within the confines of civility I am free". I take that as people are free to do good, but if you are doing harm to others, then that freedom has hit it's limit.

The WT religion should NOT be free to teach shunning and breaking up families. Freedom of religion when not hurting anybody (many do charity, food banks, and hope, etc) but when going extremist like WT and doing harm, then those freedoms need to be removed.

46

God does exist here is my nonbiblical reason:

by Curious Kitten in

(before you read i hope no one gets offended by the word retarted...that s how i thought when i was 13)my mom and dad are divorced and my father never helped my mother on raising us, so basically she was a single-mother.

he just abandoned my three brothers and me and my mother had to work two jobs all of the time so we never got to see her.

when we did see her it was after school, but all she did was yell at us, make food, and leave to her next job.

EndofMysteries

I was also wondering if everyone here is atheist?

Nope. I am not set on my beliefs atm. If parts of the bible (or books of the bible or statements) are from a or the God, I don't think every part is. Like Pauls letters, etc, many parts read like a normal letter. The bible itself has scriptures saying how the scribes have written falsehood into it, and I believe the scripture on making sure of all things is even talking about the scriptures themselves. Jesus told the pharasees they wouldn't get life in the book either.

Now aside from all religious books, if none even existed, and based on what is known scientifically itself, I don't believe random events resulted in all life on Earth. Even if a God as people imagine would not have done it, it would be easier for me to believe that scientists from another world started life here. Many say that doesn't solve anything but if life on Earth was truly started by other life, then trying to find an answer that doesn't exist won't help. At the least I see ourselves as biological robots and if we made actual machine robots that were programmed to reproduce, fix themselves, etc, continually learn, etc, then thousands or millions of years from now they could be trying to reason how metals randomly formed together and made basic circuits, etc, and eventually evolved into advanced robots. But the truth would be they came about from us, so for the origin of life they'd have to know about us and what we know about our origins, etc to get closer to the answer.

Now just as in your life, in my life many things have happened time and again that seem too coincidental, as if there our outside forces having come control of things and making things work out, etc.

Also almost every religion seems to teach the golden rule and about being good to everyone.

I am living my life as if this is it, but not greedily or selfishly, trying to be a good person while living life to the fullest. I've thought of many scenarios for God not directly showing himself to the whole world where the whole world is in awe and have absolutely no doubt of him, such as this life being a test or middle ground, etc, so I hope there is more after this and at the same time I'm living life as if this is it to enjoy it as much as I can.

42

Pope thinks hitting children is "Beautiful"

by cofty in

one time, i heard a father in a meeting with married couples say `i sometimes have to smack my children a bit, but never in the face so as to not humiliate them.how beautiful!

he knows the sense of dignity!

he has to punish them but does it justly and moves on.

EndofMysteries

There is a difference between spanking and abuse. I was spanked as a kid but not abused.

The notion that never ever should there be a warrant for spanking is just a ridiculous as saying that an ISIS member should never ever be killed or physically assaulted, they can easily be reasoned with.

46

God does exist here is my nonbiblical reason:

by Curious Kitten in

(before you read i hope no one gets offended by the word retarted...that s how i thought when i was 13)my mom and dad are divorced and my father never helped my mother on raising us, so basically she was a single-mother.

he just abandoned my three brothers and me and my mother had to work two jobs all of the time so we never got to see her.

when we did see her it was after school, but all she did was yell at us, make food, and leave to her next job.

EndofMysteries

JW's do not follow the bible. The bible shows you can have a personal relationship with God and Christ. Jw's teach that God doesn't really do anything direct or works with people individually. This teaching started after the original JW leader died, Rutherford took over claiming Christ returned and the holy spirit was no longer needed that Christ was ruling directly and using angels and others who had died to run the show. When Rutherford died, they slowly brought back holy spirit, but to keep full control of the JW's they keep teaching nobody can get holy spirit or understand the bible, ect, except through them.

17

Bible is true in some vital matters!

by abiather in

while there are many interpolations in the bible (such as john 3:13 .... .. ) which can be ignored, there are very meaningful verses too in the bible such as ecclesiastes 4:1; 8:9 which states: man has authority over another to his detriment, they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors..

let us make a comparison of humans (in general) with lower beings, or even with inanimate things!

many people earn, spend, sleep, and finally go into the deep sleep of death, which is no way better than that of a stone or any animate being, which remains unaware of its self, origin, objective of life, final destination and macrocosmic surroundings.

EndofMysteries

I don't think very advanced AI is far away. If you break down human thinking and translate that into a program, and with the capacity of computers, it's only time.

1. Like a human is programmed to eat/drink, the computer/robot would be programmed to get power when it's running low.

2. As a person learns by experience, asking questions, etc, a computer program/robot can learn by input as well, the more it interacts, the more it learns (in relation to dealing with people) but they can also have every piece of knowledge loaded up as well.

3. With camera lenses, audio, audio recognition, you have it's eyes, ears, etc, and wifi can have it connected to the internet without physically being plugged in.

Just getting the base programming down. Since hard drives are getting larger by the year, processing power better, etc, we probably already the core components needed, just need the genius to program it.

33

Doh! wife is about to hear the trololol song

by freemindfade in

doh!

here i sit on my laptop on this site, while the wife is watching dubtv over there, she is watching the feb one with trololololy song at the end... i am trying to hold back my laughter because i know it is coming soon!

how will she react???

EndofMysteries

Here is the real version. If there is ever an Anchorman 3 made, Ron Burgundy should have a scene doing this song lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oavMtUWDBTM#t=72

33

Doh! wife is about to hear the trololol song

by freemindfade in

doh!

here i sit on my laptop on this site, while the wife is watching dubtv over there, she is watching the feb one with trololololy song at the end... i am trying to hold back my laughter because i know it is coming soon!

how will she react???

EndofMysteries

What is the original name of the song and the original info on it?

27

40,000 new kingdom halls needed

by sowhatnow in

not sure where to post this, but the other day my jw mom says to me, 'the number is increasing they announced that we need 40,000 new kingdom halls'.

.

ok, who else has heard this, and how should i respond, other than to say well your cong is smaller now than it was 15 years ago..... where your growth?.

EndofMysteries

What they mean to say is "We need money" sell your kingdomhalls because your account will have a big surplus which you'll donate to us, then we'll help you get a small cheap hall so we've made a big profit. We'll build too many small cheap halls that are perfectly designed to be turned into a fast food drivethru, one for each congregation in prime areas, then after they are built we'll sell them to Mcdonalds, etc, and make 3 congregations share each little one, which will coincidentally be the one NOT in a prime location but out in the woods.

3

Joel or Ezekiel

by johnamos in

is anyone here aware of any so-called new info (from wts) regarding the book of joel or ezekiel chapter 38 and 39?

EndofMysteries

Ezekiel 38 and 39 seem to be talking about the exact same event that happens at the end of the 1,000 year reign.