in fact, several "wtf"s, not least - why were you visiting a convicted pedophile after his release from prison, never-mind having any contact with him in the first place when his preoclivities seemed to be an open secret.. and the best he can some up with is "i don't remember"?
you don't remember?
there's a fucking photo of you with one of the victims and accessories to the crimes you dumb fuck!.
I am in favour of the British royal family but Andrew is a complete disgrace. I have never heard anybody who has met him say a good word about him.
In my judgement he is a liar. His hubris led him to think he could make it go away by dismissing it all on TV and hoping the peasants would take his word for it.
It is hard to believe he did not know exactly what this friend was up to and enjoyed it to the full.
some people on this forum have said that they never really believed any aspect of wt teaching, that they couldn't wait to get free of it all.. others seems to have been really gung ho, believing it all until something happened that got you questioning "the truth.".
i would say my own high water mark was about 50%, which put me squarely on the fence, trying to decide if i should be in or out.. how about you?.
99% up until the 1995 'Generation' bullshit - then I went down to 0% within a year.
The one thing I never believed was that animals would live in peace in paradise. Only somebody who knows nothing about the natural world could swallow that.
at least at the moment it looks like no one is dead, but 6 injured (9:00 am pacific time 14 nov 2019).. i don't know if the school allows students to carry weapons, but many will think it would be a good idea for the students to carry concealed weapons to provide personal protection.. we shall see.. rub a dub.
many will think it would be a good idea for the students to carry concealed weapons to provide personal protection
Arming young men with underdeveloped prefrontal cortexes is a recipe for carnage.
Armed guards in every American school is surely a good move. Do most/all banks in the USA have guards? Are children more valuable than bank notes?
i know bad cops exist in many cities.
i know some cops who aren’t “bad” but do have an attitude.
however, i prefer to have law and order as opposed to chaos.
Fact 1 - Violent crime overall has reduced significantly in recent decades.
Fact 2 - A disproportionate amount of violent crime is committed by racial minorities.
i know bad cops exist in many cities.
i know some cops who aren’t “bad” but do have an attitude.
however, i prefer to have law and order as opposed to chaos.
In general the British police are worthy of respect and support.
Civil societies have conceded a monopoly in violence to the state - Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan. That has led to the lowest rates of murder in human history. The vast majority of murders in mature democracies happen among minorities who reject the authority of the state in favour of an honour-based, revenge-oriented culture.
excellent observation from zizek about communist regimes: they didn’t care if people accepted the ideology or took it seriously, so long as people acted as if the ideology was true, that was the important thing.
in fact the regimes were deeply suspicious people who took the ideology too seriously.
people who took the ideology seriously were dangerous because they were prone to noticing the inconsistencies and flaws in the system.
Interesting OP SBF thanks.
My only disagreement is with the idea that the WT leadership might actually understand the difference. Certainly all the years I was a member they were very intense about the need to take even the most obscure doctrine totally seriously.
Nevertheless I agree that there is a strong correlation between commitment to doctrinal compliance and apostasy. My experience is similar to xantippe above.
I think the many others who have less interest in the details of their faith are more likely to drift away quietly.
it-2 p. 735 ransom - “the real ransom (a) sacrifice.....would have to correspond (b) to the perfect adam......and enslavement into which their first father adam had sold them.
only thereby could he satisfy god’s perfect justice (c) that requires like for like...(d)’”.
a) can a ransom redeem something which wasn't lost – i.e.
Russell taught that Jesus died to redeem Adam - one perfect life for another. All the rest of mankind were unborn in 'Adam's loins' and therefore saved by proxy.
Rutherford decided that Adam was eternally condemned. He swapped 'Adam' for the value of 'Adam's perfect life' and the current car-crash doctrine was born.
the so-called caliph, one of the most evil men in human history, has blown himself up along with three of his young children while being pursued by american special forces.. the ambition of isis was to expand the territory of the caliphate under the leadership of al-baghdadi to whom individual jihadists swear allegiance.
now isis have nowhere to call home and no leader.
what a pathetic bunch of losers.. they will of course appoint a new caliph and reprisal attacks will no doubt follow in western capitals by christmas but the more contemptible they appear they less likely it is that young men and women will join their delusional cause.. respect to the elite forces who hunted him down - those on the front line and the many intelligence specialists who made it possible.
DOC - Read the OP (amazing how few contributors ever bother to do that)
I congratulated the American SF and the CIC.
As always the thread was in danger of degenerating into the usual boring Trump v anti-Trump - but you already knew that.
there has been a raid on a large jehovahs witness gathering in norilsk, above the arctic circle, according to the moscow times.. a building with 50 jws inside was surrounded by masked, armed special forces forces who burst into the building and demanded they surrender all electronic devices.. i'll link the article but it's obviously going to drive these witnesses deeper into the religion.
not to mention the images conjured up in the report are likely to be used by watchtower as more fear mongering, since its very much like last year's terrifying assembly videos where witnesses were huddled in a field and surrounded with similarly masked, armed men.. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/22/russian-special-agents-raid-jehovahs-witnesses-resort-as-crackdown-intensifies-a67855.
Russia is a regime of extreme Eurasian nationalism. The Orthodox Church is an important part of post-communist Russian identity and no challenges to that are permitted.
Putin is a man who arranges the assassination of critical journalists and political opponents. He sanctioned the use of one of the world's most dangerous biological weapons on British soil in the murder of a double agent resulting in the death of innocents.
No amount of outrage or protest will make the slightest difference. The Watchtower is a lost cause in Russia, but at least the Governing Body get to bask in righteous indignation from their ivory tower.
the so-called caliph, one of the most evil men in human history, has blown himself up along with three of his young children while being pursued by american special forces.. the ambition of isis was to expand the territory of the caliphate under the leadership of al-baghdadi to whom individual jihadists swear allegiance.
now isis have nowhere to call home and no leader.
what a pathetic bunch of losers.. they will of course appoint a new caliph and reprisal attacks will no doubt follow in western capitals by christmas but the more contemptible they appear they less likely it is that young men and women will join their delusional cause.. respect to the elite forces who hunted him down - those on the front line and the many intelligence specialists who made it possible.
This thread is not about American politics.
