fulltimestudent

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Posts by fulltimestudent

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  14

  Child care and abortion - two examples of the complexity of the issue

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in a perfect world, one would hope that no woman would need to consider an abortion.

  there is unfortunately, no perfect world and there does not seem there will ever be a perfect world.

  so consider .... 1. a child rape case in paraguay.. ... but the plot unfolding in paraguay is so dark and twisted that it is currently tearing the south american country apart.it began on april 21 when a mother brought her 10-year-old daughter to a public hospital.

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  fulltimestudent

  Duplicated. cannot access the image- apologies.
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  14

  Child care and abortion - two examples of the complexity of the issue

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in a perfect world, one would hope that no woman would need to consider an abortion.

  there is unfortunately, no perfect world and there does not seem there will ever be a perfect world.

  so consider .... 1. a child rape case in paraguay.. ... but the plot unfolding in paraguay is so dark and twisted that it is currently tearing the south american country apart.it began on april 21 when a mother brought her 10-year-old daughter to a public hospital.

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  fulltimestudent

  Now think about another face to the same problem. With the young Paraguayan girl in mind ...

  Photographer Guy Calan starkly illustrates what child marriage means in Ethiopia, another strongly religious nation with about 43% of the population Orthodox Christian and 33% Muslim.

  He describes his image:

  Ambaun, 9 years old, on left and Deghe, 7 years old, on right sit in their matrimonial tent before their wedding celebration commence in a village in Northern Amhara region on February 16, 2009 in Ethiopia..While in decline, early child marriage is still widely spread in rural areas of Ethiopia where families sell their daughters into marriage at ages as young as 5 years old...Names of subjects have been fictionalized and specific locations have been omitted to protect the identities of the children portrayed in the story.

  and his photograph: click http://guycalaf.photoshelter.com/img/pixel.gif
  
  
• 
  14

  Child care and abortion - two examples of the complexity of the issue

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in a perfect world, one would hope that no woman would need to consider an abortion.

  there is unfortunately, no perfect world and there does not seem there will ever be a perfect world.

  so consider .... 1. a child rape case in paraguay.. ... but the plot unfolding in paraguay is so dark and twisted that it is currently tearing the south american country apart.it began on april 21 when a mother brought her 10-year-old daughter to a public hospital.

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  fulltimestudent

  The child in the first post has given birth, and a Sydney newspaper states that:

  In Paraguay, two girls aged 10 to 14 give birth every day. The cases are often linked to sexual violence.

  
  Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/11yearold-paraguay-rape-victim-has-baby-stokes-abortion-debate-20150814-giyzkm.html#ixzz3mb5KVLou

  
  The population of Paraguay is about 6.7 million.
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  14

  Child care and abortion - two examples of the complexity of the issue

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in a perfect world, one would hope that no woman would need to consider an abortion.

  there is unfortunately, no perfect world and there does not seem there will ever be a perfect world.

  so consider .... 1. a child rape case in paraguay.. ... but the plot unfolding in paraguay is so dark and twisted that it is currently tearing the south american country apart.it began on april 21 when a mother brought her 10-year-old daughter to a public hospital.

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  fulltimestudent

  2. American Presidential candidate at Liberty University (An ultra Christian education facility).

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_nTe7LCYYI
  
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  14

  Child care and abortion - two examples of the complexity of the issue

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in a perfect world, one would hope that no woman would need to consider an abortion.

  there is unfortunately, no perfect world and there does not seem there will ever be a perfect world.

  so consider .... 1. a child rape case in paraguay.. ... but the plot unfolding in paraguay is so dark and twisted that it is currently tearing the south american country apart.it began on april 21 when a mother brought her 10-year-old daughter to a public hospital.

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  fulltimestudent

  In a perfect world, one would hope that no woman would need to consider an abortion. There is unfortunately, no perfect world and there does not seem there will ever be a perfect world. So consider ...

  1. A child rape case in Paraguay.

  ... But the plot unfolding in Paraguay is so dark and twisted that it is currently tearing the South American country apart.
  It began on April 21 when a mother brought her 10-year-old daughter to a public hospital. The girl was complaining of abdominal pains, and her mother feared she had a tumor. When doctors examined the girl, however, they determined she was 22 weeks pregnant.
  The mother told authorities her daughter must have been raped and singled out a prime suspect: her own husband, the girl’s stepfather.
  By then, however, 42-year-old Gilberto Benitez had gone into hiding. While authorities launched a manhunt for Benitez, his wife demanded her daughter receive an abortion. But Paraguay, a devoutly Catholic country, allows abortion only in cases where the mother’s life is at risk.
  A fierce public debate ensued. Amnesty International called on the government to allow an abortion, arguing that it was dangerous for a 75-pound girl to give birth. “The physical and psychological impact of forcing this young girl to continue with an unwanted pregnancy is tantamount to torture,” said Amnesty International’s Guadalupe Marengo in news release. “The Paraguayan authorities cannot sit idly by while this young rape-survivor is forced to endure more agony and torment.”
  But Paraguayan Health Minister Antonio Barrios insisted that the girl was in good health and that a late-term abortion would be risky.

  Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/11/the-horrific-child-rape-case-that-is-tearing-paraguay-apart/

  No further comment is neccessary.
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  30

  Independent living for Senior facilities are thru the roof here. What about your area??

  by James Mixon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we checked on a new senior facility, just to get in your must shell out $200.000.00 and.

  don't get that back.

  two hundred thousand up front and payments from $2500.00-$5000.00.

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  fulltimestudent

  The Malaysian government is rumoured to be planning to build retirement resorts for well-off Australians to attract them there.

  Not for me, though. I don't think I'm a well off Aussie.

  My plan is (when i eventually get doddery) is to rent a room in a Buddhist temple (with meals) on a mountain that overlooks the sea, somewhere near Fuzhou, and wait patiently until my last breath.
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  45

  What language was Jesus most at home with?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  our former loving brothers and sisters have been instructed to think that, jesus likely spoke a form of hebrew and a form of aramaic.

  (aid to bible understanding-103-105).

  of course, there is no way to demonstrate the truth of that assertion or any other assertion about the languages that the common people of the land spoke.

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  fulltimestudent

  My comment on the Coptic language?

  Coptic was/is the last flowering of the ancient Egyptian language.

  Here's the British Library defining Coptic:

  What is Coptic?
  No longer used as an everyday language, Coptic was a descendant of ancient Egyptian, spoken from about 200-1100. It was written using an alphabet slightly modified from Greek. The Bible was translated into Coptic by the second half of the third century, from Greek. http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/gospelsarabic.html

  Greek and Egyptian cultures were part of the early Mediterranean culture, as were the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean coast (West Asia). The Mediterranean peoples fought each other, raided each other, took slaves from each other, traded with each other and therefore had to learn each other's languages and ways.

  But eventually when west Asia was unified by Hellenic culture, the languages were influenced by Greek.
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  45

  What language was Jesus most at home with?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  our former loving brothers and sisters have been instructed to think that, jesus likely spoke a form of hebrew and a form of aramaic.

  (aid to bible understanding-103-105).

  of course, there is no way to demonstrate the truth of that assertion or any other assertion about the languages that the common people of the land spoke.

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  fulltimestudent

  Joking is appropriate, because ALL religion is a joke.
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  45

  What language was Jesus most at home with?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  our former loving brothers and sisters have been instructed to think that, jesus likely spoke a form of hebrew and a form of aramaic.

  (aid to bible understanding-103-105).

  of course, there is no way to demonstrate the truth of that assertion or any other assertion about the languages that the common people of the land spoke.

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  fulltimestudent

  This conversation (to date) illustrates the problem we have with early Christianity. We just do not have enough information to be confident about the early developments.

  To get too heated (as opposed to enthusiasm for an idea) will lead nowhere, because sooner or later you come to a dead end.

  So it is with the GoT (abbreviation for the Gospel of Thomas) - I can't say that my exposure to biblical scholarship is all-embracing, but in the one year in which I attended weekly lectures and tutorials, (conducted by an excellent biblical scholar, with whom I got on well, in spite of his being a committed believer and knowing that I was an uncommitted disbeliever at a University with one of the best early Christian departments in Australia), I hope that I learnt something (Also note, I have no axe to grind, no doctrine to defend, just a passion to understand how I wasted my life in a unorthodox Christian group).

  So which scholars believe GoT is Q? I can't remember any names being mentioned, although that's no proof.

  And there is a another question for passionate believers in GoT being Q (or, at least a development of Q), do we then accept the Acts of Thomas as being true? If yes, then when you read, as an example, in the Acts of Thomas 57 (Apologies for the dated English, there are better versions available, but I've no time to search for one):

  57 Again he took me and showed me a cave exceeding dark, breathing out a great stench, and many souls were looking out desiring to get somewhat of the air, but their keepers suffered them not to look forth. And he that was with me said: This is the prison of those souls which thou sawest: for when they have fulfilled their torments for that which each did, thereafter do others succeed them: and there be some that are wholly consumed and (some, Syr.) that are delivered over unto other torments. And they that kept the souls which were in the dark cave said unto the man that had taken me: Give her unto us that we may bring her in unto the rest until the time cometh for her to be delivered unto torment. But he answered them: I give her not unto you, for I fear him that delivered her to me: for I was not charged to leave her here, but I take her back with me until I shall receive order concerning her. And he took me and brought me unto another place wherein were men being sharply tormented (Syr. where men were). And he that was like unto thee took me and delivered me to thee, saying thus to thee: Take her, for she is one of the sheep that have gone astray. And I was taken by thee, and now am I before thee. I beseech thee, therefore, and supplicate that I may not depart unto those places of punishment which I have seen.
  From "The Apocryphal New Testament" Translation and notes by M. R. James
  Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924

  Clearly, these are all imaginative stories, told to influence the lives and actions of others. And, that is the function of all religious writings and also the oral stories, which are now lost to us.

  At present Q is an imagined document. It may have existed, if it did, I imagine it to be like the hand-written notes that may be taken down at a lecture. Most likely, some people wrote down things they heard Jesus say and that impressed them, As his death receded into the past, and those who heard him speak got older, someone may have attempted to collect some of those notes. They would be scribbled of course, and brief. There were no desks to write on, when Jesus was lecturing. The sort of people we are dealing with were not scribes, and may have had only primitive writing materials, but if Q existed, it's origins may have been like that.
  
  
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  45

  What language was Jesus most at home with?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  our former loving brothers and sisters have been instructed to think that, jesus likely spoke a form of hebrew and a form of aramaic.

  (aid to bible understanding-103-105).

  of course, there is no way to demonstrate the truth of that assertion or any other assertion about the languages that the common people of the land spoke.

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  2. 
  3. 
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  fulltimestudent

  Our former loving brothers and sisters have been instructed to think that, Jesus likely spoke a form of Hebrew and a form of Aramaic. (Aid to Bible Understanding-103-105)

  Of course, there is no way to demonstrate the truth of that assertion or any other assertion about the languages that the common people of the land spoke. But, historically we can demonstrate what languages are more likely to have been used.

  We do know that in 332 BCE, a Greek army commanded by Alexander the Great marched through Palestine (after beseiging Tyre), beginning centuries of Greek influence and political control. By the time of Jesus political control had been ceded to Rome and soldiers speaking Latin controlled the a land, but Greek culture and language seemed to have remained prevalent. This is demonstrated when, a few centuries later the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital located at Constantinople, used Greek as its language.

  So what about the claim in the Aid book? Ex-witnesses may be interested in the arguments of a scholar G.Scott Gleaves (Dean and Associate Professor, Kearley Graduate School of Theology, Faulkner) in this essay:

  Did Jesus Speak Greek?

  http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/2015/09/gle398009.shtml

  He argues - Contrary to contemporary scholarship, I find that Greek was more widely used in both written and oral form by Jesus, his disciples, and the Jews who inhabited first-century Palestine. Interestingly, the evidence reveals that Greek became the dominant language spoken among Jews and Gentiles in Galilee in the first century CE.