Posts by fulltimestudent

4

The whole world is not comprised of western anglosphere people

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

couldn't help thinking the above when reading something about china today,.

it was about a chinese boy band (a pop group organised and trained straight out of the same manual that turns out successful kpop (south korean) boy bands.

the chinese one is called tfboys, and they have zoomed in popularity.

fulltimestudent

Then (and more topical considering the opinions some have about Islam) note this report on Kuwait, as told by the ABC ( a government owned Media group in Australia).

The heading chosen by the editors is:

Kuwait is rich and advanced, but with a contradiction at its heart

What is the contradiction? Essentially that it does not want to be western. Does that mean that it is regressive?

As the author notes:

So wealthy the government can charge zero taxes and provide free education and healthcare for all. (The National Assembly is currently debating the introduction of a 5 per cent GST-style consumption tax, and a flat 15 per cent income tax to compensate for an oil price that is just a third of what it was eight years ago.)
Its generosity extends to beyond its borders, with a foreign aid budget that represents 8 per cent of GDP (26 times more generous than Australia's).
Following instructions in the scriptures of Islam, Kuwaiti families also donate the equivalent of 2.5 per cent of their gross savings and assets to local charities every year.

And then says:

There's no question Kuwait is an advanced country but it's not Western and has no aspiration to be so.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-20/modern-kuwait-assumptions-emma-alberici/8452616

As more and more Asian nations become propserous, we seem to be entering a world system where many of the concepts that the West (and particularly the Anglosphere) values, will not be the norm in these Asian nations.

10

The Tribe of Dan was NOT a genuine tribe of Israel

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

the claim that dan was not a genuine tribe is not new, but as the haaretz article explains there is newer archaeological evidence to suggest that the contemporary claims about the tribe of dan have some merit.. so check out the haaretz claims at: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.756385.

but there are wider implications in the story.

if this particular group of people did not travel from egypt (as god's word of truth also claims) then they must have lived in canaan all the time.. then consider that palestine (canaan) was for so long part of the egyptian empire, and we begin to see that most of story about the origins of the israelites is mythical..

fulltimestudent

The claim that Dan was not a genuine tribe is not new, but as the Haaretz article explains there is newer archaeological evidence to suggest that the contemporary claims about the tribe of Dan have some merit.

So check out the Haaretz claims at: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.756385

But there are wider implications in the story. If this particular group of people did NOT travel from Egypt (as god's word of truth also claims) then they must have lived in Canaan all the time.

Then consider that Palestine (Canaan) was for so long part of the Egyptian Empire, and we begin to see that most of story about the origins of the Israelites is mythical.

4

The whole world is not comprised of western anglosphere people

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

couldn't help thinking the above when reading something about china today,.

it was about a chinese boy band (a pop group organised and trained straight out of the same manual that turns out successful kpop (south korean) boy bands.

the chinese one is called tfboys, and they have zoomed in popularity.

fulltimestudent

Couldn't help thinking the above when reading something about China today,

It was about a Chinese boy band (a pop group organised and trained straight out of the same manual that turns out successful Kpop (South Korean) boy bands. The Chinese one is called TFBoys, and they have zoomed in popularity. Some of their popular songs are about standard sort of kids stuff, but then you find something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gHhV_P2Fuc

(The translation at the bottom is Indonesian.)

I doubt that any anglosphere pop group could 'sell' any song like that. Idealism and positive thinking is seldom part of western youth culture.

Here's the English words:

We are the heirs of communism,
Inheriting the glorious tradition of the forebearers of the Revolution;
[To] love the motherland and the people,
[While] the crimson red scarf flutters [or waves] at [our] chest.
[We] do not fear hardship, nor the enemy,
Studying hard and struggling with resolve;
Towards victory, [we] courageously advance,
Towards victory, [we] courageously advance,
Towards victory, [we] courageously advance;
We are the heirs of communism.

We are the heirs of communism,
Along the glorious path of the forebearers of the Revolution;
[To] love the motherland and the people,
"Young Pioneer Members" is our proud name.
Ever be prepared, to contribute [i.e. to the cause],
[And] to destroy completely the enemy.
For [our] ideal, [we] courageously advance,
For [our] ideal, [we] courageously advance,
For [our] ideal, [we] courageously advance;
We are the heirs of communism.

The biggest problem with all that is that China has long ceased to be communist.

19

Being homosexual in a JW house hold

by Jean in

i could not find a topic about this if there is one ooops.

it is hard to speak with my mother or any other witnesses about this, their response is "its ok to be gay just don't ever 'act out.

acting out = being with someone even if its a healthy consensual legal relationship between two adults its still wrong.

fulltimestudent

My gay xjw friend says having sex with another guy and getting kicked out of the YHWH/JESUS were thetwo best things that happened to him. (up to that point). The sex of course, is easy to understand, but getting chucked out is more difficult, as in his case he lost his family, gave them all the money they had, and started a new life, that turned out far better than his old life.

One thing he did say that may help you, is that he feels he was lucky to fall among 'good people' in the gay community. He could have (he feels) got lost in the part of the gay community that is involved in 'escapism.' So maybe you need to use your own commonsense in judging who you allow to influence you.

But the main reason I wanted to post is this video, by a young Russian man. Gay people have it a bit tough in Russia (due again to bigoted christians, in this case the Russian orthodox bigots).

Maybe you will find the video helpful, I think he speaks some sense.

Make sure you switch the sub-titling on, as he speaks in Russian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljY3o3tVgic

67

Japan On High Alert

by snowbird in

jw
friends

my g'daughter and her hubby are stationed in okinawa.. i talked with her a few hours earlier today, and she stated they're preparing for the worst.. young people are remarkably resilient, aren't they?.

sylvia.

fulltimestudent

zeb : I watched a doco by John Pilger on the whole Asia nuclear thing last night; verily the food of nightmares. It is titled "The coming War on China" it long and detailed. ... imed at creating a strangle of shipping going to from China think wheat oil etc going in.

Don't worry too much Zeb, the Chinese are quite awake to what (was) behind Obama's (and H.Clinton's) pivot to Asia and have long been building their own counter to that. The last thing China wants is a war, as that would hinder their mercantile expansion. War is a policy that only the Christian west thinks is a good idea.

As a counter to the USA's efforts to be able to "strangle" Chinese trade, China has three developments.

The first is defensive. the row over artificial islands in the South China sea is all about China's ability to counter the USA's naval might. And before anyone argues that China is militarising these maritime trade routes, they should spend time considering why the USA has turned the little island of Okinawa into one of the most heavily armed areas in the whole world, and that against the wishes of the locals, who are thoroughly pissed off with the bad behaviour of the American servicemen stationed there.

China's second strategy is to build alternative port and shipping routes to those presently servicing China's Pacific coast. For example, there is Kyaukpyu in Myanmar, oil can now by pumped through a just commissioned pipeline into southern China. Road and rail links will follow.

In Pakistan, a long time Chinese ally, a new port has been built at Gwadar in western Pakistan. As in Myanmar, road and rail links are also being built.

A port in Greece is being rebuilt to provide a modern shipping and distribution point for Europe.

And a modernised port in the Malaysian city of Malacca will provide another alternative route in the future. A high speed train route is under construction in Laos, that will connect to new rail links through Thailand and into Malaysia. A Chinese factory in Malaysia is already producing rolling stock for that eventual connection.

The third strategy is based on existing rail links to Europe, already many trains leave China each week with Chinese products for the European market. On the return journeys, each train takes European products back to China. Considering that this is relatively new (about 2 years old) these rail links are quite popular, It is claimed to be far cheaper than air freight (though dearer than sea freight) and faster than sea freight (about 2 weeks or less). New and faster rail links will eventually reduce freight times to about 1 week.

Only when you try to locate these three developments on a map do you realise that this is also part of China's long term goal of building a support network right across Asia and binding Europe to Asia. Look at this map and understand.

31

22,000 years of arctic ice cores melt, and wash the YHWH/JESUS concept down the sewer

by fulltimestudent in

the full story, as told in the uk guardian can be found at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/16/arctic-ice-cores-melt-university-alberta-canada.

and briefly it tells of an equipment failure at a storage facility for ice cores that had been extracted from the polar ice cap in various locations.. but note, that the layers of ice evident in the cores covered a period of 22,000 years.

and from the christian/jw perspective, that's impossible, for the bible story of the flood (verified by jesus and sundry other biblical writers) maintains that 4000+ years ago, the ice caps would have melted during the period when the earth was covered by the divinely caused deluge.

fulltimestudent

The full story, as told in the UK Guardian can be found at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/16/arctic-ice-cores-melt-university-alberta-canada

and briefly it tells of an equipment failure at a storage facility for ice cores that had been extracted from the polar ice cap in various locations.

But note, that the layers of ice evident in the cores covered a period of 22,000 years. And from the christian/JW perspective, that's impossible, for the bible story of the flood (verified by jesus and sundry other biblical writers) maintains that 4000+ years ago, the ice caps would have melted during the period when the earth was covered by the divinely caused deluge.

Yet jws and many other others including muslims, jews, and sundry christians believe that their fanciful religious fantasy is true in the face of factual evidence to the contrary

18

Colossians and The Gospel of Thomas - a work in progress

by Doug Mason in

as i prepare the pre-draft stage of my study into the evolutions of salvation, i have drafted a chapter on colossians and on the gospel of thomas.

http://www.jwstudies.com/colossians_soteriologies.pdf.

http://www.jwstudies.com/the_soteriology_of_thomas.pdf.

fulltimestudent

Doug Mason: "...for your corrections, advice, and criticisms."

I have no time currently, to think about such esoteric stuff. Most of my spare time goes toward posting material of interest to Asian scholarship* on a FB page, I edit

But I did consider, if I was embarking on such a project, in what unusual area could I look for something interesting about your Thomas? And out of the wilder areas of my mind comes the idea, why India, of course! Because in Indian Christian mythology, St Thomas is considered to be the founder of that church.

Most modern scholarship does not believe that Thomas did found the Indian church, though, of course, it is clear that this particular branch of Christianity is quite old and certainly connected to Syriac Christianity which can be thought of as older than any other branch. Today only a few Christian groups have survived the ravages of time to remind us that once there were more Christians in Asia than anywhere else. While it may not have suited British Christians (of the time of British rule of India) to think that Christianity reached India before it reached Britain, it can only be said that it was possible. Jewish traders were surely trading in India at the time we are thinking about, and the first Christian missionaries (outside of the few mentioned in the NT) usually seemed to travel from Jewish group to Jewish group. So someone got to India in those early formative years.

What use is all that? Only this - that it may be useful to compare the 114 'secret teachings' of Jesus listed in the Gospel of Thomas to ideas that may still be current in the Indian church. Just possibly one could find an overlooked notion that will set the mind on fire (smile) or possibly upset all those smug western Christians who ignore the fact that early Christianity is far more intellectually varied than modern (European) Christians want to admit

* yeah! I know my statement is inconsistent - clearly your topic is Asian in origin and can only be seen through an Asian scholarship lens - but the vast field of Asian studies forces a focus on one section or the other and I choose East Asian studies.

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Tharisapalli Copper plate grant (9th century) - One of the reliable documentary evidences of the privileges and influence that Saint Thomas Christians enjoyed in early Malabar.[39] The document contains signatures of the witnesses in Pahlavi, Kufic and Hebrew scripts.[40] It is the oldest documentary evidence available to attest the presence of a Persian Christian community in South India.

And the above copper plates are one reason why few scholars place any value on the Indian Thomas stories, but it does not necessarily mean that the story is a myth.

43

Atheism would not appeared if …

by venus in

· if religions were immune to division.

· if scriptures were immune to scientific errors.

· if religious leaders were immune to hypocrisy.

fulltimestudent

David_ Jay posted: I'm glad you brought it up and that no one is challenging you on it. I am not sure why when I bring it up I get told that the study is wrong.

Don't worry about it David - we likely all behaved like morons when we were slaves to the YHWH/Jesus mob.

We are unable to read the minds of all who may post here. So the only sane way to participate is to say what we have concluded, based on the evidence we have noted and not worry too much about those who want to argue without a evidence based foundation to their conclusions.

43

Atheism would not appeared if …

by venus in

· if religions were immune to division.

· if scriptures were immune to scientific errors.

· if religious leaders were immune to hypocrisy.

fulltimestudent

And, somewhat off topic, but I cant help posting a Stephen Fry response to theism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5RtDpva7nE

43

Atheism would not appeared if …

by venus in

· if religions were immune to division.

· if scriptures were immune to scientific errors.

· if religious leaders were immune to hypocrisy.

fulltimestudent

Attributing the existence of things to a creator is a lazy intellectual exercise. But in past ages, as my previous post drawing attention to a Cambridge University blog post indicated, some humans in the past have been prepared to try to think in a different direction. For centuries, western thought was controlled by the church, and thinking outside the strictly controlled religious box could get you into trouble. But outside of Europe and its later developments, some were free to think of a universe without divinities.

This is how Guo Xiang (born 252 CE-died 312 CE) devoted thought to the existence of things and in his Zhuangzi (which, along with the Tao Te Ching forms the basis if Daoist thought) argued that 'things' are self-transformed,

"If we insist on the conditions under which things develop and search for the causes thereof, such search and insistence will never end, until we come to something that is unconditioned, and then the principles of self-transformation will become clear ... there are people who say the shade is conditioned by the shadow, the shadow by the body, and the body by the creator. But let us mask whether there is a creator or not. If not, how can he create things? ... Therefor before we can talk about creation, we must understand the fact that all forms materialise by themselves ... Hence everything creates itself without the direction of any creator. Since things createthemselves, they are unconditioned. This is the norm of the universe." (ch.2 NHCC, 1:46a-47b) -Quoted from Wing-Tsit Chan's, A source book in Chinese Philosophy, Princeton University Press, 1969). Chan is the translator as well as the editor.

In early Indian thought, thoughtful thinkers arrived at similar conclusions, You can find at least some of the strands of thought in the Wikipedia entry, entitled Atheism in Hinduism.

(Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism