I am happy to be able to report the following:
- not one bloody person!
In fact, I have good reason to believe that I may have even repelled a few from "The Truth."
Bill.
in my nearly 60 years in the religion, although i "studied" with a good number, i cannot think of any who could lay the blame at my door for being in the religion today.. one lad possibly might, i studied with him briefly as he was trying to get off drugs, he then moved away, and then married a "sister" a few years later, and is still in, but i doubt he would blame me, i hope not.. of the others i studied with none are still in, the last i heard of one of them, a weirdo kid, now weirdo man, was when he was arrested for "flashing" in a local spot frquented by doggers etc.
i guess i was a useless "tutor".
as it happens, that is one of the things i am proud to be a failure at, getting people to join a cult.. i always tried to not do proper r.v's, and never suggested a "study" to anyone, but some, like weirdo, were shoved my way by elders who didn't want the work themselves.. how many are you guilty of getting in to the cult ?.
I am happy to be able to report the following:
- not one bloody person!
In fact, I have good reason to believe that I may have even repelled a few from "The Truth."
Bill.
awhile a go i was uptight about a matter i can't remember now and my friend said to me " give the other side the victory".
a while ago my little boy was getting uptight and argumentative with his mum i asked him " to let it go" in effect i suppose " giving the other side the victory".
anyway i am sure our life exsperiences have allowed us both receive and give good advice.
Unfortunately, I failed to appreciate the best advice I was ever given. It was given to me by my father at the same time that I agreed to a "free home bible study" with the JWs:
- his advice was that , to quote, "Religion is like whisky and beer, you can do without it."
Oh my, was he right!
Bill.
craig winn is one of the most authoritative individuals of islam there is, he's done more research and written extensive on why islam is so dangerous.
his books were written after 9-11-01, now when you listen to his interview get the gist of why islam is not "the religion of peace", it's quite the opposite and even if anyone claims it is, the most respected leaders of islam are blunt with their desire to purge the world of all non-islamic religions.
that never works out well for them because they get rid of all their workers, intellectuals and professionals who flee to some place they can worship or not worship in peace.
"kicked their asses back to Arabia"
Not quite - in fact not even by a long shot! Across the Straits of Gibraltar and into North Africa, from whence they had come, more like.
Incidentally, Moslem rule of Spain was not all blood and guts, either. Christians were still free to practice their religion, and during those years, the three centres of learning in the entire world were Cordoba, Bagdhad and Constantinople - with two of those centres being under Moslem rule. Scholars were not only tolerated, they were actually welcomed - not viewed as heretics, like they were in the lands dominated by the Roman Catholic church.
Bill
he also talks trash about higher education .... (for those who know some spanish, view this youtube video...).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suxhx1ho_nq.
what an idiot.. .
1) The time left before the end is reduced.
I like that one!
The time left 45 years ago was also "reduced"; "reduced" enough to allow sufficient time for:
- These jerks to prevent me from going to university.
- These same prize acts to get me to abandon my apprenticeship.
- Me to later resume that same apprenticeship, and complete it in a related trade.
- My entering into engineering studies as a mature age student, and set for graduating in mid-2015 , with an Advanced Diploma.
Gormless Gerrit, you could at least come up with something (just a little) original. Mate, if your brains consisted of nothing more than dynamite, I doubt if there would be enough there to even blow your bloody nose!
Bill.
bible describes atheism as a condition of the heart and is all about seeking what is ephemeral, not acting with insight.
(psalm 14:1, 2) thus it rightly says the whole world is lying in the attraction of what is ephemeral.
(wicked one is not a correct translation.1 john 5:19) thus even believers who pray to god (for material blessings) are actually atheists as they are not trying to be poor in spirit.
"Why is the world full of atheists?"
Using the vernacular of where I grew up, I would say because a lot of people have had a complete gutsfull of religion.
Bill
so i'm reading another carl sagan book and he seems to invariably find a way to slam j-dubs in each one.
(i can't say i blame him.).
anyway, in this one he discusses the fact that the gospels give contradictory geneologies of jesus--differing lines back to david from joseph, and a different number of generations.
I remember the smart @$$ "pioneer" brother who "brought me into the truth", as we used to say.
Whenever anybody tried to tell him that the first five books of the Bible are pure mythology (which was the official position of most, if not all, of the mainstream churches), he used to point this above-mentioned lineage of Jesus Christ, and challenge "Where does the truth cease and the mythology start?" Supposedly a thought stopper!
Bill.
today i was at the meeting (i go there about once a month now).
in the service meeting they had a part where they interviewed the secretary of the congregation.. so one question was: "why are the service reports so important?".
our secretary explained that the reports are important, because the elders can see, who is spiritually weak.
So much for salvation being a "free gift from God" like the Bible says it is. According to this lot, it is salvation by report card !
Bill.
this weekend nearly everyone i have ever known or that i am related to is sitting in a convention.
i miss none of it!!!!.
i do not miss:.
The only thing about conventions that I ever looked forward to was when the bloody thing was going to end!
Bill
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-19/brics-plan-become-political-alliance-reform-international-financial-system.
step by step, the chinese seem to be building a complete alternative financial system - independent of anglo-america.
this includes their own version of the imf and their own credit rating agency (which just downgraded the debt of the us).. meanwhile, the world obsesses with putin - which has all the appearance of the western world 'being played' by a "good cop, bad cop" routine.
Who thinks living in China or Russia is a picnic?
Did anyone make that claim?
Bill
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-19/brics-plan-become-political-alliance-reform-international-financial-system.
step by step, the chinese seem to be building a complete alternative financial system - independent of anglo-america.
this includes their own version of the imf and their own credit rating agency (which just downgraded the debt of the us).. meanwhile, the world obsesses with putin - which has all the appearance of the western world 'being played' by a "good cop, bad cop" routine.
kaik,
Very true - and so much for that arch-dingbat, Frederick Franz, and his talk of the "King of the North" being the "Communist Block."
The facts are that the Chinese Communists achieved power without any more than token assistance from the Soviet Union, they certainly took no orders from Joseph Stalin, and after 1960 neither country even pretended that they were on the same side.
Yugoslav Communism owed allegiance to nobody at all (Tito having hoisted the proverbial two-fingered salute at Stalin at the end of WWII), and North Vietnam likewise took no orders from anybody else (while Ho Chi Mihn and his successors accepted help from whoever would give it to them, they were not being directed by either Moscow or Peking - as that whizz kid Henry Kissinger found out when he thought that by acquiring friendship with the USSR and China, he could then get them to call off North Vietnam!)
If a "Communist Block" under "Soviet leadership" did indeed exist, then it existed only inside Fred Franz's head!
Bill