Bungi Bill

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Posts by Bungi Bill

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  8

  Are there any members here from Tasmania??

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious if there are any members from tasmania, australia?.

  keep yourself annonymous if you wish, but im just curious.. pm me if you prefer.. .

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  Bungi Bill

  stuckinarut,

  I presently live in Tasmania (just outside of Launceston).

  Bill.
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  23

  Pinker on Terrorism .... Self-Defeating

  by jgnat in

  1. social
  2. current

  http://chronicle.com/article/era-in-ideas-terrorism/128490/.

  his conclusion, .

  "even when they are not rooted out by states, terrorist groups carry the seeds of their own destruction.

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  Bungi Bill

  JeffT,

  British General Lord Richards, recently retired as their Chief of Defence Staff, is widely reported as noting that ISIS is not just a terrorist organisation, it also fields large conventional forces. As such, it will require conventional forces to defeat it. Further, in his view, these will certainly need to include ground forces - airstrikes on their own will not be sufficient (particularly those confined to within the borders of Iraq.

  Unpalatable as it may sound, in the opinion of this senior army officer of 42 years military experience, the only way that ISIS can be defeated (let alone destroyed) is for the West to commit itself to an all-out war in the Middle East. According to Richards, an alliance with Russia would be necessary, as would the need to carry military operations across the border into Syria (there would be little likelihood of success if ISIS can take sanctuary in a neighbouring country).

  Lord Richard's views are being widely reported at the moment (both in our Australian newspapers, and others). He may well have a point!

  Bill.
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  67

  December 1,2014 watchtower saying buying house is bad

  by hoser in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  page 15.

  "take for example a christian couple in asia.

  in their younger years, they admired those who could afford to own a house.

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  Bungi Bill

  WT writers have honed the art of writing in such a way that it's easy to read into their words things that aren't explicitly stated.

  Ain't that a fact!

  - e.g. 1975

  In those years, anybody contemplating buying a house was regarded as barking mad - "why buy a house, only to have somebody take it off you" (i.e during the Great Tribulation).

  Bill.
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  68

  Spanking VS. Reasoning

  by SpeedRacer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am having a discussion at work with the jw's.

  should you spank a child to make them understand or do you reason with them.

  they both agree with spanking.

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  Bungi Bill

  The problem, even when spanking seems to "work", is that you've just taught the child to obey based on fear.

  More than anything else, children learn by imitating both adults and other children. (i.e. "Monkey see, monkey do"). You can talk, talk, talk until you are blue in the face, but it is what they see you doing that makes the most lasting impression. Using corporal punishment to make them do what you want is the quickest way to teach children to do that very same thing. I have often observed this trait in persons who grew up in families in which (particularly) the father was a regular martinet, and in which the older children were often used to also keep there younger brothers and sisters in line. Not surprisingly, these individuals grew up believing that there was only one way in which to interact with other people, and this was:

  "if ya don't do what I want you to do, I'm gonna bash ya."

  A real intellectual approach to life.

  Bloody great!

  Bill.
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  25

  Why Jehovah's Witnesses Are Susceptible To Ponzi-Schemes and Rip-Off Artist More than the public!

  by BucketShopBill in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this thread is dedicated to my friend blondie when she asked "why the pay day loan shop woman had so much access to jws".

  in 1993 the jehovah's witnesses in ventura, santa barbara, san luis obispo, monterery, stanislaus, san fransisco, alemeda counties were spreading word of the miracle worker of money from san fransisco.

  word traveled throughout the circuit overseers, district overseers telling everyone these brothers in san fransisco were paying 15% for "180 days loans"without any risk, most of these jws were elders and cos and dos, it was only among them the scam remained to create a "in crowd feeling" and left out non elders setting up the sheep for something special down the road!

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  Bungi Bill

  For the most part, average JWs are rather gullible.

  Exactly!

  Bill
• 
  68

  Spanking VS. Reasoning

  by SpeedRacer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am having a discussion at work with the jw's.

  should you spank a child to make them understand or do you reason with them.

  they both agree with spanking.

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  Bungi Bill

  Your boss doesn't spank you when you don't do what he says, but the cops sure will.

  I thought that the job of the police was to arrest the lawbreakers, not to punish them - with that function being the role of the courts?

  Even in the application of force while making an arrest, police are limited as to what they may, and what they may not do. Using an armlock or a headlock to overpower a reluctant prisoner while moving him into a patrol vehicle is one thing. Hauling down his trousers, and then administering "six of the best" with a leather strap across his naked buttocks is quite something else again!

  Bill.
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  28

  Why do so many refer to Elders as "window washers"?

  by adjusted knowledge in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know the society is against higher education and the pursuit of careers but in my experience the elders in the various congregations i attended had good careers.

  in fact most had their own businesses.

  thinking back of the boe when i was a teenager this is what they had as a career: two were respected carpenters who owned a construction business, one a high school teacher(he was the po), one sold insurance and was a lawyer, one owned a landscaping business and also hired sisters to clean office buildings and other accounts he had, one was retired, and the last was a janitor for the school board.

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  Bungi Bill

  I agree with those who describe the use of this expression as being more in the symbolic category than anything else; and that it is used to represent the generally unskilled or semi-skilled occupations that JWs are found to be employed in. In other words, as with the elders, so with the rank and file -courtesy of the WTS's anti education stance.

  Of all the elders that I ever knew, none were window washers by occupation. There were a number who did general cleaning (i.e. janitorial) work, including, but not limited to, windows. A few held carpet cleaning franchises, and the JWs in general did seem to be a little over-represented in pest control work. Also, there was a trend in the 1970s and 80s for JWs to be employed as school caretakers (which, to be sure, would have included a fair share of window cleaning!). Other than that, there were retired farmers (with more money than the bull could $h#t, but to be fair, I never heard any of them give a talk about materialism!); there were also carpenters, plasterers, truck drivers, factory hands, labourers, timber workers, electricity meter readers, orchard hands, boilermakers, plus a few who were best described as "Jacks of all Trades, but Masters of None".

  Very, very few of the JWs I ever knew had university degrees - one Ministerial Servant was a doctor, another an electrical engineer (his father, an elder, somehow remained one, despite sending his son to university), and a third was a civil engineer (whom the building committee was quick to grab hold of whenever there was a Kingdom Hall or Assembly Hall project coming up).

  None of the elders I ever knew had a university degree, and as others here have pointed out already,were singularly unqualified to deal with many of the people problems that they encounter - such as my daughter's attempted suicide back in 1998. (By the time the office cleaner, boilermaker and labourer who comprised the JC had finished with her, the miracle is my daughter did not then go out and finish the job!)

  Bill
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  34

  What makes a "good Jehovah's Witness"??

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so, i have been thinking...what is the formula or recipe for the "perfect jw"?.

  here are a few points i thought of...please feel free to add!.

  always dress in the jw manner...no variation in clothing / hair styles / facial hair.

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  Bungi Bill

  Having an in-built switch somewhere that completely bypasses the brain, permanently padlocked in the "Bypass" position, and the key conveniently lost somewhere.

  Bill
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  12

  QUESTIONS and ANSWERS with NT scholar Prof. Bart Ehrman

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the following is a tiny excerpt from bart ehrman's blog of which i'm a member.. this particular entry contains questions and answers about the nature of translating the new testament.. .

  did the fact that early christian scripture was written in koine greek have an effect in how the religion was perceived by the pagan elites and imperial family?

  in other words, did that make the religion look bad or koine greek was acceptable?

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  Bungi Bill

  Pistoff,

  Enrolement records from the University of Cincinatti confirm that one Frederick William Franz was enrolled at that institution between September 1911 and December 1913. During that time he studied Liberal Arts, Latin, Classical Greek, and also received an introduction to Koine Greek. He left before graduating, making his formal qualifications that of a "College Dropout".

  Crazy Fred's total tuition time in Classical Greek amounted to 21 hours, and that in Koine Greek just 2 hours. It certainly was NOT the two years of intensive studies in Greek, like he tried to portray it was when he wrote his autobiography (see the Watchtower of 1 May 1987). In fact, one could argue that he received just enough tuition in Greek to make him dangerous!

  The point I was trying to make in my original post was that the criticism levelled at FW Franz's lack of qualifications as a bible translator should be:

  (i) The brevity of his formal studies in the Greek language.

  (ii) And also the fact that he never completed the degree course.

  However, the fact that almost all his brief tuition in Greek was confined to Classical Greek should NOT count against him - as according to Professor Ehrman, anybody who understands Classical Greek would have no problem understanding Koine Greek. (In our loathing of the WTS, there is always the temptation to get a bit reckless when criticising such things as the New World Translation. Leave that to the William Schnells of this world!)

  Believe it or not, that is all I was trying to say!

  (As an aside, if you have lived in countries such as Papua New Guinea - as I have - it is not at all difficult to understand how an individual versed in Classical Greek would understand Koine Greek.

  The people who lived along the Gulf of Papua - i.e. on PNG's southern coastline - developed a language called "Hiri Motu", to allow them to be able to trade with one another. The "Hiri" was the annual trading expedition that set out from what is now Port Moresby, to trade with the peoples further around the gulf. The Motu people spoke the "pure" form of the Motu language, and between themselves and the Daru, Keremas and other groups, they developed a simpler form of that same language to be able to communicate when trading.

  After Papua was proclaimed a British Protectorate in 1884, the Administration adopted Hiri Motu as the official langauge of government, as it was already well established as the lingua-franca of the Papuan coast area.

  The relationship between "pure" Motu and Hiri Motu is very similar to that between Classical Greek and Koine Greek - i.e. those who can speak "pure" Motu have little difficulty in following a conversation in Hiri Motu. On the other hand, if you can speak only Hiri Motu, don't even attempt a conversation in the pure form of the language!)

  Bill.
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  12

  QUESTIONS and ANSWERS with NT scholar Prof. Bart Ehrman

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the following is a tiny excerpt from bart ehrman's blog of which i'm a member.. this particular entry contains questions and answers about the nature of translating the new testament.. .

  did the fact that early christian scripture was written in koine greek have an effect in how the religion was perceived by the pagan elites and imperial family?

  in other words, did that make the religion look bad or koine greek was acceptable?

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  Bungi Bill

  Pistoff,

  I do not have any transcripts, but understand Frederick Franz did study Classical Greek for two years while at university. (Although I don't believe he actually graduated with a degree). For a person of his times, this is not in any way unusual - studies in "The Classics" used to be quite commonplace. In fact, in the English public school system, education was limited to little more than those subjects.

  Just for the record, I am in no way a fan of Mad Freddies!

  Bill.