Posts by Half banana

jws made a diligent study on teachings that have pagan origin and found christendom as being mostly built on pagan teachings, hence keep distance from them all.

so far so good.

now, if jws continue in the same direction, they will find virtually everything in the bible as borrowed from pagansstarting from six-staged creation account, and devil (ahriman) making the first man and woman fall (which is from zoroastrianism) to the messiah restoring what has been lost (which is found in many mythologies).

Half banana

Iconoclastic, "JWs made a diligent study"...that would be extraordinary! Do you have a reference or evidence for this?

Rather, I think JWs lazily just take the Bible as the literal and inerrant word of God and hope they are right.

I do agree with you that many scholarly "diligent" researchers have noted that the christ religions and Biblical stories have an ancient pagan common denominator. What is remarkable is that the same god-man saviour myths are found in Central American cult beliefs as well as the far East, India and the Levant.

74

That's it! The Jesus stories are most reasonably explained as myth. History makes this obvious.

by Island Man in

a careful examination of the historical pagan religious context existing at the time of the genesis of christianity leads any reasonable person to conclude that jesus is just another one of several similar myths.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7teoa9ark.

Half banana

Perry, your source at CARM did work but it is utterly and hopelessly hide bound in its determination to justify the orthodoxy of modern Christianity. If proper critical scholarship is applied practically every statement is shown to be hollow. For example the idea that the gospels are a true account of the first century is false, Christianity with Jesus is a fourth century phenomenon.

The Bible and the gospels are in the category of magic realism. Ok for the ancients and for children's stories... but certainly not a guide for people today who have an informed brain and can actually control their circumstances.

74

That's it! The Jesus stories are most reasonably explained as myth. History makes this obvious.

by Island Man in

a careful examination of the historical pagan religious context existing at the time of the genesis of christianity leads any reasonable person to conclude that jesus is just another one of several similar myths.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7teoa9ark.

Half banana

There is no point arguing with a Christian apologetic who uses the traditional assertions of a human christ and his resurrection as base line facts. Let me suggest the sociological approach to interpreting what people did in the Levant two thousand years ago is outlined in "A short history of Christianity by JM Robertson."

The real understanding of the Christ story pre-dates (as I indicated) the folk accounts of the pre-christian christs and comes from the pre-literate mnemonics of "star talk". The explanations of what the heavenly bodies were up to in their annual circumnavigation of planet earth from a pre-Copernican viewpoint.

12

Almost 60 years ago, The Watchtower made a prediction that has proven to be amazingly accurate.

by Bonnie_Clyde in

i haven't posted for quite awhile, just usually lurk, but thought surely someone would have noticed this on jw.org.

this was under the article about distractions.

i clicked on the article and below is the "accurate" prediction that the wt made back in 1958. this has to prove they have jehovah's backing, don't you think?

Half banana

Hardly prophetic! Sorry, but nothing the WT says is ever of any use.

Mental health warning: Watching JW org information can result in damage to your brain.

12

The Borg going out of biz or a ruze, a time line.

by Crazyguy in

when one connects the dots it's very intriguing.

i don't have all the details or in order but here's just some of the events.

2008 global financial melt down.

Half banana

I agree with you Crazy guy with the telling symptoms you have observed.

I think the trend as seen most carefully by those who watch them closely (us)...is that they have peaked and are now on a decline.

Everything is against them:

1/ Apparent serious and long-term cash-flow crisis.

2/ The general decline in Christian belief in the West and a tendency towards a private, personal spirituality.

3/ Their loss of income from their historical source of revenue namely printing.

4/ The openness and transparency of internet information which easily exposes cultic behaviour especially to newly contacted people.

5/ Negative publicity regarding child abuse cases and their attempt to keep their name clean at the expense of, and with total indifference to the welfare for the abused.

6/ The total failure of their most cherished eighty year long hope in the arrival of Armageddon within the life- span of the generation who saw 1914.

7/ The attempt to explain away their failure of the 1914 generation doctrine with their ludicrous "overlapping generations".

8/ The increasing loss of faith in the decisions of the GB resulting in a reluctance to contribute financially or by deserting the organisation completely.

(Please add if you can think of other ideas or better ones).

23

Reasons for leak and building stop story

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

i have some feeling about the am2015 leak and the recent building stop story going arround.. it wouldn't surprise me that the information is a calculated leak.. - jw's are informal informed about the changes and adopt them informal.. - the building stop influences the concience of jw's for donating more money.. at the other hand, maybe there has occured a financial disaster for example they invested bilions in volkswagen.. gorby.

Half banana

I have an inkling that they are already preparing for functioning fully on a commercial model rather than a charitable status.

A KH attendee friend of mine (a JW but non-believer) heard from the platform in the UK that in future new congregations will start out as non-charitable, tax paying enterprises! The approved new designs for KHs certainly look like unlovely, utilitarian commercial "units" rather than traditional places for worship.

Doomsday cults have built into them a limited shelf life, one way for their puppeteers to keep possession of the the money would be to morph into a more honest commercial business such as property development and as the true believers fall away, eventually ditch the religious nonsense. What would they care as long as they controlled the cash?

A paradigm for this would be in the fall of communism in Soviet Russia; it was the old party leaders and their friends who became the fabulously wealthy oligarchs in their new sham democracy.

13

All must be ready to obey...

by Half banana in

in view of the recent financial pressures being spun as opportunities to hasten armageddon, i think we should look again at the meaning behind their cultic warning of "all must be ready to obey intructions, whether appearing sound or not".

by dripping these creepy injunctions into the watchtower study and therefore into the conditioned and receptive mind of the jw, how long will it be before they are able to decree something like this?......

jw tv broadcast july 2017.

Half banana

I'm with you Finky baby! and I'm wondering whether some of the elite are waking up too...

But still, where is it now leading?

9

RE: Appropriate attire for graduation ceremony

by Lied2NoMore in

will the branch send out a letter to address appropriate attire for the worldwide graduation from .

"the school that no one ever graduates from"?.

i have been thinking of the endless ways this new direction for the tms termination screams for criticism.. i am sure a quick publication search will reveal several references gushing at how great of an invention the tms was, how it has benefitted jw's, you know, gush, gush, greatest thing since sliced bread, blah, blah, blah.... i'm not interesting in looking at the moment, but wasn't knorr credited with its invention and rollout?.

Half banana

I love the idea of discussing the holy artwork as well as the Bible. Is this for the growing and much commended illiteracy among JWs?