Posts by Half banana

7

Who did new testament writers think Jesus was ?

by Steel in

i have been reading this book called " the two powers in heaven " .. the readers digest version is basically there was a first century belief of kind of a dual god system in the old testament.

god is invisible and yet he appears at the " word of the lord " or " the angel of the lord ".

basically any time god was visible and dealing with humans in a touchable , see able manner , it was though to be christ.

Half banana

I think it is a mistake to imagine that there is a coherent message in either the OT or Greek scriptures. The texts are eclectic and use folk tales, borrowed rituals and stories and most certainly borrowed ideas.

Christianity from its start was a cult competing with other messianic cults and based on the pagan temple worship and its ritualised hope for salvation. Clear evidence for this connection is seen in Christianity using the same functionaries of bishops, presbyters and deacons etc as did the pagans. (It was only after Rome dominated and enforced Christian belief in a fusion of Catholic dogma that the earlier paganism was strictly proscribed).

Christianity evolved from paganism. The nature of the NT texts reflect the nature of seeking converts and avoiding the 'wrong type' of cult teachings on penalty as Paul said, of being "mentally diseased", it was about a scramble for prime position in the cult marketplace.

The first century christ story was not the same as the fourth century Roman fusion christ story. Consequently at the root of the choice of texts which are included in the NT canon are those which satisfy the cultural longings of the disparate groups of would be believers. Hence 1Cor 10;1 was used so as to resonate with Jews and be meaningful to them-- but not only Jews, the text also had to appeal to followers of Mithra, the saviour Dionysus and Orphic cults amongst others. It had to fuse polytheism with monotheism and bring the mainspring beliefs of each religion into an accommodation of credible acceptance to all. It was never a perfect fusion it always bore ambiguities.

At this distance in time from the writings, we should be looking at the historicity and sociological basis for these beliefs. To believe them or attempt to put any of it into practice is surely madness.

19

Alternative witnessing

by Zyron in

jw
friends

those of us still attending meeting are actively encouraged to use out tablets or smartphones to direct people to jw.org.

how about, after doing the standard presentation casually say to householder, you can also look at this forum to read of experiences of life as a jw as well as the official version?.

obviously you need to be working by yourself or with a pimo jw..

Half banana

You little devil Zyron! but what a good idea.

It would probably be best for those rare individuals who have been taking the Watchtower bait like Bible studies or someone who is actually showing an interest.

31

Organizational Accomplishments - Expanded Video Production Facilities at Patterson

by wifibandit in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnzlcngtf-8.

Half banana

Why bother to work hard in the d2d ministry when it is clearly the creator's will that everyone should be looking at JW org videos?

Hang on a mo! only JWs want to watch stuffed shirts with mechanical gestures spouting JW propaganda. This means even fewer new recruits to the cult........

16

Lunar Eclipses and 607/587 BCE as the date of Jerusalem´s Fall

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i am doing a very extensive document, it is a work in progress, that details how to know, just using a list of eclipses in the 6th and 7th century bce, excel, and knowing how to read lunar eclipse graphs and maps, that jerusalem fell in 587 b.c.e., and not 607 b.c.e.

as the watchtower states.currently it is in spanish, but i intend to translate it to english later.for those who speak spanish, here it is:.

https://sites.google.com/site/laverdadtj2/los-eclipses-lunares-y-la-watchtower.

Half banana

Ilove TTATT, I mention the above not to discourage your scholarly efforts but to put the JW belief system into a context.

JW org beliefs are a confidence trick, all the talk of "God's truth" is part of the sleight of hand to bamboozle the followers. They have already decided; irrespective of whether 607 BCE is based on facts or not (they must have realized that it isn't) they are using that year as a part of their working mythology.

The acid test used by the leadership of the org is not truth or scholarly evidence but loyalty to what they have decided is "divine truth". Their cult depends on suppressing reality.

16

Lunar Eclipses and 607/587 BCE as the date of Jerusalem´s Fall

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i am doing a very extensive document, it is a work in progress, that details how to know, just using a list of eclipses in the 6th and 7th century bce, excel, and knowing how to read lunar eclipse graphs and maps, that jerusalem fell in 587 b.c.e., and not 607 b.c.e.

as the watchtower states.currently it is in spanish, but i intend to translate it to english later.for those who speak spanish, here it is:.

https://sites.google.com/site/laverdadtj2/los-eclipses-lunares-y-la-watchtower.

Half banana

First and foremost the JW org is not interested in truth it is only interested in perpetuating its own myths.

40

Faced with the reality of mortality

by stuckinarut2 in

how have you all coped with facing the reality of our mortality?.

most of us were raised to firmly believe we would never get old or die... so here we are now having to face the reality that are getting older... we are going to die.. sometimes it really pisses me off that we were never helped to comprehend this most basic of facts.

we were given a utopian dream as a "fact", and hence never taught how to face our inevitable futures.... thoughts?.

Half banana

Stuck it's a good question of how we cope with the prospect of death after being led to believe the highly improbable tale that we are not going to die. This religious con-trick has enormous traction because at some time early in life we all awake to the horror of being conscious that we die. (Like the Catholic Church knows; a good moment in life to get religion!)

The Victorians coped with death by exposing even young children to the constant funeral rituals of their community, today we distance ourselves from death or make a joke of it at Halloween.

For JWs it is like we were given a cheque for ten million pounds but now we find that it was issued by the bank of toy town. The prospect of everlasting life was an illusion in the first place in fact I heard on the radio this very morning that scientists have drawn the same and rather obvious conclusion from a biological perspective that there is little prospect of a scientific revolution to create immortality.

I think the point is not to go hunting for an immortality substitute but to quickly come to terms with recognising that there never was a prospect of cheating death in the first place.

To have awoken from this conceit puts us in the category of those who have intellectually grown up and recognised the value of making the most our short lives-- because this is all anyone can do.

7

The prayer switch

by Sour Grapes in

something that i have often thought about is how does god know when our thoughts go from normal thoughts to when we say a silent prayer?

does god listen to all of the thoughts of earth's 8,000,000,000 people 24/7 and when one person goes into prayer mode then god's ears perk up with an "incoming" alert?

then he has to decide if he answers the prayers to help a brother with cancer or just let the poor guy die.

Half banana

Prayers are human wishes, God is deaf to all pleading whether silent or spoken.

What a crazy world it would be if God answered prayers!

6

Have you seen Eraserhead (1977)? ... spoilers!

by LoveUniHateExams in

i had heard a bit about it, most of it positive.

i typed 'eraserhead review' into youtube and quite a few videos came up that presumably attempted to explain the film.. i couldn't be arsed watching a youtube vid with some artsy-fartsy person droning on about eraserhead and lynch so i thought i'd start an op about it instead.. i bought the dvd a few days ago.

i gotta say, it's quite a strange film.

Half banana

Original, claustrophobic, shocking and memorable but also entertaining.

47

Outside JW World They Barely Exist

by Farmer Jim1 in

jw
friends

is anyone else staggered by the fact that outside of the organization most of the general public seem to know very little or nothing about jw’s?

when i was in i was led to believe that 99% of the worlds population had been giving sufficient warning, knew what it was all about and were stubbornly sticking to their immoral ways.

the reality seems to be that the entire jw universe is barely noticeable to the masses.

Half banana

You're right Farmer Jim, JWs live inside a big bubble which is silvered with a mirror coating so they can live in perpetual admiration of themselves.

26

Darwin's lack of evidence

by Half banana in

while making bread this morning and between answering the door and phone calls, i listened on steam radio to the programme in our time with melvyn bragg.

his panel of experts explained how the discovery of thousands of bird fossils has revolutionised our perception of avian evolution.

i recall watchtower literature smugly presenting darwin’s admissions in his origin of the species that the geological evidence for bird evolution is “imperfect” in fact missing.

Half banana

@ Fisherman, surely that's why a critical and sceptical examination of the evidence is what is needed. Beliefs and assertions are irrelevant.