Posts by Half banana

just to remind you, the recent court decision included a judgement about wt and freedom of speech something the organisation has long prided itself about.

infosektamedia release of july 8, 2020 7. thewatchtower organisation denies members the human right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion according to article 18 statement by the expert (tages-anzeiger)"furthermore, article 18 states that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, a right that the watchtower society claims for itself but does not grant its members.

" judgment of the court by ostracizing members who no longer share the faith, they are implicitly denied freedom of faith and conscience (proof of good faith).

Half banana

Well presented Slidin. The indoctrination machinery is always at work in Watchtower HQ. Everything they say or print is for the purpose of furthering their own domain of influence. They cultivate their flock to blindly obey their crass instructions including the shunning of family members for choosing not to remain JWs.

I like the WT quote which you have highlighted on "human rights", only mentioned by them when they are adversely affected but they never consider their own responsibilities and actions as subject to the same International Covenant regulations. Their attitude is and always has been as if they are above the law because they imagine they exclusively have God's backing!

Their arrogance has been exposed in the Swiss court.

Let's hope the principle is enforced and that JW org will be subjected to sanctions if they don't comply and equally that WT HQ recognise that they are abusive bullies who need to mend their ways.

8

Oil is solar

by wolverines in

oil and gas are from organisms plants and animal that used sunlight for food.

so in essence we are all running solar.

.

Half banana

Damn it! fusion not fission... thank you Waton.

Eventually the use of nuclear fusion will lead to great changes, not damaging to the planet and an immense resource of energy. But what they said of nuclear fission in the 1950s was that it would lead to cheap abundant electricity... it didn't happen!

It's an interesting story to watch the developments of fusion in China where they have so far held a temperature of 18 million C for one minute -- or so they claim -- and the Jet project near me in Oxford where they are using laser containment and of course the international Tokamak project ITER in Provence France using magnetic containment.

However with a reservoir of vast surplus energy from fusion, great engineering and technological possibilities will exist.

No, just reducing energy costs in itself will not lead to social change.

8

Oil is solar

by wolverines in

oil and gas are from organisms plants and animal that used sunlight for food.

so in essence we are all running solar.

.

Half banana

They have been saying that terrestrial nuclear fission (imitating the sun) as an energy source is always thirty years away. This hope moves forward like the promised JW paradise but unlike the WT dream, nuclear fission will become technically possible.

The difficulty is in handling a proton plasma at 18 million degrees Kelvin then getting a means to contain and utilise the super abundant energy without damaging anything. Once we have an unlimited energy source in theory it would be possible to control even the weather. The consequences will be profound. Probably a new global geo political system would arise which would require universal education, maturity and social mechanisms to cope with changes.

It could eliminate poverty which is currently one of the prime drivers of religion.

8

Oil is solar

by wolverines in

oil and gas are from organisms plants and animal that used sunlight for food.

so in essence we are all running solar.

.

Half banana

Sun worship at least had a rational basis..... but why worship anything?

16

Some notes on early Christianity - its evolution and "sacred text"

by Half banana in

in the scope of this site, it’s not possible to go too deeply into historical research in a single post but we can give the flavour of things formerly hidden from us when we were jws.. like most things, christianity evolved.. it has unseen roots but many visible branches, 40,000 is the often quoted number!

there never was a moment when it arrived fully formed in the middle of the first century.

its roots in folk mysteries were deliberately concealed by fourth and fifth century christian leaders.

Half banana

In the scope of this site, it’s not possible to go too deeply into historical research in a single post but we can give the flavour of things formerly hidden from us when we were JWs.

Like most things, Christianity evolved.

It has unseen roots but many visible branches, 40,000 is the often quoted number! There never was a moment when it arrived fully formed in the middle of the first century. Its roots in folk mysteries were deliberately concealed by fourth and fifth century Christian leaders. The genuine Pauline scriptures (those actually written by Paul) from that first century, seemed not to know much about Jesus yet it was Paul, the Romanised Jew, convert, fanatic and visionary who got the christianity ball rolling. The Jesus story became central in the second century and Bible texts were compiled into the Catholic canon in the fourth. Thereafter it was continually edited, refined and altered by copyists and by rabid apologists like the fawning historian Eusebius right up to the time of the early medieval monastic scribes.

Christianity was drawn from an existing folk tradition of semi divine saviours, all of whom were miraculous healers, teachers, and miracle workers. It is most telling from critical-textual examination that Jesus‘ name was a latecomer to the story, as indeed was the idea of “Christ” which in all the earliest copies of texts, later incorporated into the Bible, used instead the term chrest not christ which meant “good”. This was the traditional description for the god-man hero but later substituted by the Greek word christ meaning anointed. In the god-man tradition and in proto-christianity, the saviour figure was usually called ”the Lord.” (Do read The Shepherd of Hermas for a taste of of early christianity -- available on the internet, note the absence of "Jesus" and "Christ" in the text).

The new cult of Christianity deliberately distanced itself from the older traditions. Tellingly it specially noted the time when it first used the name “Christian” (Acts 11;26) i.e. not chrest but Christ followers. It had borrowed the literary framework and the story lines from what was later condemned as paganism but had changed key words and names, therefore keeping the saviour myths alive but clothed anew and in a fresh binding as it were. There are Koine Greek Bible texts extant which show the spelling alterations from chrest to christ, these have been known for a couple of centuries but so far have received little publicity. What! show the Bible to be fallible. . .

Unlike factual evidence, ideas and beliefs begin small like rivulets feeding into a stream, by popular consent they gain body and momentum, and eventually become a river. The wonder of written text meant being able to fix this flow of ideas and spoken word into a history for others to read. For the illiterate, hand written accounts read to them would have seemed, because of their exclusivity, to be almost sacred in nature -- and engraving words in stone would have been mystically potent! Sadly it took right up the period of the Enlightenment in late 18th century France to disabuse the masses of this notion.

So just because something is written down or called "sacred" does not carry with it any proof whatsoever of its truthfulness.

10

The Secret of Life

by Terry in

jw
friends

my elementary school teacher, miss allen, gathered us in a circle just outside the classroom under overspreading limbs of a pecan tree.

as she spoke, we all listened intently - the expression on her face seemed to say, "this is very important.".

"sometimes life doesn't go so well and we feel afraid.

Half banana

I reckon you had a good teacher in Miss Allen. I think she well knew what humans need to get through life is the confidence to overcome problems and move on. This aspect of life is rarely in the school curriculum but so necessary! Miss Allen's thoughts were a realistic alternative to the traditional hope in help from spirit beings.

I had a similar experience where the teacher took our class out into the playing field so as not to be overheard, where we sat in the shade of a tree. In my case the teacher wanted to give us primary school kids the facts of life. I think like your teacher he too wanted to prepare young people with truthful information to help them in succeeding in life.

Good teachers are a boon.

30

How Could We Have Been So Heartless?

by BluesBrother in

i am addressing here those who, like me, spent decades in the organisation that we called “the truth”.

perhaps like me you were brought up in it from an early age.

looking back now i wonder that i could have been so heartless as to believe that the mass slaughter of billions of people was “good news”.

Half banana

Anna, this scripture Matt 6:14,15 could be the basis for 'new light' justifying the removal of the shunning doctrine. Shunning says: "We don't forgive you".

Could come in handy for the GB when membership numbers start to plummet.

24

Bringing Reproach on Jehovah's Name

by cofty in

all my jw life i was reminded constantly about the importance of not bringing reproach on jehovah's name.

decisions on whether or not to disfellowship an individual often turned, not on the seriousness of the sin, but on whether the incident was public knowledge and had resulted in bad publicity for the congregation.

i recall a middle-aged lady being reported to the elders for shoplifting a sweet worth less than £1- and the elders' insistence that a judicial committee must be formed because the store manager and staff knew that she was a jw (i successfully argued that all she needed was support for her dreadful family life, but that's another story).

Half banana

Agreed Vidiot, the GB are now into salvage work which means maintaining the illusion of divine blessing for those still emotionally dependant on the cult.