I agree, isn’t it just the stupidity of the speaker. I remember a wedding talk in the KH given by a bro who was mechanic by trade referring to the workings of a motor to marriage. The bride was less than impressed.
Half banana
JoinedPosts by Half banana
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8
Red Bull punted in baptismal talk
by Vidqun inan acquaintance reported that the brother giving the baptismal talk at a regional assembly recently punted red bull a few times.
he never mentioned red bull by name, but he referred to the drink that "gives you wings" more than once.
this sounds like subliminal advertising.
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The borrowed magic of the memorial
by Half banana inmyth comes from myth and ritual comes from ritual.
myth and ritual are borrowed in the way fire is borrowed to light another flame.
john 6:53 says that whoever does not eat (jesus) body and drink his blood will have no life in him.
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Half banana
Myth comes from myth and ritual comes from ritual. Myth and ritual are borrowed in the way fire is borrowed to light another flame.
John 6:53 says that whoever does not eat (Jesus’) body and drink his blood will have no life in him. v54 extending the thought into the positive and saying that the partakers will get life and resurrection... But eating people is not nice!
In fact the Greek word trogon translated “eat” in this verse 54 conveys an even more vigorous sense; that of ‘gnawing’ at the flesh. There was no doubt about the strength of the meaning. The apologists say that Jesus was speaking symbolically and without doubt it must be so, for most things can be made symbolic in meaning, but that does not explain the reason for its inclusion in the Greek writings especially as the Jews would have bridled at the concept of drinking blood?
In the headlong competition of the Christ cults in the early centuries of our calendar, to gain converts the short-cut to success was not to come up with new and strange ideas, they would become a barrier and exclude people; the method for religious popularity was to incorporate the prevailing pagan beliefs... or re-cycle them as we would call it today. The main characteristic of Jesus-Christianity was not novelty or originality but its borrowing of ideas from every pagan source.
Who said this first:“Whoever does not eat the flesh and drink the blood, the same will not be with me in paradise.” This is an inscription from the Mithraeum or temple of the Saviour Mithras which lies under the present Roman Vatican City Cathedral of Saint Peters. How does it happen that this Christian teaching had been already in place for another saviour? We see how the fusion Jesus-cult had fed off the strengths of Roman Mithraism:
"The worshippers of Mithras held strong beliefs in a celestial heaven and an infernal hell. They believed that the benevolent powers of the god would sympathize with their suffering and grant them the final justice of immortality and eternal salvation in the world to come. They looked forward to a final day of judgement in which the dead would resurrect, and to a final conflict that would destroy the existing order of all things to bring about the triumph of light over darkness.
Purification through a ritualistic baptism was required of the faithful, who also took part in a ceremony in which they drank wine and ate bread to symbolize the body and blood of the god. Sundays were held sacred, and the birth of the god was celebrated annually on December the 25th. After the earthly mission of this god had been accomplished, he took part in a Last Supper with his companions before ascending to heaven, to forever protect the faithful from above.” Craig Lyons, ‘Mithra’s contribution to Christianity’, section ‘Have you heard this before?’
The Jesus cult had borrowed the annual memorial ritual of the saviour’s death but have you ever stopped to think about its root meaning? The thrust of the pre-Christian story is that the god-man, son of the Sun God, gave up his earthly life in sacrifice and returned to his heavenly father at the spring equinox. We are referring to a sacrificial death. But there is more; we are referring to the most abhorrent reason to sacrifice a person: to eat their flesh and drink their blood. The normal name for this practice is cannibalism.
Superstitious people are susceptible to what is claimed by others to be holy. The essence of this innately human streak is to be found in Paul’s words, it is that desire for,”Power beyond what is normal.” (2Cor 4,7) The religious mind, not finding comfort from the ‘world’ seeks help from an intangible spirit realm to assist. After all, the mass of humanity historically speaking have been peasants. That meant being poor, illiterate and powerless. So to clutch at the straw of divine intervention in their benighted lives and believe in fanciful spirit beings and sacred rituals was all the strength they could muster, this was Paul's”the power beyond what is normal.”
The Bible was written by the literate few who were in the employ of the kings and princes of their time. The mighty texts emanated from the courts of the ruling elite. That is why when reading texts which became part of the Bible we must bear in mind this dynamic: it was written for illiterate people who would naturally revere something which was beyond their own comprehension i.e. writing. Yet in that world back in the Iron Age of the Levant when the Bible writings were collated, for the common people it was not the text but ritual and action which primarily counted in religion. Making the writings sacred came later. The most potent spiritual magic any community could summons was that of sacrificing a human life. By partaking of the flesh and blood of the chosen victim, the purpose would have been for appeasement of the gods, ritual purification and restoration of equilibrium and cementing of group loyalty.
Last autumn, I was travelling in the Mediterranean and by chance came across an archaeological site which was a Tophet or child sacrifice place as used by Israel’s neighbours the Phoenicians. I shuddered at the implications.
The JW memorial is now a confused and irrelevant affair because the leaders are themselves unsure of the meaning of it and to whom it applies! By looking at the history from the pagan original down to its mere shadow of today's ritual, shows the crass desperation of Christianity relying on the notion of tribal magic to make claims for its central doctrine.
Eating sacrificial flesh and drinking blood even symbolically cannot get you everlasting life...nothing does!
The fictional idea that the god-man Jesus came to save us is truly primitive thinking. Do not support the Watchtower's unholy memorial of borrowed magic.
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Hasta la Vista,.. I'm outta here
by insidetheKH inthe time has come to leave this forum.
this is my last post.
mission completed.
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Half banana
I agree with you QMi.
Another thought was that ITHK, who appeared cut and dried and emotionally neutral, resembled a robot attempting to pass the Turing test for artificial intelligence.
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The Bottomless pit is CERN Rev 9
by artcritic inrev 9 : 1 and the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and i saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless pit; 2 he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.. this is the fifth trumpet .
when the pit or well is opened it says , and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft .
now for something to darken the sun from the viewpoint of earths observers it must be some incredible event.
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Half banana
This biblical reference entirely encapsulates the completely ignorant mumbo jumbo of Revelation. The very idea of a star falling to Earth is an example of anthropocentrism writ large. To then try and apply meaning to this portentous gibberish to the genuinely powerful scientific structure of CERN and a possible disaster is a further attempt to make a mountain from a mole hill. The Bible is a book of fairy tales. Fairy tales are not meant to be believed.
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what is the best line to say to a JW handing you an invite to the memorial
by nonjwspouse ini have some ideas, but want more to choose from..
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Half banana
"What no cheese?" -
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Great article about intelligent design in science without being religious
by EndofMysteries infor those who think that belief or the possibility of intelligent design means you must accept or believe everything or anything you have heard about god or a god is incorrect.
i'll quote one line from the article, " but intelligent design, unlike creationism, is not based upon the bible.
design is an inference from biological data, not a deduction from religious authority.
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Half banana
It may be unkind but the English atheist Anthony Flew who is relied upon as heavyweight ammunition in this ID bluster was in a state of dementia when the book which he claimed represented his new theist beliefs was written. There is strong evidence that the text used was the the American English of his co-author and in view of his mental decline, Flew had relied on him as the leading writer. Flew's contribution to humanity and learning was his analytical philosophy, not his senile return to the world of a comfortable family childhood back in the rectory. -
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Hasta la Vista,.. I'm outta here
by insidetheKH inthe time has come to leave this forum.
this is my last post.
mission completed.
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Half banana
"Hasta la vista" carries the meaning of "see you later" rather than goodbye...is that what you meant ITKH? -
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WT is trying to scare off memorial partakers
by cookiemaster ini don't know how many of you still participate in the sunday wt study, but i unfortunately still do.
even though i was asleep half of the time, i did notice something i thought i should share with the rest, in case you haven't noticed.
a lot of the paragraphs were worded strongly against partaking and used clear language of intimidation and discouragement toward anyone thinking of partaking.
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Half banana
When you consider, the GB are all post 1935 takers of the emblems, so none of them are kosher by their own reckoning. But hey! “Don’t let the humble publisher get above his station and start taking the emblems, they must be a bit mentally unstable”. This may indeed be true but is truer still of the deluded muppets at the top who must have known the score before being appointed to the GB that you have take the crackers and wine first. A smart move for the power hungry.
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Is anything holy?
by Half banana inis anything holy?.
i would maintain that holiness can only come from the attitude of people ascribing something as holy.
holiness never comes from the "holy" object, spirit or humans described as being holy..
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Half banana
It’s clearly a mistake to use the word ‘holy’ as the puns are just irresistible! Instead I’ll use the equivalent word ‘sacred’ ...any puns on sacred? Errr, no, don’t think so...
My thought is that ”nothing is sacred”...how can it be since sacredness is a human construct and objects and places cannot declare they are holy or sacred. They are ‘set apart’ (= sacred) not by themselves but by the collective feelings of communities. As for holy people, if they say they are 'holy' then that immediately disqualifies them from being so. As Spike Milligan said “My uncle was a great man, he told me so himself.” The governing body have recently declared themselves to be holy ones by virtue of being the anointed of God...what a bunch of clowns!
They are conspicuously unholy...but does anyone think holiness/sacredness is real?
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An anthropologist visits a JW community in Santa María Zapotitlán, Mexico
by OrphanCrow indr. jena barchas-lichtenstein is an anthropologist who received her doctorate through ucla.. https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jena-barchas-lichtenstein/43/427/702.
in 2013, barchas-lichtenstein submitted the paper "when the dead are resurrected, how are we going to speak to them?
": jehovah's witnesses and the use of indigenous languages in the globalizing textual community as a partial submission for her doctoral dissertation..
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Half banana
How slimy of the Watchtower to corrupt even the languages of vulnerable ethnic peoples. They do it because they imagine they are God’s chosen ones and therefore can disregard trifles like linguistic heritage.
They act like ISIS does and would subsume all culture and its history to their deluded will.
JW org is a menace to the rest of humanity.