Posts by Half banana

9

Annual JW Pride Day

by Esse quam videri in

what would be jw's reaction if the governing body, in all seriousness, announced a new jw pride day to be celebrated in the congregation every year?.

Pay now - Live later. The True Price of the Christian Reward.

by fulltimestudent in

i apologise for not being able to refrain from making a joke out of this thread, but the topic is rather humourous.. i've just bought peter brown's (the illustrious historian) latest book, "the ransom of the soul - afterlife and wealth in early western christianity," and am in the process of reading it.

its quite amazing how soon money entered into the early churches relationship with individual christians,.

may i recommend it for those who may still harbour illusions about jesus and his church.

Half banana

Thanks for information FTS. Money and power always appear together in human institutions....and that is why the faithful and discreet slave illustration was relevant in the early church; to keep the punters coming to the religion which could afford to give them a meal.

128

Looking Back In Retrospect To 1975...

by titch in

greetings, folks: so, it's been 40 years since 1975. and, if you were actively involved with the witnesses back then, the mindset of many was, that by early autumn of 1975, it would mark the anniversary of 6000 years of human existence.

and, the hope was then, that it would mark the start of the 1000-year of christ, from the heavenly realm.

but, looking back now, 40 years ago, in june of 1975, only 3 more months remained until early autumn.

Half banana

And if the Bible has nothing meaningful to say, imagine how utterly meaningless and irrelevant the words of the Watchtower Society are!

Yes Splash at that meeting in 1968 they must have been euphoric...experiencing an artificial “high” in their religious delusion that Big J was using only them and would not fail them in their 1975 date doctrines. Fulfilment at last!

Of course it failed, it’s just a religious scam.

The tools of the Watchtower cult are hype and promises, nothing more... and a whopping load of nothing is all they will ever grant.

“Everlasting life in paradise,” if the offer sounds too good to be true; it is too good to be true.

128

Looking Back In Retrospect To 1975...

by titch in

greetings, folks: so, it's been 40 years since 1975. and, if you were actively involved with the witnesses back then, the mindset of many was, that by early autumn of 1975, it would mark the anniversary of 6000 years of human existence.

and, the hope was then, that it would mark the start of the 1000-year of christ, from the heavenly realm.

but, looking back now, 40 years ago, in june of 1975, only 3 more months remained until early autumn.

Half banana

Fisherman, the greatest mistake we all made was to imagine that the Bible had something original to say.

35

TTATT in a can

by ILoveTTATT in

jw
friends

so... i have been working on an excel spreadsheet that has "ttatt in a can"... i have it both in spanish and in english.

here's a preview:.

category / year1879188018901891name?bible studentsbible students "time of the end" starts in the year?17991799 "parousia" (presence)?18741874 jesus enthroned?18781878 end of the harvest?19141914 earthly resurrection?

Half banana

Thank you I loveTTATT and Splash, your researches are much more important than the flip-flopping doctrines they record.

What they say is that any interpretation of the Bible contains nothing certain on which we can base beliefs.

The whole of the NT was about getting a saviour cult established in a market already saturated in saviours. As an example of how it must have been: Did Christ have a beard or not (who cares!) well if you were talking up your new saviour cult two thousand years ago to a Roman, then your Jesus saviour would not have a beard since the then familiar Mithras was the young unshaven Good Shepherd, god-man saviour. The same with the recent past; in the fifties beards were still symbols of the great unwashed (Except for Van Amberg, GB member and treasurer who had a beard until his death in 1947ish). So the society looked for and found reasons not to depict JC with a hairy chin. When their reasoning looked thin, they changed to a hirsute Jesus.

There is one summary point which strikes me reading these lists of official doctrinal drivel, it is this: how can a committee of men in New York sit down at a table and determine among themselves what will be eternal truths which they will publish and foist on their ignorant and submissive flock?... And you must believe it on penalty of excommunication! What a charade!

28

Geoffrey Jackson compares waiting for Armageddon to waiting for Brazil to score a goal against Argentina!

by GodZoo in

wtf!https://vid.me/8tuy

Half banana

Good point Leaks, They would identify with F.I.F.A. since both governing bodies clearly have no conscience, think they are on a gravy train to glory and have no one to veto or investigate their actions. Until now...

28

Ran into some JW's.......but this time I did the teaching ;) x

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

so i went out today with my broken leg and got accosted by an old lady, with some magazines.. it was my first ever encounter with a jw in ten years, and i had said 'i know you are jw's, i'm not interested thank you.

" twice.....then she started talking about my broken leg and how wonderful we are made and how amazing the healing process is.... and that's when it all started...."i used to be a bethelite pioneer, now i'm an atheist doctor...".

she was with me a good 30 mins, her elder husband left very annoyed but she stayed, and she was dying to hear everything i spurted out, despite aggressively defending every point, from military engines to paedophilia.

Half banana

A stonking piece of unwitnessing Snare! I had a couple round telling me they had been JWs for sixty years as if that meant something positive. Perhaps it is the only reward a witness can claim; pride in being one for such a long time, ‘cos there is no other tangible benefit apart from doing it with others of like mind.

50

what an interesting find for me

by sowhatnow in

im sure to use this the next time i accidentally get sucked into an argument with someone.

im not ever understanding the idea behind any christian religion picking and choosing what they want to believe and follow, then have the nerve to claim they are right, when clearly this is obviously done.

here is a site that shows not only how bloodthirsty and evil the god of the hebrew bible was, but how more ridiculous it is for jws to follow one twisted 'commandment' about eating blood, not only reading it wrong, but then not to do all the other commandments, willingly , do they think they are ancient israelites ?

Half banana

There is a reconciliation of these conflicting moral demands.

It is to recognise that gods and demons and the book which tells of them are not reality but mere constructs of the fearful human imagination.

50

what an interesting find for me

by sowhatnow in

im sure to use this the next time i accidentally get sucked into an argument with someone.

im not ever understanding the idea behind any christian religion picking and choosing what they want to believe and follow, then have the nerve to claim they are right, when clearly this is obviously done.

here is a site that shows not only how bloodthirsty and evil the god of the hebrew bible was, but how more ridiculous it is for jws to follow one twisted 'commandment' about eating blood, not only reading it wrong, but then not to do all the other commandments, willingly , do they think they are ancient israelites ?

Half banana

So the antidote to God's blood-lust is to resurrect his poor victims?

Paradisebeauty, how can you imagine that people can come back to life? It happens does it?

Since when can dead things live again? I know there are nasty things in this world but the secret is to try and improve our lot, not to believe in the implausible. How many out of 107 billion people who have ever lived, have come back to life...just Jesus and Elvis?

If there was to be a general resurrection (preposterous!) where ON EARTH would they all go? (Fifteen for each one alive today). It’s a fantasy folks!

Please try to think seriously, now we have left the loony Watchtower we have a chance to get our thinking straightened out as well... don’t fall back into magic realism.

11

The Ransom Sacrifice -- Simplified Suggestion

by FusionTheism in

the sacrifice of jesus simplified suggestion.

many christians have different theories about exactly how the ransom sacrifice (also called the atonement or the passion) of christ worked.. just how did jesus death on the cross 2,000 years ago provide us with salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life?.

some christians believe that jesus somehow mystically experienced the full pain and suffering of eternal torment in hell (for every persons sin who has ever lived), during the 3 hours of darkness when he was hanging upon the cross.

Half banana

Fusion and Messianic Christian, you are both trying to defend the indefensible. I for one do not need a ransom sacrifice to help me since I was not born “from Adam” since Adam did not and could not literally exist. Original sin never came my way, I am master of my own destiny and need not grovel to any invisible deity or saviour figure. No doubt you get pleasure from the pride you take in believing this salvation story and good for you but it comes from fairy-land, it is mythical, not from the real world. There are tests to see whether a story comes from fiction or fact and one of them is simply the meaning of the name. Adam for example means ‘man’, a mythical archetype, not a real person. What real monarch calls his son ‘Prince’?

The Christian writings put in the mouth of the saviour character Jesus, words referencing Adam, i.e. Jesus believed in Adam. Yet we have abundant evidence that Homo sapiens evolved. Next to my computer I have stone tools made by ancient pre-human species. Outside of the African continent (where the genus Homo first emerged) most of us have of a small percentage Neanderthal genes indicating the complex genetic diffusion and ‘back crossing’ with other contemporary hominin species.If you are African with some non-african forebears you too will have Neanderthal blood. It can now be easily measured and it is entirely consistent with the predictability of the science of the evolution theorem. We came from apes not a mythical Adam. Jesus, had he known the science, would not have referenced Adam... he got it wrong. Pre scientific, pre-literate man needed the explanations myths gave. Except for the religious stragglers; we have moved on from this primitive belief system.