Posts by Half banana

26

How credible are NWT's critiques?: Allin and John 8:58. (2)

by Wonderment in

how credible are nwt's critiques?

: allin and john 8:58.a few weeks ago we had a discussion surrounding john 8.58. the posters in this forum offered various views in regards to jesus' divine role in scripture.

occasionally, some scholars publish articles where they voice their opinion against the nwt theological renderings.

Half banana

Wonderment, the length of your article demonstrates just how fruitless it is to attempt to find any coherent conclusive message in the Bible.

Many if not most of the characters mentioned in the Bible are not real but ancient folk-story or mythical characters put into Hebrew dress. How can one argue about the words of mythical people? There is no evidence for the existence of Moses. He is an elaboration and amalgam of an earlier Egyptian story line.

The Bible is not the work of an invisible deity... it is entirely the work of scribes or amanuenses working for the ruling elite of their time. Truth was never the purpose of writing...holding on to power is the force behind the selection of all of the Bible texts.

To find an incontrovertible and coherent pattern in the scriptures is as futile as catching the wind.

70

When is a theory 'just a theory'?

by HB in

the titles of cofty's excellent recent posts are all preceeded by the words "evolution is a fact...".

richard dawkins is encouraging people to use the term 'fact' in relation to evolution, especially when debating with creationists as the word 'theory' is confusing to many, and the latter often takes the discussion off on an often unproductive tangent.

the following may be of interest, it's from the bbc website - part of a regular series of articles called 'the vocabularist', discussing the origin and meaning of words: .

Half banana

Good point made Anders.

Fisherman, you are a paradigm; an example of what JW belief and faith in God does to the brain. You have got the cart before the horse.

The Bible is a book of propaganda; it is full of ridiculous mistakes and errors and was only made ‘sacred’ by the Roman Catholic Church. To base your life on this shows that you cannot think for yourself, you only follow other people.

People who are afraid to think for themselves often end up in high control cults like JWs.

There is no scientific or measurable evidence, for a sprit deity to whom we are all beholden. The Bible is a collection of fictional tales (which happens also to mention some real things).

What book of factual events ever recorded talking animals and people coming back from the dead?

The WTBTS is a money-collecting and dishonest cult which is not in the slightest degree concerned for the welfare of its flock. It trades in the gullibility of people who trust in God and blind faith. What a confidence trick!

The horse which drives the cart of human progress is verifiable knowledge.

(If you were you to cast off your comfort blanket of faith, you could then correct me and say that the real horse is actually “disprovable” knowledge... but such subtleties are not accessible to believer’s minds).

105

Does anyone think Jehovah is protecting the org. despite all the talk about THE ARC ?

by tor1500 in

jw
friends

i've been thinking this for a while.

even before the arc scandal.

it seems no matter what, the org.

Half banana

Beyond Freddo's point - I do not believe there would be the slightest difference if you substituted the name Mickey Mouse with the name Jehovah.

Tell me how you could possibly know the difference?

29

List of reasons why the witnesses are wrong.

by atomant in

l thought it might be a good idea to have a quick reference post to remind people of the faults within the jw org.what do others think.

?

Half banana

They make their members feel good for cultivating unjustified faith in the untrustworthy Catholic Bible.

They make their members feel good for cultivating faith in faith.

They make their members feel good for believing that God has chosen the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses as his exclusive channel...when they have no evidence to show that they are his channel.

In fact because of the repeated failure of their Bible-based predictions, it must be evident to all that God if he were to exist, is not interested in the WTBTS .

41

If all the world were JWs....

by Tornintwo in

jw
friends

in my former indoctrinated state, i used to yearn for a time when all the world would be jws.

but hang on minute, let's just think about what the world would be like if everyone was a jw,.

first of all, no higher education, so no medical advances, no scientific research, no modern day medicine, infectious disease rife, no doctors, no engineers, so no modern day comforts.

Half banana

Good thought Island man. If all the world were JWs, and thank goodness it can never happen, the leaders would become empowered to rule with unchecked tyranny in a stale and regressive dystopia.

The personal beliefs and whims of the GB would be the universal rule which would not countenance private thought and natural human activities and impulses. Suicide would become the main way of escaping this false paradise.

Fortunately the JW org will not withstand the scrutiny offered by modern internet technology and they will never succeed in the new scientifically connected world to promote their abusive and misguided "Bible-based" ignorance.

The Roman Church tried such a paradise back in the Dark Ages.... which is where this idea belongs.

25

Is a piano inevitable?

by slimboyfat in

i was at a concert last night and the presence and stature of the piano struck me.

and i thought: if the piano wasn't invented when it was, would it have been invented by someone else instead?

or if there was a world the same as our, except with a different history, would it have pianos now too or would it be modern world, similar in many respects, only without pianos?

Half banana

I agree with you Terry, I would add that “inevitability” is an uncompromising absolute. The creation of the piano is an expediency as mentioned, to better fit the needs of composers and to improve beyond the limitations of note sustainability and modulation of sound over the mechanically plucked strings of earlier keyboard instruments.

Are humans inevitable? (which question may have prompted your asking about pianos?) No! Nevertheless a bipedal mammal with the ability to nurture their young for a long time might use culturally communicated intelligence to survive the predations of hungry large cats. Gorilla sapiens possibly or Pan sapiens, et al.

The species of piano similarly has been the result of a selection process but chosen by ‘ear’ and not by ‘natural selection.’

Incidentally, since the name ‘piano’ is an abbreviation of ‘piano forte’ meaning ‘soft-loud’ in Italian; have you ever thought what actually is the instrument in question...a soft/loud what?

68

Why would anyone choose to support Jehovah’s Witnesses?

by Half banana in

what is the point of supporting a belief which began as a bronze age ox-headed idol called yahweh... in a religion designed for illiterate peasants now appropriated by a money-driven cult with a one hundred and forty six year unbroken record of total failure of its bible based predictions?.

.

Half banana

What is the point of supporting a belief which began as a Bronze Age ox-headed idol called Yahweh... in a religion designed for illiterate peasants now appropriated by a money-driven cult with a one hundred and forty six year unbroken record of total failure of its bible based predictions?

46

The slow trickle has become a steady stream!

by freddo in

jw
friends

in the last few weeks it seems that instead of one or two new posters a week we seem to be getting several every day.

many seem to be long time jw's who are troubled by the path of the organisation.

this is really encouraging to those of us who have been here sometime.. welcome!

Half banana

As Aude Sapere says the attendance relates to the downsized congregations consolidated into fewer Kingdom Hells.

The stream increasing from a trickle refers to new people posting on this site, which is not necessarily a decline in JW numbers. Even if they were still leaving at the same rate as before; there are fewer baptized and even much fewer still joining from the outside to replace those departing.

I wonder however that in among the increase here, there might be one or two posting to test the resilience and effectiveness of this site. JWHQ would be interested in what we say to counter their propaganda so as to configure a response.

I'm thinking of posters like InsidetheKH for example.

14

Evolution is a Fact #16 - Aquatic Mammals

by cofty in

having spent at least 20 million years acquiring the machinery to survive on dry land and hundreds of millions more diversifying and exploiting every conceivable niche, a number of landlubbers made their way back to the sea.. among these were pond snails, water spiders, water beetles, crocodiles, otters, sea snakes, water shrews, galapagos flightless cormorants, marine iguanas, penguins and turtles.

of course the most impressive example of all are the whales and their little cousins the dolphins.

these have gone all the way back to an aquatic existence as have dugongs and their close cousins the manatees jointly known as the sirenians, they don’t even come ashore to breed.

Half banana

Sowhatnow, in the absence of maestro Cofty, may I say that polar bears and humans are new kids on the block geologically speaking.

We have evidence for Homo sapiens around 100,000 years before present (bp). We have indications for H sapiens existing fifty thousand years before that and therefore it would be assumed in the nature of things that Humans arrived on the scene perhaps more than 200,000 years bp.

The real expansion took place around 40,000 bp when recognizably human cultural artifacts become abundant, things such as spear throwers, bows and arrows, bull roarers, boomerangs, complex stone tools and sewing. This was the start of cave paintings in the Dordogne in France. These people are called Cro Magnon ('Big hole' in translation from the first find location) yet these humans although looking just like us actually had skulls thicker than ours and yet only forty thousand years ago.

17

Analytical trend after broadcasts?

by juandefiero in

simon,.

i'm not sure if you ever share analytics data.. but i've been noticing a trend.

it seems that every time a new jw broadcast, we get a seeming increase in new members the week after.. does the data show that?.

Half banana

After the demise of the magazine page (and the profits which went with them) the GB turned to the Satanic Internet for salvation.

Alas!............... the Watchtower organisation had appeared plausible to many when written about on the page... but seeing rather than imagining the GB and Santa's little helpers, is embarrassing. Surely this is the harsh reality; it is the visual experience of the Watchtower dystopia which shows exactly what the org is all about. Is this the paradise governance? Are these men your bosses forever? Heaven forfend!

Had I seen Flodin's crummy demonstration when I was a doubting JW, I know it would have been the last straw for me. Is Flodin an undercover apostate? His manner is that of a man who has had a lobotomy... (the others seem to have various incisions into the temporal lobes).

Was he subversively telling fellow doubters to "Use your loaf"? Keep up the good work Brother Flodin.