watchtower january 2017 - how was fire transported in ancient times?.
"the biblical account found at genesis 22:6 states that, in order to prepare to offer a sacrifice at a distant location, abraham "took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son isaac.
then he took in his hands the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked on together.
Heaven, you have shown what is my understanding of the transportation of fire in the remoter periods of human history. It is understood that a hollowed out section of tree trunk about 5 inches in diameter with a lid would suffice as a pot ---the wood being an insulator.The fungus apparently smoulders for a long period of time and with suitable kindling and blowing upon can be readily revived.
BUT................. Abraham and Isaac are just fictional characters..................................
brother melvin mallett delivers a talk entitled beware the spirit of independence.
(because, you know, thinking for yourself is not what jesus wants.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7znpzkakaki.
oh, and remember folks... this isnt a cult or anything!.
Mallett (if that is the speaker's name) condemns a world prone to independent thinking.
Good grief! That is the very best type of thinking! Where would we Homo sapiens be without our trade mark originality of thought?
We would be still stuck in the Stone Age which is just where the JW org mentality is stuck today!
Btw note how the silly phrase "independent thinking" is being consolidated into a readily recognised JW sin; a catch word to keep the faithful on the extremely narrow path designed by the WTBTS.
study edition.
january 2017.
(can someone put up a link please?).
Sorry to disagree with the general tone of things but I quite like the idea of backpacking in the wilderness with three women.
i've been chatting to the jws the past couple of weeks.the last time they called they showed me a video about a scientist who claimed that she had once been an atheist, but after studying with the jws she had changed her mind and now believed in an intelligent creator.
what had convinced her was the process that activates the functioning of the lungs just after a baby has been born.after we had watched the video, the jws said that there are many people who believe that creation indicates an intelligent designer.in reply i asked them what they thought about the 'unintelligent' aspects of creation and i went into a few examples.at first they tried to write things off to imperfection due to adamic sin, but as the conversation went on they slowly realised that arguing 'imperfection' wasn't an adequate explanation for the points i was making.to cut a long story short, i ended up sending them a video via email where professor dawkins comments on an autopsy that highlights the impracticality of the laryngeal nerve in giraffes.i also sent them evidence of vestigial limbs in whales and a short article about biological atavism.in addition, i sent them an article that coincidentally was on the bbc news a few days ago about a boy in india who had a 7 inch vestigial tail removed.
here is the article i sent them:-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3823461/the-teenager-7-inch-tail-18-year-old-finally-growth-removed-painful-sit-sleep.htmli'm really looking forward to seeing what they will come back with.
Most JWs have a fact filter which ignores anything said which is contrary to their doctrines. At the same time they will recognize and amplify any scrap of information however marginal or unrepresentative of reality which accords with JW beliefs.
This is what it means to be a JW.
But I do hope they return and you can also then mention that some snakes (Boas and Pythons) retain the ilium of the pelvic bones of their evolutionary forebears and that some species of skinks have legs and others are without legs. The latter demonstrating an intergrade or halfway house between two of the Biblical 'kinds'.
time to take a break from debating religion.
take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?
how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?
Where have all the butterflies gone?
This year in England I have only seen a dozen and they are mainly the beautiful Red Admiral. I was away in Africa for three weeks and travelling from Angola down through Namibia to South Africa I saw only three butterflies including one large fritillary.
Perhaps they are doing better in your garden Bonsai?
so the wife was watching the latest installment of jw broadcasting and near the end there was a new segment on dating and courtship.
it starts at about the 39 minute mark:.
https://youtu.be/vuir-azsdm0?t=38m52s.
This sugared idealism might have worked half a century ago but the levels of social awareness have changed. Cults always are interested in controlling the sex activities of their followers.
I admit I couldn't suffer more than a few minutes of this bilge.
Make it more difficult for sisters to marry...is that the subtext? As Never a JW said; it would make for more celibate female pioneers..........Nah! better still just leave the organisation and get a real life.
final article in www.elperiodico.es.
http://www.elperiodico.com/es/noticias/sociedad/sarah-transexual-los-testigos-han-prohibido-madre-que-viva-conmigo-5454048.
google translate:.
Dedorio, we need to acknowledge that gender disphoria, hermaphroditism and other sexual identity problems exist as a fact of the human condition.
We need education and understanding, compassion and tolerance but we don't need to make matters more complicated by involving Jesus a character from an ancient story book.
It really annoys me that people quote a scripture to justify something. Please think again more clearly: Christ is not "reality" (John 14:6). That idea is based on a bizarre statement written to coerce ignorant and religiously susceptible people. Only a madman could say "I am the way" and only the mad would believe it.
Think for yourself instead.
so that was a "shocker".
i was not able to attend the meeting.
i had a more important one with my other apostate friends in the area.
Ah! music to my ears : no increase...next stage: decrease.
When it becomes generally realized--- it will be a good reason to fall away and encourage further decline...and others will follow. Then those with doubts will think "now is the time to depart" and they will. Wake up JWS and bring it on!
in the newest bible the gb took out the scriptures found in the last chapter of mark verses 9 on.
they say these scriptures were added later.
what they don't tell you in in the oldest bible the septuagint the assention of christ to heaven was also not in the book of luke nor mathew!
And Jesus went up into the sky, like pagan saviour heros do at the spring equinox... and the Bible story, just as in the pagan myth; had to end with the son going back to his Sun-god father to shine radiantly together from the heavens.........................
the web address on the above sketch is misleading as the sketch (it seems) was included originally, in a article in a peer reviewed archaeological journal by a stephen rosenberg.. there is little doubt that the temple was genuine and it demonstrates that the ot stories about the role of egypt in the formation of judaism do not tell the truth about the complete relationship between israel and the egyptian empire.. we know that this temple on elephantine island was genuine.
some papyrus correspondence has survived .
there is also another (claimed) jewish temple that an archaelogical team explored last century, but the precise location has been lost.. more on the above temple tomorrow..
It is possible that the Jews in Egypt had a greater chance of making a temple there in wealthy Egypt than they would in the impoverished land of Canaan.
So much of the OT content is about Israel's political aspirations and not reality.
