Posts by Half banana

22

How smart were the ancients?

by Coded Logic in

growing up as a jw, i always thought the ancients were scientific morons who knew next to nothing.

ashamedly, i used to run around citing isaiah 40:22 as proof of the bible's 'divine authorship' because it talked about "the circle of the earth".

as though this were somehow an unknowable before spaceflight.

Yes Anonymous some did think this was possible but the thing was they did not enforce their ideas, they were pluralistic. They welcomed and benefited from new concepts and ideas from the whole known world of that time and that is why they made progress in science and philosophy. They did not tend to get bogged down in sacred beliefs or absolutist doctrines. With the advantage of hindsight we can see what they could not-- but the ethos was to have open minds and build on what was known to be true.

By contrast the forced suicide of Socrates and the murder of Archimedes by invading Romans is evidence of the permanent cruelty which pervaded the thinking of the holders of power in the classical world.

7

Islamic Countries are Like the Slow Kid in Class

by cofty in

according to the council on foreign relations’ global conflict tracker, now that there is peace in colombia, there remain only six civil wars in the world.

five of those are in islamic nations.

similarly, all four of the current sectarian wars involve islamic groups, and all five of the ongoing transnational terrorism conflicts involve militant islamic groups.

Half banana

Cofty the statistics you provide are an indictment against the wisdom of religious belief.

Faith in one's own partisan beliefs does not help people outside of your own sect but worst of all, to conflate rulership with religion as in a theocracy and demand all must submit, is historically the most bloodthirsty type of governance-- as Islam is demonstrating to the world.

22

How smart were the ancients?

by Coded Logic in

growing up as a jw, i always thought the ancients were scientific morons who knew next to nothing.

ashamedly, i used to run around citing isaiah 40:22 as proof of the bible's 'divine authorship' because it talked about "the circle of the earth".

as though this were somehow an unknowable before spaceflight.

Half banana

Let's not get too euphoric about the ancients! Whilst there were some clever people around most lived in a world of appeasing gods, avoiding curses, magic happenings, patriotism for their city and ruthless revenge. It was only some of the philosophers who recognized that a spirit world was just superstition.

Life was precarious; if you held an office of power there was a good chance of being murdered. If poor; your unsanitary life meant you lived with parasites and disease and there were few means of avoiding the plagues which visited the ancient world. The form of democracy invented by the Greeks was only for the elite, and slavery was the means of getting things done.

One enormous contribution of the ancient Greeks to the modern world was due to their inquisitiveness. By this they seeded that vital spark of real progress in civilization; to analyse things critically. That meant to view something objectively, to question what a thing is and why it is and not fall back on superstition or priests or what tradition had taught.

Have we all caught up with them in this?

34

Really struggling to go on

by Isambard Crater in

jw
friends

so, so much has happened in my life over the years and continues to happen, but i won't go into the details as it would take a long time.. i don't really know why, but i returned to "the truth" 15 years ago.

in 2012 when the tv broadcasting station launched, i started to develop doubts.

the australian royal commission and other scandals made me angrier, and i now don't believe most of the core teachings.. the only reason i show up at 5 or 6 meetings each month is to keep in contact with my parents and a few other family members.. but it's killing me, literally.

Half banana

First of all cyber hugs to you Isambard Crater. The cult leaders deliberately make it so very difficult to leave.

The issue you are discussing is your mental health and all is not lost. The first thing is to recognize just how important it is that you now have the knowledge that

1/ JWs are not all they are cracked up to be

2/ there is a real and good world outside of the JW org and in fact you have already found friends who are not religious zombies-- and that is a very good start.

The problem lies with your parents with their brainwashed thinking and their relationship with you.

Since the most important thing is your own well-being and not that of your parents however much you love them, may I suggest that you only do the things which give you back YOUR freedom to live the life YOU choose. This is not selfish, it is your birthright which the JW organisation has stolen from you.

Stop going to the meetings-- they only prolong the agony.

Tell your parents that you love them but not the JW organisation.

It's not all hopeless, many if not most of us here have been through it and we'll support you!

22

How smart were the ancients?

by Coded Logic in

growing up as a jw, i always thought the ancients were scientific morons who knew next to nothing.

ashamedly, i used to run around citing isaiah 40:22 as proof of the bible's 'divine authorship' because it talked about "the circle of the earth".

as though this were somehow an unknowable before spaceflight.

Half banana

I think the threshold was literacy. There must have been a big divide between the illiterate rural poor (known originally as pagans) and the city dwelling literate citizens. Even if you were a slave you could advance in the Roman world once you had gained your freedom and could read and write and learn the wisdom from earlier generations of writers.

Within the privileged group of the well educated, there were the few who excelled and had extraordinary insights into the physical universe and its workings not the least of these was the genius Archimedes. There is a small museum in modern Olympia devoted to his inventions--his achievements are astonishing.

The Antikithera device is really all the evidence needed to tell us that the ancients were highly accomplished astronomers, geometers and mathematicians and precision metal workers to boot.

As a detail of the scientific approach for achieving accuracy, the designer built into this astronomical calculating device a mechanism to allow for the eccentricity of the orbit of the moon! This tiny fact alone places their understanding at an early modern level of consciousness yet must have been known for a minimum of twenty one centuries. Yet the Antikithera device looks to me (I saw it in Athens this year) like it was already a highly refined and miniaturised machine which had been developed from much older mechanisms, analogous for example to the development of a chronometer from the cathedral clock. This would then put back the understanding of astronomy, geometry and gear making to an even more distant past.

7

Quotes: "Since 1914 and 1918 enemies have become more vicious"

by TheWonderofYou in

this is a proof for 1914!.

enemies, .

https://archive.org/stream/enemiesbyjudgerutherford1937/1937-enemies#page/n11/mode/1up.

Half banana

Perhaps the quotation was a veiled reference to his personal enemies; those who opposed him in his crude takeover of the Russellite brand.

I think it is quite possible that Rutherford did not believe a word of what he was saying but knew too well how to play the role of the preacher, exploiting the prejudices of his Bible students and appealing to their godliness. He most certainly enjoyed the material perks of being at the top and therefore had great incentive to maintain his position.

23

Instructions to remove old WT information from kh libraries

by Half banana in

a pimo friend (physically in mentally out) has just informed me that the cult has decided that they want to suppress all old jw org information by removing bound volumes etc from kh libraries.. in reality, all through their history they have claimed divine "new light" as a means of changing uncomfortable doctrines.

this however would mean that new jws, or more likely these days young jws, will be prevented from seeing the old light which had been held up as divinely inspired truth in the past.. truth which would get you through big a and which if you didn't agree with would get you disfellowshipped.. anyone else heard of this?

what might be the reasons (if true) for removing the old wts?.

Half banana

The phonograph was a brilliant messenger but used for a fake message.

The whole of the JW history is rubbish, all the artificial hype for God's non events! All the JW org has ever done is to fool people, it is no wonder they want to bury their past.

However this means they have to come up with a new slogan to catch the unwary or ill informed. How can they convince people in the future of their merit as divine guides when they have no success in the past to point to, by which they could claim evidence for divine attention?

The history of Jehovah's Witnesses is one of total failure in the very department they claim to have special insight; that of announcing God's Kingdom.

23

Instructions to remove old WT information from kh libraries

by Half banana in

a pimo friend (physically in mentally out) has just informed me that the cult has decided that they want to suppress all old jw org information by removing bound volumes etc from kh libraries.. in reality, all through their history they have claimed divine "new light" as a means of changing uncomfortable doctrines.

this however would mean that new jws, or more likely these days young jws, will be prevented from seeing the old light which had been held up as divinely inspired truth in the past.. truth which would get you through big a and which if you didn't agree with would get you disfellowshipped.. anyone else heard of this?

what might be the reasons (if true) for removing the old wts?.

Half banana

48. In the event that the bodies of elders decide to eliminate printed publications from the library,

this apparently means you must do it!

My PIMO friend tells me now that the coordinator in his cong had not been understood the significance of these instructions but now knows he has to remove the old publications. He says they don't want to publicise the clearing out.

Yes sparrowdown, the new whiter than white, whitewashed new light....... not a stain in sight and NOW twice as bright!

Never forget we had seventy five years of "The generation of 1914" whist the Watchtower got rich and the sheep got fleeced.

23

Instructions to remove old WT information from kh libraries

by Half banana in

a pimo friend (physically in mentally out) has just informed me that the cult has decided that they want to suppress all old jw org information by removing bound volumes etc from kh libraries.. in reality, all through their history they have claimed divine "new light" as a means of changing uncomfortable doctrines.

this however would mean that new jws, or more likely these days young jws, will be prevented from seeing the old light which had been held up as divinely inspired truth in the past.. truth which would get you through big a and which if you didn't agree with would get you disfellowshipped.. anyone else heard of this?

what might be the reasons (if true) for removing the old wts?.

Half banana

A pimo friend (physically in mentally out) has just informed me that the cult has decided that they want to suppress all old JW org information by removing bound volumes etc from kh libraries.

In reality, all through their history they have claimed divine "new light" as a means of changing uncomfortable doctrines. This however would mean that new JWs, or more likely these days young JWs, will be prevented from seeing the old light which had been held up as divinely inspired truth in the past.

Truth which would get you through big A and which if you didn't agree with would get you disfellowshipped.

Anyone else heard of this? What might be the reasons (if true) for removing the old WTs?

6

Seed of mind-control could be seen in the word Amen

by venus in

just like naming of days of the week and months are of astrological/pagan origin, the widely used word amen too is pagan, and has contributed to mind-control.. each time we say “amen” at the end of prayer we may think that we mean only "verily" and "truly".

unfortunately, we overlook something very important.

amen, amen-ra is the "most high" egyptian solar archetype [egyptian sun god, known as amun/amin/amen ra, meaning "the hidden god" and thus, the phrase "amen" would originally mean "let it remain hidden/secret."].

Half banana

Venus and Diog, I find the connection of world myth and astrology compelling. Much information seems to be in the hands of occult literature but without the reasoning behind it. Argument for the astronomical connections are viewed by the churches as paganism and therefore dismissed out of hand. When researching on the internet, most of the encounters linking paganism and the Christ story are from Christian sources defending their holy corner.

With complete or perhaps willful ignorance of the role of mythology, the Christian is blighted by literalism and the usual grounds for being dismissive is the fact that the parallels of the Christ story are distorted which indeed they are, for that is the nature of myth.

A good source which is backed by academic research, is the that of the late DM Murdock; look up her astrotheology site (Astrotheology of the Ancients).

I too have found the amen Amun question dismissed on the internet but am inclined to think Christians would find it offensive and so would want to deny the connection.