Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  9

  Thankful for our community of friends!

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just wanted to express a sincere thanks for the amazing community of friends we have built up thanks to sites like this.. the genuine people we can now call true friends is outstanding.. to all those who are newly awakening, or are just starting to contemplate a life outside of the jw bubble, please be reassured that you will indeed make good friends if you put yourself out there.. true,not every ex-jw will be an instant friend.

  you will not click with everyone.

  but as with life in general, if you put in the effort, a new circle of genuine friends exist out there!.

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  Half banana

  I have to agree stuck, what a joy to have sensible worldly friends and sensible and supportive posters on this site.

  The controversial ones are a good ingredient here also; to challenge our preconceptions--something never permitted in JW land.
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  51

  They would Stone us if the law would allow

  by ElderEtta in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  several years ago unless i was dreaming i read a watchtower quotation that effectively said that they would execute us as disfellowshipped individuals if the law would allow.. was i dreaming?.

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  Half banana

  Who on earth wants to worship a vengeful god in a vengeful religion which given the opportunity, would rather have you killed because you disagree with their governing body? Collectively, JWs are looking forward to the annihilation of all non-JWs.

  Underneath that smug delusion of divine blessing, what a dire cult Jehovah's Witnesses really are.

  And to think we once supported it . . . Please forgive us for our terrible mistake.
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  34

  Yesterday's WT slip up

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when the israelites left egypt in 1513 b.c.e., they may have numbered more than three million.

  spanning three or even four generations.

  🤭.

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  Half banana

  The Watchtower as always gets everything wrong. Since there were no Israelites in 1513 BCE we are off to a bad start but if we were to to go forward to the early Iron Age around 1100 BCE, I seem to remember the figure of around 40,000 for the highland population of Cannnan. So much for Biblical accuracy. Most of the archaeology of early Israel shows an impoverished and backward people with little in the way of material development.

  The Bible is full of gross exaggerations--it was the normal style of political bluster which the Israelites resorted to in an attempt to inflate their importance.
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  34

  Yesterday's WT slip up

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when the israelites left egypt in 1513 b.c.e., they may have numbered more than three million.

  spanning three or even four generations.

  🤭.

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  Half banana

  The first historical mention of Israel is from the years around 1200 BCE. There is no Egyptian record of the Ebiru (Hebrew?) or Israelites captive in Egypt at any time. Had they been in Egypt en masse the Egyptians would most certainly have known about it and recorded it. The reverse is actually true; the Egyptians being situated next door so to speak and infinitely more powerful than Israel at any given time were in Canaan, the de facto rulers of the territory Israel occupied. Although absolutely central to the Jewish story justifying their claim to land in Palestine, captivity and exodus in Egypt is just another myth like much of the OT.
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  32

  Ridiculous Picture!

  by Iamallcool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-january-2019/do-not-be-anxious-i-am-your-god/.

  .

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  Half banana

  You've all got it wrong, it's the Bethel police coming to empty the contributions box.
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  14

  "The sun will be darkened, & the moon will not give its light." How do events like this affect superstitious humans?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the gospel of matthew's homily on the signs connected with the imagined return of christ, features an element of the sign that seems to really scare superstitious people.. matthew 24:29 reads: "immediately after the distress of those days "'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;".

  in the nineteenth century such an even occurred twice in the 19th century and apparently became part of charlie russell's conviction that the end of the world was nigh, charlie, of course, was a 'man of faith' accepting the bible as true and not willing to search for alternative explanation for such events.

  if charlie r. had been the sort of person that continually asks why, his life and ours may have taken a different course.. i cannot quote where in his mass of writings he cites those 19th c events (its a long time since i've bothered to be interested in his writings), but mention them he did, and saw these events as proof of the imminent return of jesus christ.. so let's look at these two 19th c.natural occurrences, and compare them to another occurrence some 1400 years ago.. the 19th c events occurred in 1814-16 and again circa, 1883. the reason for the sun and moon being darkened was volcanic activity, easy for us to appreciate, but more difficult for religiously superstitious people.. the wikipedia encyclopedia notes the 1814-16 event: quote.

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  Half banana

  Vidqun, I'm sorry but I think you have left planet Earth behind. Try a bar inhabited by hairy bikers who love conspiracy theories.
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  14

  "The sun will be darkened, & the moon will not give its light." How do events like this affect superstitious humans?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the gospel of matthew's homily on the signs connected with the imagined return of christ, features an element of the sign that seems to really scare superstitious people.. matthew 24:29 reads: "immediately after the distress of those days "'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;".

  in the nineteenth century such an even occurred twice in the 19th century and apparently became part of charlie russell's conviction that the end of the world was nigh, charlie, of course, was a 'man of faith' accepting the bible as true and not willing to search for alternative explanation for such events.

  if charlie r. had been the sort of person that continually asks why, his life and ours may have taken a different course.. i cannot quote where in his mass of writings he cites those 19th c events (its a long time since i've bothered to be interested in his writings), but mention them he did, and saw these events as proof of the imminent return of jesus christ.. so let's look at these two 19th c.natural occurrences, and compare them to another occurrence some 1400 years ago.. the 19th c events occurred in 1814-16 and again circa, 1883. the reason for the sun and moon being darkened was volcanic activity, easy for us to appreciate, but more difficult for religiously superstitious people.. the wikipedia encyclopedia notes the 1814-16 event: quote.

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  Half banana

  " One should keep in mind that some Biblical prophecies could have a primary as well as a secondary fulfillment."

  More importantly one should keep in mind that the Bible is useless for prophecy.
  
  
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  58

  Be Honest in All Things - New video exposes a problem with honesty at Bethel/Construction

  by George One Time in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  on tv.jw.org kenneth cook jr. discusses how important it is to be honest when applying for special assignemts.

  he mentions health and viewing pornography.

  those who viewed pornography during the last year should not apply.

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  Half banana

  Telling others to be "honest in all things" is gross hypocrisy coming from the dishonest JW organisation.

  What right have they to demand how people should behave when their own policies continue to cause actual serious psychological harm to individuals who are often too powerless or browbeaten to stand up for themselves?

  Is it honest in all things to sever the greatest source of human strength for individuals; the love of family-- just because some choose to disagree with JW doctrines or act contrary to JW culture?

  This organisation has nothing to show that it has achieved divine blessing--all of its prophetic promises have failed miserably. The JW organisation never humbly acknowledges its own shortcomings since to do so would expose that it is just a money making cult hiding behind respected Bible authority to get its own way.

  The JW organisation, by putting its own interests first in all things, has become so resolutely blind to the human consequences of what it teaches that it has no authority to dictate anything at all to anyone else.
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  14

  "The sun will be darkened, & the moon will not give its light." How do events like this affect superstitious humans?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the gospel of matthew's homily on the signs connected with the imagined return of christ, features an element of the sign that seems to really scare superstitious people.. matthew 24:29 reads: "immediately after the distress of those days "'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;".

  in the nineteenth century such an even occurred twice in the 19th century and apparently became part of charlie russell's conviction that the end of the world was nigh, charlie, of course, was a 'man of faith' accepting the bible as true and not willing to search for alternative explanation for such events.

  if charlie r. had been the sort of person that continually asks why, his life and ours may have taken a different course.. i cannot quote where in his mass of writings he cites those 19th c events (its a long time since i've bothered to be interested in his writings), but mention them he did, and saw these events as proof of the imminent return of jesus christ.. so let's look at these two 19th c.natural occurrences, and compare them to another occurrence some 1400 years ago.. the 19th c events occurred in 1814-16 and again circa, 1883. the reason for the sun and moon being darkened was volcanic activity, easy for us to appreciate, but more difficult for religiously superstitious people.. the wikipedia encyclopedia notes the 1814-16 event: quote.

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  Half banana

  Before science explained things rationally for us, the world was buzzing with supernatural forces.

  For the ancients, looking upward was to glimpse the divine heavens. For them it was as if the circular world was covered by an inverted glass bowl; the events in the sky, the weather, the passage and phasing of sun moon and stars were all played out at the level of the heavenly dome. They were so lofty and so wonderful--they must have meaning since everything had a 'spiritual' meaning. Life back then was as Thomas Hobbes said echoing Job: "short lived and brutish," there must be something better. The heavens are above the Earth, down here is the home where us poor mortals dwell and the heavens are the abode of the immortal gods-- then it would follow to look to the heavens for a sign!

  You can after all predict the coming weather especially if you live outdoors, you become able to read the signs. By reading the position of the stars and the position of the sunrise and sunset by markers on the horizon, you can accurately say what time of year it is without a printed calendar-- and therefore know when to sow each of the different crops.

  The heavenly canopy was not just predictive but also a source for universal folk myth. All children being taught these tales handed down through endless generations the things represented by the heavenly constellations. Being universally superstitious, these stories also were taken literally to predict divine revenge and cataclysmic change. The Bible perpetuated many of these sentiments by changing them from oral tradition to written text.

  Today only superstitious people believe in prophecies.
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  22

  Foreign holidays now expicitly forbidden too

  by George One Time in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/jw-celebrate-holidays/.

  mostly we read about the regular holidays in the western world.

  now the other ones are also named, because some witnesses could be in doubt .

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  Half banana

  Amelia, I did too but we have to remember to translate American English into British English i.e. the American for our 'holiday' would have been 'vacation'.

  Quite right Xanthippe what the WT calls "a Bible trained conscience" is actually the rules of the GB, no freedom of thought is permitted. Dire cult!