I nearly vomited on hearing the schmaltzy singing (designed purely for JW cultural reinforcement) but I still love Joni Mitchel's Big Yellow Taxi with its 1970's eco-message, still true over the decades.
Half banana
JoinedPosts by Half banana
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29
Why this obsession with Standardisation?
by eyeslice2 inthe longer i am out, the the less i understand the logic of this organisation.. i thought that the kingdom hall my wife attends was perfectly fine and adequate, in fact i liked that it sat in grassy grounds, surrounded by trees.
it probably wasn't in any dire need of re-decorating at this point.
others, obviously, thought otherwise and so the hall has recently been subjected to a make-over.. the parking lot has been extended in true joni michell they've "paved paradise and put up a parking lot".
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30
"Love Never Fails" ... Really ?
by Finkelstein in" love never fails " is the main assembly headline for this years district assemblies for the jws and what a contrived lark that is .
the jws leaders have created doctrines to which the organization's followers obeyed accordingly which have killed thousands , destroyed families and indirectly caused numerous suicides.
these men have instituted such doctrines such as refusing blood transfusions, vaccinations and organ transplants at one time, they still uphold the no blood transfusion doctrine though.
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Half banana
Yes Finky, love may never fail but JW style love always does.
Same old indoctrination at the assembly skewing the scriptures around to Watchtower dogma and not allowing any contradiction or serious reasoning. All declared in the atmosphere of one big friendly social club. But as Paul wrote, "love believes ALL things"--well that is simply crazy!
The JW message is like that of Islam...... submission! Submission to the interpreters of the 'holy' text.
Get a life people and look at the other side of the coin.
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In Sydney, and ex jw gathering, with an apperance by Angus Stewart!
by nonjwspouse inthis happened yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pfyty9bs3i.
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Half banana
Re Cedars getting remuneration for his activism.
Which is the more honest: spending all your time exposing a harmful cult vs getting paid in false promises working for the JW org?
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11
HOW MUCH OF THIS IS BELIEVABLE
by Hairtrigger inhttps://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-other-artifacts/ossuary-james-0012181.
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Half banana
relevantThere is no concrete evidence for Jesus of Nazareth. His existence is culturally supported by the historical and collective beliefs of a few billions of people.....
There is archaeological evidence that Nazareth did not even exist at the time of Jesus' birth but significantly it was thriving by the fourth century.
It is highly relevant to remember that the Greek scriptures and historical documents were hand copied and therefore subject to partisan tampering. This was especially the case for those Christian writers whose status was dependent on the successful establishment of Constantine's Catholic Church.
One of the most notorious sources for a historical Jesus is from the pen of the historian Flavius Josephus--or was it someone else's pen?
Josephus actually lived a short distance from where Nazareth later became a town and he was born just a handful of years after Jesus was supposed to have lived--and yet he never researched or wrote an expansive account of this local wunderkind who could raise the dead. Any ordinary conscientious historian (like Josephus was) would have thrashed out the details.
If you don't know the literature this has generated over the centuries-- and have a week to spare-- look up Testimonium Flavianum and just think what the Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea had to gain or lose from supporting his case in the argument.
The nature of religious belief however is driven by a will to prove that the numinous triumphs over the mundane and no doubt the ossuary was attributed to Jesus to this same end.
And by the way, Ancient Origins, although dealing with interesting issues, is on the mass entertainment side of archaeology.
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Governing Body - Time in Ministry
by Peeringin inis there any transparency in how many hours on the ministry the governing body members do on the ministry?
by this i mean the physical act of going door to door in their area.
i guess it is plausible that they would count overseas trips and working on publications as part of their ministry, but this is not what they encourage from the jw on the street.. is it possible for a gb member to be reproved or otherwise for not going out in service?
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Half banana
I was young and a new JW and I was an assembly at Twickenham London with Nathan Knorr speaking.
I recall my first observation was that he was a poor speaker but got ritual applause however feeble his points. What I also picked up from his comments which were about going in field service were that it seemed somewhat alien to him, I may have been misjudging the situation but that was how it sounded to me.
He spoke of calling on a man who said that the JWs were like communists and Knorr told us his smug reply; "In communism you cannot leave but as a JW you can leave at any time..... " It was an off-key comment back then but oh! how the org has engineered it so that you cannot leave without punishment today.--Stupid cult.
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I'd like to find a single female bible lover to read the Bible with me.
by littleyohane inbut i believe in jehovah god, and i read the bible every day.. i believe the bible is god's word.
and i pray to god every day.. it's somewhat off topic.
but i'd like to find a friend who loves the bible and want to read and find the truth of the bible together with me.. i live in japan and i am a japanese.
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Half banana
Didn't you actually mean, "I would like to find a single female lover to read the Bible with me" ?
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28
16.000 JWs rebel against Bethel and GB
by Edison Trent insome hot news:.
last weekend was a convention in frankfurt, germany and 11 other locations.
all were connected to the international convention in berlin.. in sum about 94.000 attended.
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Half banana
Sounds promising!
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30
"Keith It is with Great Sadness that I write this Note!"
by The Bethelite ini grew up with steve pare who is now an elder in southern california.
he sent me this note after i talked to him on the phone and sent him my book.. "the super-abundant blessings i have received in the advancing the earthly organization of jehovah have been fantastic !!!".
"jehovah is not behind in creating the paradise & his mighty of 9,000,000 will work with 20-50 billion to be resurrected & in 1,000 years the paradise will be done on time!!
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Half banana
And Keith your friend is one of those who live their deluded lives deep inside the JW bubble, smug in his his convictions and immunised against reality-- and likely he always will be. Sad isn't it?.
Friendship among JWs is usually conditional and outside of the congregation, in nearly all other situations, the tie of friendship is second only to family ties.
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30
"Keith It is with Great Sadness that I write this Note!"
by The Bethelite ini grew up with steve pare who is now an elder in southern california.
he sent me this note after i talked to him on the phone and sent him my book.. "the super-abundant blessings i have received in the advancing the earthly organization of jehovah have been fantastic !!!".
"jehovah is not behind in creating the paradise & his mighty of 9,000,000 will work with 20-50 billion to be resurrected & in 1,000 years the paradise will be done on time!!
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Half banana
Like with everything thing else Blondie , the Watchtower was wrong. A recent serious attempt at arriving at the total number of humans who have ever lived is something like 110,000,000,000-- one hundred and ten billion. I guess this is just for Homo sapiens but since humans evolved we were breeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans (amongst others) during our 300,000 year history. So should we not include those other members of our genus (Homo) as well since we are their offspring?
A proper evaluation of what humanity is makes nonsense of the Biblical claims and demonstrates that the Bible was simply myth told in the absence of a scientific understanding of life.
The idea of cheating death is an understandable wish and is the reason for the presence of religion in most human cultures. But which is the more absurd: never dying or resurrecting billions and billions of the dead?
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What is the inside info on "Reasoning From the Scriptures?"
by stillin ini understand why the witnesses won't actually "reason" from the scriptures; because they will have to come to grips with the fact that others have their own reasons, scripture-based, for believing differently than the jw's.. the "reasoning" book was supposed to arm the r&f with solid scriptural backing that could withstand most in-depth conversations.
so, why is it gathering dust now?
was there some doctrinal issue specifically?.
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Half banana
Yes Vidiot, it's impossible to reason with people who are forbidden to engage their brain. To start thinking and applying a critical evaluation of texts sends people out of the organisation. The GB have learnt this and are now very suspicious of anything which smacks of an intelligent appraisal.
My pet peeve is that JWs just look at the surface meaning in the light of the GB interpretation. They don't have a chance to learn that Bible texts are often from worldly sources, greatly modified and edited, and are the works of men of power compelling the powerless to conform.
Reasoning, they have reasoned is out! So just close your mind and OBEY.