scotoma

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Posts by scotoma

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  40

  World Events bring about A Renewed Zeal!!!

  by jk-ton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi guys!

  is anyone sensing an increasingly sanctimonious arrogance in j-dubs recently?

  im asking this as i am finding that with the two major news stories in the last few weeks (ie.

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  scotoma

  One thing is obvious. The world is NOT becoming more antireligious. And the main JW scenario is that Babylon the Great is False Religion and that the tribulation starts when the UN bans religion.

  There is nothing absolutely nothing in world events that says governments are going to turn against religion.

  Every once in a while there are rumors about taxing churches in the USA. This has been going on since the 1950's.

  A recent advocate of taxing religion floated the figure of 28 billion dollars of possible revenue if all the taxing bodies (fed,state,local) made religious institutions pay tax like every other organization.

  That sounds like a big number. But compare that to the 6.2 trillion dollars of taxes taken in by all taxing bodies and you see it is not a significant amount. 28 billion is not even 1/2 of 1 percent of 6.2 trillion.

  If the government was desperate for another 28 billion dollars to waste, it could simply increase it's tax burden on individuals and corporations by that 1/2 of 1 percent.

  The richest entity on earth isn't some crazy grouping called World empire of false religion.

  The richest entity on earth is the USA with its "shameless luxury" otherwise known as conspicuous consuption.

  The most powerful enitity on earth is not the United Nations or Nato.

  The most powerful entity on earth that dominates the world is The USA

  The entity whose traveling merchants are the top ranking men of the earth isn't religions.

  It's the USA (Look at Forbes list of most influential people in the world. )
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  40

  World Events bring about A Renewed Zeal!!!

  by jk-ton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi guys!

  is anyone sensing an increasingly sanctimonious arrogance in j-dubs recently?

  im asking this as i am finding that with the two major news stories in the last few weeks (ie.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  Blondie,

  You are correct. I conflated the two scriptures.

  There is a need to distinguish between the many reminders that we don't know the day or the hour and the scriptures that tell us to stay awake.

  1 Thess. 5:6 So, then let us not sleep on as the rest do but let us stay awake and keep our senses."

  At some point there will be enough evidence that Christians will be able to "raise themselves errect because their deliverance is getting near".
• 
  40

  World Events bring about A Renewed Zeal!!!

  by jk-ton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi guys!

  is anyone sensing an increasingly sanctimonious arrogance in j-dubs recently?

  im asking this as i am finding that with the two major news stories in the last few weeks (ie.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  jk-ton,

  The question isn't whether JW's or any religion is right or wrong.

  What do you SEE happening?

  Back engineer prophesy for a minute.

  1. As Blondie has pointed out from the scriptures: "No one knows the day or the hour."

  2. When asked right before he was levitated "Lord are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?" He didn't say YES. He also didn't say NO.

  He said, "(Acts 1:7) It does not belong to you to get knowledge of the times or seasons which the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction." He then said basically that they should be Christian Witnesses to the ends of the earth" That's the last anyone supposedly has seen or heard from Jesus. Poof! Good-Bye.

  Compare that with Matt. 24:36 "Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heaven nor THE SON OF MAN, but only the Father.

  Why would only the Father know? Why wouldn't he tell anyone? God/Father is a placeholder for whatever happens will happen whenever it happens. We are obsessed with timetables because we are time bound. Nature is probability. Try to predict exactly when a child will be born.

  3. The most important thing is to be ready to flee when you see the disgusting thing standing where it shouldnt. That's the trigger. The start of the great tribulation. This is the biggest mistake of JW's. They think the trigger is governments attacking babylon the great which they identify as religion. Religion is not Babylon the Great. The USA as the worlds hegemon (dominates economically and militarily) is Babylon the Great.

  4. Go to Daniel. Now for the reverse engineering. You don't have to explain everything in Daniel. You just need to know the events associated with the Great Tribulation. Most of the other stuff in Daniel is too ambiguous. It was meant to keep people guessing. Daniel was told to make secret the words he was writing because they were for insightful ones to understand at the time of the end.

  5. Just before Michael stands up to save his people it says some particular King will "have to come all the way to his end and there will be no helper for him". That King is the King of the North. Daniel makes that clear in vs 40 of Daniel chapter 11. "And in the time of the end the king of the south will engage with HIM in a pushing. Are there two significant Kings with a history of Pushing? The JW's used to be quite explicit that the two kings were Russia and the USA. They dropped that after the Soviet Union disappeared.

  6. Notice that the King of the South is not considered a significant figure on the earth after he is mentioned in vs 40. He's not the King that is destroyed at the end of the 11th chapter.

  7. Something happens from vs 40 on. That verse indicates that the King of the North will storm with a great military force the King of the South. Does this attack succeed or fail for the King of the North. It certainly sounds like the King of the North succeeds. "He will certainly enter into the lands and flood over and pass through. vs. 42 He will keep thrusting out his hand against the lands. vs. 43 "He will actually rule over the hidden treasures of the gold and silver" It appears that he has knocked off the King of the South. Think about it if he destroys the USA he would then be the controller of the worlds economy.

  It could happen!
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  40

  World Events bring about A Renewed Zeal!!!

  by jk-ton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi guys!

  is anyone sensing an increasingly sanctimonious arrogance in j-dubs recently?

  im asking this as i am finding that with the two major news stories in the last few weeks (ie.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  Watchtower Writers Missing Significance of World Events. Ask JW's if they think Russia is the King of the North?

  JW’s really ought to take note of what is going on in Ukraine.

  The Europeans are reluctanly being dragged along by the USA. The Europeans don’t want a war
  in their back yard. They are going along with the USA right now because they are deluded into
  thinking sanctions will persuade Putin.

  Look at these headlines. They all are about the pushing going on between the USA and Russia.
  There is a mix of dates. You can easily do a search and find thousands of articles with the
  pushing that has been going on between the USA and Russia. Ukraine is the Very Scarlet Red
  Line. Ukraine is where it all stops.

  AP Analysis: Pushed against the wall over Ukraine, Putin may opt for even tougher course. July
  31 2014

  McKeon: Obama letting Putin push us around
  Special Guests Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif.
  July 29, 2014 / America's Newsroom

  Sanctions push Putin into the cold
  AFP | 31 July, 2014 00:03

  Sanctions push Putin into the cold MSNBC
  AFP | 31 July, 2014 00:03

  Shame Putin... but push his back to the wall at your peril, by historian and post-communist
  specialist MARK ALMOND
  By MARK ALMOND , HISTORIAN AND SPECIALIST IN POST-COMMUNIST
  COUNTRIES
  PUBLISHED: 16:14 EST, 19 July 2014 | UPDATED: 18:47 EST, 20 July 2014 Daily Mail UK

  Putin's hard line on MH17 will only push Russia into an ever-tighter corner
  The Russian president has several routes of retreat in the face of growing pressure. He is unlikely
  to take any of them.

  Jonathan Eyal
  The Observer, Saturday 19 July 2014 15.04 EDT

  Don't push Putin into a corner
  PUBLISHED ON JUL 22, 2014 6:30 PM 4 5 0 0 Straits Time
  
  How the West can peacefully push Putin out of Ukraine Russia's president does have a weak spot
  By Peter Weber | March 3, 2014 The Week

  U.S. Sanctions Push Putin Toward His Dream of A New Financial System
  Simon Shuster / Donetsk @shustry April 28, 2014 Time

  Ukraine Crisis PushingPutin Toward China
  By NEIL MacFARQUHAR and DAVID M. HERSZENHORNMAY 19, 2014 New York Times

  Putin: USA pushed Georgia to war to make Russia look like an enemy
  29.08.2008 Pravda

  How to check Vladimir Putin :What the West should be doing about Russia

  Mar 11th 2004 | From the print edition The Economist
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  17

  Elder ignores me at Walgreens here in Milwaukee.

  by Joliette in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a month ago i went to walgreens to get some snacks and a newspaper.

  i was walking out when i noticed an elder that i grew up with walking towards me.

  he kinda looked in my direction, the turned his head away and kept walking with his nose in the air.

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  scotoma

  Don't give that Elder the benefit of anonymity. Name him.

  There are probably plenty of people in Milwaukee that will know who he is and it will give them a chance to ignore him.
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  40

  Athiests: Do you ever wonder... what if?

  by toweragent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'll start by saying, i'm a ministerial servant who is trapped in the religion.

  my wife is hardcore...but i've slowly been getting her to lighten up, so i'll take it!

  all my friends and family are jw's, and i am employed by a jw (who is actually a great boss).

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  scotoma

  I feel the void - the emptiness. But it's because I was filling it with something that didn't exist.

  Now that I am an atheist I look back on a waisted life (almost 70 years).

  If I could get shock treatments and forget what I have come to know I would probably prefer the delusion of the matrix.

  Religion is a powerful drug - the ultimate placebo because it only works if you believe it.
• 
  2

  The Mind Of Adolf Hitler

  by frankiespeakin in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those interested in this sort of thing like myself:.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_mind_of_adolf_hitler.

  the mind of adolf hitler: the secret wartime report, published in 1972 by basic books, is based on a world war ii report bypsychoanalystwalter c. langer which probed the psychology of adolf hitler from the available information.

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  scotoma

  The mind of Adolf Hitler doesn't need a thousand pages to understand.

  He was obviously obsessive about control and quite narcicisstic.

  He was a master of BullSh*t who believed his own words.

  Words permeated with emotion are very persuasive to cheering crowds.

  The charismatic speaker falls victim to the crowds feedback.

  Reality eventually wins out and the crowds that give life to the fantasy disappear.

  The person suddenly loses their manufactured identity and they are confronted with the fact that they are an empty shell.

  Suicide is an easy out.

  Think Jim Jones and other preachers. Think of JF Rutheford at Beth Sarim

  This type of person can be useful in motivating others. But unless they remain grounded they can be very destructive.
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  22

  most important event in the 20th century

  by scotoma in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  june 28 1914 archduke ferdinand was killed by a serbian government sponsored assassination team.. this was the trigger event of world war i. actually some have called it world war (part 1) followed less than 30 years later by world war (part 2).. in retrospect this was a useful date for jw's.. it has propelled them for 100 years.. of course jw's have massaged their predictions about the significance of 1914 over the years.. do you feel that jw's would be what they are today without that great war?

  do you think that the shooting down of the passenger plane over east ukraine will be an equivalent moment that pushes putin into a corner where he will have to fight the west?

  in other words will we look back on that event as the beginning of world war (part 3)?.

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  scotoma

  jgnat: I purchased his(Pinkers) first three books at half price books. I perused "Better Angels" at the library. Just don't have time to read another Pinker book, honestly.

  Since he is a thinker by temperament he believes reason can accomplish miracles. He simply hasn't lived in my world. All of the things he describes that have made this a less violent world can disappear in a nuclear exchange.

  What if Russia exploded a nuclear weapon in New York City? Not using an ICBM but a small bomb that would give them plausible deniability. It could easily be blamed on terrorists. Even if it were shown that it was a Russian made bomb they could not be held accountable if there was the possibility that some desperate guard allowed access to a nuclear storage depot. It would be similar to trying to assign blame for the downing of the airplane over East Ukraine. The Russians made the missile but that's all you can say and it isn't enough to justify punitive retaliation.

  I know this is the stuff of a Tom Clancy novel but that makes it even more likely. Remember Tom Clancy wrote two novels in the late 90's about pilots flying a Jet airplane into the Capitol building. There have been several movies in the last ten years that have dealt with this kind of nuclear bomb scenario. Warren Buffet said it's not a matter of if but when.

  The USA is fanning the hatred against Russia. The Bric nations don't have a problem with Russia. The Europeans are being reluctantly dragged along by the USA to sanction Russia. If Russia were to pull a terrorist attack on NYC and blame it on the Islamists it would cause a global dissaster. While we are trying to recover. The USA would no longer be a problem in Russia's back yard

  Suddenly, the world could revert to the violence of the ancient world.

  I don't think even Pinker can be positive about the future. Actually any event based on human input that hasn't happened has a 50% chance of occurring. If you can say that some event has a 60% of occurring or not occurring you would have to know something about future events to make such a claim.
• 
  22

  most important event in the 20th century

  by scotoma in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  june 28 1914 archduke ferdinand was killed by a serbian government sponsored assassination team.. this was the trigger event of world war i. actually some have called it world war (part 1) followed less than 30 years later by world war (part 2).. in retrospect this was a useful date for jw's.. it has propelled them for 100 years.. of course jw's have massaged their predictions about the significance of 1914 over the years.. do you feel that jw's would be what they are today without that great war?

  do you think that the shooting down of the passenger plane over east ukraine will be an equivalent moment that pushes putin into a corner where he will have to fight the west?

  in other words will we look back on that event as the beginning of world war (part 3)?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  scotoma

  Jignat;

  I've read just about everything Pinker writes. I am habitually pessimistic. Your comment is obviously optimistic to you. You make a vague estimate of the possibility of overt war between the USA and Russia. Saying the possibility is "remote" lacks a numerical estimate of its probability. Even if the probability of it was .001 I would consider that intolerable when considering the consequences. Remember the USA felt the Japan situation in 1945 was serious enough to use nuclear weapons. And of this date the USA and Russia both have a first-strike policy if they feel they have no other choice.

  On a positive note the US intelligence just made an announcement that they have no proof of Russian involvement of taking down the aircraft.

  "There won't be a Perry Mason moment" is how it was described.

  This is probably because Europeans aren't on board with more sanctions and they want to give Putin a chance to save face.
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  22

  most important event in the 20th century

  by scotoma in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  june 28 1914 archduke ferdinand was killed by a serbian government sponsored assassination team.. this was the trigger event of world war i. actually some have called it world war (part 1) followed less than 30 years later by world war (part 2).. in retrospect this was a useful date for jw's.. it has propelled them for 100 years.. of course jw's have massaged their predictions about the significance of 1914 over the years.. do you feel that jw's would be what they are today without that great war?

  do you think that the shooting down of the passenger plane over east ukraine will be an equivalent moment that pushes putin into a corner where he will have to fight the west?

  in other words will we look back on that event as the beginning of world war (part 3)?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  scotoma

  steve2,

  I almost forgot about the atomic bomb. But that was an extension of WWII.

  WWIII would take up where WWII ended - widespread use of nuclear weapons.