The rabbis did faint, designs. Though it is interesting to note some of these points -- point 7, about YHWH making it rain sulphur from YHWH in heaven in particular -- have an extended treatment in ancient sources like the Dialogue with Trypho. There, Justin Martyr has an extended conversation with a group of young Jewish philosophers; all go away frustrated.
Posts by Sulla
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28Christian questions to ask current JWs
by Christ Alone inhere are some questions that i thought would be interesting to ask a jw if they were open to a free and open discussion.
this assumes a christian worldview that the bible is the word of god.
if you have any others, please post them!
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50
The Watchtower Society has come to grips with the futility of D2D preaching
by wasblind inyou don't even have to read between the lines, they say it straight out on their website.
" in many countries, more and more people obtain information online.".
who'd a thunk it .
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Sulla
What if they pivoted from making everybody go door-to-door for for 10 hours each month to making everybody do charity work? "We expect you to feed the homeless or teach English to refugees or mentor an orphan for 10 hours a month since the scripture says that as we do to the least of these..."
That's a joke. The leaders aren't the sort to reject the idea that they are the ones to whom you must show charity.
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Glaring omission in yesterdays Watchtower Study
by Bloody Hotdogs! in[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>normal</w:view> <w:zoom>0</w:zoom> <w:punctuationkerning /> <w:validateagainstschemas /> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:saveifxmlinvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:ignoremixedcontent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables /> <w:snaptogridincell /> <w:wraptextwithpunct /> <w:useasianbreakrules /> <w:dontgrowautofit /> </w:compatibility> <w:browserlevel>microsoftinternetexplorer4</w:browserlevel> </w:worddocument> </xml><![endif].
[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:latentstyles> </xml><!
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Sulla
One of the embarrassing difficulties for religious groups who draw upon the Hebrew Scriptures (AKA The Old Testament) is it is brim full of murderous rage and violence that, by today's standards is monstrous and outrageous. Hence, when using "stories" from those scriptures, you have to sanitize them and leave out so much that has modern, rights-oriented thinkers reasonably wondering what "sort" of "god" is the god of the Jews?
Today's standards? Well, the complaint that the Hebrew scriptures are full of stories of a wrathful God doing horrible things through nasty and brutish agents is a pretty old one. Marcion, for example, figured that the OT God was a different dude from the NT God entirely for exactly this reason. So, it isn't exactly like we've raised our standards.
But any theology that insists that God is the person who raised Jesus, having previously freed the Jews is going to have to deal with the OT as it is, without these offensive little stories we see from, for example, JW apologists. (My favorite: had Bathsheba been stoned, the fetus would have died in the womb and, therefore, would not be in line for a resurrection. So, you see, we came out ahead!)
In general, the older (non-fundamentalist) Christian approach has been to observe that God comes to us as we are. And if we are thuggish bronze age warlords who fuck your wife and then arrange to have our thuggish and brutal relatives get you killed, he comes to us. And if we are refined and sensitive modern types who never would -- ever could -- even consider such an act even if we had the power of a bronze age warlord because we are really so much better than that bunch... well, he comes to us as well.
But, yes, I think we have to hold out the possibility that God might smite your ass.
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Glaring omission in yesterdays Watchtower Study
by Bloody Hotdogs! in[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>normal</w:view> <w:zoom>0</w:zoom> <w:punctuationkerning /> <w:validateagainstschemas /> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:saveifxmlinvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:ignoremixedcontent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables /> <w:snaptogridincell /> <w:wraptextwithpunct /> <w:useasianbreakrules /> <w:dontgrowautofit /> </w:compatibility> <w:browserlevel>microsoftinternetexplorer4</w:browserlevel> </w:worddocument> </xml><![endif].
[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:latentstyles> </xml><!
[endif][if gte mso 10]> <style> /* style definitions */ table.msonormaltable {mso-style-name:"table normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"times new roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif].
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Sulla
Watchtower at it again, I see. They always make it seem like there was this functioning moral law in 750 BC whereby a judicial committee, I guess, would meet to determine whether someone was guilty of adultery and then pass a stoning sentence on them. The Deuteronomic code, where we find this idea of stoning adulterers, is developed later than David. And, in any case, the idea that it might apply to the king is really tendentious.
That aside, it seems to me the idea behind the entire story, which includes Absolom's civil war and so on, is a reflection on the cost of sin. Turns out, it's bad. King sins, everybody suffers. And that's just the way it is.
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"We the people" to make this wold better?
by supernerdboy in[url]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/we-would-immediate-change-installed-tax-exempt-status-churches/06ccgmzm[/url].
[url]https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/replace-god-official-us-money-mottos-and-slogans/x8clzn8c[/url].
i voted for these hoping we can get a change and stop the leaches from making this a "christian nation" and not a nation for all people.
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Sulla
Ah. Yes, of course. Settled for all time by the Treaty of Tripoli, 1797. Muslim pirate kidnapper warlords or somesuch, correct?
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The deuterocanonical book of Wisdom
by Pterist inhaving done a little research on the book of wisdom, i decided to read it very morning as part of my daily spiritual reading.
the greek period and it's influence tested the jewish community and yet after many objections the people of god acquired a new awareness of their own path.. at first i felt a little uneasy as the wisdom of god is presented in the feminine gender.
however the recognised book of proverbs (chapter 8) does the same.
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Sulla
The first reading at my aunt's funeral last week was from Wisdom 3:
The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace.
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Sulla
Lay off Ray-Ray! He's killed one man in his whole life.
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How do these Hard Core JW's Function?
by Zordino ini am a fader and through the years i've known and spoken to jw's who live their entire life around the religion.
they live as though they speak with jesus himself!
what really got to me was the other day me and my wife had to stop by some elder's house and it was a saturday night.
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Sulla
I was always so terrible at studying for the Wt or book study. I could never figure out exactly what we were supposed to be learning -- "This is all shit we already know, right?" Once you have 50 scriptures memorized you figure out every article is just a collection of the same thing. There was never any point to doing any extra study -- like the folks in this story did -- because all the cross-references were back to the same set of 50 proof texts.
Here's one example of what I mean. JWs can go their whole freakin' lives and never have come across the fact that the gospel of John disagrees with the synoptics on the day of the Last Supper. How in hell do you manage to spend 20 years studying the bible and miss this huge difference? I think everybody knows the answer, but it is still amazing.
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Just yelled at my mom today
by trujw insorry to post this but for some reason after a year of not talking i got drunk this morning(yeah i know no lecture) and called my mom and blew up.
i tolded her she was a false prophet and a horriable christian mother who never even came to her grandson's birth by my wife.
my words came out like a river of rage from which i never knew.
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Sulla
Aristotle suggests virtue is acting in the right way toward the right object for the right reason. Courage, for example, is the appropriate mean between cowardice and foolhardiness.
So, it isn't wrong to be angry or even to express anger. The question is whether is was done in the right way and for the right reason. I think a drunken rage is probably not the right way.
On the other hand, you are clearly correct to express your appropriate anger, even toward your mother. I think the real error here was in failing to express yourself properly prior to this. As a result, you wind up doing something you wish you hadn't. Which isn't to say it is easy, of course.
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Lies! Lies! Subway Isn't "Footlong"!
by metatron inhttp://www.businessinsider.com/subway-footlong-length-2013-1.
is everything fake these days?.
metatron.
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Sulla
Not making any jokes at all about Kurtbether's desire for 6 inches of meat. Because it isn't funny. At all.