soft+gentle

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Posts by soft+gentle

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  28

  Ransom paid. But still you gotta suffer!

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  with my recent rise to atheistic agnosticism(?

  ) i pondered this:.

  if the death of jesus paid the ultimate price.....then why didn't it all end there and then and everyone got to heaven or walk into paradise with a panda?.

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  soft+gentle

  lol punkofnice.
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  159

  Believers, do you believe in evolution?

  by everchangingworld in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  after leaving, i still couldn't wrap my head around evolution (after the years of seing "intelligent design" in everything around me).. there's a series of videos that give a good intro to evolution and critical thinking.

  they've probably been posted here before, but, for any new members, these are worth watching.. evolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdddbyilel0.

  critical thinking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6olpl5p0fmg.

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  soft+gentle

  NC why is a fall not logical in the context of evolution? For example if we take evolution to turn on the survival of the fittest, and if the fittest denotes what is most fit for its environment, then there must also be an awareness that the best, the most able bodied, the most gifted in human terms often have to die becasuse evolution does not select according to human paramaters. Thus the fall may signify, in anthropology for example, such losses from higher to lower in humanly understandable terms. just putting this out there for discussion. (edit: I'm not trying to have a go at you personally)

  another thing evolution favours variety and homogeneity doesn't it? of course it does. so from this perspective a fall for humans and a fall for a figure like satan may have different outcomes.

  edit: the fossil record is very useful and yes I agee that if something is backed up by material evidence that is undeniable then one can debunk fallacious totalising reasoning from organisations like the WTS but on the other arguing from absence of evidence to make one's own totalising negation is pretty shaky.

  edit 2: okay in re-reading your post,NC I see that you were not making a totalising negation but were asking questions of other people and then sharing an impression. but I hope my reasoning does challenge that impression.
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  123

  New here

  by Change Name in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i had been studying with the jehovah's witnesses for the last couple years.

  they have been interesting study sessions and have learned quite a bit about them and their beliefs.

  much of what they teach is what i had learned through personal bible study.. growing up was normal.

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  soft+gentle

  change name - welcome

  You have to admit that the WTS' takes advantage of whatever amibvalences that come its way, like its interaction with the UN in obtaining NGO status and then rescinding it when opposed. Ordinary JWs are not allowed to take advantage of ambivalences that come their way even if it means their lives are on the line.

  the above dawns more and more while reading sites like this so I wish you well on your journey
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  529

  Analysis of anti-607 BCE Rebuttals

  by Ethos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i agreed yesterday to engage in the '607' topic.

  i've read numerous threads and am well aware that this topic has been addressed and dissected quite thoroughly.

  therefore, if you are uninterested in participating, that's fine.

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  soft+gentle

  17 pages

  ethos, imo, you haven't proved that anti 607 rebuttals are wrong. What you have done is provide better (but not completely convincing as your rebutters have shown here) reasons for 607 BCE than the society. So who has new light you or the WTS?
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  31

  Did Sab get banned?

  by Christ Alone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i sure hope not.

  if you're still around, please let us know that you're ok. you kinda worried me in your last thread.

  hope you're ok, bro....

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  soft+gentle

  I missed what happened too.

  hugs to you sab
• 
  529

  Analysis of anti-607 BCE Rebuttals

  by Ethos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i agreed yesterday to engage in the '607' topic.

  i've read numerous threads and am well aware that this topic has been addressed and dissected quite thoroughly.

  therefore, if you are uninterested in participating, that's fine.

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  soft+gentle

  jeffro

  I have been trying to follow the arguments here and I think that the the bible can generate many interpretations and if there were many, even half baked ways of arriving at the dates under discussion it shows that during the period that Russel lived there was great interest in applying reason to the bible. This could have elicited interest from non religious people who may have simply been interested in its calculations in the same way that there was huge interest in the pyramids - magical fossils from a bygone age that needed to be studied to extract lost scientific meaning that could yield something in mans fight against obsolete oppressive religion and dynastic rule.

  but as this is ethos thread and he has said he does not want to stray from the topic of analysing anti-607 rebuttals what I want to know is why he has not given his research to the watchtower society? According to Ray Franz they were already aware that their 607 BCE calculations were shaky. Surely he is interested in bolstering their confidence.
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  529

  Analysis of anti-607 BCE Rebuttals

  by Ethos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i agreed yesterday to engage in the '607' topic.

  i've read numerous threads and am well aware that this topic has been addressed and dissected quite thoroughly.

  therefore, if you are uninterested in participating, that's fine.

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  soft+gentle

  well all I am waiting to see is how the date 1914 can be calculated soley from the book of revelation. If Ethos is going to get round this problem by using two revelatory books then he has to show a very very close relationship between the two so as not to be guilty of the same arbitrariness of WT schlarship.
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  529

  Analysis of anti-607 BCE Rebuttals

  by Ethos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i agreed yesterday to engage in the '607' topic.

  i've read numerous threads and am well aware that this topic has been addressed and dissected quite thoroughly.

  therefore, if you are uninterested in participating, that's fine.

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  soft+gentle

  sewing and war - how predictable, pterist are you are pulling my leg!!!!
• 
  529

  Analysis of anti-607 BCE Rebuttals

  by Ethos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i agreed yesterday to engage in the '607' topic.

  i've read numerous threads and am well aware that this topic has been addressed and dissected quite thoroughly.

  therefore, if you are uninterested in participating, that's fine.

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  soft+gentle

  sorry pterist - I ought to have said predicting to pinpoint 1914 by their calculations. And I agree that what Russell and others made of their predictions failed to happen.
• 
  529

  Analysis of anti-607 BCE Rebuttals

  by Ethos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i agreed yesterday to engage in the '607' topic.

  i've read numerous threads and am well aware that this topic has been addressed and dissected quite thoroughly.

  therefore, if you are uninterested in participating, that's fine.

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  soft+gentle

  cantleave

  What does any of this matter? 1914 is nearly 100 years ago. The generation that was cognizant of world events in 1914 is all dead. There has been no great tribulation, no armageddon and the cult is completely reinventing itself to remain afloat. 1914 will be dropped within a generation and the 607 argument with it.

  i have a theory (a rational one) about how people (not just JWs) who were predicting 1914 could have made a prediction that came true.