someone sent me these recent growth projections, haven't verified the source yet, but pretty interesting.
randy.
http://www.freeminds.org.
ah. went to adherents.com (an excellent source for research) to find verification and happened upon the source of the numbers: http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#families
these numbers are USA, based on a survey (ie self-professed) and show change over the last 10 years.
mox
achristian believes those who think the bible teaches that the flood was global look foolish.
he wrote, .
i encourage all christians to investigate the possibility that the bible does not really teach that the whole earth was flooded at the time of noah.
making estimates at the size and shape of the flood region and calculating the maximum flight distance of a middle eastern dove for comparison is ludicrous. (and comically reminiscent of Life of Brian.) there wasnt a big circle of water and then suddenly none. surely if the flood was not geographically global, the flooded area wouldve constantly fluctuated over the many months of inundation, with the surrounding area ranging from total inundation, to isolated peaks, to islands, to flooded rivers, etc. trying to make any determination about the state of a local flood from the flight of a bird seems pointless. it only makes sense in the context of a fictional global flood legend.
likewise, the bizarre method used by noah to check if the ark had grounded:
Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.what?? u mean the earth was totally dry and they still had to sit in the ark waiting to find out? this implies the ark had no windows, an obvious physical impossibility. it also seems to be written by a severely nautically-challenged author, who isnt familiar with the OBVIOUS sensation of a vessel being grounded, or of the absence of the sensation of the waves. i doubt the author had ever been on a boat before in his life! ive read that the gilgamesh epic, written by a sea-faring people, contains more realistic nautical references (ark dimensions aside.)
legend, people. legend.
mox
i was just wondering if this typo is in the us version also?
its in the 1 may 2002 watchtower p.31 on the far right block of text on the seventh line down:.
and members of the great crowd are not in the inner courtyard of jehovahs great spiritual temple, which courtyard represents the condition of prefect, righteous human sonship ot the members of jehovahs holy priesthood while they are on earth.. i know its just a small typo, but i have never seen a mistake like this before [to my memory] in the watch towers literaturehas anyone else?.
wouldnt this be an indication of last-minute alterations to the article that didnt have time to go thru the regular proof-reading process? simple spell-check-catchable errors *are* very rare and i would assume the regular QA process involves some spell-check software.
mox
someone sent me these recent growth projections, haven't verified the source yet, but pretty interesting.
randy.
http://www.freeminds.org.
very interesting. the figures are based on US censuses, i would guess. 1.3 million sounds about right for self-professed JWs in the USA. i seem to recall that the census numbers are dropping at a higher rate than the publisher stats, as well.
how interesting that 'babylon's waters' are doing so well comparitively, if the projections are accurate.
mox
a college student was in a philosophy class which had a discussion about god's existence.
"has anyone in this class seen god?
"has anyone is this class heard our professor's brain?
Moxy,The story you posted is bogus. I have seen it before.
you mean you have seen the events of the story first-hand? or you have seen the story before? my point (and the point of the snopes article) is that these stories are very popular and tend to evolve and spread over time (like an urban legend does) and are therefore nearly impossible to verify.
Also, I do not, nor have ever heard of jack trick. Do you mean Jack Chick. I am aware of chick publications, I remember seeing them years and years ago.oops, yes. i meant mistyped chick. check out his website http://chick.com sometime for a laugh.
The point of the original post, just because one does not see something or believe in something does not mean it is not there or does not exist.well, i think thats obvious. but the idea of the student stupefying the professor into silence with this simplistic logic is laughable. but due to its very nature, the story will live on.
mox
got the first oscar of the evening for her role in a beautiful mind.
she looked painfully thin compared to her pre boob reduction surgery.
but still classy looking.. .
halle berry just stole the show. that speech will be the talk around the office coolor tomorrow.
mox
a college student was in a philosophy class which had a discussion about god's existence.
"has anyone in this class seen god?
"has anyone is this class heard our professor's brain?
the story of a brave, good christian student standing up to an intimidating, atheist professor and soundly trumping his logic is a popular one, having made the rounds extensively and in various forms as an urban legend, as well as numerous jack trick tracts. (also see http://www.snopes2.com/religion/chalk.htm)
mox
$2.50 for a highball and a buck-and-a-half for a beer
the wt, 2-1-02 says on p. 15, that only after judas was gone did jesus institute the memorial of his death.
after researching all 4 gospel accounts, this is simply not true.
luke 22:21 makes it very clear that judas was, in fact, present and active in partaking of the bread and wine.
judas partook of the passover bread during the meal, but it wasnt the special, magical Bread of the Covenant (TM). theres no indication of when judas left in relation to the covenant, but theres no way to prove the authors thought he was there if you start making distinctions about when the passover ended and the lords evening meal began.
mox
17 i am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it.
19 you are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
20 two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.
lars, you make a lot of goofy posts. im beginning to think your being deliberately comical. i sure sure hope so in this case.
i enjoyed the summary of the documentary hypothesis in the flood account on your site, joseph. one thing im curious about tho is why you insist on referencing the earlier account as the one that uses LORD. i understand if you are rendering from a modern english bible, that LORD is the easiest to use. but since it *is* called the book of J or the Yawhist document, it seems only sensible in any discussion of the documentary hypothesis, to at least mention why. by simply saying LORD and GOD, i think a very meaningful difference between the two eras and cultures that produced the two accounts, namely, their respective veiws of gods name, is hidden from the reader.
mox
holy smokes: did moses and king solomon smoke pot?.
working in the publishing business has its perks, and one of those is getting to see new releases of books that sometimes never land in the bookstores.
today, i happened to be reading through some product literature that i had put off for some time and discovered a book that was published a few months ago about the usage of drugs in the bible.
is that the word that's translated in the NWT, to the delight of bored children everywhere who find it, as 'marshmallow?'
mox
