c-14 made simple .
i am reading with amazement the comments about c-14 dating.
thankfully, larc brought my older posts on this back to the top.
in the case of turin, the apologists WANT it to be older so contamination is a good thing (pro-turin) for them not bad.
you forgot the blanket argument that the noachian flood so changed the atmospheric composition that the pre-flood dates are likely out by orders of magnitude.
this argument does not help refute the dating of the gaza pyramids to before the WTS date for the flood tho. gaza knocks out the flood and the rest of this simplistic blanket argument.
mox
in australia there are separate congregations for aboriginal witnesses.
the official line is that the nonwitness aboriginals are more responsive to other aboriginals.
that may be so, but that doesn't mean that they should be kept separate for meetings.
Id been meaning to ask about something along these lines.
ive heard that in some US communities that have widely spread social demographics that the congregations are sometimes deliberately split into rich and poor groups to make things go more smoothly and also because its difficult for someone to witness to a territory on the other side of the social fence. is this true or is it more just a result of territorial boundaries?
mox
those who are believers and worry about meeting gods standard for moral, ethics and general behavior seem to have very little to worry about.
at least if we are to take the bible serious.
take the example of the well know hero and judge, samson.
for example, did you know that the prostitutes in 'bible times' were not simply there to provide sex? they also providing sex-free lodging. naturally, they have the extra beds right? so we can assume that that was why samson went there.
other questions:
when does samson ever actually 'judge' anything?
how stupid is samson to give misleading instructions to delilah about the source of his strength and have those instructions carried out immediately, to have this happen THREE TIMES and not make the connection? how faery-taleish.
the mass slaughter of philistines is of course justified by the sentence laid upon all of the canaanites, the is Yahweh's sentence and, in fact, his decree upon the Jews. So if this is God's work, why does Samson go about it so randomly, just whenever he gets bent outta shape about something. it's like yahweh said:
'you must exterminate the inhabitants of this land from before you, but, you know, you might not want to exterminate the lot of them all at one time, because times will come when you grow hot with anger about something (believe me I know) and it might be nice to have a bunch of would-be-exterminated-inhabitants handy to vent on'
who is considered to have written this story? it smacks of J but im not sure that there is consensus on this.
mox
back in the uk, i remember that at the baptisms, the audience were told not to applaud until the last candidate had been dunked.
this, we were informed, gave the occassion a proper sense of dignity and decorum.
in general, clapping was restrained at assemblies.
"how do you FEEL ABOUT THAT BROTHERS AND SISTERS??"
can any assembly speaker get thru their part these days without feeling the need to elicit an ovation?
"Every year we come away from the assembly saying it was the BEST ONE EVER. and it's true!"
how is this even remotely possible?
mox
it seems that many who post on this board hold that the jw organization is a fraud, schemed mainly bu the g.b.
members.
but so far i have never read something as to the reasons behind the fraud.
nickita objected to messenger's implying that GB members never go in service but go on skiing holidays instead. lol. she wondered how he knew this. i think thats a fair question.
mox
on april 2nd i purchased the domain name www.do-not-call.org .
a few weeks later i posted a comment on the thread http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=3941&site=3.
it was titled 'can you stop the preaching work?'.
some available domains:
i wonder what the percentage is of ex-jws who become involved in other organized religions.
i had a discussion with a psychiatrist friend recently.
he told me that i am a "psychiatric anamoly," that most "devout" people who leave a religion will join another and become as devout in their new religion.
ive asked this question before in a.r.j-w but ive never really gotten a good answer, its not a fair sampling for one thing.
i think your psychiatrist friend's opinion is backed up by evidence tho, but i dont think you should necessarily equate an avoiding of organized religion with not being devout. true, many avoid organized religion. but the mindset may continue. do you see these attitudes among xjw's more or less than the average populace?
- people have to choose a side
- everyone is in a school of thought and the schools are opposed to each other.
- people show which 'side' they are on by WHO they associate with or respect more so than WHAT they think.
- it is proper to show love and support to those on one's own 'side' and the opposite to those who are not
- those not on one's own 'side' have NO redeeming features and it is a weakness to acknowledge any.
ray franz has mentioned this continued mindset after leaving the org. my time on a.r.j-w and h2o has shown me that this is largely true.
im sick and tired of sides...
mox
i would be very interested in any creationalists response to genesis 1:30 where the bible tells us that all animals wre originallly vegetarians.. why aren't they vegetarians now?
what about gnats who only live on blood?.
this to me brings up a lot of issues that can not be answered.
another interesting contradiction right in genesis: J tells cain that sin is 'crouching for him at the entrance' how would this have any meaning if animals did not hunt each other?
of course, the society has not been dogmatic on this issue, at least not for a long time. so youre not gonne pin them down to anything. when we got the Isaiah book, the first thing i checked was if they removed the literal fulfillment of the paradisaic vegetarian animals. it was relegated to a paragraph following the spiritual fulfillment, prefixed with an 'it seems quite likely that...' or something along those lines. you know the stuff.
mox
hi everyone, i was just thinking that the whole satan going against god is completely unrealistic.. if u find yourself created by god and at his side, the last thing u wanna do is upset him, let alone make an enemy of him!!!!!!!.
does anyone else find this concept absurd?!?!?!!!!.
chris.
That doesnt seem so odd but what i always had trouble figuring out was why Satan would play along with the game after all these millenia, knowing that his destruction has been scripted from day one no matter what happens and that his course has pretty much been scripted out too, cause general mayhem and evilness whenever and wherever possible. 'Why should I?' Id say. what if he just kicks back and enjoys his remaining centuries? are you gonna dock his pay? fire him? if hes really interested in convincing people of his 'side' of the issue, he should manifest himself, he'd make a much stronger case. what's stopping him?
mox
contrairy to popular belief, jws have fantasies.
wheras mine usually involve a wild night of passion, jw fantasies seem to involve something else.
read the following e mail and see what i mean.... dear joe, .
please tell me that is not real
HA!! HA HA!! HA HAHA!!
sounds like a bad japanese drama
mox
