Socrateswannabe

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Posts by Socrateswannabe

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  24

  Giant ship vs Noah's Ark

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  take a look at this giant ship that's been built and imagine if would still be large enough to house all the animals on the planet for an extended period of time.. the ship, with modern materials and tools, would take a single person nearly 8,000 years to complete.

  how many more people designed it and supplied the materials?

  imagine how many trees would be required and how long it would take to transport them alone.. still think noah's ark is feasible?.

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  Socrateswannabe

  This is the issue that started me down the road toward learning TTAT.

  A ship the size of Noah's ark could never have fit all the animals that the bible says it did and could not have contained all the types of food and environmental requirements of the divers animals said to be onboard. Realistically for this feat to have been accomplished, the ark would have had to be the size of a small town. So yes, Simon, I agree that even the Peter Schelte would be too small.

  More research proved to me that a family of eight people could not have built even the undersized vessel that the bible describes. The amount of material needed would have required an army of workers given the tools and raw materials available to them at that time. Let's say that Noah and his family defied all odds and actually did build it themselves, it wouldn't have mattered because the ark wouldn't have floated, or it would not have stayed afloat. Ships the size of the ark didn't appear until modern times because it takes a steel superstructure for the vessel to be seaworthy. A wood keel and superstructure would have folded like a house of cards under the pressure of the flood. Further, wood degenerates so that by the time Noah finished building the ark, most of what he had built would have rotted in the interim.

  This story always seemed fishy to me but I'm ashamed that it took me years to see it for what it is, a complete sham.
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  19

  I need an answer from an Elder or someone who knows!

  by Truth and Justice in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my brother after so many years decides to call me.

  i am totally surprised.

  i didn't know what to think.. so i began to open up by saying "hey ______, what a surprise!

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  Socrateswannabe

  Truth and Justice:

  You state that your brother is an elder. Elders have special dispensation to speak to disfellowshipped persons. That doesn't include social contact, but elders are even required to, once a year, contact disfellowshipped persons who were once associated with their congregation to ask if they're ready to take steps to come back to the fold. It sounds like your conversation with your brother was more of a social call, but he can probably justify it under the existing rules. I guess WTS thinks that elders are better able to resist the siren call of apostates and disfellowshipped ones than the rank and file are.
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  24

  A few verbatim quotes from Anthony Morris' talk during the Branch Visit.

  by Open mind in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  haven't contributed much here in a while.

  it's not modest and it's certainly not sound of mind.

  you be spiritual man enough to tell these young fellows 'you don't go out in the ministry looking like that.

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  Socrateswannabe

  " And this is a fact, the homosexuals that are designing these clothes, they like you in tight pants."

  #1 most stupid comment of the event! The idea that an entire industry could be motivated by something so sopohmoric shows that these guys don't live in the real world. Designers of men's fashion--male, female, gay, or straight--do what they do, 1.) To exercise their creative talents, 2.) To become famous and popular, and 3.) To remove a good deal of money from your wallet. Certainly not to get some homoerotic thrill from seeing you in one of their skimpy creations. If Morris' statement was true, how about the gay male designers who design scanty and revealing dresses for women? What is the rationale for that, since I guess they aren't particularly interested in seeing them semi nude?
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  38

  US Zone visit: disappointing, depressing, discouraging

  by sir82 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i will have plenty of "snark" to post later on, but please indulge me while i get this out of my system..... suppose you are the leaders...yes, the leaders...there are only 7 of you...for the one true religion in all the universe.. jehovah the god of the whole universe speaks to you, you alone, out of 7 billion+ people on teh planet.. you have an opportunity, thanks to the advancements in technology, to speak to 750,000 of your followers "live", and another 750,000 or so within 24 hours.. 1.5 million people!

  hanging on your every word!.

  this is the first time in history you can simultaneously, or nearly simultaneously, address so many of your adherents.. what message are you going to present for this special occasion?.

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  Socrateswannabe

  Sir82, I had the same thoughts as you about this video event but I could not have put it as eloquently, so thank you for posting your impressions. What a missed opportunity for these guys. If they could think of nothing meaningful to say (and the JWs were expecting that they would), at least they could have been encouraging. Instead, they came across as petty and demeaning. Why broadcast a spanking (or Spanxing?) of a few errant Bethelites to a million plus people? Even if their gripes against the Bethel family were legitimate, you deal with that kind of stuff one on one or within in the family. For the life of me I can't understand why these would be the major topics of a 3 hour meeting that was broadcast to over a million people who are not Bethelites. With all this technology that they're into, I thought maybe the Watchtower hierarchy had gotten a little more hip and sophisticated, but alas, not at all.

  The JWs in our congregation ate it up, though.
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  6

  Rationale for international conventions

  by Socrateswannabe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's been kicked around already that the conventions were logistically disasterous and spiritually vapid.

  my question, and i hope you will add your comments to mine, is: why?

  why did the wtbs go through the trouble of putting these things on?

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  Socrateswannabe

  It's been kicked around already that the conventions were logistically disasterous and spiritually vapid. My question, and I hope you will add your comments to mine, is: WHY? Why did the WTBS go through the trouble of putting these things on? We were told that our convention was 2 years in the making. So 2 years of blood, sweat, and tears for what? For the brothers? To encourage us? To feed us spiritually? No way! My guess is that these things are elaborate publicity stunts. They are attention getters. They attract the media. Somehow the GB goobers think this is a positive thing. I have a feeling the truth is that people who live in the convention cities have a markedly lower opinion of JWs, post-convention, than they had beforehand.
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  183

  What are your favourite movie lines/quotes????

  by karter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ''well there's one thing you got ta ask yourself punk....you felling lucky...well do ya punk".....clint eastwood dirty harry.. "it's life jim but not as we know it" capt kirk star treck..

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  Socrateswannabe

  Marina, glad you liked it! I've been running that quote through my head for what...about 50 years...and I've never failed to laugh each time I think of it!
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  183

  What are your favourite movie lines/quotes????

  by karter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ''well there's one thing you got ta ask yourself punk....you felling lucky...well do ya punk".....clint eastwood dirty harry.. "it's life jim but not as we know it" capt kirk star treck..

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  Socrateswannabe

  Put...ze candle...back! ~ Young Frankenstein

  You leave me little notes on my pillow. I told you a hundred-and-sixty-eight times I can't .. stand .. little notes on my pillow! 'We are all out of Corn Flakes. -F.U.' It took me three hours to figure out that 'F.U.' was Felix Unger! ~ The Odd Couple
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  59

  Books that changed your life-

  by new hope and happiness in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am not much of a reader as i have two many distractions, but i fancy a challenging read, so please list any book that has changed your entire world view on everything.

  i remember as a teenager buying at a yard sale, norman vincent peales " the power of positive thinking" and at the time that had a big impact on me.

  but i am a little bit more in to " realistic positive thinking" now..

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  Socrateswannabe

  To Kill a Mockingbird. Name me one character in the bible who has the moral fiber of Atticus Finch.
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  7

  Was Jehovah 40 years early

  by Socrateswannabe in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  here's a question for all you bible students out there, both critics and apologists: in 1513 bce the israelites were said to be in the wilderness, without food, so jeh gave them miraculous manna to eat.

  exodus 16:35 says they ate it for 40 years.

  the funny thing is that a year after they began eating manna, the bible book of leviticus, which wts says was written in 1512, records a mind-numbing litany of rules and regulations regarding sacrifices that were to be made at the tabernacle, which had just recently been put into use.

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  Socrateswannabe

  Here's a question for all you bible students out there, both critics and apologists: In 1513 BCE the Israelites were said to be in the Wilderness, without food, so Jeh gave them miraculous manna to eat. Exodus 16:35 says they ate it for 40 years. The funny thing is that a year after they began eating manna, the bible book of Leviticus, which WTS says was written in 1512, records a mind-numbing litany of rules and regulations regarding sacrifices that were to be made at the tabernacle, which had just recently been put into use. What, according to Leviticus, were the Israelites to sacrifice? Their manna? Hardly! Among the foodstuffs to be offered up on the alter were bulls, sheep, goats, turtle doves, pigeons, grain, fine flour, oil, and bread. But all those goodies, according to Joshua 5:12, weren't available to them until they reached Canan, almost 40 years later! Was Jeh just wanting to make sure they were REALLY prepared, by giving them all these rules 40 years in advance?
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  35

  Why the Clean out of top Management

  by Poztate in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it has been commented here that "soon" the do's will be history.

  the co level will be "retired" at age 70 and the latest development was that the cobe can not serve after age 80. it would seem that there is a "cull" of top management.

  in secular companys that would signal a radical change of directions ???.

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  Socrateswannabe

  Ignoranceisbliss, I am also skeptical of conspiracy theories. Most of what has been posted here is possible, but I'm in favor of a simpler answer as well. 80 year old COBEs and 70 year old COs are not going to cut the muster anymore, in a world of streaming videos and electronic communications. The WTS has surprisingly embraced technology because it drops their operating costs like nothing else can, and these old guys are probably resistant to the technology or the Borg thinks they are not tech savvy enough to keep up even if they wanted to. The same goes for DOs since most of them seem to be pretty old. Plus with the DOs, someone at World HQ woke up one morning and had the brainstorm that the DOs job was completely superfluous. That was the easiest decision they ever made. All of these decisions have been made without considering the human element (the heartbreak of ending careers for people who have given their lives to a cause), but that's the way big corporations operate, whose only consideration is the bottom line.