uk chanel 4 " the cruel cut".
in the uk in black and asian communities female genital mutilation(fgm) or destruction of the clitoris and the labia of young girls is practised.
this horror is common in the uk, it is illegal and has been for 28 years but there has not been one prosecution.. this got me thinking.
There is also societal pressure. For example in the U.S. there is an expectaction to be circumsized. Not doing it, usually means you will be made fun of in school showering after gym class or sports practice. A lot of women in the U.S. also refuse or dislike the idea of having sex with a man who is not circumsized.
So parents end up doing this to their kids, out of concern over these social phobias, and not because they see any health value associated with it.
the jws stopped by my house a couple weeks ago on a saturday morning.
i knew that with others most likely waiting for them out in the car they probably did not then have much time to engage in any serious conversation.
so i let them talk while i feigned interest in what they had to say.
@Antioch.
I still don't see the parallel here. The Jews were expecting a Messiah - yes, and Paul said "Hey, this guy Jesus is Him". Is this some sort of change? Yes - So what? This is completely different of the concept of "new light."
I could see your point if Paul had said something like " Folks, last year i told you that Bob was the Messiah. Well, he's wasn't, but guess what? We now understand that Jesus is the Messiah!! You see, God sent us some new information... cause as you know that's how God works!!"
My point is that the concept of "new light" as advanced by the Watchtower society ( God can only reveals truth a drop at a time over many years while allowing His people to be in error ) makes no sense, especially within the scope of the supposed "can do anything" abilities that God has.
You would not think it's reasonable for a CEO of a company to take years to cascade important information down through his organization. What i'm saying is that it would be unreasonable to think God can't do the same.
the jws stopped by my house a couple weeks ago on a saturday morning.
i knew that with others most likely waiting for them out in the car they probably did not then have much time to engage in any serious conversation.
so i let them talk while i feigned interest in what they had to say.
Or perhaps an even better explanation as to why the creator fo the universe is not able to do that, along with all the other things he should be doing is the simple fact that this imaginary man in the sky is just that....imaginary.
the jws stopped by my house a couple weeks ago on a saturday morning.
i knew that with others most likely waiting for them out in the car they probably did not then have much time to engage in any serious conversation.
so i let them talk while i feigned interest in what they had to say.
@Antioch
What Bible have you been reading? It started with the prophesy of the "seed." How many hundreds of years was it between that and Christians claiming Jesus was that seed..
Well...first i'm still coming to grips with the fact that you are actually defending the idea that the creator of the universe is somehow not able to provide accurate information to humans in a fast and straightfoward manner. Yet, you sit by the TV eating popcorn as you watch Obama address the nation, and in about 20 minutes information is delivered to you about what his plan is - and all this seems normal to you.
In any case, you answered your own question. As you said ..." Christians claiming Jesus was the seed". Never was it said that God told christians that Jesus was the Messiah via some "new light". Christians simply made this assertion based on observations of Jesus and his claims/actions. Christians also never changed their mind on who the messiah was, and then claimed that they received "new light". Your example is a bad one.
the jws stopped by my house a couple weeks ago on a saturday morning.
i knew that with others most likely waiting for them out in the car they probably did not then have much time to engage in any serious conversation.
so i let them talk while i feigned interest in what they had to say.
the "new light" dogma aint that bad, several JWs compared this to science, things are changed when new evidence is found.
It couldn't be a worse comparison as scientists depend only on their own work and observations to make advancements in knowledge. The concept of
new light" is different, because the idea is that God is providing this knowledge, and naturally it also implies that God takes years and years to provide simple straighfoward information, which is not rational thinking.
the jws stopped by my house a couple weeks ago on a saturday morning.
i knew that with others most likely waiting for them out in the car they probably did not then have much time to engage in any serious conversation.
so i let them talk while i feigned interest in what they had to say.
Actually it appears that he did make some of them exact. As I pointed out, " The moon and the sun's most commonly published diameter measurements in miles are 2,160 and 864,000 respectively which equals a ratio of exactly 400.00."
I have never seen an estimate of the Sun's diameter as 864,000 exactly. In any case it's so silly to make this point, because any reasonable person should understand that these are just estimates, and if we did have a way to measure it, all of these numbers would be off, so the ratio would not be exactly 400.00.
If God wanted to prove a point, certainly he would make it to be something which could be easily verifiable. For example, if there was a prediction in the bible which said that on November 10th 2013 all cancer would be cured, and in 5 days from now, this really happened, it would convince me that there is a God.
IF God REALLY wanted everybody to believe in him, what could possibly prevent him from doing this? Certainly it wouldn't take much for the creator of the universe to get rid of cancerous cells.
i bethelite sent this email out - can't really give out names.
we wrote these figures as quickly as possible, but could not keep up 100%).
you get to check these figures out when you get your 2014 yearbook.
Any elder or MS exposed to how the secretary of the cong. "massages" the numbers will know that they are not really being honest. And, since these numbers are a reflection of what the congregations sends, they are not very accurate....Yeah, tryin to make appear something bigger than what it is in not very honest.
That argument can be made, but in my opinion there is a big difference between "massaging" the numbers, and blatanly fabricating results.
For example, i work for a multinational corporation. A few days ago we reported on quarterly results where overall there was a decrease of 4% when compared to this quarter last year.
We could have well just said that - we lost 4%. Instead we reported that when taking in consideration the dollar exchange rate and one product where the patent expired we actually were up 2%.
Did we "massage" the situation a little? Certainly... Were we dishonest? I would say we weren't.
i bethelite sent this email out - can't really give out names.
we wrote these figures as quickly as possible, but could not keep up 100%).
you get to check these figures out when you get your 2014 yearbook.
To put things in perspective, the mormons had about 270,000 baptisms which is roughly the same as the JWs, but they only have about 80,000 people preaching.
The Watchtower organization needs 8 million people to accomplish the same number of baptisms. Perhaps the Watchtower should ask the mormons how to use their human resources more effectively.
Perhaps even ask the mormons how they actually spend time in more useful things such as having 10,138 Welfare Service Missionaries mssionaries in 179 countries providing relief in projects such as neonatal resuscitation training, clean water projects, wheelchair distribution, vision treatment and measles vaccinations.
i bethelite sent this email out - can't really give out names.
we wrote these figures as quickly as possible, but could not keep up 100%).
you get to check these figures out when you get your 2014 yearbook.
Again, assuming the numbers are legit (by that I mean they weren't fudged by the Society), the growth has to be coming from the third world.
Since these numbers are compiled internally we will never know, even though there is no reason or evidence to think they are being dishonest. What we have seen in the past is a shuffling game with the numbers and the way they are counted as to appear more than what they are.
Also the peak publisher numbers is a good example of how they work the count to make them seem bigger. What they should report is average publisher number. The peak publisher number is simply a specific point in the year when they receive the most reports at one time. Included in this number are people who perhaps only reported once during the entire year.
Also good to remember that because they are a relatively small group, any increase (even if smaller when compared to other larger religions) will still show as a bigger percentage.
this brochure is being studied, in the org starting form this week.
it rams lies down our throats, trying to convince us the the wt is god's organisation.
it lies to us about how the wt is doing jehovah's will.. we are going to be subjected to lies, lies and more lies for weeks.
If you take a look at the topics, not even once Jesus is mentioned, or anything about his ramson. It's all self boasting drivel.
Lies permeate this brochure such as:
"In the first century, a small group, “the apostles and older men in Jerusalem,” served as a governing body to make important decisions on behalf of the entire anointed Christian congregation."
Then for support they mention Acts 15:2 which describes the council or Jerusalem, which was a group of elders assembled ONCE around 50AD to discuss the matter of circumcision. It was never a permanent body of decision makers.
