Stan, you must be nearly as old as me and methuselah to remember those names !
I go back to the time of the great John Blaney, he was REAL old school, he was a JW at least by the early 1920's , and had a great sense of humour, which even when suffering from dementia, he never lost. There are so many stories about him and his methods, many apocryphal I don't doubt, but he, in common with a lot of Old School J.W's, was a helluva Character.
They are all Grey Little "Society men" now.
man united did the treble in 1999 under sir alex ferguson (the best manager in english football - sorry, city fans!
xd).. and now man city are just one game away from matching that achievement.. i'd just like to say that erling haaland is a phenomenon, a f**king goal machine.
this norwegian dude is just 22 years old, and everywhere he goes he scores a f**k-ton of goals - he breaks records.. case in point - his debut season in english football, he goes and smashes alan shearer's and andy cole's 34 premiership goals (haaland scored 36 premiership goals).
I really respect the tremendous numbers of loyal City fans who have never waivered throughout the bad times. Some are sadly no longer with us to see the dizzy heights of where City are today, and a few fans of course are bandwagon types who only recently came aboard, but most have been loyal for many years.
I am not a City supporter personally, but watch their success with interest and admiration.
im not an atheist, makes no mathematical sense, nor does the buy(more) bull(shit) god make any logical sense... maybe a deist on my best day, in the end you cannot get something from nothing, paradox if you ask me... but in reality i just dont care.
while in, and moving out of the cult, its like a roller coaster, emotionally, yet, for me, over time, i just take it one day at a time, and if appeasing some special deity is required, well i guess i failed.
lol.
What I find sad is those who see through a particular religion, but still retain some of the plainly stupid ideas that promote fear, and therefore work against such a partially free person actually being happy.
This is not only seen in an XJW who retains a fear of Armageddon say, but can be seen in those who have left other areas of "Christian" faith and still retain a fear of Hell or god's adverse judgement in some way.
Such people need to do proper research, free their minds and hearts , and then be truly happy.
the world is made up of many religions christian and otherwise .. whose to say which religion is more superior than another religion ?
or has the approval of a god ?.
none that i can think of.. since humans have been on earth god has kept silent as to who represents him , if any at all..
Smiddy the first ten words of your last sentence are spot on " Since humans have been on earth GOD has kept silent..."
Spot on ! its almost as though the bugger doesn't exist !
according to jw interpretation of bible chronology, the earliest human, adam, came into existence some 6,048 years ago compared to scientific dating of human fossils believed to be much older.
since jesus validated the creation of adam and eve as historical people and jc’s own lineage is traced all the way back to adam, bible chronology is certified as true and there must be something wrong with scientific dating.
what proves scientific dating as accurate that humans are much older than what bible chronology says?.
" Smiddy 3 asked ; "The bible presents a flat earth cosmology.
I have never heard of this before ,can someone elaborate this for me ?"
here it is Buddy !
according to jw interpretation of bible chronology, the earliest human, adam, came into existence some 6,048 years ago compared to scientific dating of human fossils believed to be much older.
since jesus validated the creation of adam and eve as historical people and jc’s own lineage is traced all the way back to adam, bible chronology is certified as true and there must be something wrong with scientific dating.
what proves scientific dating as accurate that humans are much older than what bible chronology says?.
" .I don't know how it can possibly be calculated. No, honestly, I really don't."
That is what I was saying in my earlier Post, to take as true the time periods given by Bible Writers is naive and ignorant. As many Posts on here in years past have shown, by erudite people like " Peaceful Pete" and " Leolaia", we are dealing with literature here of various genres, none of which are history in any sense we would recognise.
So even when a seemingly specific period like "430 years" or whatever is spoken of, this is often for literary reasons, and rarely accurate. It can't be done, apart from very generally, we can say things like the Bible seems to place the Story of so-and-so in such and such a period. this as close as we can get !
according to jw interpretation of bible chronology, the earliest human, adam, came into existence some 6,048 years ago compared to scientific dating of human fossils believed to be much older.
since jesus validated the creation of adam and eve as historical people and jc’s own lineage is traced all the way back to adam, bible chronology is certified as true and there must be something wrong with scientific dating.
what proves scientific dating as accurate that humans are much older than what bible chronology says?.
There isn't really anything that we can call "Bible" Chronology. What we have to do is find some events the Bible mentions, like the taking of Babylon by the Persians, and then hang everything else off that.
The problem is the Bible stories are mainly Fiction, so So-and-So king reigned in Israel for X many years is just not reliable. As Slidin' Fast says above.
So, wotcha gonna do ? who you gonna call ? if you are trying to fix when exactly an event occurred, or when a character lived, first make sure the event, or character, is not Fictional, then TRY from Biblical information, and any secular Info. you have, to decide on a date.
Good luck, and be aware you cannot be sure of your conclusions.
im not an atheist, makes no mathematical sense, nor does the buy(more) bull(shit) god make any logical sense... maybe a deist on my best day, in the end you cannot get something from nothing, paradox if you ask me... but in reality i just dont care.
while in, and moving out of the cult, its like a roller coaster, emotionally, yet, for me, over time, i just take it one day at a time, and if appeasing some special deity is required, well i guess i failed.
lol.
Back to beaver eaters O.P, he said " but in reality I just don't care. " I think that most of us who are non-theists of some stripe now feel the same way.
A god who cannot be detected doesn't matter.
I don't know gods do not exist,"know" in the scientific sense of having evidence they don't, but I don't care either.
We could call ourselves " Apatheists" by combining Apathy with Theist, although someone may look at the word and think we worship Bees.
Eager beaver also said " maybe for some, they need a crutch..." that can be the only reason people hang on to belief in things that cannot be proven to be true, i.e Religions and gods. (Truth is only established with irrefutable evidence, religions and their gods do not have that).
And I still don't care !
" and a mighty cry went out over all the land: "sell !
sell !
sell !
Some K.H's that were sold have ended up being Mosques or used by other Christian sects, I always think that is funny !
from what i can see no such thing is happening.i became a jw in 1960 and remained for about 30 years and the numbers of active jw`s today in the world are far greater than they were back then.. and here in australia the numbers are much higher than they were back then .. so i don`t see that their in decline or have any worries about losing support .. don`t the numbers speak for themselves ?.
is it just wishful thinking on your part ?.
One aspect of "decline" is not so much in numbers, but in the presence in their midst of the 100% J.W believer, who goes along with all the nonsense.
All the J.W's I have spoken to in the last couple of years expressed their doubts about it being 100% "the truth. When I was in the number of people who I would rate as full believers* was well over 90%. Most are now in just for family and friends, not belief.
* By full believer I don't mean the out and out fanatic J.W, there were some of them, but those who supported nearly all of it, if having underlying doubts perhaps.
