here from new scientist magazine: .
whale sharks gulp down air to float vertically while feeding.
life 12 may 2021by christa lesté-lasserre.
The Story of Jonah is recognised by all sensible people, and all Scholars, as Allegorical.
To try to justify the stuff in there and to say it could be a Story that is literal and true is to do it a huge injustice. It is a rather fine piece of Literature, with many lessons for us.
Read it, enjoy it, for what it is, not what it isn't.
lol, i'm sorry, but is this n*gga serious?.
yes, he suffered his mother dying when he was 12, and his father charles maybe wasn't the best hands-on father.. but 'genetic pain'?
wtf is this shit?.
It must be 'kin weird being in the Royal family, plus his other problems, but as a wealthy man, with a lovely wife and kid(s), he really should count his blessings, and spend his time helping people wherever he can.
Helping others has got me over my family background, and being in a Cult etc etc. and given me a great insight in to how much better off than many I am.
As a friend of mine said recently, you get to a certain age when blaming your upbringing, your genes and the shit life has thrown at you doesn't cut it anymore, you are old enough to just get on with life, regardless. And he had a MUCH harder life than Harry ! his mum deserted him and his sisters when they were very young, didn't really love them, his dad was poor , he could be full of resentment for all this, but he gets on with life, and is a stable nice guy.
how many accounts of the bibles use of excesses can you recall ?
i will start off with a favourit of mine.. the inauguration of solomons temple and the sacrifices offered .2chron.7 :4-5 , 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep ?
c,mon.
The Great Poster "Leolaia", a few year ago, Posted quite a bit about the use of Numbers in the Bible, showing that most of the time, if they were not mere bullshit to boost their Nation's History, they were symbolic, so lots and lots of use of the number 70, or multiples thereof, 490 years for example.
None of these numbers were accurate as to time periods, but were Literary devices, again showing that to read the Bible as literal History, or as truth, is a huge error.
Also if you are interested search out Leo's Posts on the use of " Motifs" in the N.T, eye opening stuff, it shows again that the Stories in the N.T are just that, Fiction.
active believer...still attend meetings, go out in field service, believe it's ''the truth''.
active non-believer... go to meetings and field service to please family... living a double life .
inactive believer...don't attend meetings but believe it's the truth, one day might go back to kingdom hall.
I really do not know what my Status is, I faded many years ago, but was told a few Months back by an Elder that I had " Crossed a line", maybe because of what I had written on Social Media, although what I write is always Truth, but, as we all know JW's "Cannot Handle The Truth".
I presume I have not been officially Disassociated, but I am definitely " marked" by that Elder at least. Which affects me not one bit, as I have no desire to ever meet in any way with the guy.
So I rather like the Label " Faded and Marked" as my Status.
see https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/05/neanderthals-carb-loaded-helping-grow-their-big-brains .
the article says in part 'the study is “groundbreaking,” says harvard university evolutionary biologist rachel carmody, who was not part of the research.
the work suggests the ancestors of both humans and neanderthals were cooking lots of starchy foods at least 600,000 years ago.
It is an area of Study that has long fascinated me, the emergence of modern humans, and earlier iterations, and of course the reality is we cannot be categorical about things, although Scientists make findings and then interpret them for us, we have to be prepared for new knowledge to change those Scientist's views.
But it is now certain that Neanderthals were a lot more advanced than was thought just a few years ago, and were civilised, I would use that word, their Art, Burial Customs etc etc are evidence of a civilisation.
What I have found interesting to observe in the Interpretations of findings is the obvious bias of the Interpreter. This is evident in Science writers more than the Scientists themselves.
But just as an example, haven't the Writers refrained from pointing out that is is possible that Neanderthals were MORE advanced than the lot who came out of Africa most recently ( recent in Evolutionary terms). It is known that we Europeans and therefore you American Immigrants/Invaders are all related to that group that over time came out of Africa, and also to Neanderthals, but I saw one Writer's thoughts that maybe Neanderthal DNA came to us through interbreeding with a more distant common relative, much earlier in time, than the ones who lived in Europe up until around 35,000 years ago. Why this desire to distance us from Neanderthals ? Bias. Also note that " Modern Man" is always depicted as VERY WHITE in illustrations, or was until recent times, again Bias ?
But there are bound to be more discoveries in this fascinating area of study.
awake!
"if you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things.
because all the evidence in fulfillment of bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years... therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers.
" Phizzy, you're thinking of the 1-1-89 Watchtower study article " Yes I'm sure you are right, I have a feeling I have a Copy of the original Mag stashed somewhere ! If I have, I shall keep it !
Thanks for that quote from the "Nations Shall Know" book, most damning.
sometimes jws wonder if the wt/jw is not the truth, 'then where else are we to go?
' i say 'why not atheistic/scientific philosophical naturalism and why not a secular philosophy which teaches a way of life?
' what do you folks say?.
Go and find the Truth. Of course, truth can only be established upon the basis of Facts and Evidence that stand up to ANY scrutiny.
awake!
"if you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things.
because all the evidence in fulfillment of bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years... therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers.
I'm not sure if this old guy's memory is correct, but was that not the quote that said the End would come " in this Twentieth Century" in the actual Magazine Article, and then the Org craftily changed the wording in the Bound Volume version ??
from a theological and biblical perspective, this has to be asked and critically examined.. the doctrines this organization and its self described fdsl (gb) chosen ones has preached and taught have now more than ever have shown to be false teachings.. the bible warns of false prophets and those who say things that god has not given them to say but the wts from its earliest beginning made proclamations such as jesus's return in 1874.. so if one were to faithfully adhere to what the bible says and more so jesus's instructions for preaching his gospel of a new kingdom to come, who really are jws loyal to, the wts.
and its top leading men or jesus and jehovah ??
?..
As Ray Franz succinctly put it in one of his Books: " To say the Jehovah's Witnesses were chosen in 1919 is an insult to Jesus Christ".
That is so true, it would mean not only that Jesus lacked intelligence, but honesty too, how could he choose Rutherford's Lot over say, the Christadelphians, who were teaching THEN much what JW's teach today, and were REALLY Conscientious Objectors in WW1 ?????
Rutherford and Gang, in 1919, taught a load of nonsense long since rejected by the JW Org, and pushed the buying of War Bonds.
sometimes jws wonder if the wt/jw is not the truth, 'then where else are we to go?
' i say 'why not atheistic/scientific philosophical naturalism and why not a secular philosophy which teaches a way of life?
' what do you folks say?.
I was born in, in 1950, I knew little of any works by Philosophers, until I left, and I too wish I had read them earlier in life. There was one thing I did come across though, when I was an active JW, which made me realise that Russell, Rutherford, Knorr and Franz were all pretty badly educated.
It was definition of " Higher Critics" or more accurately of Higher Criticism, which the four Big brains mentioned used to often refer to as "So-called Higher critics" as though these learned gentleman were styling themselves "Higher" as though they were better than lesser critics.
Higher Criticism is the study of the MEANING of a Text, Lower Criticism is the study of the Text purely to get a sense of the actual language, without interpretation. I am not sure that lot of poorly educated guys mentioned above actually understood what Criticism was in an Academic sense, I think at least Russell, maybe all four, thought it was the everyday use of criticism, meaning "finding fault with" that was referred to, of course it was not, it was Scholars trying honestly to get at the full meaning of Biblical texts.
I wish I had read more widely, and much earlier in life, and woken up much earlier, but at least I have made up ground academically since I left over a decade ago. I will just never get back those wasted years.
