Sincere prayer is a way to achieve an objective view of one's situation. Without the illusion of God Listening - you are left with the very difficult task of being brutally honest with yourself. Not many can do that.
proplog2
JoinedPosts by proplog2
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Why pray?
by ashitaka ini was just outside a few minutes ago, thinking about a friend who is having problems.
i bowed my head and closed my eyes, because i'm a bit tired.
suddenly, in my head, i started to pray.
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Jesus - The GREAT DEBATER
by proplog2 inthe watchtower tries to portray jesus as a person who avoided arguments.. why would they do this?
there are two reasons.
one reason is to keep.
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proplog2
Funky:
I am sure he did. He was a perfect man.
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Jesus - The GREAT DEBATER
by proplog2 inthe watchtower tries to portray jesus as a person who avoided arguments.. why would they do this?
there are two reasons.
one reason is to keep.
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proplog2
hurt:
And, er... that "drink my blood eat my flesh" episode, even the Watchtower will encourage their wards to not use that kind of illustration. Did it alienate some of the people? Yes.
Exactly what I am saying. This is another case where the Watchtower misrepresents Jesus' teaching methods. There is nothing wrong with "shock". If you only have three and a half years to put together an organization that will survive a couple thousand years you have to qualify your candidates. Interviewers use these techniques all the time.
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Dino cancer
by peacefulpete ini have been reading about dinosaurs and other contemporaneous animals and have repeatedly encountered examples of physical malformation (diseased or deformed bone and teeth)and evidence of bone cancer over 100 million years ago.
does this not refute the position held by jws that disease resulted from adam's sin?
comments?
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proplog2
The concept of "original" sin is essential to human progress. I don't believe in original sin. I prefer to call it "intrinsic sin". Organisms couldn't exist without a membrane - a wall separating inner from outer. In the growth of a fetus it is the outer layer - ectoderm of the blastula - that forms into the nervous system and brain. Our ego is our psychological boundary. Selfishness is the root of evolutionary progress. But humans have gotten to the point that they either shed their preoccupation with boundary - or they are going to destroy themselves. The message of Christ was that all humans need to unite. The one redeeming factor about JW's is that they have an excellent worldwide brotherhood.
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Quote from the WT, i.e. Yoga. Opinions?
by unique1 in"so once again we ask: 'can yoga be practiced simply as a physical exercise to develop a healthy body and a relaxed mind, without any involvement with religion?
' in view of its background, the answer would have to be no.
ok, i know yoga comes from a religious background, but i have been taking a yoga class for several months, and if there was any thing religious i would have stopped the class, but there is nothing.
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proplog2
This is a good example of demonphobia. Meditation/Relaxation is an essential part of Yoga. So what's wrong with "emptying your mind" of the incessant chatter. Emptying your mind teaches you that your personal thoughts and ego aren't of supreme importance. It is an excellent way to break obsessional thinking and lower your blood pressure - even cure anxiety attacks.
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Jesus - The GREAT DEBATER
by proplog2 inthe watchtower tries to portray jesus as a person who avoided arguments.. why would they do this?
there are two reasons.
one reason is to keep.
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proplog2
Room 215:
I agree with you.
The example that Dedalus used to prove Jesus was not a good teacher is in fact an example of excellent teaching. His parody of that example completely misrepresents the account at John 6:48-71.
I would encourage anyone to compare Dedalus' description of the event with the written word.
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Jesus - The GREAT DEBATER
by proplog2 inthe watchtower tries to portray jesus as a person who avoided arguments.. why would they do this?
there are two reasons.
one reason is to keep.
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proplog2
Dedalus:
Perhaps Jesus didn't even exist. That still doesn't change the legend. Those who believe in Jesus (for example - The Watchtower) claim to believe what the Bible says about Jesus. Unfortunately there is a major discrepancy with the way the Watchtower would like to portray Jesus and what is actually said in the Bible.
Riddles, koans, paradoxes, etc. are still considered effective teaching tools. Wise teachers of the past were NOT technical handbook writers. To engage people on a deep level it is probably more effective to involve the disciple in an "Aha" experience. If people don't have to invest themselves in understanding something it tends to go in one ear and out the other.
It is obvious that YOU just want to be contrary.
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EVIDENCE OF BRITISH TERROISM IN IRAQ
by proplog2 inour last occupation .
gas, chemicals, bombs: britain has used them all before in iraq .
jonathan glancey.
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proplog2
Our last occupation
Gas, chemicals, bombs: Britain has used them all before in Iraq
Jonathan Glancey
Saturday April 19, 2003
The GuardianNo one, least of all the British, should be surprised at the state
of anarchy in Iraq. We have been here before. We know the
territory, its long and miasmic history, the all-but-impossible
diplomatic balance to be struck between the cultures and ambitions
of Arabs, Kurds, Shia and Sunni, of Assyrians, Turks, Americans,
French, Russians and of our own desire to keep an economic and
strategic presence there.
Laid waste, a chaotic post-invasion Iraq may now well be policed by
old and new imperial masters promising liberty, democracy and
unwanted exiled leaders, in return for oil, trade and submission.
Only the last of these promises is certain. The peoples of Iraq,
even those who have cheered passing troops, have every reason to
mistrust foreign invaders. They have been lied to far too often,
bombed and slaughtered promiscuously.The British responded with gas attacks by the army in the south,
bombing by the fledgling RAF in both north and south. When Iraqi
tribes stood up for themselves, we unleashed the flying dogs of war
to "police" them. Terror bombing, night bombing, heavy bombers,
delayed action bombs (particularly lethal against children) were
all developed during raids on mud, stone and reed villages duringWinston Churchill, secretary of state for war and air, estimated
that without the RAF, somewhere between 25,000 British and 80,000
Indian troops would be needed to control Iraq. Reliance on the
airforce promised to cut these numbers to just 4,000 and 10,000....Churchill was particularly keen on chemical weapons, suggesting
they be used "against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment". He
dismissed objections as "unreasonable". "I am strongly in favour of
using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes _ [to] spread a
lively terror _" In today's terms, "the Arab" needed to be shocked
and awed. A good gassing might well do the job....Conventional raids, however, proved to be an effective deterrent.
At the time of the Arab revolt in Palestine in the late 1930s, Air
Commodore Harris, as he then was, declared that "the only thing the
Arab understands is the heavy hand, and sooner or later it will
have to be applied". As in 1921, so in 2003. -
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Jesus - The GREAT DEBATER
by proplog2 inthe watchtower tries to portray jesus as a person who avoided arguments.. why would they do this?
there are two reasons.
one reason is to keep.
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proplog2
Well, this post is plunging fast. Not a very good title- but deals with important issue.
Whatever happened to the editing feature where you can change a heading.
I should have titled it Was Jesus Afraid of Questions?
OR maybe Jesus afraid to argue.
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Walking on eggshells.
by foreword inwhy is it that anyone who ventures on this site and tries to defend the watchtower is immediately shot down and flamed for being blind and unrealistic?.
and anyone who can come up with proof that the watchtower is evil gets applauded for finding these facts.. some have wandered onto this site trying to defend their faith, even if at the time they didn't know the truth about the truth, and have immediately been labeled as a troll and showed the door.
i've seen threads where these individuals have been treated like total idiots and insulted (to put it in a mild manner), yet nothing was done to reprehend the insulters.
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proplog2
On-Line communites and message boards have been going on for at least 20 years. I was an active participant on GEnie (GE information systems) early AOL, Prodigy, Compuserve etc.
At first JW's were all over the place. In the spirit of Charles Russell they saw the potential of this new technology for spreading their faith. Lengthy discussions concerning the Trinity seemed to dominate. Apokrisis (Greg Stafford) honed his skills at argumentation on the old AOL JW message boards.
But gradually little cracks started to open up. Evolution, Failed Prophecy, Blood Transfusions, Celebration of Holidays, Smoking , all had their specialists that argued pro & con. Eventually, many of those who were defenders of the JW could honestly see that their defense had no basis. In reaction a lot of JW friendly forums developed. But they were so highly censored that they became nothing but the sort of chat you could have at any Kingdom Hall. Conversation after meetings is seldom of a spiritual nature. Mostly shallow - how was your vacation?, how's the new house coming along?, I see you got a new Lexus- how do you like it?
What was the Watchtower's reaction? The Internet is the devil's trick. Don't go on the internet and engage in discussions. Beware E-Mail. They put up the scantiest site of any religious group. They could easily put the CD-Rom on the Internet. But instead they don't even give their web-site a little spot in the magazines. They have shown that they really aren't interested in sharing information - they want to control information.
There have been thousands of excellent arguments against JW teachings that have been presented on-line. None of these have been addressed by articles in the Watchtower. I remember one person posted a copy of an unanswered letter they wrote to the Society. Basically, this person was saying that their mate was finding material on line that they couldn't argue against, and they were pleading with the Watchtower to just help defend the faith.
This is why on-line defenders of Watchtower doctrine are ridiculed. We've seen the best arguments crumble. Yet the Watchtower keeps turning out 128 pages of the same stuff every month - NEVER EVER dealing with serious questions. Is it that they won't? Then they are obstinate. More likely they CAN'T defend themselves against the arguments that are all over the internet.
Truth is winning.