RunningMan

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Posts by RunningMan

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  16

  PUPPY TALK! - a fluffy topic

  by TR in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what kind of dogs to you people have, and describe their personalities.. i have two jack russell terriers(jrt) ans one black pomeranian.. god, the two jrts are a riot!

  dudley is the older one(5) and is the boss.he is faster and stronger than edgar.

  dudley generally let's edgar chew on him, but when dudley gets pissed, he kicks edgar's ass.

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  RunningMan

  I forgot to mention, his name is "Finch".
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  16

  PUPPY TALK! - a fluffy topic

  by TR in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what kind of dogs to you people have, and describe their personalities.. i have two jack russell terriers(jrt) ans one black pomeranian.. god, the two jrts are a riot!

  dudley is the older one(5) and is the boss.he is faster and stronger than edgar.

  dudley generally let's edgar chew on him, but when dudley gets pissed, he kicks edgar's ass.

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  RunningMan

  My dog is half toy poodle and half miniature shelty. He weighs in at a massive 4 pounds, and has fur that is twice the size of his body. He looks like a tiny South American mountain sheep.

  He is still a puppy, so has quite a bit of spunk in him yet. He never hesitates to growl at the 75 pound german shepherd next door. I believe he has a lot of confidence in the fence.
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  35

  The story of Samson

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  just a few things in the account that don't make sense and lead me to believe it's just a made of story (really?

  a guy with superhuman power?

  who would have thought... ).

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  RunningMan

  The Samson story is hilarious.

  For example, Delilah asks him for the secret to his strength, but he is suspicious, so he gives her a false answer (tying him with fresh bow strings). So, he boinks Delilah and falls asleep. He then wakes up (surprise, surprise) tied up with fresh bow strings.

  Well, shortly after, she asks him again, so being rightfully suspicious, he gives her another phony answer (new ropes). Again, upon awaking he is tied up with new ropes.

  For a third time, she asks him the secret, and not trusting her, he gives her a fake answer (braiding his hair). He again wakes up with his hair braided.

  So, finally she asks him again. Of course, by this time Samson for some reason trusts her and tells her the truth. What kind of an idiot is he? Every time he trusted her, she betrayed him. So, based on this experience, she must now be telling the truth - and this man was the judge of Israel for 20 years!

  But, my favorite Samson story is the story of the 300 foxes. He wants to burn the crops of the Philistines, so instead of just getting a torch and lighting them, he catches 300 foxes, ties their tails together in pairs with a torch between them, lights the torches, and releases them into the field.

  I did some calculations on that (I can post them if anyone is interested). To get 300 foxes he would need to depopulate an area of around 900 square miles.

  The man was a complete moron.
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  72

  Question for Atheists

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  christians who believe in the bible and the teachings of christ use that as a moral core and code of conduct.

  for those who don't believe in god, where do you get your sense of moral right and wrong?

  what is your moral foundation?

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  RunningMan

  RWC: I can see by your replies to those who responded that your original question was not really an honest quest for information, but was rather a transparent attempt at drawing people into this discussion so that you could preach to them.

  Is the old testament not part of the Bible? Were the first 2/3 of the Bible merely the warm up for the almighty of the universe, being too imature to come up with a judicial code that most truly moral persons would not find embarassing?

  The tone of my original reply still stands - Jehovah is a big do-do head.
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  6

  Christ At Arm's Length

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is the season, when due to the nearness of the .

  memorial, you'll see the society publish nice pictures.

  of jesus.... as if he was someone they felt close to.. the bible repeatedly speaks of 1st century believers.

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  RunningMan

  The concept of communion that is practiced in Christianity is quite interesting.

  I came accross a reference a while ago in the book "Clan of the Cave Bear". This is a book of anthropological fiction that traces the experiences of a tribe of pre-historic humanoids. Every seven years, they held a festival, where all of the tribes would meet. The host tribe would take several years to raise a cave bear to maturity in captivity. As the climax of the festival, the bravest and most skilled warriors would fight the bear, often with some casualties. In the end, the bear would be dead, and the tribe would ceremoniously drink the blood and use the meat at the feast. The brain would be used for the most sacred ritual.

  This really got me thinking, so I did some research. It turns out that the idea of the Christian communion is really an adaptation of much older pagan rituals, where tribes would eat their god and drink its blood.

  Like so many other Christian things, it comes from a much older part of humanity, and is simply adopted with a few changes.

  JW's have simply further adapted an already adapted pagan ritual, and claimed it for their own. This, in itself, is not good or bad. Critisizing the correctness of anyone's communion is like critisizing how a person watches Spiderman cartoons. Neither one is real, so how can communion rituals be considered "right" or "wrong"?

  But, just for the record, JW's are wrong and stupid.
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  80

  INCREDIBLE STUFF SAID @ BOOK STUDY!

  by Mister Biggs in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  ironically, we were discussing the watchman who stays awake night and day.. anyway, something was said that made me awaken and pay careful attention.

  please, if anyone else who got this same information at their book study, please share it.. here goes:.

  there was a picture of a man standing on the watchtower keeping on the look out.

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  RunningMan

  It sounds like the rationalization machine is operating at full capacity. That is a huge crock of BS, even for JW's to swallow.

  I suspect that your conductor and his wife have recently been taken to task on the false prophecy issue, and have found their own imaginative method of justifying it.
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  72

  Question for Atheists

  by RWC in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  christians who believe in the bible and the teachings of christ use that as a moral core and code of conduct.

  for those who don't believe in god, where do you get your sense of moral right and wrong?

  what is your moral foundation?

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  RunningMan

  We get our moral code from the same place that the Bible writers did - we make it up. And, if you would care to take a look at the attached summary of Bible laws and principles, you will see that we could hardly do any worse than the Bible:

  What things are legal in the Bible:

  Slavery - Exodus 21 outlines the laws for ownership and trading of slaves. A man could sell his daughter to pay off a debt. You could beat your slave, almost to the point of death. Foreign slaves could be kept forever and willed to your descendants, whereas Hebrew slaves could only be kept for a maximum of seven years, although there were exceptions to this policy. Most of the faithful men of old had slaves.

  Incest - For those of you who will not want to believe this, here are the words of Abraham himself: ‘“Besides she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.”’ (Genesis 20:12) So, Abraham and Sarah were half siblings, as well as a married couple. And let’s not forget righteous Lot, who knocked up both of his daughters. By the way, doesn’t it seem a little strange that God would outlaw incest, and then create a situation where incest is mandatory? Adam and Eve’s children and Noah’s grandchildren had no choice but to marry their siblings and cousins.

  Genocide - In Dueteronomy chapter 7, God commands the Isrealites to ‘utterly destroy’ seven nations that were greater and mightier than they were. Joshua says that they did exactly as commanded. According to Joshua’s census, the Isrealites numbered approximately 2.5 million. So, if the Bible is to be believed, the Hebrews extinguished seven nations numbering more than 17.5 million persons.
  As well, there were several incidental holocausts along the way, such as the Midianites. In this case, the meek Moses became upset because the Israelites killed only the men, allowing the women and children to live. So, they went back and finished the job. When God commanded the Israelites to destroy the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15), he told them to kill, not only the men, women, and infants, but even the animals. Based on these boasts, Jehovah makes Hitler look like a small time thug.

  Polygamy - This one doesn't even require much backup. The list of faithful men of old who had multiple wives is virtually endless - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and many, many more. In addition to taking multiple wives, most of these men also took concubines, which are basically mistresses. This leads me into the next category.

  Fornication - Most moral codes frown on this, but not the Bible. Numerous faithful men of old had concubines. Many of them impregnated their slaves. Lot, who was married, had sex with his daughters. Judah and Samson hired prostitutes.

  Now, it seems to me that the Bible says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery". But, for some reason, this does not appear to include having multiple wives, keeping mistresses, visiting prostitutes, having your run of the slave girls, or selling your wife/sister to another man at a profit. So, how do you break this command?

  Murder - Now, to be fair, the Bible does outlaw murder. However, it doesn't seem to enforce the penalty evenly. Moses killed an Egyptian, and Samson killed thirty innocent people, so that he could steal their clothes. Both of these men retained God's approval and blessing.

  What things are illegal:

  * The eating of fat is prohibited forever. (Lev 3:17)
  * You cannot round the corners of your beard or the hair on your temples. (Lev 19:27)
  * Witches should be killed. (Ex 22:18)
  * The congregation was to be a bastard free zone. The Bible was so dead set against bastards that their children, even to the tenth generation, could not enter the assembly of the Lord. (Duet 23:2) This is in keeping with God’s principle of punishing children for the wrongdoings of their parents.
  * Handicapped people could not approach God. Their presence would profane his sanctuary. (Lev 21:16-23) This scripture single-handedly offends almost every category of handicapped persons you can name. The blind, lame, injured, hunchbacks and dwarfs are specifically named. If anyone is left out, the catchall phrase “anyone with a blemish” is thrown in to cover them. I guess in Israel, the handicapped parking stalls were at the far end of the parking lot.
  * Entrance into the assembly of the Lord was granted only to those with complete testicles (Duet 23:1) Now, I will admit that keeping one’s testicles in tact is a pursuit worthy of some attention, but I have to ask: What went on in the “assembly of the Lord” that required a complete and full set of testicles? And, since testicles are usually not on display, was there someone at the gate assigned to check?
  * Anyone working on the Sabbath is to be killed. (Ex 35:2) This law was to protect the sanctity of Sunday afternoon football. Unfortunately, any player that touched the ball would have to be killed after the game, because he had touched a dead pig. (Lev 11:7,8) That would certainly make it easier to play defense.
  * Menstruating women and everything they touch are unclean. The only cure for this uncleanness was for the priest to kill a couple of pigeons. (Lev 15:19-30) What could be more logical?
  * If a couple has sex during the woman’s period, the two are to be cut off from their people. (Lev 20:18) Once again, how would anyone know that this had happened? The couple is obviously not going to tell. Maybe the genital inspector from the temple made house calls.
  * Women were officially second class citizens. They were considered possessions that were owned, (Prov 12:4) and were officially subordinate (1 Cor 14:33,34).
  * Homosexual men were to be executed. (Lev 20:13) No mention is made of homosexual women.
  * If a woman grabs a man’s privates during a fight, her hand is to be cut off. (Duet 25:11,12) Now, is it really necessary to have this law on the books? You get the impression that the person who was writing the laws had recently experienced this and was still a little pissed off.
  * False prophets are to be killed by their own parents. (Zech 13:3)
  * Stubborn children were to be stoned, and the stoning was to be instigated by their parents. (Duet 21:18-21)

  Principles of Bible Justice:

  Principle #1: Sinners should be killed.
  By the way, when Cain killed 25% of the world’s population, why didn’t God give him the death penalty?

  Principle #2: It doesn’t matter if the infraction is small, kill them anyway.
  Don’t worry about proportions. For example, consider the case of Adam. For eating a piece of fruit, which is a violation on par with a parking ticket, the entire human race was sentenced to death. Of course, Adam himself was severely penalized by being forced to die of natural causes at the age of 950.

  Principle #3: If you can’t kill the sinner, kill his children.
  "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness... but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." - Exodus 34:6,7

  Principle #4: If you can’t kill the sinner or his children, kill someone else - anyone.
  Consider the occasion when King David took a census. (1 Chronicles 21) As a result of this minor infraction, seventy thousand innocent people where murdered by God.
  
  Principle #5: Every now and then, punish someone innocent.
  Jehu followed God's instructions to the letter, yet was later punished for committing the murders that God told him to commit. Talk about a no-win situation.

  Principle #6: The only sure way to make up for a sin is to kill an innocent animal, or if it’s a really big sin, an innocent human.
  There was a prescription for every transgression and it usually ended with some poor animal being sacrificed - unless you ate some forbidden fruit, then only the sacrifice a perfect human would suffice.

  Principle #7: Even young children can be tried in adult court, and killed for minor infractions.
  Children could be stoned for stubbornness - Dueteronomy 21:18,21.
  Elisha arranged for the murder of forty-two children who insulted him - 2 kings 2:23-25
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  7

  Why radiation from space is effecting this board.

  by Mindchild in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  of course none of you are going to believe this is the cause of all the sudden activity on the board tonight, but regardless i'm going to post it anyway.

  as having done research work into the effects of geomagnetic pulsations on the human brain in motivational research (as well as many other scientists) i know that whenever there is a rapid increase in the solar wind speed, it is a strong indication of world wide geomagnetic activity happening.

  what happens in turn is that your brain, the outer layers or cerebral cortex, becomes more easily stimulated.

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  RunningMan

  "people are quite mentally active and can be easily upset"

  Would you mind posting this graph in advance, sort of like a crankiness forecast? - Just so I can get out of my wife's way.
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  14

  The Logic Of Christ

  by radar in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  subject: love your enemies.

  example: matthew 5:45.

  "for god makes it rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous".

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  RunningMan

  aChristian:

  First of all, argument by analogy is invalid (it is a good method of teaching, but not debating).

  For example, you used the analogy of buying your children gifts. Note that the post is in regard to basic necessities (food and rain). To make your analogy fit better, consider when your children were young, and you were responsible to provide for them. Did you ever capriciously withhold food or other necessities from them?

  You would naturally expect your children to be appreciative of your support and provision of necessities, but by the same token, wouldn't your children who starved and lived in the street, be rightfully bitter? - Especially if they later found out that you were wealthy, in fact controlling all of the food in the world?
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  25

  Are Flamers & Atheists More Mature Than JW's?

  by Englishman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are ex-jws, flamers, agnostics and atheists more advanced spiritually and emotionally than fully-active jws?.

  this is how m.scott-peck describes the 4 basic stages of spiritual development.

  personally i can relate to stage 3 quite comfortably, but if i talk to a witness who may be a very devout and religious person i often feel as though this person is dragging me back into a lower stage, generally stage 2. what do you think?.

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  RunningMan

  I agree with the four classifications, but not necessarily with their positioning. I do not see any likelihood of group III migrating to IV.

  I would suggest that the positioning of level I and II are correct, then a person diverges into either III or IV. The last two levels are equal, but different.