while this always bothered me ,i still wanted my 2 boys to be baptised as soon as practical so they would survive the big a or else get a resurrection into the new system of things.thats how indoctrinated i was.both my boys were baptised in their early to mid teens.neither have ever been disfellowshipped or disassociated themselves ,however both have nothing to do with the religion today.
(thankfully ) .
how many family lives have been ruined because children/minors have been baptised at a young age and in the majority of cases have committed trivial offences against watchtower policys/rules .sometimes with tragic consequences .. teenagers have a difficult enough time as it is dealing with changes to their bodies and coping with new emotions as they transform from boys to manhood and from girls to womanhood .. here in australia you cant get a car license and drive on your own till your 18 yrs old ,vote at elections , or drink alcohol at a pub.and many people will argue,that is too young to start doing those things as they are not mature enough .. yet the wtb&ts / jehovahs witnesses put life and death matters in the hands of minors / children ,as regards the use of blood and blood products ,fractions of blood ,what is currently acceptible ,and what is not.. an adult witness would find it hard to keep up with what is current and what is not current in the ever changing policy regarding the blood issue ,let alone a minor/teen who is expected to make a life or death decision at a critical time.. a teenager /minor does not have that capacity to make such an enormous decision about life or death ,when the wtb&ts acknowledge they often fail to make right decisions in trivial matters ,hence the disfellowshipping of thousands for trivial rules imposed by the governing body ,man made rules at that .no birthday celebrations,no smoking,no associating with a disfellowshipped baptised witness,no questioning what the governing body has said,accepting a blood transfusion,formerly a disfellowshipping offence , now stated ,you disassociated yourself from jehovahs witness teachings so you disfellowshipped yourself .
Jesus never started his ministry untill he was 30 years of age
It means that he was having a good time for a while. It also menas that even wise people sometimes err. He could have avoided death and continue having a good time. But noooo, He wanted to play the martyr. To his credit, he started a religion that has had more influence than anything else in the history of western civilization, for better or worse. Some time ago I thought it was for the better. I am not so sure anymore.
i'm just curious if jwn is as busy as it was even a year or two ago?
.
sometimes it seems this place buzzes and other times, not so much....but maybe it's all in my head..
Simon,
Make Leolaia a partner to encourage her to come back and I promise I will spend more time here.
Also, stay away from Republican versus Democrats, rich versus poor, and the-US-sucks type of discussions and I promise I will make more clicks in your site.
just when i was thinking i don't like ted talks, this is an excellent take on job creation and wealth distribution.
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckcvf8e7v1g.
Tax increases will shift the jobs from the private sector to the public sector. As far as I know, the private sector is far more efficient than the public sector. So, yes we can live in a society with more equality, but the country as a whole may lose competitiveness in the world market and the long term unintended consequences will affect rich and poor. I realized that there is an optimal taxation rate at any given time, but we will never know if we stayed long enough in that desirable target. We will endlessly pull from both directions and passed that ideal tax rate back and forth until the end of time.
I, just like everyone else, look at the issue very expediently. Hell, why not, tax the rich more! I am not there yet. Just stay away from my tax brackett!!!!
in acts 7:59, the jews were casting stones at stephen and his last words were, "lord jesus, receive my spirit.".
the wts has contended that all of the ancients who died after jesus were in a sleep-like condition, awaiting a resurrection that eventually happened in 1918-1919 (depending upon which wt reference you are looking at).
and in fact, v. 60 says stephen "fell asleep in death".
Socrateswannabe,
If you live in a big city you may check with your library. There are several videos and audios from The Teaching Company. The lectures are given by Bart D Ehrman and others. For me that has been a great resource to understand the scholarly view of the New Testament. Also, a while ago I got "the Skeptics Bible". It is certainly bias in the sense that there is nothing good to say regarding the Bible, but the author offers clear evidence of contradictions all over the place and makes notes about justice, ethical and moral problems in the Bible from the point of view of someone living in modern times. It also makes notes regarding the God of destruction and hate of the Old Testament. The same autor of this annotated Bible has a book, I forgot the title, but it documents all the killings commited by God versus those commited by Satan (millions by God versus only Job's family by Satan, countenanced by God of course)
i have seen debates and shizzle about god or not god etc etc.. i was even confronted by an aggressive and trheatening muslim in the street, who was angry that i wanted proof that god existed.
he ranted on a load of old b0110cks about 'hell' and stuff.
finally he yelled at me: 'do you want god to write your name in the sky?
It's not possible to prove or disprove God. It's a waste of time. However, disproving the inerrancy of the Bible, well, that's child's play.
ok i started another thread and every one jumped on me because i was trying to take the theory of evolution out of the mix and most here seem to believe in it so i will just say it.
the theory of major evolution is crap!
the theory is falling apart.
I see. So the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis solves the problem. The fossil record was an invention by an evil angel that existed before Adam and Eve. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense now. The earth has been here for a litttle more than 6,000 years and the cosmic radiation that dates the universe at 10-14 billion years is an illusion created by an evil angel too.
Crazyguy, why don't you try defending the Bible account in light of all the discoveries in geology, genetics, evolutionary biology, astronomy, paleontology, anthropology, instead of borrowing ideas from young earth "scientists". Better yet, go to a secular school and learn a little from the hard work of the bright minds doing research in the fields that I just mentioned.
ok so if the bible is nothing more then a pagan religious book, then how do all of you that think this, think we got here?
and please don't tell me you believe in evolution, because even the experts are finding major flaws in that theory.
so what is your opinion??
I don't think the Bible is crap. It's a great book in the context of the time it was written. The crap starts flowing when people want to make literal interpretations of stories that have been disproven beyond any doubt such as those in Genesis. It was Bennedict Spinoza in the 1,600's one of the first to warn against the literal interpretation of many of the Bible stories. The crappy part is to have people 400 years later still making literal interpretations of Genesis. The crappy part is to hear people who hardly finished High School pretend to know better than scientists with advanced degrees and many years of research. The crappy part is to hear that the biggest, in fact the only "evidence", against evolution is a story written about 2,700 years ago, at a time when superstition was the order of the day. I surmise your grades in Biology were not that great. I suggest you grab some biology books and start learning about the real world.
I could, for the sake of argument, admit God's existance, but the inerrancy of the Bible, Hell NO!!!
before the usual suspects start reaching for the pich-forks and forming a mob, i invite you to actually read and consider this, not just leap to conclusions.. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130607/7-graphs-america-overrated-nsa-prism-privacy.
why do i care?
it seems the people being screwed the most are also the most visciferous defenders of the status quo which sees them being severely disadvantaged.. maternity leave?
First AAWA, then Republicans, now USA bashing. Take one of the 52 week vacation allotment Canadians get. You need it. You sound better when you don't speak (write).
one of the most persistent myths on this website is that jws are already in decline, the rot has set in, and the descent of the watchtower is inevitable from here on in.
unfortunately the facts do not bear this out.
jws are still increasing even in most developing countries, and they are still growing worldwide at a faster rate than the general population.
SBF, You wrote: "...sustained activity all the more surprising." I think you meant to say more SUSPICIOUS.
the independent neswpaper uk - tues 18th june 2013 .
the bad science scandal - how fact fabrication is damaging uk's global research name.
after a string of high profile cases, a new agreement between scientists and the people who fund them aims to usher in a new era of .
From JW to Pyrrhonism. Quite a jump!
