Rainbow_Troll

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Posts by Rainbow_Troll

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  41

  Anyone read the latest Awake (on the supernatural)?

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just read some of this latest awake on the org's webshite.. it begins by talking about the 'supernatural' - wizards, witches, vampires, etc.

  - their popularity and why they might appeal to people.

  then it goes on to state the wt belief that someone is 'behind it'.. now, i like a few horror/scary films - when i was a kid, i always actually liked being a bit scared by them, tbh.. the silence of the lambs, a nightmare on elm street (1984), the ring, the witch, the thing (1982) and a few others are all great, imo.. they are just genres and subgenres of film, that's all.

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  Rainbow_Troll

  Thanks for the movie Schnell. It reminded me of why I chose the dark side all those years ago and never looked back.
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  8

  New "Become Jehovah's Friend" Video - The Ransom

  by pale.emperor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  : https://www.jw.org/en/publications/videos/#mediaitems/allvideos/pub-pk_e_26_video.

  sickening propaganda for our young ones.

  they've laid off on the "armageddon will be here soon" angle and now it's all about "hope".

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  Rainbow_Troll

  I've often thought about how sad it would be if it were all true. Imagine being a JW in the new system knowing that disfellowshipped friends and family are gone for good and will never be resurrected, while you will live for an eternity without any hope of seeing them ever again.

  I think this may have been a unconscious incentive for me leaving the WT. I knew that, even if it were all true, I would never see my father again, nor my aunts, uncles or cousin. My worldly friends would be gone too. So there was less to look forward to in the new system.
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  16

  How to respond when JW's invite you to the memorial

  by krismalone in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the yearly rejection of the blood of christ aka jw memorial is coming soon.. jw's will be engaging in an invitation campaign.

  elders are instructed to personally visit inactive ones or faders.

  some sarcastic ideas of how to respond to the memorial invitation that will scare or piss off the cult members:.

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  Rainbow_Troll

  I like answer #3.

  I just tell anyone who asks : "While I am not Christian, I feel no need to desecrate its holiest rite by deliberately rejecting the body and blood of Christ. Jesus was cool and I will not go out of my way to insult him."

  It won't work, of course, but it's fun to give them a brief glimpse of how crazy their cult looks to the rest of the world.
  

  Some might see that reply as smart assed of me, but this is how I really feel about the matter. As much as I hate Christianity, Satanism is just silly. Rejecting Jesus and desecrating his emblems is stupid and only proves that the person doing it left Christianity for the wrong reasons.

  But, if you ARE Christian, this would be an excellent opportunity to invite them to a real eucharist. Actions are much more persuasive than arguments. I think if a JW ever had the gonads (or ovaries) to participate in a real mass, they might realize just how joyless and empty their memorial is by comparison.
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  49

  Infinity versus nothing

  by Fisherman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some people like to believe in something others believe in nothing; so in what location did the substance that expanded into the time/space universe exist before the big bang?

  where did the energy that caused the big band come from?

  how did the substance that became the big bang change from being inert and sterile and come to life to having the properties and drive that it does?

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  Rainbow_Troll

  the nature of the universe, and secondly a similar issue, any reference to the concepts involved have to fit in with your pre-existing paradigms.

  Physical no? and conforming to scientific realism? Or do you believe that the universe is like the trinity?

  Anyone who believes that light can behave like a wave or particle depending on the experiment may as well accept the Trinity. Tossing out the aether derailed astrophysics and turned Science into a mystical religion.
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  19

  Craziest thing you ever did during intermission at a Circuit Assembly

  by Esse quam videri in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  1970 - there was a local drag strip a few miles away from the hall rented for the circuit assembly.

  i was 18 , tim o. was 16 and wayne d. was 18. wayne had a 1955 chevy 4 door, 6 cylinder and fresh paint job.

  tim had his dad'ss 1965 chevy half ton.

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  Rainbow_Troll

  I broke into parked cars, stole picnic baskets, and lured bored JW girls behind the bushes.
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  80

  The Fundamental difference between Islam and Christianity

  by ILoveTTATT2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ever since i came out of the witnesses, i've become very political.. i've heard lots of arguments back and forth for many things.. in the u.s. there is the argument that it is "racist" to want to deny entry to muslims.

  while there is freedom of religion, there is also the very valid concern of maintaining democracy and a justice system that is based on modern values.we as exjw's constantly quote the pew center for statistics on jw's such as: they are last place in the us for members of a religion that go to university, and second-last for poverty levels of members of a religion.

  we accept those statistics and mention them as proof of how damaging the jw's are.now, let's use the same center for some very scary statistics on islam:http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/22/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/.

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  Rainbow_Troll

  Yesu, you make a fair point.

  While Qur'anists continue to identify as Muslim, other Muslims consider them heretics and they are heavily persecuted in Muslim countries (a Quranist blogger got imprisoned in Cairo not so long ago).

  I guess I see the Qur'anist vs. Orthodox debate as similar to the Catholic vs. Protestant debate. When Luther challanged the traditions of the Catholic Church I am sure many no longer considered him Christian and if his revolt had failed there would be no such thing as a Christianity divorced from Catholicism. But Luther succeeded. Thousands of common people listened to him and intellectuals like John Calvin used their learning to build upon his dissent. Now we have millions of people who utterly reject the Pope and many of the traditions of the Catholic church; and yet these people consider themselves to be Christians. Is the pope going to tell them they're not?

  If Qur'anism is able to take the Muslim world by storm the way Protestantism took the Christian world, I think we could have hundreds of thousands of Qur'anists who yet consider themselves Muslim and are recognized as such by the non-muslims as well. Whether or not this ever happens is an open question, but if liberal Muslims want to justify their unwillingness to live under sharia law, this is the only option I see for them.

  Diogenesister13 hours ago
  Rainbow _Troll Can you tell us anymore about these " satanic verses"? About these daughters of Allah please?

  Records of pre-Islamic religion are sketchy at best and some Muslims will even deny the Satanic verses incident ever happened; but here is what I know:

  Allah, the Muslim God is actually a contraction of Al-Ilah or "the god". Al-Ilah was the creator deity of the pre-Islamic polytheists of Mecca and he had daughter goddesses who were also worshiped there. Most Muslims will vehemently deny what I have just said, for obvious reasons, but so what? Anyways, in comes Muhammad with his gospel of one God. "Al-Ilah", he says, "is the only true God and I am his prophet!". The priests and merchants of Mecca are indignant and for good reason: Mecca was a popular holy site and they made a lot of money from the chumps who would make pilgrimage there to worship the gods of the Kabba. Threats are made on Muhammad's life (though they can't be carried out due to tribal politics). He and his followers are persecuted without mercy. The stress gets to the prophet so he tries to compromise with his opponents. All this time he had been uttering revelations which would eventually become the Qur'an and now he utters a new revelation that you won't find in any version of the Qur'an extent. He says:

  "Have ye thought upon Al-Lat and Al-‘Uzzá and Manāt, the third, the other? These are the exalted gharāniq, whose intercession is hoped for."

  Muhammad's enemies are appeased by this rather equivocal sentence but Muhammad is racked with guilt. He's no charlatan. He really believes that he is receiving revelations from Allah and this wasn't one of them. He soon retracts his new 'revelation' and the persecution of Muslims resumes. End of story.
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  80

  The Fundamental difference between Islam and Christianity

  by ILoveTTATT2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ever since i came out of the witnesses, i've become very political.. i've heard lots of arguments back and forth for many things.. in the u.s. there is the argument that it is "racist" to want to deny entry to muslims.

  while there is freedom of religion, there is also the very valid concern of maintaining democracy and a justice system that is based on modern values.we as exjw's constantly quote the pew center for statistics on jw's such as: they are last place in the us for members of a religion that go to university, and second-last for poverty levels of members of a religion.

  we accept those statistics and mention them as proof of how damaging the jw's are.now, let's use the same center for some very scary statistics on islam:http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/22/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/.

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  Rainbow_Troll

  Rainbow, about the Quranists, this is really controversial. You say, they return to the Quran alone. This makes them non-muslims, because Muslims need to follow the prophet Mohammed.
  

  All of this presumes that the hadith are accurate records of Muhammad's words and deeds. But how could they be? They were compiled about 250 years after he died. We all know how quickly stories mutate and words get distorted. Imagine what could happen in 250 years!

  But more importantly, as you pointed out, much of the hadith directly contradicts the Qur'an. The Qur'an is supposed to be the word of God, while the hadith are only the words of a man named Muhammad (maybe). If one conflicts with the other, which should a true Muslim obey? If a muslim chooses to disobey God and follow a man instead, then how can he call himself a Muslim?

  Muhammad himself once uttered some 'satanic verses' which acknowledged the existence of "Allah's" daughter goddesses Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and Manat. Should Muslims become polytheists? In one hadith (I can't recall where) he catches some other muslims recording his words on parchment and forces them to burn the parchment, telling them that the Qur'an is all they need.

  The entire orthodox sunni position contradicts itself. They claim to be strict monotheists, but they worship a man who has been dead for over 1400 years. Yet another way in which they are just like the Christians.
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  20

  A serious question for any who believe in any God of any religion who think God is interested in humans.

  by smiddy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the world health organization states that in the year 2015 ,5.9 million children died under the age of 5 years of age.. in 2010 the death rate for children under the age of 5 years of age was 7.6 million.

  thats over 13 million in just 2 years .

  i dont think you need to be a rocket scientist to conclude that since mankind has been on the earth for however long you want to believe and i`m just going on a conservative estimate of 6000 years by the above figures i quoted their would be billions of children under 5 yearsof age that would have died.

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  Rainbow_Troll

  There are many answers to this theodicy question, not one of which I have found satisfying.

  I think the best option is to simply reject the idea of an omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent creator deity. Between that absurdity and atheism there are some plausible alternatives:

  Polytheism: There are many gods, so good, some bad, most are indifferent. The good ones can prevent evil some of the time but not all of the time for the simple reason that their power is finite and they cannot be everywhere at once. This is what most people believed until Christianity and Islam came along.

  Dualism: There is a good God of light, love, and life who created the cosmos and gave it life. Unfortunately, there is an equally potent god of darknessn malevolence, and destruction who lives for the sole purpose of destroying or defacing the creator's work. Historical examples of this system include Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism.

  Platonism: The world is imperfect because its creator is, at best, a flawed, incompetent architect who botched it. Everything here is an imperfect copy of a perfect archetype or idea. There is a better world and a superior God (or gods) outside of this universe but he isn't going to rescue us. What we have to do is improve ourselves by purifying our souls of evil and earthly desires while contemplating exalted subjects like philosophy and mathematics and living an ethical life. The idea seems to originate with Socrates who passed it on to Plato and then to the neo-platonists like Plotinus and Iamblichus. Eventually the gnostics got a hold of it and identified the (now evil) creator god with Jehovah.
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  21

  Serpent in the Garden of Eden is not Satan

  by anointed1 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  many interpret serpent in the garden of eden as the satan hence miss the whole point because satan himself does not exist.

  he is a fictional character [for example, in the temptation account, satan is shown as reflecting the erroneous belief of ancient time that shape of earth is flat, thus taking jesus to the top of “a very high mountain” and showed him “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.” (mathew 4:8, 9) the fact that jesus did not correct the mistaken view of satan shows the account of temptation is allegorical.

  further, jesus knew that satan was only a personification of evil (mathew 16:23; john 6:70) and categorically declared that “all evil thoughts proceed from one’s heart,” not from satan.

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  Rainbow_Troll

  I can't see how any of these stories were ever meant to be taken as anything more than allegories. "Fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil"; how could that not be an allegory?

  If you gave fundies a copy of Aesop's Fables, a few generations later you would have people who believed that lower animals could speak and reason. They would believe all the stories, while totally failing to grasp the morals behind them.
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  49

  Infinity versus nothing

  by Fisherman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some people like to believe in something others believe in nothing; so in what location did the substance that expanded into the time/space universe exist before the big bang?

  where did the energy that caused the big band come from?

  how did the substance that became the big bang change from being inert and sterile and come to life to having the properties and drive that it does?

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  Rainbow_Troll

  If something always existed then that something always had properties and drive. If nothing always existed then that nothing is really something.
  

  I am NOT a credentialed physicist, so take everything I am about to say with a big mountain of salt, but this is my take on it:

  'Nothing' is a very misleading word that I really wish physicists and cosmologists would stop using. What they really seem to be describing is not some ontological absence of anything at all, but a mathematical 'nothing' or zero. Despite what your teacher may have told you, zero is NOT nothing. In fact, zero is everything! Zero is the sum of infinity. If you add all the positive integers to all the negative ones what do you get? They cancel out to zero!

  As for your other questions? I'm clueless. Some physicists have speculated that the impetus and substance came from another universe, but that is just an ad hoc hypothesis that pushes the question back ad infinitum.

  To be honest, I'm one of those crackpots whose very skeptical of Big Bang cosmology. If the universe is expanding, I haven't seen it. All we have for it is the word of folks who get paid to come up with theories, form conjectures, and push numbers around all day. There are several rival theories, like Plasma Cosmology and Null Physics, which do their best to explain Hubble's Law in the context of either an eternal, beginingless cosmos or a much older one. When so many intelligent people disagree on this subject, it tells you how little evidence we truly have to go on.