Posts by schnell

https://youtu.be/8ish2un-b-s. the academy of ideas has got to be one of my favorite youtube channels, and due to his subject matter, he doesn't get a whole lot of views.

but do give his playlists a watch.

above, his video on brainwashing is clearly relevant to this forum about jehovah's witnesses.

schnell

https://youtu.be/8isH2un-B-s

The Academy of Ideas has got to be one of my favorite YouTube channels, and due to his subject matter, he doesn't get a whole lot of views. But do give his playlists a watch.

Above, his video on brainwashing is clearly relevant to this forum about Jehovah's Witnesses. John Wesley and Pavlov's dog both come up.

Another very relevant video is "Neitzsche and the True World", a lecture that discusses belief in a spirit realm/afterlife as well as philosophies of history called "temporal true world theories", which JWs should find very, very familiar.

https://youtu.be/AO1igh1bQEY

And I wouldn't leave you hanging there. Clearly the subject of that video involves nihilism. I'm not a religious person -- I am thoroughly done with the religion of my upbringing -- but neither am I nihilistic. Why not? Because I appreciate the positive thinking and overall philosophy of Stoicism, and even more personally, the Hero's Journey of Joseph Campbell makes a whole lot of inspirational sense to me. Your journey, however, begins with you.

https://youtu.be/-_nLCZ3LKus

Stoicism: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYxecbGotUxSZhQ-Gte_UAMs1RQAckSv

Enjoy, everybody.

6

The Q Gospel

by schnell in

so, i'm reading "the lost gospel: the book of q and christian origins" on scribd.

check it out: https://www.scribd.com/book/163624254.

if you're not aware (i'm just learning about this), the q is a term for an early "sayings gospel" of yeshua, a document that recorded his sayings rather than his supposed life story.

schnell

Another thing that gets me, and I'm by no means the first to notice. The Lord's Prayer contains "As above, so below." And that's pretty weird.

Let your Kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also on earth.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

6

The Q Gospel

by schnell in

so, i'm reading "the lost gospel: the book of q and christian origins" on scribd.

check it out: https://www.scribd.com/book/163624254.

if you're not aware (i'm just learning about this), the q is a term for an early "sayings gospel" of yeshua, a document that recorded his sayings rather than his supposed life story.

schnell

So, I'm reading "The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins" on Scribd. Check it out: https://www.scribd.com/book/163624254

If you're not aware (I'm just learning about this), the Q is a term for an early "sayings gospel" of Yeshua, a document that recorded his sayings rather than his supposed life story. In later decades, this document sort of became old light, as it were, in favor of Paul's epistles and the "narrative gospels" that we refer to as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

This Q gospel was used by the authors of the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Luke, but it was the earlier gospel of Mark that established the basic plot of his mythologized life story, and that too was used in Matthew, Luke, and John.

The idea is that before Paul or the churches in Asia Minor and Syria developed the mythology about Christ as a divine being or son of God that we are more familiar with today, Jesus was basically a Jewish Socrates. I don't personally accept that Yeshua didn't exist, but I believe he was a theist philosopher who got made into a legend.

And, I think he was a cult leader. I think he was *obviously* a cult leader. If you strip away all the mythology and all the divinity, you're left with a guy saying things like this:

When another said, “Let me first go and bury my father,” Jesus said, “Leave the dead to bury their dead.”

That's nice. And this:

Can the blind lead the blind? Won't they both fall into a pit? A student is not better than his teacher. It is enough for a student to be like his teacher.

(Honest translation: Would I steer you wrong? You're not better than me.)

To be fair, he was not alone. There were lots of cults at the time, there had been for thousands of years, and there are today as well. From this perspective, Yeshua diminishes in my eyes to a man who preached an ascetic, theistic, apocalyptic philosophy with a persecution complex and an us-and-them world view.

Sounds familiar.

Yes, the principle of treating others as you'd like to be treated is a great golden rule. But so much else that's integral to Q and to Christianity is not. I'm not turning the other cheek in every case where someone attacks me, I'm not giving up my shirt if someone takes my coat, I certainly don't think the world is ending, and I love my neighbors enough to not see them as enemies in need of conversion. kthx.

193

Great Tribulation and Trump

by TakeOffTheCrown in

please, let's discuss this subject without attacking one another.. it appears that trump has won a victory that no one expected.

is it possible that trump may play a part in the great tribulation?.

there are some who believe trump is one of the most unqualified of men to ever be elected president of the united states.

schnell

How do you figure since wt sold them their sweet property?

Are you questioning doctrine and prophecy? O_O

193

Great Tribulation and Trump

by TakeOffTheCrown in

please, let's discuss this subject without attacking one another.. it appears that trump has won a victory that no one expected.

is it possible that trump may play a part in the great tribulation?.

there are some who believe trump is one of the most unqualified of men to ever be elected president of the united states.

schnell

What do you think?

I think Donald Trump will surely declare peace and security when there is no peace, and ban religion regardless of Pence, and target JWs specifically. Then a blue light will come out of the sky and all the heavenly armies will descend on the White House and the Kremlin, the king of the South and the king of the North.

31

JWs Excited Trump Won

by LaurenM in

i am incredibly disturbed.

many of the jws i'm still friends with on facebook are incredibly excited that trump won the american presidential race, posting, "yay!

i'm so happy!

schnell

I'm not even checking Facebook. I really don't want to know what they have to say.

31

Fossilized foot prints, how do they explain it away?

by Crazyguy in

so there have been many sets of fossilized human footprints found in africa, italy, europe, britain and new mexico.

these foot prints are thought to be anywhere from 20,000 to 2 million years old.

so what do christians and jws do to try to explain these away.

schnell

Being only 31, I was surprised to learn about the 7000 years. My peers and I have gone all this time thinking the creation days are of limitless and unstated length. Now 1975 makes stupid sense (4026 BCE + 6000 = 1975 and there's 1000 years for the millennial reign) and it's a great big ecclesiastical facepalm.

God they're dumb.