They had towels 2000 years ago?
It all smacks of homoeroticism to me. Naked guys washing others' feet; wearing towels, bathing each other in rivers.
Tiktaalik
JoinedPosts by Tiktaalik
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Jesus washing feet in underwear or naked?
by John_Mann injohn 13:4,5. got up from the evening meal and laid aside his outer garments.
and taking a towel, he wrapped it around his waist.. after that he put water into a basin and started to wash the feet of the disciples and to dry them off with the towel that was wrapped around him.. .
the wt "translates" himatia as outer garments but some other translations says just clothes.. if he were wearing just an underwear, why wrap a towel around the waist?
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Back to study next week-Started reading Matthew's gospel
by fulltimestudent ini'm looking forward to next week.
even though, i'm enrolled this semester as an external student, (just to make it easier to go to china during the semester), i'm allowed to attend on-campus lectures and tutorials.. i've just downloaded the unit guides and everything fits in well with my planned china visit, this unit is at 200 level, so its an easier assignment load (just 3500 words in two asssignments) and both due before my planned dates to visit china.
and the exam will be at least two weeks after i get back.. oh!
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Tiktaalik
Even though you're a U of S man, good luck with your studies this term, FTS!
I'm an alumnus of UNSW, myself.
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Curlwaa Congregation. Anyone remember it?
by Tiktaalik incurlwaa congregation is no more.
it went extinct.
absorbed by mildura congregation.
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Tiktaalik
@ Jemba: yep, I know those people.
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Curlwaa Congregation. Anyone remember it?
by Tiktaalik incurlwaa congregation is no more.
it went extinct.
absorbed by mildura congregation.
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Tiktaalik
Curlwaa congregation is no more. It went extinct. Absorbed by Mildura congregation.
Elders left. One had an affair with one of the sisters.
The hall was sold and it's now been converted into a private house.
You will either know it, or you will never have heard of it.
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One Can Be Spiritual With or Without Religions!
by exWTslave inbehind all the details in the bible lies the absolute truth: love is the true religion.
(james 1:27) [conversely, self-serving is false religion.colossians 3:5] that means god is not a factor in the true worship.
(habakkuk 2:4) his attitude is that if you are good, it is good for you; and if you do bad, it is bad for you.
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Tiktaalik
Yep, go back to bed Laika. Nothing to see here.
Science explains why some people are "spiritual" and believe in god.
It's a combination of genetics and culture. If you are born in a Muslim country you will be a Muslim. And if you born in a Buddhist country you will be Buddhist. Some people really believe and others don't really give a shit.
Spiritual is just a feeling of something greater than the you. If you believe in god you express it in those terms.
Love is the most powerful and the greatest of all human achievements. Science explains it in evolutionary terms, but somehow most people find the rational explanation of love wanting. So, they resort to filling in these perceived gaps with god or other elements of the supernatural.
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The New WT Headquarters and APOSTATES
by suavojr init is amazing how bethel is the best at making apostates!
i wonder how many new up and coming apostates the new wt headquarters will generate?.
what nice and fresh stories will surface from the secluded and private wt hub?
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Tiktaalik
Yo! FatFreak!
I was in the Australia Bethel in the 80s. Put me your list. There's plenty more of us as well.
What a total waste of the best years of my life!
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Today I Da'd -Twenty-five years ago. Regrets -some.
by Xanthippe inyes twenty-five years ago today we sent in our da letter.
some regrets, not about leaving the cult obviously, but sometimes when i read about people slowly fading and keeping in touch with family and friends i wonder if we should have done that.
of course it was before the internet in 1989 so we didn't know about people fading.. one day we were driving along and we had been talking about moving congregations because we knew something was wrong but of course we thought it was local.
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Tiktaalik
Thanks for this thread Xanthippe. A beautiful story. This year marks 20 years out for me. My only regret is that i gave some of the best years of my life to the evil org. I spent my early 20s in bethel then pioneering. What a waste. If any young people are trying to summon the courage to leave, I'd advise them to do it sooner rather than later. Life in the big wide world is rich and and exciting and exhilarating. Especially in the first few years after you leave. There is so much to discover and to experience. My other bit of advice is to get some professional counselling. While freedom can be intoxicating, ingrained cultish thinking can take a heavy toll on mental health. Especially with family still trapped inside.
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What Is Cognitive Dissoance and How Does It Affect False Prophecy (Dr. William Lane Craig).
by RottenRiley inmore clarity on cognitive dissonance, by william lane craig (double phd)for those who hear this term, dr. craig explains what c.d.
is and mentions how jehovahs witnesses were affected by failed prophecy and how the watchtower salvaged its second coming failed prophecy.. .
i like how he explains the concept we all are becoming more familiar with, enjoy the podcast, you will throughly understand what cognitive dissoance is after this twenty minute podcasts.
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Tiktaalik
William Craig asserts that whatever god says is the moral standard for humanity. For example, he defends god's command to the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites, the genocide of whole people, as the actions of just and and loving god.
Why anyone would bother listening to Craig on any matter, particularly him holding forth on cognitive dissonance, is beyond me.
William Craig is an egotistical, puffed up, narrow minded, bag of wind.
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Tiktaalik
Excellent, as usual, Terry.
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Interesting article on Biblical accuracy
by Jon Preston inappearance of camels in genesis called sign of authors' distance from history.biblical scholars have long been aware many of the stories and accounts in the sacred book were not written by eyewitnesses, and according to new research, further evidence of that historical distance has appeared in the form of a hump-backed camel.. new research using radioactive-carbon dating techniques shows the animals weren't domesticated until hundreds of years after the events documented in the book of genesis.the research was published by erez ben-yosef and lidar sapir-hen, archaeologists from tel aviv university in israel.
they believe camels were not domesticated in the eastern mediterranean until the 10th century b.c.. and yet, the hump-backed creatures are mentioned repeatedly alongside abraham, jacob and isaac, indicating the bible's writers and editors were portraying what they saw in their present as how things looked in the past, says a new york times article by john noble wilford:.
these anachronisms are telling evidence that the bible was written or edited long after the events it narrates and is not always reliable as verifiable history.
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Tiktaalik
Phizzy: there has never been a land bridge that connected the Australian continent to the rest of the world.
The supercontinent, Gondwana, that included Africa, Australia, India, South America and Antartica began to break up around 200 million years ago with the separation of Africa and India.
Antartica, Australia and South America remained locked together until around 60 million years ago, when Australia drifted north and tore away from Antartica. South America headed westward. They took with them a shared assemblage of proto-mammals, as mammalian evolution and speciation was beginning to occur in earnest after the age of the dinosaurs. Anartica headed south and became entombed in the ice at the pole and all its animals and plants were wiped out. The only places on Earth where you find marsupials are South America and Australia/New Guinea (The North American Opossum is a 'recent' migrant from South America).
The Australia/New Guinea continent headed north, and is still doing so today. More accurately it is heading north northwest at the rate of 8mm per year. For 55 milion years, Australia has been alone; a giant isolated raft. It has never been connected to Asia. But it will one day. It will eventually smash into Indonesia, so watch out you Indonesians! The Australians are coming and there's nothing you can do about it!