What are you guys doing, is this like trying to guess the weight of the turkey at the fair?
True fact: All of the bones of Biblical giants were magically swapped with dinosaur bones before any modern men could find them.
Apognophos
JoinedPosts by Apognophos
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BIBLE HIGHLIGHTS(you won't hear at the KH):the giants of Bashan (Deut.3:11)
by raymond frantz innot usually a subject the watchtower likes to touch ,the giants that lived after the flood are a fact of ancient record and archeology .how tall were they ?
where did they live and how tall was og the king of bashan ?.
from this week's highlights deuteronomy 3:11:"for king og of bashan was the last remaining one of the rephaim.
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Leaving the JWs, experiencing Christianity and finding freedom! (But it took awhile)
by im_free inthis is my first post here.. i was raised in "the truth", and am an ex-bethelite who worked in brooklyn for several years back in the 90's.
a few years after i left bethel, i started to become disillusioned after doing research about the society and reading crisis of conscience (i know..i wasn't supposed to do that lol).
i eventually stopped attending meetings and going out in service.
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Apognophos
That quote from C. S. Lewis really is hopeless, though. Scientific ideas prove their worth by providing a model for interacting successfully with the universe to achieve our aims. Calling scientific thoughts "accidental" isn't even wrong, it's a meaningless statement.
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JWs and Exclusivity
by Don Schneider injesus, mark 9-40 (nwt).
the jehovahs witnesses assert exclusivity.
that is, they are the only true christian faith.
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Apognophos
Well, it was nice to meet you Don; I kind of wish you'd stick around, but I know you really wanted to find a forum with believing JWs, and there's only a handful here. I understand your reluctance to try to dash someone's faith to pieces, as well as the admonition in Mark (we actually did consider that scripture many many times as Witnesses; I'm surprised humbled doesn't share that memory). The fact is, what doesn't work for one person may work for another. The religion meets some needs of some people. More importantly, hardly any JWs (or, in fact, human beings) are open-minded enough to reconsider their worldview based upon a challenge from another person. Cue the old saying about leading a horse to water.
On the subject of anyone's erudition, I'll just say that some of us have been educating ourselves feverishly to make up for lost time since learning TTATT and being freed from our mental prisons. I've learned a great deal of fascinating info about the Bible in the last couple years which is kept from the Witnesses. However, as I said, we are a non-representative bunch. Some of us just happen to be introverted bookworms, and so we naturally read lots of science and SF and this broadened our horizons even while we were still true believers.
Having a love of reading is something that doesn't seem common among JWs; interestingly, in my case it did not carry over to the Society's literature, in which I could hardly muster enough interest to glance over. I wanted things that stimulated me intellectually, and for the most part this was absent from the literature, though I admit a fondness for the much-maligned Revelation book as well as the Greatest Man book, which even many embittered ex-JWs have to admit they like because it stands apart from the majority of the literature by focusing on Jesus' life and the actual Bible passages that relate it, without much eisegetical nonsense (unlike the Revelation book, *cough*).
Anyway, as an avid SF reader, it's funny to hear someone bring up "The Last Answer", as I made a thread about that here a while back to bring it to the attention of a few more people. It's frighteningly thought-provoking.
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Evidence of life after death?
by little_Socrates inhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/life-after-death-largestever-study-provides-evidence-that-out-of-body-and-neardeath-experiences-may-actually-be-real-9780195.html.
"experts currently believe that the brain shuts down within 20 to 30 seconds of the heart stopping beating and that it is not possible to be aware of anything at all once that has happened.. but scientists in the new study heard said they heard compelling evidence that patients experienced real events for up to three minutes after this had happened and could recall them accurately once they had been resuscitated.".
how are people having "experinces" while there is no evidence of heart or brain activity?.
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Apognophos
One could say that people in a coma with low brain activity should also not be able to know what's going on around them, but some who've come out of comas relate that they had some awareness.
Anyway, I'm not really clear how awareness of one's physical surroundings says anything about life after death. I suppose they're implying that their soul was hovering above the table watching the goings-on, I don't know, but why can't they simply be underestimating how long the brain remains functional?
To me, evidence of life after death from NDEs would consist of, "I went into a white light, and I saw my Uncle Joe, and he told me I was going to live, and he asked me to ask Aunt Susie about my long-lost half-brother that I never knew about, and then when I woke up, my family confirmed that they were keeping this family secret from me."
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A "My Book of Bible Stories" tale that I've always hated
by JimmyPage ini've always hated story #53: "jepthah's promise".
i always felt sorry for the daughter who had to spend the rest of her days at the tabernacle because her father made a numb-nuts promise to god.
who did he think he was, making promises for other people?
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Apognophos
You probably were also referring by "crude rendering" to the fact that paleo-Hebrew looks like chicken scratch, strikingly primitive. Though it makes sense to have a simple script since the language had to be inscribed into surfaces like clay, it conveys just what a primal era it comes from. Anyway, I wanted to mention, that link isn't working for me for some reason. Just gives a 404 page.
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Letter Re: JW Broadcasting
by pixel inre: jw broadcasting.
dear brothers:.
we are writing to inform you of an exciting initiative that was announced on october 4,.
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Apognophos
I know what you mean, Justnowout. Those of you who weren't at the 2013 AGM probably don't know this, but when the techy brother was on stage introducing us to the apps, the convention hall's screens filled with the logo of each OS for a few seconds -- the Apple logo and the Android logo -- as they began the demo for the apps on that platform.
Seeing those logos writ large on the screens, by themselves on a black background, felt strange. It seemed like the audience was uncomfortably silent. I've never known the Society to mention brand names from the platform before, let alone to blast their logos in our faces. I suppose there was never a reason to mention brand names of products before this sudden tech adoption phase that they are going through.
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Apognophos
"Hey, sorry I said you guys were like ISIS." "No biggie. Want to read the Watchtower for us?"
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8TH KING RISING
by CharlieSmith1975 inper jws the un is the scarlet-colored wild beast that becomes the 8th king just before armageddon.
it is interesting to see how the un is becoming more and more an authority in the world with obama clearly the leader and supporter of globalism.
plus obama is always saying "peace and security.
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Apognophos
Don't worry folks, he's only got five posts left for today....
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The power of thought
by Doug Mason ini find it so interesting to see the intensity that results from intangible thoughts.
no one living today has any personal direct experience with the people who wrote and rewrote the jews' and christians' scriptures.
all that people have is in their imagination, yet they will demand that others have the identical mental model.. people are prepared to fight and argue over ideas, to the point of torture and murder.
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Apognophos
Would that approach still be valid if I was following the Lord of Rings books as a religion and I asserted to you that Sauron and Gandalf were real -- is the burden on you to disprove it?
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Implications of Dropping "Types/Anti-Types"
by Antioch ini've seen this part of the agm folded in with other topics and poked around, but no really critical discussion of the implications.. .
the hermenuetics of the type/anti-type practice was a big deal to me in realizing the tatt.
i searched high and low for a rational basis for concluding that god was communicating in a type/anti-type format that wasn't special pleading and circular.
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Apognophos
It's religion by idiocracy