Posts by Apognophos

9

What's up with pinterest?

by mynameislame in

jw
friends

after trying to find the picture that blondie posted on the "whose kh has the blue square jw.org on it?

" i noticed this under every jw related pin:.

jw.org has the bible bible based study aids to read, watch, listen download in 300+ (sign included) languages.

Apognophos

I don't know what the limitations on pinterest ads are - sometimes you try and cram in copy to get the gist of what you want to say in scannable form so I wouldn't read too much into the correctness of the english.

Let's look at the wording again:

JW.org has the Bible and bible based study aids to read, watch, listen and download in 300+ (sign included) languages. They also offer free in home bible studies. All at no charge.

The application of the first sentence's verbs to both "Bible" and "bible based" leads to the incorrect statement that the Bible is available to "read, watch or listen to" in many languages including "sign". The second and third instances of "Bible" are not capitalized. "Bible-based" is not hyphenated. There's no "to" after "listen". "Sign" is not a specific language (especially when not capitalized), and its parenthetical location in the sentence is dubiously grammatical. "In-home" is not hyphenated. The last sentence is a sentence fragment.

Are you really telling me you think someone at the Society wrote that?

9

What's up with pinterest?

by mynameislame in

jw
friends

after trying to find the picture that blondie posted on the "whose kh has the blue square jw.org on it?

" i noticed this under every jw related pin:.

jw.org has the bible bible based study aids to read, watch, listen download in 300+ (sign included) languages.

Apognophos

Then you must have copied a different one from the ones I saw when I visited that page, because as you can see from my copy-pasted quote, your version omits the "and" between "Bible" and "bible" and the "and" between "listen" and "download".

9

What's up with pinterest?

by mynameislame in

jw
friends

after trying to find the picture that blondie posted on the "whose kh has the blue square jw.org on it?

" i noticed this under every jw related pin:.

jw.org has the bible bible based study aids to read, watch, listen download in 300+ (sign included) languages.

Apognophos

I don't know much about Pinterest, but I'm pretty confident that the Society didn't write that text. Even besides the typos you made in transcribing it (you could have just copy-pasted, you know), the original text is not well-written at all. And the Society isn't going to use heart characters in their ad copy.

♥•.¸¸.•♥ JW.org has the Bible and bible based study aids to read, watch, listen and download in 300+ (sign included) languages. They also offer free in home bible studies. All at no charge.

34

Whose KH has the Blue Square jw.org on it?

by blondie in

jw
friends

i have been looking and finally saw the logo on the kh sign............. .

.

Apognophos

Yes, we have "blue square on brick" at my Hall too.

50

What were the calculations used to arrive at the 1874 date of Christ's return?

by Zoos in

we all know the calculations used by the wt to arrive at 1914. fall of babylon in 607 (false year), gentile times, no zero year, ta-da, 1914.. what did they use before that?

i know it wasn't russell who came up with it - he just adopted it.

i'm just curious what they had to explain away when they made the transition.. .

Apognophos

I've doubted Rutherford's sincerity too at times, but let me put this out there: if he didn't believe in the teachings, then why did he make his 1925 prediction, the one that ended up making him look like "an ass"? Sure, it got him some press at the time, but he would have had to be pretty stupid to think it was going to pay off long-term. And indeed, according to what I've read here, he lost around 75% of the Bible Students over that failed prophecy.

23

Teaching Anthony Morris III names of common things.

by LogCon in

"...what it is is this spanx, this skin-tight stuff they wear.

now, are you sisters wearing this in the ministry?

i can't say that i've ever seen that.

Apognophos

I hope he decides to focus on bathingwear next. "And sisters, sisters? These beach suits or whatever they call them, that you wear to the beach? Disgusting. I've asked the brothers. They don't like it. When you wear your suit to the beach, it should be a suit, brothers. And sisters? Why would you not be wearing a skirt, or better yet, a dress? Remember who you represent."

Ha, nice, BGN. You've written this very believably.

29

Greek Mythology influence on New Testament

by Magnum in

a few days ago, i was in a book store, and i picked up a book providing a brief overview of classical mythology.

as i examined the opening pages, i read about tartaurus (place of punishment) and hades (god of the underworld).. it seems so odd that tartarus and hades would be mentioned in the new testament, and yet they were part of greek mythology which predated the new testament.

why would bible writers have used such terms?

Apognophos

Okay, glad you're interested in that material, Magnum. I went into reading it with a skeptical mindset about the Documentary Hypothesis, and it took a while for the weight of the evidence to accumulate until I was convinced.

29

Greek Mythology influence on New Testament

by Magnum in

a few days ago, i was in a book store, and i picked up a book providing a brief overview of classical mythology.

as i examined the opening pages, i read about tartaurus (place of punishment) and hades (god of the underworld).. it seems so odd that tartarus and hades would be mentioned in the new testament, and yet they were part of greek mythology which predated the new testament.

why would bible writers have used such terms?

Apognophos

I don't personally find the mentions of Tartarus and Hades to be very meaningful or indicative that the Bible is not inspired, as it could simply be assumed that the writers were using those Greek concepts as analogies for teaching the Greek-influenced audience basic theological truths.

But the point-by-point explanations of Genesis' creation accounts, Flood accounts, and Red Sea accounts, which I found on contradictionsinthebible.com a few months after I learned TTATT, were sufficient to convince me that the Bible is properly viewed as a collection of ancient man-made Jewish writings from different time periods and different schools of thought. It might be best to read the Essential Reading links in the sidebar first.

Overview of creation accounts: http://contradictionsinthebible.com/genesis-2-creation-accounts/

The Flood: http://contradictionsinthebible.com/the-flood-narratives/

Crossing the Red Sea: http://contradictionsinthebible.com/how-is-the-red-sea-dried-up-moses-rod-or-yahwehs-wind/

It's quite eye-opening to see the dual Flood and Red Sea accounts that have been merged get separated again. I know this is a lot of material, and quite off-topic from your question; I guess I just feel that it's much more essential for you to know that material than to discuss some minor mention of Tartarus

65

Did you AWAKEN from the JWs by yourself?

by cultBgone in

jw
friends

i was thinking about how so many posters here on jwn are frustrated and frantic to help their loved ones get away from the brainwashing of jws, and how much advice is given about how to help family members and loved ones.

i considered my own leaving and that it was internal turmoil based on the teachings getting weirder and child abuse issues, to name just a few, and it made me wonder:.

did you self-awaken or were you assisted by the gentle proddings of a friend or family member?

Apognophos

Though I didn't learn TTATT by myself -- I have JWfacts to thank for showing me the information that really showed it couldn't be the truth -- I did have an epiphany a year before that, which, looking back, must have been when I first "awakened". I had come across a new word. It's always a major event in my life when I see an unfamiliar word because I am a language fanatic. I saw someone describing his religion as "Jesusism"; I just had to look that word up. Sure enough, as one would logically guess, it means "following the teachings of Jesus only, not any additional writings by Paul or other later religious leaders".

Suddenly it struck me: it was entirely possible for me to live an upright life without the religion's imposed morality, by just following Jesus' words, and what's more, this meant that the organization was the modern-day Pharisee class! They had added a bunch of oral laws onto the original, simple teachings. It was all so clear that they were burdening their followers unnecessarily. I immediately felt a huge load lifted from my shoulders.

I didn't yet know any good arguments against Watchtower doctrines, nor did I realize for a while longer that "Jesus' sayings" are difficult to attribute reliably to Jesus, and many of his sayings probably were inserted retroactively by later Christians or came from earlier rabbinical sources. But just looking up the word "Jesusist", and learning of a concept that I didn't have any clue existed before then, was a huge step in seeing a difference between the words of the Society and the word of God.

9

Sunday Washington Post: Gay Christians choosing celibacy emerge from the shadows.

by Balaamsass2 in

local.

gay christians choosing celibacy emerge from the shadows.

despite encountering criticism, the lgbt community is finding greater acceptance, even in religious circles.

Apognophos

I did allow for the possibility in my post that they are not attracted to each other. It still seems dangerous to me. I wouldn't be roommates with a girl if I was trying to remain celibate unless she was really not my type. People can grow more attracted to each other over time, keep in mind.

Anyway, I just found it odd that two gay women would choose to live together and think this would be good for their celibate lifestyle. Why not pick a random straight woman to live with, if they want to avoid temptation? It takes two to tango....