I've seen old photos of Fred Franz...
Yes.
Fred Franz, who would wear a tie with a flannel work shirt is made fun of in some circles, but I'm not so sure that was a bad thing.
Posts by TD
-
44New GB member Judy Jedele critizing Job's "humility" while wearing $20,000 Rolex, gold cuff links, coloured suit. Incredible!
by WingCommander ini swear, you can't make this shit up!
for years and years growing up in this cult, i had to constantly hear from my parents, from the stage, in the literature, about "keeping your eye simple", not being "materialistic", not "having a showy display of one's wealth.
" of course, this never seemed to apply to the wealthy business owning elduhzzzz who ran and lorded it out over the congregations, but i digress.
-
-
TD
-
4
Australian blood donor who saved 2.4 million babies dies
by Diogenesister inblood donor james harrison has died aged 88 in australia (17th feb) has saved the lives of over 2 million babies.
after receiving a huge blood transfusion during heart surgery aged 14, he vowed to become a donor at 18. he held the record for the most blood plasma donated until recently, donating every two weeks from the age of 18. his blood produced anti d used to produce jabs that protect unborn babies from hemolytic disease of the foetus & newborn (hdfn).
this occurs in pregnancy when a mothers red blood cells are incompatible with her babys.
-
-
TD
They don't make that absurd claim anymore although I would imagine there are still some elderly JWs who believe it.
It you go back to the mid 60's and beyond, that silliness was everywhere:
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/189217/jw-science-quote-2-19
-
44
New GB member Judy Jedele critizing Job's "humility" while wearing $20,000 Rolex, gold cuff links, coloured suit. Incredible!
by WingCommander ini swear, you can't make this shit up!
for years and years growing up in this cult, i had to constantly hear from my parents, from the stage, in the literature, about "keeping your eye simple", not being "materialistic", not "having a showy display of one's wealth.
" of course, this never seemed to apply to the wealthy business owning elduhzzzz who ran and lorded it out over the congregations, but i digress.
-
-
TD
True. It does happen
Marion can be either a French diminutive of Marie (Feminine) or a Latin derivative of Marianus (Masculine)
Naming a male child Judy goes contrary to the name's origin.
-
18
Using GROK 3 (Artificial Intelligence) to fact check UKRAINE theories/conspiracies, et al
by Terry into dig deep into what has taken place in ukraine both pro and con.
i tasked a.i.
with a pro vs con proposition.
-
-
TD
I can't agree with the Jury analogy. Courtrooms are presided over by judges who do not permit incompetent opinion as testimony; have it stricken from the transcript when it occurs and give jurors strict instructions on what they may and may not take into consideration. Current AI models have no such restrictions and will happily repeat back complete nonsense as fact.
I don't want to hijack Terry's thread, but being a "suspenders and belt" man, I'm going to flesh out my other observation with an actual example:
---------
About four years ago, I ditched Windows for Linux, but quickly found out that the OS is evolving so rapidly that articles just two years old can be partially or even completely wrong.
A good example is the free Foxit pdf reader. There was a native Linux version but it was discontinued years ago. The last supported version of Ubuntu (...and by extension Mint, Zorin, Kubuntu and others) was version 16. We are now at version 24. (I found this out the hard way. It took me nearly an hour to clean up the mess caused by a failed install.)
With that in mind, let's ask AI if you can install the Foxit Reader on Linux:
Microsoft Copilot gives virtually the same wrong answer and the same dead install links that Foxit took down years ago.
Grok3 qualifies the answer, which makes it substantially more accurate:
You can go through the 25 cited web pages and the only source for the "important considerations" are responses given by me, where I paraphrase an email from Foxit's tech support.
So, yes. It is entirely possible to influence the answer of AI with your own input. It is entirely possibly to have it quote your own words back to you, provided the question is esoteric enough. As Anony Mous points out, it doesn't happen overnight, but it can happen.
--And for the record, I do not have a "bias against AI" I'm the lead engineer at a manufacturing facility and use it daily for mathematical formulas and CNC programs.
-
18
Using GROK 3 (Artificial Intelligence) to fact check UKRAINE theories/conspiracies, et al
by Terry into dig deep into what has taken place in ukraine both pro and con.
i tasked a.i.
with a pro vs con proposition.
-
-
TD
With respect to both of you (Cuz I like you both) you are using AI for that which it is least suited for.
None of the free AIs can separate human opinion and conjecture from verifiable fact.
--Hell....I've found that I can influence the answer I will receive just by posting about the subject on Reddit.
-
21
When JW's say they are 'In the truth'...
by Ron.W. inwhere did this phrase 'in the truth' come from?.
it's been around as long as i can remember.
is it from the time they were promoting 'the truth shall make you free' book back in 1943?
-
-
TD
I've read similar expressions in SDA and LDS writings.
"Truth" is the state of being true. It is not a tangible object that you can "have or "be in" and referring to it in that way is cult speak.
-
14
The Greeks had a word for it, but the Watchtower didn't
by Nathan Natas ini recall as though it was only 60 years ago, sitting in the kingdom hall on those horrible chairs, learning of the four forms of love: agape, philia, storge and eros.. the watchtower never mentioned pragma.. pragma: this is a committed, compassionate love that often grows as two partners continue to cherish and care for each other.
this type of love is associated with being together for a long time.
in some cases, the passion of eros can grow into pragma over time, this forging a lasting bond.. i think i know why; the watchtower isn't into committed, compassionate, cherishing and caring, are they?.
-
-
TD
Agape = unconditional love
That definition is more theological than linguistic, I'm afraid.
The JW claim, (which I heard a gazillion times as a teenager) was that ἀγάπη was a "principled love", as in a higher, more pure form of the emotion.
The word actually means love as a general principle, which can be used in any number of ways.
Pederasty, for example, was common in Ancient Greece and ἀγάπη was the word used to describe affection within those relationships.
So maybe it's better that the JW's no longer frame entire arguments around preferential definitions.
-
22
Join JW's or DIE - soon!!!
by BoogerMan inw72 10/1 p. 607 - "they (jw's) know that soon now all who are not true worshipers of jehovah (jw's) will be destroyed.".
how quickly half a century passes by!
2 peter 3:8 - "...one day is with jehovah jw.borg as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
-
-
TD
---Struggling to think of a single adult I knew in 1972 that has not passed away...
-
-
-
TD
I'd point out that Freemasonry borrowed it's symbols from Christianity and not the other way around.
It's child's play to show that every Christian religion has used the symbols that xJWs identify as Masonic and that some still use them today
-
-
-
TD
There's some very good information about the JW's online.
There's also a lot of garbage that no scholar who has ever studied the movement accepts.
The alleged connection to Freemasonry has been debated here a time or two over the years.