Posts by terraly

9

Dear Witnesses, just suppose....

by SixofNine in

jw
friends

just suppose for a minute, that there is this guy.

a nice guy.

has a really good record of trying to do the right thing.

terraly

What's with this whole "converting people" anyway?

See, it's like evolution. Only those religions which convert new members will survive, and sadly (very sadly in my opinion) it sometimes seems as if there's no reason to join a religion if it's not going to save your mortal soul or whatever. Thus those religions which preach that everyone else is going to die (when believers live)/burn in hell/have to come back in the next life as an insect are the ones which grow.

But really, it doesn't make much sense, does it? I mean, why should anyone trust your judgement over their's? Why would God tell one person the truth rather than another? Why should there only be one right way of looking a life and God (especially if he is beyond our understanding)?

33

Newbie saying hello and glad to be here

by Calico_Cat in

jw
friends

hello, i've been lurking the board for quite sometime now and i have also read crisis of conscience.

my hubby and i stopped attending the meetings since december and had our first christmas in 6 years.

it was fun although the feelings of guilt are still within us.. we've been visited by the elders twice but we managed to keep them at bay.

terraly

Hey Calico,

Welcome a-board.

Heh, no pun intended.

137

Face/Pyramids on Mars! What do you think?

by qwerty in

jw
friends

the things you look into without the wt cynical mind behind every thought.. [ http://www.geocities.com/area51/6683/cydonia-face.html].

qwerty .

justa surfin!

terraly

Indeed, as you say, we will have to wait and see.

Perhaps millions now living will see proof that NASA has been covering up evidence for intelligent life on Mars.

Sadly, of course, my side can never be vindicated. Your side has an easy time, all you have to do is provide substantial evidence that intelligent life did exist- my side has to [i]prove beyond the tiniest possibility[\i] that it didn't, when all the evidence we bring to support our assumptions will be treated with suspicion.

If we go to Mars and walk on the "face", certain people will doubt the accuracy of the reports NASA sent back. Even if the face proves to be very normal looking up close, perhaps the aliens modified it in the intervening time so that humans wouldn't become aware of them too soon.

Is there anything that could prove to you that the claims of intelligent life and conspiracy are wrong?

3

To Yeru -- Re: Romans 10:13

by outnfree in

hi, yeru.. you made the point a while back to fredhall that romans 10:13 in the context of romans 10:9-13 proved that yahweh = jesus, because romans 10:13 quotes joel who is speaking about yahweh.

this rattled me -- being a monotheist all my life.

could it be true?

terraly

Um, no actually. I mean, Witnesses tend to favor the NWT, but we're mostly ex-JWs or never-been-yet-connected-in-some-way here.

I generally dislike the dogmatic stance taken by KJV people though.

Actually outnfree, looking over your comments I'd like to address them exactly: Verse 9 tells us to believe that Jesus is "Lord" (probably Kyrios in the Greek, although I don't have it handy. Paul is guilty of extremely poor writing if the next time he uses Lord it does not refer to Jesus.

137

Face/Pyramids on Mars! What do you think?

by qwerty in

jw
friends

the things you look into without the wt cynical mind behind every thought.. [ http://www.geocities.com/area51/6683/cydonia-face.html].

qwerty .

justa surfin!

terraly

Indeed, they do appear to be the same image.

One logical explanation would be that they made public the entire data set on April 4, but due to the extreme interest in the area surrounding the "face" they made sure to put those pictures up first.

I still think that these are the pictures NASA is referring to in the letter- although the letter writer was obviously not also the web master and his explanation of the situation is rather confused.

Are we to believe there are more images of the area unreleased? On what do you base this belief?

Thanks. Oh, and I'm glad you believe we went to the moon.

20

Which is the best translation of the bible...

by TheApostleAK in

jw
friends

50 years ago respected textual critic ernest cadman colwell created an apparatus of 64 scriptures to determine which is the best new testament.

i created a chart using the same criteria...and the results will surprise you!!.

http://hector3000.future.easyspace.com/colwell.htm .

terraly

Actually, it makes sense that the NWT translators copied someone else's translation verbatim on "boring" scriptures like these.

I mean, heck, they didn't know the languages, so they have to get it from somewhere, right?

137

Face/Pyramids on Mars! What do you think?

by qwerty in

jw
friends

the things you look into without the wt cynical mind behind every thought.. [ http://www.geocities.com/area51/6683/cydonia-face.html].

qwerty .

justa surfin!

terraly

The search for these latest images is a bit complicated by the fact that I'm not quite sure what it is I'm looking for. Obviously, the webpage has some mislabelled links, and it it in fact difficult to find the latest pics. Nonetheless, with some dedication it can be done:

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/m13_m18/images/M16/M1600184.html

please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the area in question, and you will see on the bottom of the page that this picture claims to have been released on April 4, 2001. Unless they're lying to us.

ianao,
Sorry about your luck with the back-button. Am I to understand by your statement that you believe the moon landings were or were not faked? I hope the later.

Nonetheless, you have not taken Clarke's point. True, the world is not watching every latest picture come across, but many scientists are. You're still faced with a huge number of people who are in on the conspiracy...

137

Face/Pyramids on Mars! What do you think?

by qwerty in

jw
friends

the things you look into without the wt cynical mind behind every thought.. [ http://www.geocities.com/area51/6683/cydonia-face.html].

qwerty .

justa surfin!

terraly

NASA does not know of any statements by Sir Arthur C. Clarke that suggest "... pretty convincing proof of the existence of large forms of like on Mars,"

Yeah, right!
NASA named the daggumed NEW MISSION to Mars, "Odyssey". ___ in tribute to Sir Arthur C. Clarke's, "2001 - A Space Odyssey".

So basically what you're saying is that because NASA named one of it's probes after Clarke they know everything he has said? This comment was made to Space.com, a great site, but not exactly a major headline news organization. I have been unable to find the remark reprinted anywhere else except on UFO-type sites.

Here's the link for those of you curious:

http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/clarke_believe_010227.html

Consider NASA's motivation, what would it have to gain by deliberately lying to FACETS on this point? That's right, absolutely nothing- in fact, it makes them look stupid, so why would they do it purposely?

For those of you who still believe this is all a big conspiracy, please consider Clarke's closing words at the end of this article:

[quote]
And then Clarke took an opportunity to rebut those who refuse to believe even well documented events, specifically, the Apollo moon missions. Responding to a recent television program claiming the Apollo landings were faked, Clarke said, "I can't imagine anybody being stupid enough to think that a program involving hundreds of thousands of people, carried out over a period of [more than a decade], in a blaze of publicity, could possibly be faked. Ben Franklin said, 'A conspiracy of three people can be kept secret, if two of them are dead!'"
[\quote]

It is quite clear that Clarke does not believe a conspiracy to hide something like intelligent life on Mars is feasible.

I am quite open to the possibility of life on Mars (although I think there is a lack of evidence for intelligent life), but I am firmly with Clarke on this one- a conspiracy to keep real evidence of this from the public would be virtually impossible.

3

To Yeru -- Re: Romans 10:13

by outnfree in

hi, yeru.. you made the point a while back to fredhall that romans 10:13 in the context of romans 10:9-13 proved that yahweh = jesus, because romans 10:13 quotes joel who is speaking about yahweh.

this rattled me -- being a monotheist all my life.

could it be true?

terraly

I'm not sure I see how Jesus=Yahweh would be a problem for a monotheist. If Jesus is Yahweh, then everyone can be quite clear that there is only one God (one Alpha and the Omega, one who should be worshipped, etc). It might present a logical problem for you to see how this could be true, but if Jesus=Yahweh then in fact you escape the polytheism of the Watchtower at John 1:1 where they call Jesus "a god".

Jesus and Yahweh are still separate entities

It is making the two separate which leads to potential polytheism.

I'm interested in your thoughts on the matter. What about the Alpha and Omega passages of Revelation? (a passage the WT has changed their mind about many, many times) What do you think is the correct meaning of John 1:1? And while we're on the subject, since Romans 10:9 says that God raised Jesus from the dead, how do Jesus' words make sense at:
John 2:19
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
(NIV)

Oh, and if you will excuse me for using poor logical reasoning for a second, the most powerful argument against what you're saying... Fredhall can't be right about anything, can he?

Thanks for you answers. It's my experience that arguments about the trinity never get very far, but they're still fun to have from time to time.

23

Want to help my JW friend

by wannahelp in

jw
friends

i'm new here, and i want to make it clear upfront that i am not, nor have i ever been a jw.

in fact, until recently i didn't know much about jw's.

but i do have a question that i hope both jw's and ex-jw's will try and answer for me... about 10 months ago, i hired a 20 year old to work for me.. i hired him because he seemed very loyal, ethical, sincere, hardworking and honest.

terraly

[oops, posted twice]