EdenOne

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Posts by EdenOne

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  51

  Your favourite dog breed ...?

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. family

  in an earlier thread, i mentioned that i wasn't a particularly doggy person but that my parents got a husky last year that i've come to regard as a kind of brother.. huskies superficially resemble wolves and for me it's been fun to compare and contrast husky and wolf behaviour.

  huskies howl but rarely bark, and seem to have a strong prey drive and a strong pack instinct - a nod to their wild cousins.

  this is why i love huskies, i think.. do you have a favourite dog breed and why?.

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  EdenOne

  BTW, the life span of a Serra da Estrela dog, if properly taken care of, is around 12-15 years.

  Eden
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  51

  Your favourite dog breed ...?

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. family

  in an earlier thread, i mentioned that i wasn't a particularly doggy person but that my parents got a husky last year that i've come to regard as a kind of brother.. huskies superficially resemble wolves and for me it's been fun to compare and contrast husky and wolf behaviour.

  huskies howl but rarely bark, and seem to have a strong prey drive and a strong pack instinct - a nod to their wild cousins.

  this is why i love huskies, i think.. do you have a favourite dog breed and why?.

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  EdenOne

  The "privacy" feature means that you shouldn't try to force them to come to you when they're not so inclined - they naturally come, but in their own terms. When they're in the mood, they're very affectuous and expressive. But often, they like to just "retreat" into a shady corner somewhere and be left alone. They're still doing their perceived job, to protect the property and the family, but they do it in their own terms. They have a super sharp ear and react promptly. Like I said, they tend to be very stubborn. The only health issue that's common to them is something common to most big dogs: with age, sometimes they develop a serious hip dysplasia and they get terrible pains to walk. In that situation one must wheigh the possibility to put an end to their misery.

  Eden
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  51

  Your favourite dog breed ...?

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. family

  in an earlier thread, i mentioned that i wasn't a particularly doggy person but that my parents got a husky last year that i've come to regard as a kind of brother.. huskies superficially resemble wolves and for me it's been fun to compare and contrast husky and wolf behaviour.

  huskies howl but rarely bark, and seem to have a strong prey drive and a strong pack instinct - a nod to their wild cousins.

  this is why i love huskies, i think.. do you have a favourite dog breed and why?.

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• 

  EdenOne

  LV101, the Serra da Estrela dog is of easy maintenance - feed him, give him space, respect his privacy and show him some affection and he's got your back for life! This breed has a lot in common with the great mastiffs. Their cubs are the cutest creatures on earth, if you don't fall in love for them, you have no heart :)

  

  Eden
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  29

  Greek Mythology influence on New Testament

  by Magnum in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  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?

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  EdenOne

  Magnum: it does seem that I'm at the beginning of the end of my belief in the Bible. Right now, that's depressing to me. I loved having a hope for the future, but now that hope is fading fast.

  I can feel your pain, I've been through the same recently, and all it took was a serious evaluation of the NT; I didn't even spent much time dealing with the OT. I too came to be convinced that the Bible isn't the "word of God", and Christianity as we know it is mostly an invention of the apostle Paul and his disciples, and has little to do with the teachings and activities of that jewish Rabbi that we know as Jesus. An appealing invention, but it has no foundation in the teachings of a "would-be-son-of-God", which is what ultimately would grant its authority.

  Like Doug Mason said, this in itself doesn't negate the possibility of the existence of a God above; but destroys the portrait of the God that we have been so familiar with. That loss can either be sad or liberating. I feel a mix of both. The way I see it at this point in my journey, if a mighty, loving, caring and just creator God exists, he's for sure distant and apparently barely interested in us as individuals - if at all. Plus, I question whether such God require or even be interested in our worship and obedience? I can certainly love and care for people who don't obey and worship me. Why would God make that a requirement to bestow his love and care upon us, anyway?

  Eden
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  45

  About the ten plagues in Egypt

  by runForever in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  alot of people are saying god is cruel for killing the firstborns and animals and people in the ten plagues.

  but didn't god achieve his goal of making nations and people be in fear of him?.

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  EdenOne

  Thanks, Doug.

  I clearly need to read more into that subject.

  Eden
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  45

  About the ten plagues in Egypt

  by runForever in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  alot of people are saying god is cruel for killing the firstborns and animals and people in the ten plagues.

  but didn't god achieve his goal of making nations and people be in fear of him?.

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  EdenOne

  Doug,

  if I understand correctly, are you proposing that Deuteronomy was a literary forgery concocted at the time of King Josiah? Everything I have read until now claims that Deuteronomy was written around the time of the Babylonian exile, not before that.

  Eden
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  51

  Your favourite dog breed ...?

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. family

  in an earlier thread, i mentioned that i wasn't a particularly doggy person but that my parents got a husky last year that i've come to regard as a kind of brother.. huskies superficially resemble wolves and for me it's been fun to compare and contrast husky and wolf behaviour.

  huskies howl but rarely bark, and seem to have a strong prey drive and a strong pack instinct - a nod to their wild cousins.

  this is why i love huskies, i think.. do you have a favourite dog breed and why?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  EdenOne

  Portuguese Estrela Mountain Dog ["Serra da Estrela"]

  I've had a few of them over the years. Love them to bits. They're fiercely loyal and loving towards their owners, very tolerant with children, great watchdogs, their size and deep bark are very intimidating. Not good to walk on a leach, as they are terribly stubborn and they'll take YOU on a walk instead. They need open spaces to be happy, but don't expect them to be playmates and do tricks for you. The long fur variety [shown here] requires some extra care. But they're sooo beautiful :)

  
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  32

  'Trusted' Jehovah’s Witness ‘raped and sexually abused girls’

  by cliff in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  'trusted' jehovahs witness raped and sexually abused girls.

  court: barry furlong arrives at bournemouth crown court.

  first published tuesday 9 december 2014 in news by jane reader.

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  EdenOne

  Indeed it is LG. I think that no argueing will ever convince people like her - only when they see it happenning before their very eyes. And even then ...

  Eden
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  32

  'Trusted' Jehovah’s Witness ‘raped and sexually abused girls’

  by cliff in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  'trusted' jehovahs witness raped and sexually abused girls.

  court: barry furlong arrives at bournemouth crown court.

  first published tuesday 9 december 2014 in news by jane reader.

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  EdenOne

  My wife "woke up" because of the paedophile issue. When she spoke with her mother, a devout hard-core Witness [as my wife had been until then], said that it was all lies spread out by apostates. Then my wife pointed out that the information she gathered came from respected news outlets, not apostate websites. Again, her mother said that the media was biased against the Witnesses and the Organization, was being used by Satan, the journalists were lying ... then my wife pointed out: "But I remember clearly that, every time there were news about cases of paedophilia within the Catholic Church, you would nod and say that it was evidence that they were a false religion. So, what gives? The journalists are telling the truth when it comes to the Catholic Church, but are telling lies when it comes to the Jehovah's Witnesses?"

  "Of course they are", she said. "Do you realize that what you're saying makes no sense at all?", my wife replied. "Satan is obviously driving the media to badmouth Jehovah's people", she replied.

  Cult mentallity at its worst.

  Eden
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  18

  El, Baal and JHVH

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  one of the most important sources that we have for the most ancient stages of the religion of israel are some epic texts about the gods of canaan that were found in an archaeological excavation in a place called ras shamra (ancient ugarit) early in the twentieth century.

  these epics reveal a very rich ancient canaanite mythology, especially in the elaborated stories of the gods el and baal and their rivals and consorts.

  while, of course, the israelite branch of the canaanite group partly defined itself through the rejection of this mythology, much of the imagery and narrative allusions that we find in the works of the israelite prophets, the psalms, and other biblical poetic texts are best illuminated through comparison with these ancient texts.

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  EdenOne

  When you read someof the Qumran scrolls from the Essenes, an ultra-fundamentalist jewish sect, who was furiously keen on the "purity" of worship before Yahweh, you will see that they have no bones in admitting that there are other gods in the heavenly realm. Only Yahweh is to be worshipped, but there ARE others whose divinity status is reckoned by the Essenes. Thus, the Jewish religion was never monotheistic [ony one God exists], but rather Henotheistic [several gods exist, but only one is to be worshipped]. Apparently, only after the return from the exile in Babylon, with the fundamentalist heroes Ezra and Neemiah, the myth of monotheism was retrospectively forced into the written history of the Jews. However, this was a feature of the urban elites that were somehow related to the Second Temple establishment. In the countryside, the ahm-harets, the country folk, were still very much attatched to the polytheistic / henotheistic worldview. It was ony later that, as a reaction to the hellenistic opression from the polytheistic Seleucid rulers in the 2 centuries BCE, that the monotheistic ideology of Yahweh became the norm in Judea.

  Eden