Posts by venus

8

Earliest Latin Commentary on the Gospels

by Earnest in

the earliest latin commentary on the gospels, lost for over 1500 years, has been rediscovered and made available in english for the first time.

the work, which was written by a bishop in north italy, fortunatianus of aquileia, dates back to the middle of the fourth century.

despite references to it in other ancient works, no copy was known to survive until a researcher from the university of salzburg identified the commentary in an anonymous manuscript copied around the year 800 and held in cologne cathedral library.. it is reported on here and an english translation and information about the commentary and the bishop can be accessed here.. this commentary tended to allegorise scripture in order to explain it.

venus

Very wonderful, and very useful information

Thanks for that, Earnest

11

Your View Of Death How Much Does It Effect The Way You Look At The World Around You?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

lets face it the watchtower's indoctrinations effect the way we look at the world we see governments as tool of the devil.

we look at our relatives different, we will not speak to our own children if disfellowshipped.. a better world is what christians promise believers, or hell for those condemned by the deity.

kiss the ass of the deity and go to a better world, and don't forget to put something in the collection plate on sunday.. to face death with out the crutch of a future better world for beleivers, is better, as you can cherish the life you are living and be more in the present while facing what ever life throws at you.

venus

Very interesting question, BW.

Let me make a try:

We know attitudes are formed from belief; hence belief about what happens after death would certain shape one’s attitude. Hence death may be part of a design (not the result of sin). In limited view, speed breakers on the road are inconvenience or annoyance, but in big picture, they are good because speed breaker near to places like school prevents accidents that can happen to little ones who may come on to the road carelessly.

Similarly, in limited view death may appear as a curse, but in big picture, death would appear as good. ‘What if there is no death, if one goes on growing more and more vibrant physically, perfecting his skills and talents, and even growing in money power, influence ….etc.? He would probably behave like King David described in the Bible. He was a very humble shepherd boy to start with, then climbed heights, finally became king of Israel, and he seemed almost invincible… then he began to add more wives and numerous women to his harem, he went to the extent of treacherously killing his faithful friend to steal his wife. If people grew extraordinarily great in certain aspects/skills, many of them become callous and arrogant, and it makes life a hell—for them and for others.

But when the body is in reverse growth towards complete collapse [death], people in general begin to lose the basis for keeping their desires and self-importance. Thus death serves a purpose!

13

Bethel Lurkers-A woman's Heartfelt phonecall regarding the organisations inhumane shunning policy!

by UnshackleTheChains in

i hope bethel lurkers at warwick listen to the rational viewpoint of this australian woman in the recording below.

she virtually pleads with an australian branch member as to the reasons why shunning is inhumane and how unfair it is that individuals are being held captive within the watchtower organisation.

they can't simply leave officially without the threat of being shunned by friends and family members.. typically, the branch member responds in a robotic like manner, sticking rigidly to watchtower policy.. https://youtu.be/sc_t60ax5k8.

venus

If this is the preview of Theocracy, who will like to be in paradise which is the reality?

In real theocracy, joy and delight would characterize everything and everybody.

In JW mode of theocracy, no freedom of speech; and freedom of speech is used, then shunning is the result. This is not theocracy.

13

Philosophical implications of Genetic 1:26 and the personality of the Judeo-Christian God.

by doubtfull1799 in

while visiting a still in friend last week we had an interesting discussion on narcissism.

he made a very interesting comment that got me thinking about the above.

we were discussing the nature of celebrity and fame and he mentioned that he would find it very difficult to cope with constant adulation and praise.

venus

Stuckinarut2,

The claim that Bible is God’s word is nothing but a claim that does not hold out under scrutiny. Let us go scientific for a moment. In science, you start with a hypothesis. Suppose A=B. Once you prove that this is so, you write, therefore A=B. I asked myself, why not take what all the scriptures say as a hypothesis and experiment with it (as done in science)? You start with a belief, experiment with it, get the results and then it becomes the truth.

Let us take Bible’s most important claim that we are sinners from birth, and experiment it:

If sin is an inherited tendency, how can people at times choose to commit virtuous act? Evidence is that anybody can choose to sin or choose to do virtuous act, or choose to mix them in any proportion he likes. This is why we find people acting/reacting in various ways in same situation.

Let us see at what point in process sin appears:

From beliefs, attitudes are formed.

From attitudes, thoughts are formed.

From thoughts, action is produced.

From repeated action, tendency, habit, destiny …etc are produced.

See, tendency to commit sin or to commit virtue begins from repeated action, not from birth.

If you believe that you are sinner from birth, then you need a super-human savior.

If you believe that tendency to sin comes from repeated action, you only have to avod repeating that action that caused sorrow to you and others; then you don’t need a savior, and you need only to change your course in the earlier parts of the process.

When apostle Paul said: “The good that I wish I cannot perform, but the bad I do not wish is that I perform” he was saying about his experience. People did not dare to experiment the veracity of that statement.

This holds true of its other claims such as earth is the center of universe, sun can be stopped over the earth to win a war …

Such claims show that they are all of human origin. Such writers painted a God who wants praise whereas truth is that God is not interested in our praise.

13

Philosophical implications of Genetic 1:26 and the personality of the Judeo-Christian God.

by doubtfull1799 in

while visiting a still in friend last week we had an interesting discussion on narcissism.

he made a very interesting comment that got me thinking about the above.

we were discussing the nature of celebrity and fame and he mentioned that he would find it very difficult to cope with constant adulation and praise.

venus

Stuckinarut2,

In the past I too used to feel the way you do—why does God require/force us to praise Him? Then I understood such verses found in the Bible are of human origin. All the scriptures are like forest—you will find most of the things wild, yet you will also find stream of pure water, fragrant flowers, and succulent fruits in limited measure. If any verses are true they came by chance, not by inspiration. That means scriptures are of human origin (if it were of divine origin, God would naturally have ensured it contains no error) because they all contain errors also.

Why does God not use scriptures to guide us? Because

1) Scriptures can be manipulated—as has happened to all available scriptures.

2) Guidance is already available in the form of experience (yours and of others). Everything that happens has a lesson. For example, Good and bad people come into your life and leave some experience to you. Thus good people teach you how to behave whereas bad people teach you how not to behave. When something gives you happiness, it teaches you to repeat that action, and when something gives you sorrow, it teaches you not to repeat that action. Even tragedies teach us a great lesson. It is true that tragedies can destroy families; and life for some is never the same. Suffering happens to both good people and bad people. Jonah suffered; Jeremiah suffered; Jesus was crucified, Prophet Muhammed was an orphan. Within 150 years from now, everything in our life will perish because 100% of the current population will be dead by then which makes you realize that everything in life is temporary. Everything we have been given in life —family, wealth, health, respect — are all given to us in trust for a given time. Once that time is up, they are all gone, and that includes our own life. Thus tragedies teach us a great lesson: what you lost was really never yours. Suppose someone informed you at night when you are sleeping in your home that your factory is on fire, and you would say to yourself: “So what? I sold it yesterday.”If it had not been sold, news of fire would have made you jump and run in maximum stress, tension, shock, sorrow... etc. It means sense of mine is at the root of suffering. Everything what we think we own is really just given to us in trust for a certain period of our life. Sense of mine [which is a temporary truth] makes it hard to digest when you have lost someone/something. But those who are aware of the big picture that everything comes and goes after remaining for a while tragedies are not viewed as tragedies, but as lessons. All we really have is this moment to cherish and savor, everything else is uncertain.

That means our experiences (not God) should guide us. God has given us a planet home and made provisions in this home to enjoy life, and experiences to guide us [it is left to us to maintain it or to spoil it]. God does not require praise from us (Mathew 5:44-48)

11

Isn’t concept of sinner itself faulty?

by venus in

a person may sometimes get swelling on his leg and may have limped a few times—but he is never called lame.

similarly, sometimes a person may slip into selfishness and use his free-will to his own harm or to the harm of others—but this does not make him a sinner because the ability to do the contrary (ability choose to commit virtuous act to any extent) too exists in him.

if one’s occasional sinning does not make him a sinner, sin of another person (such as first human couple) can never make others sinners.

venus

Drearyweather,

Psalm 51:5 is known to any average Bible reader. But this particular thought is not shared by other OT writers, hence it is like an isolated thought. In OT we find many references to sinless persons (Gen 5:24; Ezekiel 14:14 and compare Habakkuk 2:4) Interestingly, even God does not think humans are sinful from birth. (Job 1:8) What was an isolated thought was launched as main subject by Paul, thus Paul became the Father of this school of thought that says we are all sinners by birth. Because people like the idea that we are sinners by birth because of which we are not responsible for the sins we commit, nobody bothered to think that this is actually Paul’s experience not of mine, and experiment to the contrary.

11

Big events/developments which Bible failed to foresee!

by venus in

though bible made prophecies about “wars and rumors of war, famines and earthquakes, and persecution, hatred …” as signs of “last days” (mathew 24:6-11) which are neither specific nor extra-ordinary given the history of such events, it failed to foresee the positive development such as communication revolution (e.g.

tv, internet, mobile phone …) which is also favorable to preaching activity—the whole world can be preached to within a matter of hours.

[bible writers thought it would take at least 21 centuries for the whole world to be preached to.—mathew 24:14].

venus

interestingly, there is something that happened more than what it predicted: appearance of christian sects. It simple predicted many sects would come, but it may not have thought it would be more than 40,000

14

How Long it will take to the GB change the interpretation of the Beast as the UN?

by Ray Frankz in

i just realized now, (ironically by checking on jw.org) that the echr (european court of human rights), the government agency that has been literally saving the jws to be banned in so many countries - and they are very thankful for that, as they say in their recent purple history book - is an agency of the un!.

as it is well known, the gb consider the un as a high-class enemy of god's kingdom, believing it is the beast mentioned in revelation.

this interpretation was totally from f. franz and n. knorr, this last one still being reagarded every now and then as the one who gave the speech with this "new light".

venus

At the end of the day, its all a matter of convenience

8

The New System... really... An expanding universe

by HowTheBibleWasCreated in

well jesus has handed the kingdom back to jehovah and satan and his demons are dead forever... peace on earth.. great... a million years go by...the human brain would not hold even 1000 years of memories accurately... indeed the former things would not be called to mind but... 2 billion years... oh i's damn hot the sun is running out of hydrogen.... 5 billion years jehovah sit back laughing... we are all dead... unless we move away from earth... not only is the sun a red giant but andromeda has collided with the milky way and rendered our galaxy no longer a spiral galaxy.. navigation is impossible out there.. 2 trillion years.

oh ... if we existed.. we would have no idea theven is a universe.. the expansion is so far that we can't see beyond our own galaxy ... the heaven declare jehovah diminising glory.. 100 trillion years... the galaxy is gone... stars are burning out... in fact atoms are destabilizing... jehovah will need to remake us... likely in to positronium.... dark energy is so powerful we can feel it... assuming we have bodies anymore.... 100 to the 100 power years.... black holes evaporate away,...we have an almost 0 energy universe .. well except for dark energy which is now so powerful matter cannot exists.. 100 to the 200 power years... well there is no mater or energy except for the energy of the vacuum (quantum fluctuations) dark energy had literally torn this universe apart and assuming m theory... that it... jehovah and jesus laugh hysterically..

venus

Not having answers for everything is the charm of life. I admire God for the situation that both the group feel comfortable--atheists and theists have got proofs to their satisfaction--which means there is harmony in disharmony.

If I were to know answers to all the questions, I will have no interest to live--it would be like watching an old recorded cricket match the result of which you already knew.

13

Philosophical implications of Genetic 1:26 and the personality of the Judeo-Christian God.

by doubtfull1799 in

while visiting a still in friend last week we had an interesting discussion on narcissism.

he made a very interesting comment that got me thinking about the above.

we were discussing the nature of celebrity and fame and he mentioned that he would find it very difficult to cope with constant adulation and praise.

venus

I disagree with you doubtfull1799

The idea that “He deserves constant praise and worship because he is the creator” is of human imagination, and such human thinking crept into the Bible writing because writers were inducting their own thinking (1Cor 7:10, 40).

However, God’s attitude must be discerned from the action and inaction of God. For example, He knows the existence of conflicted religions and their scriptures, also knows existence of order and disorder in the world—and HE does nothing to straighten it out. This shows He doesn’t want our praise. This has been hinted at in the famous comparison Jesus made God with sun in Mathew 5:44-48. Sun is a giver (of light and energy), it never receives anything from us. This is a repeat of what has already been declared in the Old Testament. (Psalm 84:11)