Posts by rocketman

Certainly a valid question Rod. Perhaps the key to salvation is the stuff most Bible readers and scholars, no matter what their religion, agree on - loving God, loving one's neighbor, acceptance of Jesus, that sort of stuff.

If the key to salvation includes, for example, precisely figuring out the fulfillment of all Bible prophecies, then we might all be doomed.

23

Evidence for evolution, Installment 6: The bible requires it

by seattleniceguy in

jw
friends

happy sunday, everyone!

this week we will be breaking from our normal tack of examining scientific evidence, and instead consider the issue from a different perspective.

now, when you consider the number of animal species in the world today, it is clear that there are literally millions more species than could ever have fit into noah's ark.

rocketman

I'm a bit of a believer in (my own, I guess) theory that God is a very efficient being - He doesn't actually do, or even have to do, a lot of the work himself. To illustrate: It's common for people to refer to God as our Creator. Yet, how many humans, going by the Genesis account, did he actually create? Only two - and one was formed starting from material from the other. Today there's 6 billion-plus humans, and God created only two. Humans have multiplied and diversified all on their own by means of the ability (God-given if you will) to reproduce and adapt.

Another example may be the formation of stars. Simplistically speaking, we know that stars often form from material brought together by natural (again, God-given if you will) forces such as gravity, and then ignited into a nuclear furnace when their mass reaches a certain point, normally refered to as Jupiter-masses. I doubt God needs to actually do much of the work. He gets the credit by believers, of course.

So it is perhaps with the evolution. Species can diversify, at times quite rapidly, all on their own. God would only need to create a few species, perhaps in a burst of creative activity, then take a vacation and let natural selection take over. In the case of the Flood, I can see no other explanation other than rapid evolution, for the present diversification of life on earth....if one is to believe the Flood account as presented in Genesis. A big if...

92

Compiling List-Trivial Items People Are Counseled Against

by love2Bworldly in

jw
friends

i hope this is not a repeat of past threads and i hope to get a lot of response.

i am compiling info of how people are treated within the wts.

i just read the post about a person being counseled for having baby shower games.

rocketman

I was counseled because I wore (faux) suede shoes to the meetings and in service. They weren't blue suede, and I wasn't trying to be Elvis. They were a shade of brown.

I was couseled for wearing a jacket that was deemed inappropriate for field service. It wasn't the trench-coat style everyone else wore, instead it was kind of styled like a Members Only jacket.

I was counseled for reading a Bible verse at a door on a Saturday morning. The elder pulled me aside and said that reading the Bible during presentations was reserved for Sundays.

One brother told me he was counseled because he drove a convertable in field service.

13

E Watchman letter to the elders

by teela(2) in

jw
friends

if you follow his website, read his latest essay, to the elders, if he keeps going at this rate, he will be posting here soon.

rocketman

It's always nice to have a person with total credibility taking on the elders on such major issues as child abuse and the UN involvement. While we don't quite get that with Robert (You Know), I'm still not going to trash the guy for at least making a stand. Of course, if a guy is viewed as a wack job than his efforts may end up causing more harm than good.

The main problem for me is that he still views the JW organization as one in a special relationship with God, and that God is directing judgements toward it rather than Christendom. Hence, he still gives exclusivity of righteousness to the jws, even if only individuals within the organization.

However, of all the jw apologetics that ever posted here, I kind of liked the guy's effort in some off-beat way. He at least seemed pretty respectful around here, and if memory serves, at least he didn't engage in personal attacks. So, if he wants to have at the elders, then I think the letter he wrote, while duly considering his propensity for blathering on, still may serve a good purpose.

48

586/607

by carla in

did finding out that the 607 date was wrong matter to any of you?

and doesn't that in fact make all the other dates fall apart?

or did you rationalize and say what's 20 years or so?

rocketman

The Faithful Slave

Wow, and here all this time I thought CT Russell was the Faithful Slave.

111

June 6, 2006 Why be worried?

by robhic in

on may 5, 2005 the thought occured to me: it's 05/05/05.

now, next year do you think jws -- and/or all fundamentalist groups, etc -- will be anticipating or freak out on june 6, 2006?

it'll be 06/06/06 or, more diabolically extrapolated (as they do so well...), 666!!!

rocketman

Well, it's actually 06-06-06, so I'm not worried....though I might by some extra bottled water next year just in case.

13

E Watchman letter to the elders

by teela(2) in

jw
friends

if you follow his website, read his latest essay, to the elders, if he keeps going at this rate, he will be posting here soon.

rocketman

Oh, I was referring to E-watchy's posts here in the past under the username "You Know" (Several others here also suspect that the two are one and the same). He was forecasting economic doom quite often. He was also heavily into Isaiah and Jeremiah - and in his letter posted at his site those are the two books he quotes from.

But I must say he wrote quite the letter. Good job YK.

13

E Watchman letter to the elders

by teela(2) in

jw
friends

if you follow his website, read his latest essay, to the elders, if he keeps going at this rate, he will be posting here soon.

rocketman

Interesting, and a pretty darned fine letter. The committee event log is very interesting too (though e-watchyman has been eagerly awaiting economic collapse for quite a while now...reminiscent of good 'ol You Know) and right-on in terms of how elders would react when prsented with evidence of WTS duplicity and hypocrisy.

53

Did Jesus ever use the name Jehovah?

by LMS-Chef in

just wondering.

rocketman

Interestingly, in that lengthy prayer recorded in John 17, Jesus does not utter God's name a single time. One would expect that he'd at least be recorded as saying it on that occasion.

The Society also reasons that Jesus would not be afraid to use God's name around those who thought it blasphemous to utter it. However, the question isn't one of fear, but of simply going with the flow of the prevailing view of the time. The bottom line is that in the available written record we have (the Gospels and Acts 1) of Jesus' actual words, we do not find God's name being used, save for the possibility of the quote from Isaiah 61 at Luke 4. And even that is based mainly on supposition - i.e., 'the divine name was there in the Hebrew text, so Jesus likely used it'.