Carmel
Sounds good to me. If more people would think that way the world would be better off.
Posts by Phil
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6Christian, What's that?
by Phil inwe are buried this time of year in mythology, legend and folklore.
how many hundreds of times have we been told that christmas celebrates the origin of christianity?
is this really true?
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17
Santa Clause and lying....
by Oxnard Hamster inone reason the jws don't celebrate christmas, besides the fact it's supposedly an insult to god, is that they purport that it's wrong to "lie" to children by telling them santa claus exists.
i really didn't give the issue much thought until recently.
the jw i used to study with called me and asked how i was doing, and we eventually got on the subject of christmas, and he brought up that it's wrong because parents lie to children by saying santa claus is real.
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Phil
JWs don't lie. Forget about the Theocratic War Doctrine.
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Transfusion once again
by krzysiek inwhat i cannot understand is why jw are so determined not to allow to transfuse blood.
it's anachronism!
the governing body has changed so many their doctrines, why cannot they change that?
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Phil
It amazes me that intelligent people would read a document, the Bible, that was written (over a long period of time, handed down through generations by word of mouth) by persons whos origin is questionable, translated by human beings like all of us, without any thought or knowledge of the intent of the original composer and without the "proper" background in the language in which the document was written and use such a document to guide their entire life and livelyhood based on "The Holy Bible" whos origin is highly questionable at best.
In accordance with the knowledge available, the WT modified a version of the Holy Bible (NWT) which is claimed to have been written by persons inspired by God. If God does not make mistakes and we are to believe that the NWT has retained its devine inspiration, one would say, the interpreter of the original document must be inspired in order to retain its status of "Devine inspiration". Does anyone know who the inspired person is in the Watchtower? From what I have read, the members of the governing body at the time of the writing and publishing of the NWT were certainly not qualified, academically, to assume that role. Did I miss something here? It appears that anyone with the gift of the gab can throw out anything to the public and get a following. He can make all the mistakes that a human is apt to make and its alright, he just has to make the corrections as he goes along because the followers will continue to blindly support the beliefs presented. I find this sad to have such a situation existing in our society in 21st century.
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Christian, What's that?
by Phil inwe are buried this time of year in mythology, legend and folklore.
how many hundreds of times have we been told that christmas celebrates the origin of christianity?
is this really true?
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Phil
We are buried this time of year in mythology, legend and folklore. How many hundreds of times have we been told that Christmas celebrates the origin of Christianity? Is this really true? Christmas was around for eons before Jesus was ever born.
For thousands of years the Winter Solstice (Dec. 22-25) has been the most special time of the year and the most important date in human celebration. The sun has started its long journey home bringing Springtime.
Celebrating this event in this month of Solstice I am part of the line of descent that has been uninterrupted almost from the birth of humankind. There has been no time when someone, somewhere, was not celebrating this date.
Long before the mythological birth date of Jesus in the solstice period, our bloodstream ran in the veins of sun gods and sun worshippers...Greeks and Romans...Barbarians in the Germanic forests...Northern worshippers of Thor..and Egyptians...Jews..Gauls...Persians and Indians. No wonder that human beings have celebrated the date of the Winter Solstice for thousands of years considering that our very survival depends upon the return of the sun.
No wonder that the birth of the gods in almost all religious traditions were said to have taken place during the solstice period.
Solstice comes from two ancient words..."sol" the name of a sun god, and "stice" meaning still, or the day that the sun stands still, the shortest day of the year.
Since all cultures have been so dependent upon the seasons, the four major festivals centered on the summer and winter solstice and the spring and autumn equinoxes. An equinox..."equi" meaning equal, and "nox" meaning nights or equal nights occurs midway between the winter and summer solstice, when days and nights are equal in length.
Those are the four corners of the celestial year. But with the return of the sun to once again warm the earth and bring forth a resurrection of life, the winter solstice became the greatest of all the festivals.
The ancient festival in Rome was known as the Saturnalia. The emperor Aurelian established an official holiday called "Sol Invicti", meaning "unconquered sun" in honor of the sun god. It was held Dec. 24 and 25 and established Dec. 25 as the official solstice. All the other religions that worshipped sun gods also took Dec 25 as their fixed date for their festivals.
A major one was in honor of the Egyptian divine mother, Isis. Early Christians used to worship in front of statues of Isis suckling her divine child, Horus, the babe that she had conceived miraculously.
In 350, Pope Julius 1 decreed that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the same date as all of the other solstice sun gods, Dec 25.
Other major birthdays celebrated Dec. 25 included those of the gods:
Marduk...Osiris...Horus..Isis...Mithra...Saturn...Sol...Apollo...Serapis...and Huitzilopochli.
One of the more interesting myths...obviously related to the Christian myth...is that of Mithra. Mithra went to heaven until he returned a savior for all of mankind. A star fell from the sky when Mithra was born. Shepherds witnessed the birth and Zoroastrian priests, called "Magi" followed the star to worship him. They brought golden crowns to their newborn "King of Kings". His birth was celebrated on Dec. 25 and was called the "Mithrakana."
Now...when someone tells you that we just have to get back to the "true" meaning of Christmas, please do remember that the "true" meaning of Christmas is a celebration of nature...the sun..and a return of the sun to warm the earth for resurrection and new growth. This has been the major festival in the life of human beings for thousands of years...and our bloodstream still runs in the veins of sun gods and sun worshippers. It is no wonder that in the mythology of the gods they were all born in this magical time of the Winter Solstice...including Jesus.
I like knowing where our celebrations fit into the large picture of our human family. I like knowing that the quest for religious literacy is finally finding its way into our high school classrooms. I like knowing that the traditional Christmas stories are today being taught as mythology in my grandsons class in Northern California.
Christmas started at the formation of our solar system with our little planet...the third one out from a minor star named Sol...spinning on an axis that is tilted at a slight angle to its orbital path around the sun. -
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One More Elder who is starting to Question the WT
by sis in distress inhe told my husband ?i don?t care, i just need to know is this the truth or not?
i just don?t understand why.
once again i was asked a question that i could not answer.
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Phil
I am replying to my own thread. I checked out the UN membership list and found that the Watchtower is no longer listed as an NGO.
Shouldn't the old obsolete threads be removed. I do not know how old sis' story is but it no longer applies. Perhaps they pulled their membership as a result of the letter. Also, perhaps they were kicked out for not conforming to the rules.
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UN Again
by Phil ini have just read a thread by sis in distress that contains a letter to the wt asking for information on the wt being an ngo.
this thread was logged on the 20 december 03. i thought the wt was kicked out of participation in the un a while ago.. .
what is the real status of the wt with respect to the united nations?
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Phil
I have just read a thread by sis in distress that contains a letter to the WT asking for information on the WT being an NGO. This thread was logged on the 20 December 03. I thought the WT was kicked out of participation in the UN a while ago.
What is the real status of the WT with respect to the United Nations?
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What would you consider to be 'Victory over the Watchtower'?
by nicolaou ini'm not talking about a victory which might include welcome reforms on blood policy, shunning or the handling of abuse allegations.
what i want to know is what we would consider to be the victory.. it is unlikey in the extreme that the various corporations of the watchtower empire will ever be closed down so, realistically what can we hope for in the long term?
say 30 - 50 years?.
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Phil
I don't care if they go on being a huge publishing company, and make a zillion per year. I realize that they could keep going on as a profitable business for years and years due to their holdings in real estate and stocks, so I don't see something as bankruptcy as a means to an end. I would like to know where al this real Estate holdings and stocks are? I have found some but not nearly as much as people are saying. Billions??
I am having trouble getting the "quote" box around the text.
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One More Elder who is starting to Question the WT
by sis in distress inhe told my husband ?i don?t care, i just need to know is this the truth or not?
i just don?t understand why.
once again i was asked a question that i could not answer.
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Phil
sis in distress
I was under the impression that the Watchtower was no longer associated with the UN. I think I read that they were not conforming with the rules set forward by the UN were not met. Therefore they were kicked out. Correct me if I'm wrong please.
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Phil
Do the people at Patterson get the same?
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JW comparison
by Phil ini am looking for information that i once read and cannot relocate.
the subject is the kind of religious institutions that exist today.
jw have been critical of the catholic church in that it is an organization with a central core, if you will, locate in rome as opposed to the jws which have claimed originally, and perhaps still do, to not be ruled by a central entity.
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Phil
I am looking for information that I once read and cannot relocate. The subject is the kind of religious institutions that exist today. JW have been critical of the Catholic church in that it is an organization with a central core, if you will, locate in Rome as opposed to the JWs which have claimed originally, and perhaps still do, to not be ruled by a central entity. I am looking for the proper words that describes the differences.
Can anyone help me on this with all the references in the latest Watchtower publications.
I am looking for the "word" that describes the type of Religious organization the operates from a central hub as Catholicism with the central hub in Rome and another that does not operate in that fashion.