CyrusThePersian

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Posts by CyrusThePersian

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  32

  Absurdity in the Bible

  by darth frosty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  not to diss anyones beliefs, i thought this was humorous.. .

  absurdity in the bible .

  if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.--1 cor.14:38 .

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  CyrusThePersian

  All those who would posit that the creation account is "poetic" and "not to be taken as scientifically accurate" need to remember that the Bronze Age sheepherders who read this stuff took it quite literally.

  If the Bible said that God created light before he created the Sun, then by golly, he did!

  If the Bible said that God created the Earth before the Sun, then by golly, he did!

  If the Bible said he did it all in six days, then...well, you get the picture.

  In fact, the Genesis account of creation was taken as literal by most Christians all the way until the nineteenth century! It was only when modern science proved that the creation account was bunk that religious apologists started their argument that the story is not literal.

  You would think that an all-powerful God could have told the truth about the formation of the earth in a way that would not have been confusing to those ancient peoples and downright wrong to us.

  CyrusThePersian
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  15

  People Meant To Live Forever

  by choosing life in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was thinking about the reasoning the watchtower used as a proof that people were really meant to live forever.

  they said that because our cells continually replace themselves, we really were made to live forever.

  they even went so far as to say scientists could not figure out why this process didn't go on forever and were puzzled by this.. then i realized that all animals have the same mechanisms in place, yet the witnesses say they were not meant to live forever.

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  CyrusThePersian

  I would say that human beings are not designed to live forever and I'll tell you why.

  It's because of our teeth. After our baby teeth fall out, we only have one set of teeth. Our skulls are not designed with any provision to grow new ones. What happens when our teeth wear out or decay? We wind up having to get dentures or just gum our food, right?

  If mankind were to live forever, God would have to miraculously redesign our skulls (to correct a design flaw, perhaps?) so that we could grow new teeth, or miraculously make it so our teeth never wear out.

  Either way, it shows that we are not, at least at this moment, designed to live forever. We are, just like any other animal, "designed" to be born, to live, to grow old, and to die.

  CyrusThePersian
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  12

  Two endings for book of Mark - Proof of editing in later years?

  by gaiagirl in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i recall that the nwt used to have both a "short" and a "long" ending to the book of mark.

  apparantly, by the time of the oldest existing manuscripts, (a century or two after the time of first writing if i recall), more than one version had already come into being, and were being used by christian congregations, and these are what have come down to us today.

  now, in the 21st century, the wtbts is unsure which ending (if either) is the correct one, so they hedge and offer both in their printed bibles.. does this not constitute evidence that the books of the bible were heavily edited from their original form even in the early centuries?.

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  CyrusThePersian

  Another school of thought is that Mark's abrupt ending was intentional.

  All through the book, Jesus' disciples are portayed as lacking understanding and frankly, a bit dense. They could never understand what Jesus meant by his need to die and be resurrected, all the way to the end of the book. But Mark's readers do understand because Mark explains it to them. Mark shows Jesus as being misunderstood by his followers and then his followers not knowing what to do after his death, even depicting the women as fleeing from the tomb and telling nobody anything.

  CyrusThePersian
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  65

  The Atheist's Book of Bible Stories

  by RunningMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  over the years, i have posted all of the chapters from my atheist's book of bible stories on this site.. however, since the original posting, many of the chapters have been polished and updated.. the complete book is now available for downloading, if anyone is interested: http://www.sendspace.com/file/qwpjol.

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  CyrusThePersian

  You emailed this book to me a couple of years ago and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

  You brought out a lot of things about the Bible that a lot of critics of the Bible have never talked about before, like the mathematical absurdities in the Bible.

  I still think you should expand this work and get it published in book form. I bet that some publisher like Prometheus Books would publish it.

  CyrusThePersian
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  41

  Watchtower 2008 dumb logic= "Belief in evolution makes you an orphan."

  by Witness 007 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  watch, feb 1 2008 p.4 "if we really are the product of evolution and there is no creator, the human race would in a sense, be an orphan.

  mankind would have no source of superior wisdom to consult- no one to help us solve our problems.

  we would have to rely on human wisdom to avert enviromental disaster, to solve political conflicts, and to guide us through our personal crises.

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  CyrusThePersian

  My answer would be:

  In the USA, man has enacted laws to regulate pollution and environmental damage. These laws have been proven effective in curbing pollution. Granted, there remains A LOT to be done, but man is trying. God has not shown the ability or willingness to do anything at all. All "God" has done is make some empty promises in a two thousand year old book. Why should I trust him?

  If you're an orphan, you have to make it on your own, which is what we hominids have had to do for the past couple of million years or so.

  CyrusThePersian
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  23

  educated elder or uneducated elder which was the best ?

  by looloo in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  the ones i know are either life long window cleaners with little education behind them or ex army /police /teacher types that are used to public talking and a bit of power , which ones did you find were the best elders ie kind and caring , i would go for the uneducated window cleaner /manual worker type by my experiance , in fact it was because the intelligent ones believed it was "the truth" that made me think well it must be true if he believes it

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  CyrusThePersian

  I guess I was in the "educated" elder class. (I have a college degree.) However, I was not educated in the right way. I didn't know anything about how to help people in the congregation with their problems.

  I remember wishing that the society would give full-blown seminars on how to help people instead of "elder schools" that emphasized Field Service! -Meeting Attendance!-Do More! Do More!

  To answer your question, I don't think it really matters so much a person's level of education, but what is in the individual's heart. Let's face it, whether you love 'em or hate 'em, the job of elder in taking care of the people in the congregation is an awesome responsibility, not even counting the crap the Watchtower Society loads you down with. Most men who are appointed don't have the empathy or compassion to do what it takes-educated or not.

  CyrusThePersian
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  26

  Book Club, March 08, Short Stories by Edgar Allen Poe

  by TheSilence in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  welcome to the first book club thread... let's hope it works out and it's something we can all enjoy.. due to time constraints, for the first month we are discussing short stories by edgar allen poe.

  the format is open to any discussion you wish to have about the topic at hand, but if you're looking for something to stimulate some discussion you are welcome to use the questions below or come up with some of your own for others to answer.. possible topics for discussion.

  - which of poe's short stories did you enjoy the most and why?

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  CyrusThePersian

  "The Gold Bug" is a personal favorite of mine, despite the offensive portrayal of the African-American character Jupiter.

  I guess it belongs in the detective-mystery genre in that it involves breaking secret codes and finding buried treasure.

  What I liked about it was the detailed method used by Legrand to break the pirate's code and then interpret it to locate the booty.

  Cool story, and still entertaining over a hundred years after it was written!

  CyrusThePersian
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  16

  Stephen Hawking

  by lisavegas420 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what's the story on him?

  i've read some of his bio, but i can't figure out how he got to be popular.

  he's even had at least two guest appearance on the simpson's.

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  CyrusThePersian

  Stephen Hawking does not have MS. He has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a dibilitating disease that leaves him confined to a wheelchair, virtually unable to move. Despite that, he has written the most successful science book of our era, A Brief History of Time, as well as many others.

  It was he that discovered many of the aspects of Black Holes and formulated many of the theories concerning the origin of the universe, a truly amazing fellow!

  Like Zagor said, there are a lot of great scientists around today that are contributing much to our knowledge base. What sets Hawking apart is that he, like Carl Sagan before him, is a great popularizer of science, making science accessible to dimwits like me, who ordinarily wouldn't know a singularity from a single's bar!

  CyrusThePersian
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  10

  Any "Nova" fans?

  by Dagney in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/microraptor/.

  tonight's show on a four winged dinosaur.. fascinating.

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  CyrusThePersian

  I love all those shows! (well, maybe not so much Barney and Calliou.)

  Last night's episode about the four winged dinosaur was fascinating. It sounds like Larry Martin and his Birds Are Not Dinosaurs camp are grasping at straws trying to keep alive their hypothesis that birds evolved from a different branch of the reptillian tree than dinosaurs.

  Great Shows! Love Nova and PBS!!

  CyrusThePersian
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  46

  Not interested in marriage/romance?

  by LtCmd.Lore in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  okay, so the site is full of people talking about their husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, ex-wives, ex-husbands, ex-girlfriends and ex-boyfriends, childhood crushes, current crushes, future crushes, favorite positions, etc.. .

  by the very nature of rejecting marriage, there's very rarely an occasion to voice our disinterest in romance.

  we just kind of sit their silently while everyone else talks about their sexual and romantic preferences.. i'm sure i'm not the only one here, so how about it?

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  CyrusThePersian

  Flying High Now, Hortensia, and White Dove,

  I'm a guy and I can tell you that I agree with you totally!

  I have my own house and I love the ability to do things on my own, without having someone tell me what to do or how to do it.

  That said though, I wouldn't mind a little romance here and there. No marriage though; at the end of the day I just want to go home to my own house and my own bed.

  I wonder if this attitude is a middle age thing, or is it an effect of the era we were brought up in?

  CyrusThePersian