all the ads for da vinci code and opus dei whatever got me thinking about the whole jesus-mary thing, and what genes jesus had.
how was mary impregnated anyhow?
the wt teaches that the big j turned jesus (or michael??
One half of Jesus chromosones came from Mary. The other half from some Jewish bloke, NOT Joseph.
Mary was just a very very very imaginative liar, and not only convinced her family and betrothed hubby she was not a "nasty little slut", but carried on with the story so convincingly Little baby Jesus grew up convinced his was the son of god.
while talking to my teacher today we talked about excommunication.
i told her i thought it was mean to not talk to those members which have been excommunicated.
she told me; however, that those who leave the church should be punished.
The purpose of excommunication, disfellowshipping or 'shunning' is simple and has very little to do with anything other than preventing those with different opinions communicating those opinions to others.
Imagine you are buying a car.
You know some people have bought this kind of car before and were not happy with it and got rid of it.
You ask the sales person (who naturally assures you this is the ONLY car for you) about the people who bought it and weren't happy with it and got rid of it.
The person selling you the car says "Never talk to anyone who bought this car and then sold it. They are all liars and cannot be trusted".
Would you buy a car from someone who said that? From someone who told you anyone who had experience of the car and said anything negative about it were liars?
If a religion IS 'the truth', then it should be able to withstand criticism. A religion that sets things up so it is impossible to question it or criticise it is protecting itself from examination and criticism BECAUSE IT CANNOT STAND UP TO SUCH EXAMINIATION.
Truth need not hide; any religion that shuns people who ask questions is hiding.
Try asking your teacher about;
I think the reaction of your teacher to you asking these questions and the answers they give you will be very interesting indeed...
the reason why i have asked such is question is that i served as a congregation elder for 12 years.
i served as the presiding overseer for 10 years, and as chairman and media spokes-person for a particular region.
during my time within the organisation that being almost 30 years, i have concluded that there is, as far as my own experience is concerned grave doubt in my mind as to the existence of the devil and his demonic hoard.
In absence of hard evidence, and in light of the fact all 'demon' experiences are quite explicable by the fields of psychiatry and psychology, no.
If they do exist they're pretty pathetic. Most human interactions every day are 'good'. If the spawn of satan is spreading evil, they're obviously not putting enough hours in. Probably submitting falsified reports...
May
Hours inciting sin 345
Acts of sin incited 27
Demonisations 12
virginity pledges, in which young people vow to abstain from sex until marriage, have little staying power among those who take them.
more than half the adolescents who make such signed, public promises give up on their pledges within a year, according to a harvard study.
the findings have raised the ire of concerned women for america, a conservative organisation that endorses adolescent sexual abstinence.
greendawn
I so agree! It is tragic abstinence based education (as favoured in the US) typically deprives those kids who do have sex of the knowledge to do it safely. Poorly executed sex education is just as bad; the difference between US and UK teen pregnancy rates and those in most European countries illustrates this nicely. Comprehensive sex education reduces teen pregnancy; it does not encourage earlier sexual activity as comparison of figures for the US and UK with Holland and France shows.
Of course, the logical step (of sex education that encourages kids to masturbate can help delay them having sex too early) is something that makes many people squeamish... fourtuhately they find out anyway
virginity pledges, in which young people vow to abstain from sex until marriage, have little staying power among those who take them.
more than half the adolescents who make such signed, public promises give up on their pledges within a year, according to a harvard study.
the findings have raised the ire of concerned women for america, a conservative organisation that endorses adolescent sexual abstinence.
If they have "difficulty keeping it up", then losing their virginity isn't going to be very likely, is it?
(i) they are to ask god, through jesus christ, for the truth on these matters.
amen".
amen".
Oh, yeah...
The witches you will be shown, help liars in the physical world by promoting their work via "Book Clubs"
... there was I thinking it was the Illuminati, and it was Reader's Digest all along...
(i) they are to ask god, through jesus christ, for the truth on these matters.
amen".
amen".
Doo-doo-doo-doo Doo-doo-doo-doo Doodily-oooop!
God is so clever he sends people with troubling literacy skills and all the signs of monomania to save our ickle souls. Yeah... whatever you say...
Thanks god... now please save us from followers like this... or at least those who don't think CAPS is a substitue for an argument...
regardless of how you feel about jehovah's organization--the true religion, one thing for sure, you will not escape the almighty jehovah's judgement right along with satan the devil and his destructive organization.
how will you save yourself and those who follow you...?
it's ashame that your energies could not be put to a more positive use.
God almighty, what I wouldn't give for a troll with brains and half an argument.
You just don't get them like they were in the old days, I remember back in the '90's a troll was often a troll, not a twit with a keyboard; have fun - I'm no one to talk about not wasting time on iresovable discussions, if ya like it, do it...
But this guy is too dull for words...
at least this is what the muslims claim.
until i had come on this forum i didn't have a clue as to what complex and convoluted problems biblical text offers upon scholarly examination.
i never took the muslim claim seriously i was quite derisory about the whole thing but now i have to give it more thought.
No... although Carmel's answer is a very good one... I believe the problem is the question is putting the cart before the horse.
If the Bible (believed in by billions to one extent or another - including Muslims, as the largest part of the Bible (Pentateuch, Prophets, Psalms, Gospels) are accepted as inspired by them (although interpreted from their view-point) is not an accurate guide to god's requirements (which in light of its provable inaccuracies is a reasonable stance), is any such claim (of a book being an accurate guide to god's requirements) reasonable?
Can any 'holy book' differentiate itself from the rest by having no provable historical errors or mythic elements?
If no such book can differentiate itself, is it reasonable to assume god would invest a single book with such a responsibility when it can't distinguish itself from the rest and therefore give people certainty about their choices? The idea that any god worthy of regard would have us engage in a quiz game and punish us for making the wrong choice is rather silly and one I'll pass over...
... for me, 'holy books' are maps that made sense of the world from the viewpoint of the various authors. Whether this has ANYTHING to do with god at all an entirely different question. God was an easy solution to insoluble problems.
The problem now is most traditional ideation's of god now create more questions than they answered to those who originally recorded their ideas.
Maybe it is a case of 'many paths one destination' with many such books having 'insights' into 'god'. Or maybe 'god' is just a stage of a society building stable communities that can be replaced with secular values achieving the same ends as regards stable and functional communities? For me it is a question of letting the bocks go and thinking of god as it might be, rather than as <insert historical group> thought of it.
That of course includes the possibility there is nothing like any traditional form of god, or any god at all.
david blaine is that creepy illusionist who is in a tank until his show tomorrow night.
today we were in nyc and drove by the lincoln center where his tank is out in front.
we quickly drove by but he was very visible and waving to the people standing around..
Depends what you mean by fake, LOL
Like someone who COULD telekinetically move 80kgs would make money with a TV show... so he is a fake telekinetic
However, someone who is a good enough illusionist to make viewers think he is levitating is not a fake illusionist.
Five minutes of Googling and you'll find explanations of most of his street magic; old routines with new life breathed into them, with Occam's Razor (it's a set-up) being the better explanation than 'magic'. The car in the window trick is a set-up and card-sharp/slight-of-hand routine, the 'fly back to life' routine requires a pre-chilled fly (which will appear dead) and an eye on a clock (they warm-up and fly off within ten minutes).
The levitation trick is all about sight lines...
