Homosexuality was decriminalized in France in 1791 under pretense when no crime is involved among private act of two consenting adults. The debate if homosexuality is a crime were made through much of the 19th century when even medical science believed that sodomy is not crime or mental disorder. This view was silenced during the puritan awakening under Victoria. For example Austrian criminal law wanted to decriminalized it in 1851 and there was already medical studies and conference lead by Purkyne. However, his early death prevented decriminalization of homosexulity through much of the Austrian empire and its descending countries. This happened in Czechoslovakia in 1961, in Hungary 1962, while in Poland 30 years earlier. Either way, from 1850's onward, the medical science had not considered homosexuality as a disorder, but its voice was silenced by politicians either during Victorian era, or under National Socialism.
Posts by kaik
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64JW's Anti-Gay position puts them in the axis of ignorance
by scotoma indarkest area is most anti-gay.
perhaps they need to focus on those areas since they seem to agree with them on this issue.
jehovah.
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World population vs Number of JW's where's the growth going?
by ed60 inthe rate of growth of publishers has dropped from an average 5.64% per annum over the 15 years prior to 1995, to 2.55% in the 15 years after 1995. had growth remained above 5%, the 4,950,344 witnesses in 1995 would have exceeded 11 million in 2010. instead, there were only 7 million in 2010 - a difference of 4 million people.
factors on conversion and retention, such as internet education, resulted in growth of 2 million instead of 6 million, just one third of that expected in 1995.. http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php.
i read this and it got me thinking about how much the global population is rising by annually.
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kaik
A huge problem for JW is indifference toward religion in industrial countries, not only wealthy Western, but also rapidly developing like China, Eastern Europe, Russia. The population feels oblivious toward religious nonsense that was possible in USA during the 2nd and 3rd Awakening, and does not share the same fundamentalist ideology as is prevalent in USA. I would say it is a fair gues that number of DA and DF in many countries are the same as number of JW, as is the case in Czech Republic. WT has not increased much and they will feel fallout once the postwar boomer generation enticed into the JW would die out.
WT can bet on growth in Africa, Phillipines, and Latin America which have traditional, deep religious feeling. It will be possible that in the future decades WT could abandon much of the developed world and focus its power and influence into third and fourth world countries and keep USA HQ as way to launder money.
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March of the world powers in DANIEL 2. Proof the Bible is the inspired word of God. Wadda ya think?
by punkofnice in.
how would you answer the jw that says that the vision of daniel predicting world powers into the future (where the toes have no significance according to the wbt$), is proof of the inspired prophecy in the bible?.
could it be that the 'powers' are not actually named and can be interpreted any way you want?.
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kaik
Kepler, thank you for your information.
Not sure about the toes, but I recalled that they should correspond to the ten horn. Russell said that Portugal and Austria-Hungary are one of the horns. Either way, Portugal is small and hardly influential country, and Austria-Hungary disintegrated two years after the death of Russell.
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"Deep down inside even they know it is BS." Discuss
by rory-ks innope, bungi bill's interesting statement from this post didn't take, so i'll start its own.. from my own experience, i hated the field ministry.
it might just be because of the kind of character i am, whatever, i never was able to overcome that feeling of dread every time i went door-to-door.
i felt aware of how much people disliked having strangers cold-calling trying to sell them something.
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kaik
I am sure that half of them do not believe everything what is produced by Borg and what is printed in WT and Awake. There was always a lot of people who have doubt, but the fear of DF is too strong to say it aloud. However, there is always the core of hard believer who do think that they are the channel of God's communication, they have the truth, and were choosen as Jesus bride. They care less what logic is behind WT and changed doctrines, it does not matter. My evil JW aunt to her death belived that she will see the end. She died with last words to KH that she will be right back, because Armageddon is imminent and resurrection will follow. This was 12 years ago.
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kaik
There is about 275,000 to 325,000 people around the world who are older than 100 years. By next 10 years about 99% will be dead. There is about 3000 individuals older than 110 and only eight women who were born in the 19th century.
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The Apostle Paul was taught a Myth !! not the "Truth".
by Phizzy inthe exact chronology of paul's damascene experience cannot be firmly established, but certainly a number of years had passed since the death of jesus.
perhaps only three or four years, maybe more.
we do not have an accurate history of this time.. but, it is evident that by the time paul was converted a cult of jesus was flourishing within judaism, hence his opposition, as it seemed very subversive to his pharisee mind.. what was this cult built upon ?
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kaik
Paul have never met Jesus. He was a Roman citizen, citizen of imperial country that was occupying Judea. He was a descendand of Benjamin tribe. He did not get well with Jewish community nor with the followers of Jesus. When things did not work his way he took an advantage of his Roman citizenship and appealed to Nero for a help against the Jews. The Roman tyrant was certainly more sure bet than having God playing to his hand. Either way, I wonder if John in his Rev 2:2 “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars" have meant Paul. He never was apostle as were the people around Jesus. He called himself. Paul is the founder of Christianity. Jesus did not call himself and his followers Christians. They were all Jews. He also encountered others like Romans and Samaritans, but his primary audience was Jewish.
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Some help on the Israel journey of 40 years.
by jam inat what time did god blind the israelites, (to wonder for.
40 years)?
after crossing the red sea exodus states 15;22.
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kaik
Think a moment. Mongolia had about 600,000 people and was able to put conquest for much of Asia, Middle East, and Eastern Europe around 1250. Egypt under Roman administration had 3 mil people, while Judea about 1 milion. Famous crossing of Rhine in 406, when bands of Germanic migrants overrun Western Roman Empire, was made of about 100,000 people. There is no way there was million of Jews wandering through desert.
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How often do you see the Witnesses out on the ministry?
by rory-ks ini only ask because i hardly ever see them out on the ministry.
it is a very rare sighting to spot them actively engaged in the house to house ministry.
or out on the street work, in the marketplace, etc.. the other reason i ask is because they are constantly pictured as being on the preaching work.
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kaik
I see them in the large cities usually close to train station or subway entrances. I saw them two weeks ago in downtown with their carts at the entrance of subway. You see more JW at the train stations in Europe than in USA. I have encountered them from Munich to Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Krakow, or Bratislava. I only had one knocking on the door. I had a night shift so I slept at the day time when someone around noon decided to wake me up... JW with WT publication. I was really p.ed off becaue I could not sleep again and I had to go to night shift later.
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The Apostle Paul was taught a Myth !! not the "Truth".
by Phizzy inthe exact chronology of paul's damascene experience cannot be firmly established, but certainly a number of years had passed since the death of jesus.
perhaps only three or four years, maybe more.
we do not have an accurate history of this time.. but, it is evident that by the time paul was converted a cult of jesus was flourishing within judaism, hence his opposition, as it seemed very subversive to his pharisee mind.. what was this cult built upon ?
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kaik
Some issues I have with Paul:
- He never met Jesus in person
- He was a Roman citizen by birth
- He appealed to Nero, the emperor, bloodthirsty tyrant that killed many people
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Hello from Still Totally ADD glad to be back
by Still Totally ADD init's been 6 months now since my old computer died.
a good friend of our's had a spare computer her husband never used so she asked me if i would like to have it.
after cleaning it up inside and out i found out i could not remember my password and the e-mail i gave them i no longer use.
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kaik
Welcome back. I had kitty that died two years ago at age 18 years and one week. I got now another kitty that is a beastling mix between asian leopard, domestic cat, and african serval. He is still growing and is about 16 pounds. This is a wild animal that had not been fully domesticated, so I treat him such way. He is very attached to me and follows me everywhere. I must fight with him and play hide and seek, and he likes to chase me around the house. He eats about four cans of meat per day. Do not recommend this breed for people who do not have big house, patience, and lack experience with demanding cat. And they are not good for children. However, he loves to be kissed and I say kissy kissy and he comes to me and wants to be kissed than he tries to lick me (maybe tries to taste me for a meal?).
I am tired of the winter as we had deep freeze and had 15" of snow last week. I love gardening. I have office job, so I do not get much into the sun, but love escaping into my garden around the house in free time to be under sun on fresh air. I planted 50 different shrubs, and I am in love with camellias. I have dozen different rhododendrons some of the bloom yellow and orange, and gardenias, laurels, azaleas, and hydrangeas. However, the polar vertex and deep freez probably damaged my plants. I think my gardenias are write off as they did not survived this winter. My camellias seems fine, but their buds are burn and will not bloom this spring. I am not sure if my bulbs will show up as I have various lillies, cannas, and cala lilly. I cannot grow vegetable garden as chipmunk and squirrels clear everything edible. I want to build a herb garden. I have two projects in mind, when one will require cutting old maple that is leaning and may damage property on fall and other is extending driveway to the fence, so I can bring things from my car to the backyard.
Otherwise, I want the spring to be here, be out, and not worried about slippery roads and sidewalks. Hoping that I will survive layoffs and will have job after the end of business year, so I could relax on my backyard while recreating my vision of Garden of Eden.