"retroHelen
However, after that May article appeared in the newspaper, I did not put it on this site because of the discouraging negativity of follow up emails. and letter writing 'trolls' shown after the article, commenting on it and spreading slander about our organisation and tried to make out we would be a worrying secretive extremist cult that the local government would regret allowing on the land. Others pointed out that the land had originally been set aside for local employment prospects not for a 'cult'. Others tried to claim that the land was 'greenfield' site and should not be disturbed - despite the mess the scrap/junkyard had caused. This was worrying/stirring up other secularists /humanists/atheists. The newspaper seemed to be picking up on this controversy rather than the favourable reports they'd first heard."
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"Greg Dent
13 Jun 2014
So why hi light that in your post? Why give them a voice here? Ignore that garbage for what it is my Friend Garbage. Jehovah will take care of them for us. He will shut all their mouths forever."
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"sunshine
26 Jun 2014
Our history shows that any projects will happen if that is Jehovah's will. If it falls through, it's because Jehovah doesn't see fit to let HQ Britain be there because he has something better in view, if it works out, it will work out despite the whole world rising up against it."
http://jwtalk.net/forums/topic/15522-britains-jw-branch-building-could-fall-through-without-support/#entry225832
defender of truth
JoinedPosts by defender of truth
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Breaking News : Planning application for new British Bethel to be submitted within 2 weeks
by raymond frantz inapplication for new british headquarters to be submitted within 2 weeks.
the boys from bethel have been busy planning their new luxurius residence in chelmsford ,essex .the deal to purchuase the new land was in the region of 10million all financed from struggling jehovah's witnesses across the country .please read the news article and let me know what you think.. .
instead of building in chelmsford how about building in a less affluent area "where the need is great", like cumbernauld in north larnakshire.
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defender of truth
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Theists, why does God allow suffering..
by The Quiet One in..specifically, the suffering of animals.
you can talk about free will/sin/people choosing to not listen to god etc to explain human suffering being allowed.. but how can you love a god that allows animals, that haven't sinned or chosen to not have anything to do with god, to have their short lives ended in often long, drawn out, painful ways.
i could list stories i've read that would probably make you feel ill, but i'm not looking to shock anyone or start an emotional debate.
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defender of truth
"Animal suffering seems at odds with the Christian idea of a loving and powerful God.
After all, if God was all-powerful he could prevent suffering, and if God was perfectly good he would want to prevent suffering.
But animals do suffer on a colossal scale, and as there doesn't seem to be any logical necessity for them to do so Christians have some explaining to do."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/christianethics/animals_1.shtml#section_4 -
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defender of truth
The Watchtower did sort of allow for the possibility that the Big Bang could have started the universe, in an Awake in 2002, I suppose after 'wordly' research and discovery had refined the theory.
"The Limits of Science
It is fitting to have proper respect for scientific knowledge and achievements. However, many will agree that while science involves a way of knowing, it is not the only source of knowledge. The purpose of science is to describe phenomena in the natural world and to assist in answering how these phenomena occur.Science provides us with insights into the physical universe, meaning everything that is observable. But no matter how far scientific investigation goes, it can never answer the question of purpose—why the universe exists in the first place. “There are some questions that scientists can never answer,” remarks author Tom Utley. “It may be that the Big Bang happened 12 billion years ago. But why did it happen? . . . How did the particles get there in the first place? What was there before?” Utley concludes: “It seems . . . clearer than ever that science will never satisfy the human hunger for answers.”
g02 6/8 pp. 4-7
How Did the Universe and Life Originate? -
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defender of truth
Phenomenon
2c: a fact or event of scientific interest susceptible to scientific description and explanation
3a: a rare or significant fact or event
http://i.word.com/idictionary/phenomenon -
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defender of truth
Phizzy said: "Belief is trusting that something is true without evidence."
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belief
3: conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence.
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defender of truth
"This pruning of sources suggests an argument concocted from the Watch Tower. It's fraudulent. With your moniker you should be ashamed of yourself."
I'm no apologist, matey, I just wanted to start a discussion on reasons to believe the Big Bang theory. I used the wording 'believe in' to stir people up a bit, that's all.
Sorry if the OP was unclear, all of those first quotes come from the '96 Awake, then the final one is Awake as well.
Of course it's misleading, that is why I posted it directly after the article on reasons to trust the Big Bang theory.
Thanks for the interesting contributions everyone :) -
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defender of truth
" A major challenge to the big bang has come from observers using the corrected optics of the Hubble Space Telescope to measure distances to other galaxies. The new data is giving the theorists fits!
Astronomer Wendy Freedman and others recently used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the distance to a galaxy in the constellation of Virgo, and her measurement suggests that the universe is expanding faster, and therefore is younger, than previously thought. In fact, it “implies a cosmic age as little as eight billion years,” reported Scientific American magazine just last June. While eight billion years sounds like a very long time, it is only about half the currently estimated age of the universe. This creates a special problem, since, as the report goes on to note, “other data indicate that certain stars are at least 14 billion years old.” If Freedman’s numbers hold up, those elderly stars would turn out to be older than the big bang itself!
Still another problem for the big bang has come from steadily mounting evidence of “bubbles” in the universe that are 100 million light-years in size, with galaxies on the outside and voids inside. Margaret Geller, John Huchra, and others at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have found what they call a great wall of galaxies some 500 million light-years in length across the northern sky. Another group of astronomers, who became known as the Seven Samurai, have found evidence of a different cosmic conglomeration, which they call the Great Attractor, located near the southern constellations of Hydra and Centaurus. Astronomers Marc Postman and Tod Lauer believe something even bigger must lie beyond the constellation Orion, causing hundreds of galaxies, including ours, to stream in that direction like rafts on a sort of “river in space.”
All this structure is baffling. Cosmologists say the blast from the big bang was extremely smooth and uniform, according to the background radiation it allegedly left behind. How could such a smooth start have led to such massive and complex structures? "
" Professor Fred Hoyle likened the efforts of the Ptolemaic cosmologists at patching up their failing theory in the face of new discoveries to the endeavors ofbigbangbelievers today to keep their theory afloat. He wrote in his book The Intelligent Universe: “The main efforts of investigators have been in papering over contradictions in thebigbangtheory, to build up an idea which has become ever more complex and cumbersome.” After referring to Ptolemy’s futile use of epicycles to rescue his theory, Hoyle continued: “I have little hesitation in saying that as a result a sickly pall now hangs over thebigbangtheory. As I have mentioned earlier, when a pattern of facts becomes set against a theory, experience shows that it rarely recovers.”—Page 186.
" The children of today’s atomic age have chosen as their paradigm for creation, not the ancient sea monster, not Newton’s “machine,” but that overarching symbol of the 20th century—the bomb. Their “creator” is an explosion. They call their cosmic fireball the big bang. "
1/22/1996 Awake
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"If the cosmos and everything in it are the product of spontaneous combinations of elements after the primordial big bang, then there can be no real purpose to life."
g 12/09 pp. 4-8 -
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754
Theists, why does God allow suffering..
by The Quiet One in..specifically, the suffering of animals.
you can talk about free will/sin/people choosing to not listen to god etc to explain human suffering being allowed.. but how can you love a god that allows animals, that haven't sinned or chosen to not have anything to do with god, to have their short lives ended in often long, drawn out, painful ways.
i could list stories i've read that would probably make you feel ill, but i'm not looking to shock anyone or start an emotional debate.
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When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed references
by GoUnion inthis topic has been covered extensively but i just wanted relate what hapopenes with this subject and my elder father.
he called me up one day to check in on me he always asks if i'm going to msettings and i always tell him no im not.
well this time he wanted to know why i didn't trust the g.b.
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defender of truth
"In the 2010 book God's Word for Us Through Jeremiah, a statement is made regarding a find by Eilat Mazar, supporting two Characters mentioned in Jeremiah.
"Archaeologist Eilat Mazar reports unearthing a small clay seal impression, or bulla. (below left) It was found in 2005 during a supervised excavation of a layer dating back to when Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 B.C.E." God's Word for Us Through Jeremiah p.55
The reader may get the impression that Eilat is supporting the year 607 B.C.E., whereas she presents that the destruction was in 587 B.C. (See articles at jpost.com and archaeology.hui.ac.il) There was no need to mention the date 607 B.C.E., as it was not relevant to the topic, and for the sake of accuracy the writer could have referred to "when Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon." The Watchtower inserts this date to deceitfully condition Jehovah's Witnesses that 607 B.C.E. is historically accurate."
http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/misquotes-deception-lies.php