Posts by slimboyfat

72

Romans 9:5

by aqwsed12345 in

na28: ὧν οἱ πατέρες καὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁ χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα, ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸς εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν.. na28 transliterated: hō̃n hoi patéres kaì ex hō̃n ho khristòs tò katà sárka, ho ṑn epì pántōn theòs eulogētòs eis toùs aiō̃nas, amḗn.. kit: .

nwt: to them the forefathers belong, and from them the christ descended according to the flesh.

god, who is over all, be praised forever.

slimboyfat

Even the Catholic scholar Raymond Brown says Romans 9.5 is ambiguous. Why does the Trinity doctrine so regularly fall back on texts that are uncertain textually or grammatically?

PetrW thanks for an interesting exposition about non-adorative Christology and the reference to the early Unitarian Ferenc David.

Yet the NT is very clear that Christians should pray to God alone. Jesus instructed his followers to pray to the Father (the one exception, again, is textually in dispute at John 14.14) and the evidence from Paul and the other NT writers is that they followed this instruction. Christians are to pray to God through Jesus and in his name. The German scholar Hans Conzelmann put it this way:

“Calling on Jesus is to be distinguished from prayer. Only God is worshipped. But that one can pray at all is a miracle, mediated through the Lord. Consequently men call upon him; they pray in the name of the Lord.” An Outline of the Theology of the New Testament (1969), page 84.

I also note that there are Trinitarians who in practice agree that prayer is correctly directed to God through Jesus rather than to Jesus himself. For example I have often observed, and had it confirmed from speaking to them, that the Brethren, despite being fully Trinitarian, strictly follow the Bible pattern of prayer to God through Jesus rather than prayer direct to Jesus.

54

Is AI going to change the world?

by Reasonfirst in

jw
friends

had lunch with a friend, whose a lecturer in the accounting dept.

of one of australia's best universities.

he told me he expects to lose his job at some point in the next 5 years, as the accounting dept, will disappear, as all accounting will be done by ai programs, so why teach it.. if his fears are correct, that means that any profession that involves the mind, may one day face the same future.

slimboyfat

TD I put your question “Can you explain how bulge is calculated in mathematics?” to the new AI called Aomni Agent. First it breaks down the question into different components, then it lists relevant sources, then it browses the sources, then it gives its report in the form of “key takeaways” followed by a more detailed explanation. You can read the result here:

https://aomni.com/research/d1e68f94-05f0-4ee0-b094-154714687e50

Is this better than ChatGPT?

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

slimboyfat

Yep, the fact is LE could probably get away with never making another video, and still keep hundreds of patrons for months, and dozens for years to come. Some people who sign up just never quit for whatever reason. Look at Boogie’s patrons. His support crashed but it took years, and he still has a handful left. He’ll collect that money from the handful of remaining supporters for the rest of his life, or until it’s shut down somehow, which seems unlikely. (Down from over 300 to less than 30 in his case)

https://graphtreon.com/creator/boogie2988

On the other hand, coping with a steadily falling income is not an easy thing to do for anybody and is likely to have a mental toll, especially as inflation is high in many places. (It certainly is in the UK, I don’t know about Croatia) This is why he is frustrated with the very good income he receives at the moment, because it doesn’t match the excellent income he had in 2020. Next year will likely be worse than this year so that, even though he will still be making more than he did in 2018, it will feel a lot worse because it’s heading downward.

I reckon his ad revenue from YouTube has probably tumbled further than his Patreon support because his views are rubbish these days and YouTube is apparently paying out less than it used to.

Plus the downward trajectory of his channel could accelerate rather than level off in the medium term as he is less motivated to produce videos and fewer people support him as a result in a reinforcing downward loop.

15

Can the org's finances be viewed?

by BoogerMan in

does anyone know where to view the wtbts of new york and pennsylvania's financial records?.

i mean, they are registered charities aren't they, so surely their income/expenditures must be open to scrutiny?.

slimboyfat

Can the org’s finances be viewed?

Yes, they can be viewed with some suspicion. 😜

12

Blood Card Check

by NotFormer in

i remember many years ago that apparently there was an annual event where witnesses' blood cards (or whatever they're called) were checked by some visiting wt dignitary.

that the blood cards were current, and that the r&f were carrying them.. given the situation in some countries that kingdom halls can't legally keep data about people who have been visited, is the practice of checking and enforcing the carrying of blood cards similarly illegal in some places?.

are there any places where it is illegal for the hlc to set up camp near the hospital bed of a sick jw?.

slimboyfat

I have never heard of such a thing. If anything elders have become more relaxed about blood and blood cards. I think they still have a reminder at the meeting each year to keep your documents up to date, but publishers are not monitored for what documents they hold as far as I know. Elders don’t chase people to sign the documents, they leave it up to individuals to take the initiative. That’s what I’ve seen anyway.

That’s in contrast with field service reports which are still sought vigorously by elders from their group at the end of each month. So it does seem to be a conscious decision to be more hands off around blood documents in particular.

8

New NWT

by NotFormer in

is it very different from the old version?.

has it changed much?.

how can i get a copy?

slimboyfat

What people consider the “controversial” renderings in the NWT remain pretty much intact in the revision (John 1.1, Col 1.16, Luke 23.43, use of “Jehovah” in the New Testament, and so on). But the language has been thoroughly modernised and some of the quirky aspects have been toned down or eliminated (“time indefinite”, all the “proceeded to”s, auxiliary verbs generally, “soul” for every instance of nephesh and psyche, for example). A few changes do reflect changes in teaching over the decades, such as the reinstatement of “elder”, in place of the original NWT rendering “older man”, which dates from a period when JWs didn’t have bodies of elders as they have then now. The difference in the revised NWT is perhaps most pronounced in places such as the book of Job, Proverbs, and poetic parts of the prophets where there has been a real effort to make the language understandable rather than literal. (The “dungy idols” have been removed for example)

The JWs at the carts probably won’t have a spare copy to hand but if you express an interest in obtaining one they may arrange to bring one for you or else direct you to come along to the KH to pick one up at one of the meeting times.

It is of course also available online in full on their website.

33

Jehovah's Witnesses and Tattoos

by NotFormer in

i was wondering about the jw attitude towards getting tattoos.. redditors suggest that the only jws who have them would have got them before they were baptised.. jw.org gives a meally-mouthed "true christians wouldn't" response.. but no-one (that i've seen so far) answers the question i'm actually asking: is getting a tattoo after being baptised a disfellowshipping offence?.

if not disfellowshipable, how would a typical jw congregation treat someone who got a tattoo after baptism?

would they really treat it like it is a conscience issue?.

slimboyfat

What about a JW .ORG tattoo? I’d love to see how that would go down. Use it on the ministry, why not …

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

slimboyfat

He might come up with any number of lies in an attempt to disqualify anything truthful about his stupid legal case coming out. He’s a random nonsense generator, so trying to anticipate where the random nonsense will lead next is largely a fool’s game. He’s lived in Croatia for 15 years or thereabouts and can’t understand the language. I don’t think he’s in any position to talk.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

slimboyfat

In my opinion AI translators are every bit as good as humans now. If you just want to understand a text then AI translators is more than adequate. Only if you need an authenticated translation for legal purposes would it be worth even considering a professional translation.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

slimboyfat

The lack of interest he ever had in actually helping anyone in any practical way is pretty amazing. Because so many people spend so much time trying to help other ex-JWs I guess it was projected onto him that he was somehow involved in that as well. He never was. Anyone who didn’t further his financial or so-called “career” goals were allocated no time in his schedule whatever. He had unpaid volunteers who could do that for him and create a good impression on his behalf. Some people just have a knack for using other people without them realising it. I don’t know where he got it from but LE has that skill in spades.