it's been so long since i've been here.
hmmm...suppose that warrants a new introduction, which will conveniently lead to the subject of my post: ahh the freedom.
i am twenty years old, with my twenty-one run fast approaching.
for the Canadians: what do you call the gravy you put on your fries?
I'm on the West Coast (Seattle Minor, Canadian educated version) and many think that's disgusting. Our Francophones, though, have this thing called poutine. You take fries, put cheese curds on top, and then gravy (the gravy will melt the curds). Suprisingly I've never had it.
i really like this board.
i hate making this statement bec i dont want you to all start hating me.
but since i came on here i have been researching a lot.
I suggest you start reading the early Christians, start with the Didache, which the WT has quoted to support its own ends. Then I would recommend starting with Justin Martyr, Polycarp, and Clement. Then you can get the context in which the early Christians really believed about God.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm (The Didache)
i'm 21 years old and currently in a relationship with a baptised jw.
i have been studying with the jws for 2 years before we met.
well, i have to admit, i did not enjoy studying with them until about 10 months ago when i became interested of digging the "truth" although it means my sources was only the jw.
When I asked him what quality he loves about me the most, he told me...number one,you serve Jehovah.
I hate to say this, but do you really wan't a relationship base upon conditional love?
I do not want to leave him until he tells me to. I cannot think of a good excuse if he ask me why am I deferring my baptism.
Well, I'll get all feminist on you. Sister, you've got to do things for yourself. If you want to keep in a religion just because a man wants you to, do you think that you will feel good with yourself because of it.
it's been so long since i've been here.
hmmm...suppose that warrants a new introduction, which will conveniently lead to the subject of my post: ahh the freedom.
i am twenty years old, with my twenty-one run fast approaching.
Rules that I've broken...
I go to university (Classics, I've heard that's an elitist major)
I go to the Roman Catholic Church
I swear a lot, only a little drinking
I watch horror movies
and probably more things than I can remember.
i was always under the impression that jw's couldn't participate in politics because that would mean that they were a part of the world.
yet, i found an interesting article today suggesting that some are involved.
see "analysis: nepal one month on.
Considering that he's probably a respected person in that country, dfing him would probably be bad for converting new members. And if you have someone in the government of a repressive regeime on your side then you are given a bit more freedom than other groups. Like in Iraq, the Catholics probably weren't treated badly like other minorities b/c one of Hussein's minister's was Catholic.
on the mirthra thread zen made this comment and reminded me of something.personally, i beileve the god man myths began in relationship to astrological and agricultural cycles... the 12 apostles of the zodiac, the four corners of the heavens, leo the lion, taurus the bull, aquarius the man bearing water and scorpio, which may have been an eagle oringally are found in both ezekiel and revelations.. .
i've seen comments on websites before about the importance of the zodiac in the bible and religion in general.. for example: .
(mark 14:13) 13 with that he sent forth two of his disciples and said to them: "go into the city, and a man carrying an earthenware vessel of water will encounter you.
I think everyone looking for connections between a lot of things should simply read Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.
i went to my first meeting in 9 months (dont ask ive got my reasons cant say on an public board).
they reviewed a wt july 1st page 12----19. it was saying that you should have concern for people who are spiritually weak you should remember all the good things they had done in the past.
even if they wernt going to meetings anymore.
went to a meeting tonight !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Please, sir, may I have another."
Claims that ordinary Witnesses only helped others in case they could make a convert.
Well I know thats not entirely true. An old Jewish friend of the family told us that her husband, while in a concentration camp saw a JW give up his life (basically tortured to death) to save an elderly Jewish man they were going to kill.
u.s. to test bird flu vaccine as warnings spread government stockpiling antiviral drugs in case of epidemic
ap scientists test laboratory samples infected with the bird flu virus at the national institute of hygiene and epidemiology in hanoi, vietnam, feb. 22.
the associated press updated: 6:55 p.m. et feb. 23, 2005
it spreads but when
UGH! The American and Canadian media say this all this time about almost everything. It's getting f*$k$% annoying.It hasn't even really mutated much yet and they are all talking about it. And another thing: its NOT a pandemic; its not even in a transmissible human form!
Simply fearmongering by politicians looking to boost their status and public health officials looking for more money and work.
Yes, of course another pandemic will come, but who cares. I'm mean, it's not the end of the world.
recently, at the prompting of another poster, i began to look into the similarities between jesus and other man-gods of ancient cultures.
i was shocked!
not so much by the minute details shared between the gospels and the stories of krishna, osiris, zoroaster, mithras, dionysus and others, but mainly because i had never heard of this before.. things like: being born of a virgin, espousing the redeeming power of baptism, turning water into wine at a wedding, having an entourage of 12 close followers, those 12 sharing a final meal with the god, instructing his followers to eat of his body and blood to benefit from his sacrifice (the blood usually symbolized by juice or wine), sacrificing his life by crucifixion on behalf of mankind, being dead for 3 days and then resurrected, he will return at some point to cleanse the world, and much more.. now, i know this is probably nothing new to most of you, but i was amazed.
One fallacy that many JWs fall into is that a strong similarity equals a connection. This is not always the case.
Things like: being born of a virgin, espousing the redeeming power of baptism, turning water into wine at a wedding, having an entourage of 12 close followers, those 12 sharing a final meal with the god, instructing his followers to eat of his body and blood to benefit from his sacrifice (the blood usually symbolized by juice or wine), sacrificing his life by crucifixion on behalf of mankind, being dead for 3 days and then resurrected, he will return at some point to cleanse the world, and much more.
Now most of the facts of the god-man myths are changed to look more like Christianity by pseudo-historians trying to discredit Christianity. It's like those two historians, Antoine-Jean Letronne and Washington Irving, in the 19th century that got together and decided to show how stupid Christians were by "proving" with historical "facts" that they believed that the earth was flat. Unfortunately, many of these facts were false and any academic historian worth his salt wouldn't say that this was the case. Many people today even believe that during early and medieval Christian period that Christians believed that the world was flat. Yet no one believed in a flat earth since 3 BC, as the concept of a spherical world was accepted by Greek and Roman philosophers (even back in 6 BC, many, like Pythagoras, believe in a spherical world).
