"Don't read so much -- it's just a hobby, after all."
Dedalus
dedalus
JoinedPosts by dedalus
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42
What Were You Told That You Had To Work on By The Elders?
by minimus inthe elders feel obliged to have you work on at least, something.
what did they tell you?
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90
Know what makes me terribly sad about some on these forums?
by Derrick ini find something very distressing not to mention terribly sad about some of you people (and to those who are not one of these people i kindly ask to please don't fly into some "i'm so insulted!
" snit as if i'm wrongfully referring to you).
to those people i'm referring to i say: you rightfully hope for the british and u.s. military to destroy that saddam monster and its minions of mass-murdering/worshippers throughout iraq.
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dedalus
BTTT
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33
Rabbi Responds to Jehovah's Witnesses
by DevonMcBride inthe below message was e-mailed to a friend of mine who then sent it to me.
devon
on the subject of jehovah's witnesses: they don't visit us anymore, they used to come by regularly.
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dedalus
You can call it smugness, I prefer to think of it as pride in their heritage and determination to continue their own religious beliefs despite the overwhelmingly Christian culture we live in, where it is assumed that their religion is wrong.
Fair enough. Pride in one's heritage and so forth is important and good. However, the rabbi-type-person used that pride to denigrate another person's religious beliefs, and more than that, another person's intelligence. (The bit about a five-year-old being able to speak and read Hebrew is stupid, because it's scientifically established that language is easy to acquire when you're a child, very difficult to acquire when you're an adult.) Of course, missionaries are similarly insulting when they turn up on your doorstep -- they imply that the household is wrong, whatever religion he or she is. Here, the rabbi and the missionary are each doing different versions of the same thing.
Of course translations are inferior, and of course they're, by necessity, interpretive -- and having said that, some translations are quite remarkable. But it's unreasonable to expect that, if I want to read and discuss Dante, Goethe, Tolstoy, Cervantes, Proust, Kierkegaard, and Aristotle, I need to learn and master Italian, German, Russian, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Greek. (Nevermind other problems of translation -- i.e., the Italian I need to read Machiavelli isn't the same as the Italian I need to read Calvino.) It's also unreasonable to suggest that, if I have read these writers in translation, I'm not entitled to an opinion of their work. Your brainiest Oxford professor has to read some works in translation from time to time.
One good idea is to compare different translations of the same work (which is yet another way Witnesses go wrong -- they are so mired in the NWT, they miss the opportunity to see how beautifully certain verses can be rendered in English).
For what it's worth, I've been told that Hebrew is a beautiful language.
Dedalus
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33
Rabbi Responds to Jehovah's Witnesses
by DevonMcBride inthe below message was e-mailed to a friend of mine who then sent it to me.
devon
on the subject of jehovah's witnesses: they don't visit us anymore, they used to come by regularly.
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dedalus
However, I am deeply offended by missionaries because their fundamental premise is that my religious tradition is inadequate and theirs is innately superior.
Ironically, the entire anecdote only proves that the "rabbi" thinks her religious tradition is innately superior and the missionary's is inadequate. And she's blithely passing that smugness onto her children.
It's not surprising that a religious person would be blind to her own hypocrisy, though.
Dedalus
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Watchtower says JW meetings follow the 1st century model
by ozziepost inmodern dub meetings follow the format of the first century christian meetings, or is that vice versa?
subliminal messages reinforce the message found in the watchtower of november 15, 2002. page six shows a picture of st paul's basilica in rome with the message that this is not the place for "spiritual refreshment".
the facing page (p7) shows an illustration of what is purported to be a meeting of first century christians.
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dedalus
The facing page (p7) shows an illustration of what is purported to be a meeting of first century Christians. Just like the picture on the following page of a modern-day meeting at a Kingdom Hall, there is a chairman facing neat rows of Christians of all ages, some with hands raised to make a comment. Open before the chairman are scrolls.
And where are the microphone runners?
Anachronistic bullshit.
Dedalus
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15
Great Site Iraq Information Minister
by anglise inthis site is brilliant.
sorry if it has already been posted.
anglise
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15
Great Site Iraq Information Minister
by anglise inthis site is brilliant.
sorry if it has already been posted.
anglise
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dedalus
Derrick,
Since you have time to ROTFLMAO, perhaps you could spare a moment or two and reply to some serious comments made in a thread you started:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/49693/709157/post.ashx#709157
Dedalus
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Great Site Iraq Information Minister
by anglise inthis site is brilliant.
sorry if it has already been posted.
anglise
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45
Do You Think That Jehovah's Witnesses Are Basically Good People?
by minimus inthere's a lot of jw bashing here.
we've all been affected by negative things because of the organization.
but do you think that as a group, jehovah's witnesses are bad, or do you think that most of the witnesses that you know are inherently good people??
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dedalus
Well, Minimus, I think you're telling the absolute truth from your perspective and experience and I respect that.
All I can say is that I'm not exaggerating when I write about stuff I've seen and heard. I don't need to. I grew up constantly aware that any day the God my parents served was going to take the lives of my classmates, my teachers, people on the street, and probably me for not mustering up enough faith to really believe in Him.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that every day, going here and there with my parents, I would look at strangers on the street and think: Jehovah's going to kill them someday. That man with his young daughter, lifting her to drop letters into a mailbox. The gas station attendant with his hat on backwards, pony tail tucked into the collar of his shirt. My science teacher, with her round tortoise shell glasses and rack of test tubes. All to be incinerated at Armageddon. Seriously, Minimus -- as a Witness child, I looked around and saw death.
Perhaps Witnesses don't "gloat" in the sense that they talk about it a lot, in graphic detail, with lots of hand clapping and maniacal laughter -- after all, it must be a difficult sort of thing to dwell on, even if you hope for it. But (again, anecdotally) even my sister-in-law, the most liberal Witness I know, who still talks to all of us that are disfellowshipped/disassociated, occasionally calls and tearfully begs her mother to come back to "the truth." Why? Because if she doesn't, Jehovah will kill her handicapped seven year old brother at Armageddon.
Again, Minimus, I think there's worth in what you're saying. Maybe the balance of our two perspectives is closer to some kind of objective reality. But I can never say what you're saying, because my experience utterly refutes it. And, I'm afraid, so does the organization's literature.
Dedalus
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45
Do You Think That Jehovah's Witnesses Are Basically Good People?
by minimus inthere's a lot of jw bashing here.
we've all been affected by negative things because of the organization.
but do you think that as a group, jehovah's witnesses are bad, or do you think that most of the witnesses that you know are inherently good people??
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dedalus
Most Witnesses don't glory in the concept of billions of people dying.
Are you sure? Look at what Witnesses read, study, believe, and distribute:
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"Every kind of terror will be used to destroy the evil world--cloud bursts, lashing rains, overflowing floods, earthquakes, giant hailstorms and a rain of fire. There will be terror on the land, terror in the sea and terror in the air. With shocking surprise Armageddon will catch all those persons outside the New World society." -- From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, 1958, p. 207.
"On Satan's side will be all the rest of mankind, more than 99.9 percent, as we read, 'The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.' That includes all the governments of the world together with their supporters, the commercial, religious and social institutions. Even the professedly Christian organizations? Yes, because all such that are making themselves friends of the world are making themselves enemies of God." -- Watchtower 10/15/58, p. 614-5.
"Do not conclude that there are different roads, or ways, that you can follow to gain life in God's new system. There is only one. There was just one ark that survived the Flood, not a number of boats. And there will be only one organization--God's visible organization--that will survive the fast-approaching ‘great tribulation.’ It is simply not true that all religion lead to the same goal … You must be part of Jehovah’s organization, doing God’s will, in order to receive his blessing of everlasting life." – You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, 1982, p. 255.
"Never forget that only God’s organization will survive the end of this dying system. Act wisely, therefore, and make plans for life eternal by building your future with Jehovah’s organization." – Watchtower 7/15/84, p. 20.
"Only Jehovah’s Witnesses, those of the anointed remnant and the ‘great crowd,’ as a united organization under the protection of the Supreme Organizer, have any Scriptural home of surviving the impending end of this doomed system dominated by Satan the Devil. (Revelation 7:9-17; 2 Corinthians 4:4) They will make up the ‘flesh’ that Jesus Christ said would be saved through the worst tribulation in human history." – Watchtower 9/1/89, p. 19.
"The masses of people facing annihilation if they fail to respond to the good news include out unbelieving relatives, neighbors, workmates, schoolmates, and acquaintances. But our concern is to reach out to ‘all sorts of men’ in imitation of God, who manifested his love for the entire world by giving his Son, Jesus Christ, as a ransom for all (John 3:16). We must zealously invite all to flee to God’s place of safety. By fully carrying out the preaching work, we can avoid bloodguilt." – Kingdom Ministry, September 2000, p. 1
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When I was aux. pioneering, all of the regulars, the best representatives of the congregation, loved to talk about which houses they would take when the new system came and destroyed the current, "worldly" inhabitants. This kind of talk, I understand, is not unusual. Someone didn't take the magazines that morning? Over coffee at Dunkin Donuts we'd snicker about the "goats" who were going to get it. "Not interested? Well, you'll be interested when you're engulfed in a rain of fire -- but it will be too late then!" Ha, ha, ha.
Of course Witnesses glory in the concept of billions dying. They study and distribute magazines that vividly describe the bloodshed and destruction, as shown above. And who can blame them? Until billions and billions die, they're stuck here, knocking on your door, sizing up your property. (No, not all of them do that -- okay, okay -- but they are directed toward that kind of thinking by the literature in their bookbags.)
Dedalus