Awakened07
JoinedPosts by Awakened07
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ATLAS OF CREATION
by badboy inthis book has been prouced by a turkish islamist who is being sued orlibel for what he said on a interet forum
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Walking on water
by IP_SEC inin the history of man there have been only three people to ever walk on water.
1. jesus.
2. peter.
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Awakened07
Speaking of walking on water; it's just a matter of having enough faith. So I don't see why there aren't at least some religious people walking on water and moving mountains at any given time. Are they lacking in faith? I mean - through history of mankind, you'd think at least some would muster enough faith to do it. It's a shame I never thought of it that way back when I had faith. 'Cause I was the one who used to say "I don't believe it's true - I know it's true". Think of the things I could've accomplished.
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Why leave out some of God's creatures?
by serotonin_wraith inone thing i've noticed in the wt paradise pics is that they leave out many of god's wonderful creatures.
why aren't there more pictures of children petting cockroaches, tickling the bellies of snails and letting scorpions sit on their shoulders?
if every animal is made by god, why be biased and leave some out?.
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Awakened07
-Just imagine going for a swim, and petting a great white shark as it nibbles on some sea weed (and if it's lucky, some roots from a tree), while smelling the water lilies (instead of blood, like now) from several hundred yards away. Beautiful.
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How accurate can the Bible really be?
by Snoozy inhow accurate can the bible really be?
i am losing faith that it is accurate at all.. according to an article i read in our paper today they are now saying in translation there are no english words to match every word...so the scripture that say "peace on earth and goodwill towards all men " should really be " peace on earth to all men of goodwill ".. now if they can screw something that simple up..what else in the bible have they screwed up?.
snoozy....
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Awakened07
So basically...
...We should start out with faith - as strong as possible. That's the foundation. Faith in Christ, and faith that the Bible is the word of God. The Bible should be the authority we hold up high. That's where we should start out. "The Bible is the word of God".
If we then find scripture that supports that faith, that's great, and we should cherish it. However, if we find scripture that's confusing, or seems to be contradicting, or does not agree with scientific findings, or something like that, we should disregard or forget those things, or pray for more faith in order to understand it. If we don't find an answer anyway, we should have faith that God will reveal the truth about it in due time.
Or - if we have faith, we also have fear of God, and so we would never question passages in the Bible in the first place.
Some read the Bible without faith in order to find faults in it. These people cannot understand what is written, because they are not guided by spirit since they don't have faith. However - those who do have faith and do understand the scripture, cannot simply explain how the scripture makes sense to those who do not have faith, because it's... more complicated than that. It's not like when someone learns a language and can then translate a text for someone who hasn't learned the language. It's more... mysterious than that.
Am I getting this right so far?
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Inconsistency in Placing Blame?
by Mum ini was just reading something about the story in genesis about the angels leaving heaven to mate with earthly women.
does anyone else find it peculiar that the watchtower places no blame on the women?
in the wt world, it is always the less powerful who bears the primary burden of guilt except in this one case.. for example, didn't someone post a wt form which asks an applicant about pedophile practices and then asks if the child did anything to provoke the assault?
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Awakened07
I think that angels never took women for wives! it is a false teaching. The JW believes the concept because of Russell, and because they borrowed everything from other religions. They quoted from the book of Enoch because you will not find a story like it in the bible. Compare the story of Enoch with Genesis.
6: 1 Now it came about that when men started to grow in numbers on the surface of the ground and daughters were born to them, 2 then the sons of the [true] God began to notice the daughters of men, that they were good-looking; and they went taking wives for themselves, namely, all whom they chose. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Men of renown were of Cains offsprings because they were an older group of men who made tools, tents, instruments, and took many wives, were renown for violences. .
I've read that explanation before. But if this is the case, then what does the scripture really mean? "Now it came about that when men started to grow in numbers". <---- Who were these men, if not mankind as a whole? "then the sons of the [true] God began to notice the daughters of men". If these "sons of God" are the offspring of Cain, why are they singled out as being "sons of the [true] God", and the other group of men are not ("began to notice the daughters of men")? Why not just write "then the sons of Cain [or whoever] began to notice the daughters of the sons of [some other guy]" ?
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Body Modification/older societies/similar to WBTS view of women
by restrangled ini have just read the book, "snow flower and the secret fan" along with watching part of the national geographic series "taboo".
sadly, most of the modification involves distortion of the female body which then inturn, affects the minds for generations.. most of the justification for the body modification was to keep women in line mentally.
generation after generation of mothers were taught that neck lengthening, breast flatening, foot binding, and female circumsizing kept the girls clean and free from attracting men and kept them "down" in their societies.. i am not suggesting the wbts society approved of these physical methods, but the mental ramifications were adhered to and the result is the same.. women are considered second class citizens in this patriarchal society.
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Awakened07
-From the outside looking in, it's quite astonishing how women have been and are seen as second-rate people. I think this underlying thought in society actually fully stems from the notion of a "male" God, which created man first, then woman as a 'helper' and so on and so forth all the way to the NT with the "women should stay quiet in the congregation". Looking at it from the perspective of, say some alien being from outer space, it's quite ridiculous why one gender should be any less in any matter, than the other. We are all human beings. How are women treated in societies worshiping a Goddess (not a rhetorical question)?
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Why is god so angry?
by keyser soze inin reading the scriptures, it is clear that god has some serious anger issues, not to mention insecurities.
how does he deal with anyone who displeases him in the old testament?
he not only kills them, but their children, and their children's children.
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Awakened07
Sort of the same with a small child. You have to get their attention fast when they may be about to make a dangerous move. You yell, you startle with a spank, etc. Children are basicially curious and selfish. It is not until they develop further that they have a conscience and can understand love. You have to instill conscience in them when they are young.
Mankind from the start until now can not be compared to a puppy or a child that needs discipline the first few years. At least not in this context. If so, then we have a family where the father doesn't discipline his children, but kills them off one by one as they transgress against his will. That may "help" keep the others in line, but what about those he killed?
"I rested on Sunday - so you kids are gonna rest on Sundays too. No, it's not a suggestion I make for your benefit - if you don't rest on a Sunday, I'll KILL YOU!!!"
So its not so much that God is angry. He maybe just used what works on neanderthal man. Maybe that, too, was only supposed to be for a time and season. Until man had developed more socially.
So basically, Moses and the Israelites and the Egyptians (and all other people at the time) were Neanderthals?
Well - that gels with what the WBTS says in their 'Creator' book, when they first say we shouldn't be worried that the creation account in Genesis doesn't go into detail, and that the reason for that was that Moses wrote in a way that "people of his day" could understand... Talking snakes? Yup - they could understand it. Angels taking human form and having sex with women? Yup - they could understand it. An account explaining their origin, the universe, microbial life (to explain sickness etc.) in a way that would be in accordance with science of today? Nope - they wouldn't have been able to understand that. They had to be explained it in a way that they - "people of their time" could understand. Which would imply they were less intelligent than us, wouldn't it?
Now why would that be, if mankind was created directly by God only a few centuries earlier? Why can a child today learn stuff that they couldn't back then because they were "only people of their day"? After all, Adam and Eve were taught directly by God, and it's reasonable to believe that God also gave them language, both oral and written (if we're following the Bible's history), and so mankind being equally as intelligent as we are today, should not have had any problems learning the 'details' about our universe - - they would have received the information directly from God, like a child (or an adult) today receive detailed info from a human teacher and/or books.
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To continue fading or stop the madness!!!
by OnTheWayOut ini have this concern about fading.
my fade is calculated and very successful as far as .
avoiding a judicial committee for apostacy.
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Awakened07
I shouldn't really say "we're pretty much the same"; I don't have a wife to worry about, so I can't put myself in your shoes. It was just that I found several things in your post that I felt we have in common. Then again, I guess a lot of people leaving the JWs have these things in common, like family members still on the inside.
I wish you luck no matter what you decide to do.
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This needs a thread by it's self. Faith and Respect
by 5go inor another one assuming it had one already.. .
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Awakened07
(I'll try this again - I wrote a reply but as I was finishing up and was erasing a word using Backspace, I got kicked back to the forum......)
I've seen this some time ago. He has several quite good videos. He can be arrogant, sarcastic and his British tongue-in-cheek wit with an 'evil' twist may not be for everyone (read: believers), but his videos are worth a watch. He's very eloquent in his delivery.
[technical note: personally I prefer clickable links in threads instead of embedded video and/or audio, because now this will play automatically every time I open this page to read the latest replies.]
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To continue fading or stop the madness!!!
by OnTheWayOut ini have this concern about fading.
my fade is calculated and very successful as far as .
avoiding a judicial committee for apostacy.
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Awakened07
I have this concern about fading. My fade is calculated and very successful as far as
avoiding a judicial committee for apostacy. I faded fast, but have avoided arguments
with any elders on doctrine. That wasn't easy. I dropped service quickly and wasn't
hounded by the BOE to get out there. I dropped meetings altogether at the right
time, and haven't been bothered by the BOE. It's been great seeing that they have
no answers.Here's my concerns- my mother is not totally aware of the extent of my fade. I have
told her things, but she puts her blinders on and acts like everything is fine. I told her
I didn't go to the DC. My mother just seems to forget that, and act like I am
a faithful JW and everything is fine. If I push any, I will blow the fade. I cannnot tell her
the things I know and maintain a fade.As you can see, I am
a mess like the rest of you. I fade for my mother. I don't have all the answers.I want to end the fade, but find it might be worse if I do
so.Are you me?
With the above changes to your post, we're pretty much the same.
I think you're a great help to the 'newbies' here. Even if we don't have all the answers (will we ever?), we know a thing or two that new faders or DFed or DAed ones don't.
I unfortunately don't have much advice to you though, as we're pretty much in the same place.