Correction: In my prior post, instead of saying "tried my transition" i meant to say "tried to transition". Instead of saying "of animals very similar to apes" I meant to say "or animals very similar to apes". I notice I had a number of other typos in my post, but hopefully people know what I meant.
Disillusioned JW
JoinedPosts by Disillusioned JW
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Disillusioned JW
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Disillusioned JW
I look forward to the continuing of the trend of an increasing percentages of the USA population identifying as nonreligious and atheist. I also look forward to the continuing of the trend of a decreasing percentage of the USA population identifying as Christian. I hope: that as the decades go by that human society (world wide) will become less violent on a per capita basis; that a nuclear war will never take place; that somehow the nations of the Earth will achieve world peace and security (probably through the UN) [not in a biblical anti-Christ type of way], at least in the sense of no more wars between nations; that the environment will greatly improve; that humans will visit the planet Mars; that life (such as microbial life) will be discovered on Mars and/or on some other world (whether a planet or a moon), etc.
Around twenty years ago (while I was a JW) I started the goal of living for at least 120 years, though realizing such a goal (without Jehovah bringing about a new world order) was highly unlikely to be met. [While I was a JW I also hoped I would never die at all.] But, I set that goal of living to age 120 (and having a long health span also) because I wanted a very long (and healthy) life and decided to aim high. I specifically picked 120 years because: (1) the Bible (in Genesis) said YHWH set a limit to human lifespan (or perhaps to how long humans will live on the Earth until the start of Noah's flood) of 120 years; (2) in our modern times (1995 onward) the oldest people living are about 115 -117 years old, thus suggesting it is feasible that someone could live to be about 120 years old (without waiting for a new order by YHWH).
To maximize the length of my life I try to eat healthy, avoid smoking, don't ever get drunk (and almost never drink alcohol), try to be safe (such as avoiding starting physical fights, moved to a neighborhood with a lower crime rate, drove as safely as a could [now I don't even drive], and avoid associating with people who are obviously dangerous, etc.). I went to a university library and looked up what medical science books say about the average lifespans of those with various diets ("diet" in the sense of "that which one eats"), so that I could choose the type of diet which is associated with living the longest. I then tried my transition to such a healthy diet (which includes transitioning to becoming a vegetarian [at least a very infrequent eater of animal meats - as opposed to plant-based 'meats']). I am still trying to become a vegetarian and I am making progress in that regard.
I want to become a much happier person than that which I have been throughout my life. Since early childhood I have been trying to achieve that but thus far I have failed. I have thought hard and studied hard to find out how to achieve such and I have tried hard to achieve such, but so far my mood (the vast majority of the time) is only very mildly happy/joyful.
I hope to become wealthy enough that I can retire early and I hope to retire early.
I believe (in the sense of "consider to be true", based upon the facts and plausible theories which I know) that biological evolution brought into existence humans, and that humans are the descendants of apes (of animals very similar to apes) - but not of any currently existing species of ape. I see evidence in the fossil record that humans are descendants of earlier hominids who were ape-like ('ape-men' and 'ape-women'), and that humans are very distant descendants of certain types of extinct mammals and of certain types of fish (fish that went extinct many tens of millions of years ago). I also believe that the first living organism of our universe came into existence by means of abiogenesis. I believe that abiogenesis very probably happened on Earth (about 4 thousand million years ago to about 4.4 thousand million years ago), but that maybe the first organism which lived on Earth came into existence from elsewhere in the universe.
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www.jwletter.com
by Mace.Bean inhonest letter accurately stating current jw beliefs and practices.
far different from the childish handprinted letters most jws are mailing out.
https://www.jwletter.com.
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Disillusioned JW
The "Letter From a Father to a Son" is outstanding!
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Dr. Bart Ehrman Live Webinar Did Jesus Call himself God?
by Diogenesister inthere's a live webinar with dr. ehrman on the subject of the divinity of jesus.
folks will be able to put questions directly to dr. bart, the cost is $14.00 with the webinar covering the following topics:.
• soon after jesus’ death, his disciples claimed that he was god .
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Disillusioned JW
Don't you mean Earl Doherty instead of Karl Doherty?
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Dr. Bart Ehrman Live Webinar Did Jesus Call himself God?
by Diogenesister inthere's a live webinar with dr. ehrman on the subject of the divinity of jesus.
folks will be able to put questions directly to dr. bart, the cost is $14.00 with the webinar covering the following topics:.
• soon after jesus’ death, his disciples claimed that he was god .
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Disillusioned JW
Regarding the Christ myth theory I was strongly influenced by a book called "The Jesus Puzzle: Was There No Historical Jesus?" by Earl Doherty. I checked out that book from the library and read much of it. I was also strongly influenced by the book called Bart Ehrman and the Quest of the Historical Jesus of Nazareth, by Frank R. Zindler and Robert M. Price and published by American Atheist Press. I borrowed the latter book by Interlibrary Loan (ILL) and read much of it.
Prior to reading the above mentioned books I was greatly influenced by a website promoting the Christ myth theory. I was also influenced by watching the "Zeitgeist: The Movie - Part 1 - Religion [The Greatest Story Ever Told]" and greatly influenced by watching the video called the "The God Who Wasn't There" (regarding the latter see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Who_Wasn%27t_There ). I think it was the latter three sources which first caused me to believe in (or at least began to consider highly plausible) the idea that Christ was a myth.
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Dr. Bart Ehrman Live Webinar Did Jesus Call himself God?
by Diogenesister inthere's a live webinar with dr. ehrman on the subject of the divinity of jesus.
folks will be able to put questions directly to dr. bart, the cost is $14.00 with the webinar covering the following topics:.
• soon after jesus’ death, his disciples claimed that he was god .
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Disillusioned JW
Oh. Thanks slimboyfat. I should have looked up those verses in a Greek interlinear NT before saying they said chrestos.
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Dr. Bart Ehrman Live Webinar Did Jesus Call himself God?
by Diogenesister inthere's a live webinar with dr. ehrman on the subject of the divinity of jesus.
folks will be able to put questions directly to dr. bart, the cost is $14.00 with the webinar covering the following topics:.
• soon after jesus’ death, his disciples claimed that he was god .
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Disillusioned JW
Let me clarify, I am not giving credence to the Cista Mystica website, except for the portion that is the Mirror of John Bartram's disappeared site on Chrestianity.
I am aware that the Mirror of John Bartram's disappeared site on Chrestianity says what you quoted it to say. I encourage you to read more of that mirrored site, since it explains the reasons for the shocking claims he made in the words which you quoted.
The Roman writer named Suetonius (in a document which many Christians say is about Christ actually says Chrestus instead of Christus. The Roman historian Tacitus (in a document which many Christians say is about Christ and Christians) which says Christianos has been forensically shown be a change of an original wording oof Chrestianos. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Christ_Myth and https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jesus_myth_theory .
In one of the gospels Jesus is credited as saying "Why do you say I am good. No one is good but the father." In that passage the word translated as "good" is "chrestus".
Paul's letter to the Philippians at 1:21 in the way it is translated in most English translations is perplexing: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Regarding that verse, the famous Jewish scholar and historian named Hugh J. Schonfield, in his translation of the NT called The Original New Testament says the following on the back dust jacket. "Here in the Greek word Christos (Christ) has carelessly been set down by a scribe in place of chrestos (useful), which is called for by the context." In the footnote for the verse Schonfield says the following. "By a scribal error Christos was substituted for chrestos. The mistake was easy since Chrestos, meaning useful, was a well-known proper name. The Roman historian Suetonius once referred to Christus as Chrestus."
Regarding The Shepherd of Hermas it was indeed included in some ancient New Testament Bibles. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd_of_Hermas which says the following. "The Shepherd was very popular amongst Christians in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries.[2] It is found in the Codex Sinaiticus,[3][4] and it is listed between the Acts of the Apostles and the Acts of Paul in the stichometrical list of the Codex Claromontanus." The Shepherd of Hermas is not included in modern Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant Bibles.
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Dr. Bart Ehrman Live Webinar Did Jesus Call himself God?
by Diogenesister inthere's a live webinar with dr. ehrman on the subject of the divinity of jesus.
folks will be able to put questions directly to dr. bart, the cost is $14.00 with the webinar covering the following topics:.
• soon after jesus’ death, his disciples claimed that he was god .
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Disillusioned JW
A historical Jesus of the NT probably never existed (I now think that the idea of Jesus most likely started out a cosmic Christ myth), but if he did he was probably as Earnest describes Ehrman's current view of a historical Jesus.
That which is Christianity possibly started out as Chrestianity; see http://cista.net/Origins-of-Chrestianity/sites.google.com/site/originsofchristianity/introduction.html and the other pages of that site. According to the site, the oldest known copies of the NT originally said (as transliterated into the English alphabet) "IS Chrest" and had a horizontal bar over "IS" (which allowed readers to interpret IS as Isis or Iesous [Jesus] according to their preference). See http://cista.net/Origins-of-Chrestianity/sites.google.com/site/originsofchristianity/syncretism/a-chronology-of-chrest-chrestian-christ.html and http://cista.net/Origins-of-Chrestianity/sites.google.com/site/originsofchristianity/christianity/how-christianity-subverted-archaeology-and-historiography.html . The latter page has photographs of Codex Sinaiticus showing that the '... Greek "H" (in English "E") has been scratched to become "I" - the "eta" ofChrest became "iota" to read Christ.'
This information is a huge revelation (in a nonsupernatural sense) and interestingly an atheist author in a publication in the late 1800s said that the Christians were originally called Chrestians!
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I understand your separating yourselves from the Org...BUT~
by Revealed in...why have you left the god and his son?.
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Disillusioned JW
I agree with the short list stated by truth_b_known since it is what I have also found as a result of extensive research, though I have also found scholars stating the opposite regarding some of those claims. For example, see the book called Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed at All by David Fitzgerald, an an atheist activist and a historical researcher.
Revealed, our species of humans (Homo sapiens) has existed for well more than 100,000 years according to modern-day anthropologists (see https://www.newscientist.com/article/2133807-our-species-may-be-150000-years-older-than-we-thought/ ) and multiple human languages likely existed before the year 4026 B.C.E.
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Which Proverb fits best when encountering Ideologues.
by peacefulpete inproverbs 26:4. do not answer a fool according to his folly,.
proverbs 26:5. answer a fool as his folly deserves,.
that he not be wise in his own eyes.
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Disillusioned JW
Regarding contradiction and paradox https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780197526187.001.0001/oso-9780197526187 says something very interesting, something which even might have a bearing regarding interpretation of quantum physics (and even if time travel to the past is possible) and not just regarding interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures. It says the following (I have added boldface for emphasis.)
"What Can't be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian ThoughtYasuo Deguchi, Jay L. Garfield, Graham Priest, and Robert H. Sharf
Abstract
Paradox drives a good deal of philosophy in every tradition. In the Indian and Western traditions, there is a tendency among many (but not all) philosophers to run from contradiction and paradox. If and when a contradiction appears in a theory, it is regarded as a sure sign that something has gone amiss. This aversion to paradox commits them, knowingly or not, to the view that reality must be consistent. In East Asia, however, philosophers have reacted to paradox differently. Many East Asian philosophers—both in the Daoist and the Buddhist traditions—have openly embraced paradox. They have taken compelling arguments for contradictory positions to suggest that the world is—at least in some respects, and often in very deep respects—inconsistent, and that our best theories of the world will therefore be inconsistent. This book is an initial survey of the writings of some influential East Asian thinkers who were committed to paradox, and for good reason. Their acceptance of contradiction allowed them to develop important insights that evaded those who consider paradox out of bounds."