Posts by inbetween

11

JW-College-Police!

by Atlantis in

states he is a jehovah's witness near the end of the article.. .. http://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/education/2014/12/02/green-helped-shape-ui-public-safety-police-force/19798329/?utm_source=jw+news+and+archive&utm_campaign=47e569bee3-rss_email_campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5caf9e1836-47e569bee3-29185349&ct=t(rss_email_campaign ).

.. .. atlantis.

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inbetween

If a job requires to carry a gun, you won`t be dfd, but no privileges like ms or elder.

92

How could you justify that God killed all firstborn children in Egypt?

by Mr Fool in

was it necessary for god to kill all innocent firstborn children?

no other way out for the almighty god?.

inbetween

"This seems to be a recurring theme here. I just keep wondering why (mostly atheists) keep thinking that believers need to justify anything that God does. Counting myself as a believer in God, and in the scriptures, I never even ask myself these questions. And certainly God doesn’t need to justify His actions to us anymore than our earthly fathers need to justify themselves to their young children in paying their taxes or making them eat broccoli instead of cake. The only difference is that God gives us more free agency than our earthly parents. Which brings us to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh had the free agency and the obligation to free the Israelites. God could have forced him to, but He didn’t. And if he and his court refused to release the Israelites from their forced labor, then the Lord chose to turn up the proverbial heat."

cold steel, I respect your belief, and wish not to insult you in any way. However, your argument is what most JW also use, just do not question the actions of God, they are always just by default.

There is one serious problem with this, the bible encourages to learn from things past (Romans 15:4) to imitate God (Ephesians 5:1). In order to do this, one must eveluate his actions and discern how to apply the idea and attitude behind them.

Even if we are not anymore encouraged to take up a weapon and kill, we should certainly hate what God hates. In this example, God must have hated the innocent children of the Egyptians, otherwise why would he have killed them? So we also must hate children of opposers?

What is the moral lesson for us in this then?

And the argument, that God can fix everything, like their spirits are with im, or as JW would say, the resurrection, would mean, that he can act however he pleases, and again no moral lesson for us in there. Reminds me of the slogan of the crusaders: kill everyone, God will know his own anyway.

Quite dangerous actually.

"

Yes, quite so. But I believe that is in error. The Bible didn't come to us in perfect form and there are numerous errrors. Jesus prayed to the Father that He would not lead us into temptation, but later the scriptures state: "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." (James 1:13) So why did the Lord allegedly say, "...lead us not into temptation"?

God would not be JUST if He hardened someone else's heart and caused them to do evil, for it is not in His nature to tempt men to do such."

Another big problem with this, if the bible has in fact errors, ow can we trust anything written in there ? Who decides what is an error and what not?

12

Taking the Bible "too" literally

by Coded Logic in

i once heard it said that the only people who care about what the bible says are the village priest and the village atheist.

it seems to me most believers only care about "god's word" in very general terms and think it's all up to interpitation (religion a la carte ).. it the watchtower especially good at making agnostics and atheists because of their fundamentalism or is this true of many ex-religious groups?.

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inbetween

good question, I think any encouragement of serious indepth consideration of the bible leads to questioning of some sort.

For some, this ends up in not believing it at all, and even becoming atheist/agnostics

for others this leads to finding all kind of sophisticated excuses and explanations like JW or other apologists.

1

The Russian Spy set Free by the USA - just look at her now!

by fulltimestudent in

anna chapman was a russian spy in the usa.

she was 'caught' by the fbi in 2010, and soon afterward returned to russia in a 'spyswap.'.

tank girl!

inbetween

from Russia with love

11

"bad blood" German TV

by inbetween in

http://www.ardmediathek.de/tv/reportage-dokumentation/b%c3%b6ses-blut-kehrtwende-in-der-intensivm/das-erste/video?documentid=24921128&bcastid=799280.

for those who understand german (some parts are in english).

basically the german public tv station aired last monday a program about the danger of blood transfusions and a needed change of habits of hospitals and doctors, also about the resistance of giovernments and blood banks, touching even on financial interests.

inbetween

good illustration cofty, totally agree

however, regardless of pro or con witnesses, the question in light of recent studies is:

Did the blood doctrine of JW cause more damage or more good ?

There are surley may thta died because of refusing blood, there are others however, who minimized the danger of sideeffects, especially by refusing blood transfusions, when they were not really necessary, which even in the long run, prevented death, while others who took blood, eventually died from those sideeffects.

Or as a simple example with fictious numbers: Lets say 1000 witnesse died, while they could have lived taking blood.

on the other hand lets say 20000 witnesses refused blood (because of religious reasons) when it was not really necessary, by using alternatives. The probability to develop some certain life threating conditions after surgery was lets say only 10% compared to 20% of those, who took blood.

Which means 10% of those 20000 , or 2000, surivived by not taking blood.

So because of blood doctrine we have 1000 dying, and 2000 lives saved.

Don`t get me wrong, I think from a religious standpoint the blood doctrine is heavily flawed, but the question is, if it was overall really more harmful than beneficial ?

11

"bad blood" German TV

by inbetween in

http://www.ardmediathek.de/tv/reportage-dokumentation/b%c3%b6ses-blut-kehrtwende-in-der-intensivm/das-erste/video?documentid=24921128&bcastid=799280.

for those who understand german (some parts are in english).

basically the german public tv station aired last monday a program about the danger of blood transfusions and a needed change of habits of hospitals and doctors, also about the resistance of giovernments and blood banks, touching even on financial interests.

inbetween

http://www.ardmediathek.de/tv/Reportage-Dokumentation/B%C3%B6ses-Blut-Kehrtwende-in-der-Intensivm/Das-Erste/Video?documentId=24921128&bcastId=799280

for those who understand German (some parts are in English)

Basically the german public TV station aired last monday a program about the danger of blood transfusions and a needed change of habits of hospitals and doctors, also about the resistance of giovernments and blood banks, touching even on financial interests. One Ameriacn doctor interviewed here, I think was even in the blood video of the org.

Many recent studies indicate strongly the high risk of transfusions and the fact, that they are often given unnecessary.

It goes viral among German witnesses right now, and comments will be coming like "Jehovah knows the best for us", "Obeying the GB for their wise direction is always beneficial for us" etc....

18

Your favourite WTS publication?

by LoveUniHateExams in

i realise that starting this thread may make me as popular as a ginger stepchild but was there any wts publication that you liked, or at least comfortably tolerated?.

my memory may be deceiving me but i think the greatest man book was pretty good, leaving out the gruesome detail of the crucifixtion and wts doctrine.. also, can anyone tell me the list of books that ray franz authored/co-authored?.

thanks.

inbetween

commentary on James, quite good verse by verse explanation, hardly any stupid rules and only little weird doctrine stuff...

7

INTERSTELLAR

by RobertT18 in

sorry for the caps but... this movie was incredibly amazing!

this film will probably win a lot of oscars.

more than an hour's worth of footage has been shot in 70mm so it is worth seeing it in imax.

inbetween

seen it, great movie, touches on many aspects of modern physics, not all is consistent and proven, but still very interesting.

52

Changed: Head coverings for sisters, w15 2/15 QFR

by wifibandit in

does a female kingdom publisher need to wear a head covering if she conducts a bible study in the presence of a male publisher?.

in a questions from readers item published in the watchtower of july 15, 2002, it was stated that a sister should cover her head if she conducts a bible study in the presence of a male publisher, whether he is baptized or not.

further consideration of the matter suggests that a modification to this direction is appropriate.. if the male publisher who accompanies the sister while she conducts an established bible study is baptized, the sister would certainly want to wear a head covering.

inbetween

true spirituality is when you`re up to date with Jehovah direction regarding head covering....

actually how sad.....

9

Why do I keep reading here about a new "10 Hour Pioneer" arrangement?

by RubaDub in

there seems to be several discussions about a new 10 hour pioneer arrangement that was susposedly announced at the 2014 annual meeting.. i even called a couple who usually get invited each year and they said that there was nothing like that mentioned.

they just mentioned the "new" stuff had to do with the jw tv thing, the language app, the changes regarding gog of magog, the talents, the virgins, etc.

but absolutely nothing about 10 hour pioneers.. rub a dub.

inbetween

got the same info from a seemingly reliable source at the local branch.

10 hours basic pioneer, it sounds soo ridicolous, but the source seems credible, it mentioned other changes, which are true.

Time will tell, but it seems more and more realistic....