fulltimestudent

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Posts by fulltimestudent

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  32

  Jehovahs Witnesses and Babylon The Great.Why the Emphasis on the R.C.Church and not on Islam.

  by smiddy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was thinking back to when the book babylon the great has fallen gods kingdom rules.was published many years ago when it was believed religion was declining in the world.. the book took exception to the r.c.church as the worst of christendom substituting themselves for the kingdom of god on earth , the counterfeit kingdom i think they called them.vicar of christ on earth.. and while its true to some degree in western lands today that religion is declining as regards christendom it is not happening in non christian religions around the world.. which brings me to the unprcedented rise and spread of islam in the world today .. with the war in iraq ,syria ,etc,and the people fleeing these war torn countries to europe and elsewhere around the globe with refugees and asylum seekers the spread of islam in the short space of time now beats any missionary projects conducted by christendom.. judaism ,christendom and islam all have their roots in the bible.the jews first then christians then muslims.. the bible only relates to the first two jews and christians and is completely silent about muslims.even in prophecy.. the book mentioned earlier btggkr nowhere mentions islam or muslims.as if they didnt even exist ,yet today they equal in numbers to all of christendoms religions.. islam today is by far a greater threat to christianity and especially to jehovahs witnesses than anything the roman catholic church ever posed before.. obviously the holy bible and the holy spirit or jehovahs chosen people the jehovahs witnesses never did forsee the rise and influence of the religion of islam in todays world.. the bible is completely silent about islam or the rise of muslims on the world stage.. could it be that they could no more predict the future than i could ?.

  the wtb&ts the publishing house of jehovahs witnesses have for the past 100 years have continually attacked the roman catholic religion and portrayed them in an unfavourable light.time after time in mags and books,.

  how many times have the wtb&ts attacked and challenged the religion of islam and muslims and condemned them as a principle member of babylon the great the empire of false religion.. to this day jehovahs witnesses cannot freely go door to door preaching their message in muslim dominated countries where proselytism is forbidden.

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  fulltimestudent

  smiddy: Which brings me to the unprcedented rise and spread of Islam in the world today .

  Well, it may look 'unprecedented,' but the initial rise of Islam was actually far more impressive

  In 624 CE the Mediterranean world looked like this:

  
  

  You can see the tiny patch of green in what is now Saudi Arabia and see the start of Islamic influence. By far the most important Empire is the Christian Eastern Roman (Byzantine). In fact Christianity's most important centres were concentrated in western Asia.The second most important empire was Sasanian Iran, nearly as powerful, and in fact (without the rise of Islam) likely to have been (at that stage) at least the equal of the Eastern Roman Empire. Lots of Christians there too, but it was the source of Zoroastrianism which had already influenced Judaism and possibly the development of Christianity.it could be argued that it also influenced Indian thought,

  (the map is from the web-site, Historical Atlas of the Mediterrean: http://explorethemed.com/RiseIslam.asp

  --------------------------------------------------------------

  Now take a look at a similar map, that shows the unprecedented spread of Islam in less that 150 years (750 CE):

  
  

  See the web-site, Oxford Islamic Studies online:

  http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t253/e17

  And just a year later (751 CE) a battle between China's Tang dynasty and the Islamic Arab Abbasid Caliphate at the Talas River, (on the border of contemporary Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan) saw the Chinese forces defeated and the Abbasid's gain control of the wealth of the western Silk road Trading Network.

  But the history of Islam is not one of unity - within the Islamic areas, ambitious men often overthrew the existin government and created new empires. At the same time Arab traders criss-crossed Asia, and helped the spread of Islam. And Islamic scholars preserved much of the wisdom of ancient Greece and added their own (sometimes brilliant) scholarship.

  This last map development shows the further development of Islam. But there is much more to the story of why we have the current crisis on our hands.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0VdJAgLRoE

  But I would argue that Islam peaked long ago.

  
  
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  22

  How smart were the ancients?

  by Coded Logic in

  1. social
  2. current

  growing up as a jw, i always thought the ancients were scientific morons who knew next to nothing.

  ashamedly, i used to run around citing isaiah 40:22 as proof of the bible's 'divine authorship' because it talked about "the circle of the earth".

  as though this were somehow an unknowable before spaceflight.

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  fulltimestudent

  Xanthippe: Yeah google Atomists. The ancient Greeks were incredible.

  Agreed. Reading of the conclusions of Leucippus or Democritus, both of whom lived in the city of Abdera, it's difficult not to be impressed by their intuitive reasoning and their conclusions.

  Of course, its difficult to be absolutely sure as much of their writings have been lost, but sufficient documentation remains for us to follow their reasoning. Basically, Leucippas proposed that the world was ultimately made up of things which did not have qualities (like wood as an example). He concluded that if you continued to divide any substance, you would eventually reach things which were not further divisible. He called these things atoma i,e, indivisible. He was wrong on that point as we now understand, but to conceptualise about invisible atoms was a huge step in human knowledge, and even though, the Israelites/Jews lived in an area that was on a trade route between Greek cities and Egypt, nothing that is extant tells us that the Israelites/Jews ever learnt a thing from those early Greek thinkers.

  A publication by Oxford World's Classics, called The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists (trans: Robin Wakefield) contains an excellent chapter on the process of deductive thinking that led to the above conclusions.

  Another publication in the same series, by the ancient thinker Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, (trans. Ronald Melville) may similarly impress you.Lucretius composed his thoughts in verse, which makes it all the more impressive (to me, anyway) Lucretius cites the works of many other early thinkers, so its particularly valuable.
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  4

  How to lock down the internet - As in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how do you allow a localised and controlled use of an intranet, allowing people to access a controlled flow of information, but preventing them from accessing information from the external internet (world wide web)?.

  not long ago, computer engineers at enno rey netzwerke in the german city of heidelberg were able to examine an ullim (nk brand name) tablet.

  what they discovered is that all the (western) efforts to leak anti-regime information into nk, to take advantage of a perceived increase in computing in nk, are likely useless as the regime's scientists and engineers have been able to modify the hardware and software to virtually close off information not approved by the regime.

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  fulltimestudent

  How do you allow a localised and controlled use of an intranet, allowing people to access a controlled flow of information, but preventing them from accessing information from the external internet (World wide web)?

  Not long ago, computer engineers at Enno Rey Netzwerke in the German city of Heidelberg were able to examine an Ullim (NK brand name) tablet. What they discovered is that all the (western) efforts to leak anti-regime information into NK, to take advantage of a perceived increase in computing in NK, are likely useless as the regime's scientists and engineers have been able to modify the hardware and software to virtually close off information not approved by the regime.

  Starting from a standard Hoozo Z100 tablet made by a Shenzhen company, NK engineers removed the communications hardware, so that to access the NK intranet, users need a plug-in dongle. This is the first level of control.

  The next level is software called Red Flag which takes a screenshot every time a user opens an app, it also records browsing history, the internal identification number of the tablet and ensures the core system has not been tampered with.

  Another app called Trace Viewer works with the first app and permits the recorded history of use for the tablet to be examined.

  The next level, limits apps installation to officially approved apps.

  The next stage, part of the NK's Red Star OS (a version of LInux) "watermarks" files, so that if a file is shared, an inspector is able to identify how it spread.

  Another level of control restricts Media compatibility. If a user tries to open a file, the tablet checks to see if it is an approved version. If it's not, the machine will not open the file. So no-one can take a foreign file and open it on their Ullim tablet.

  All these measure were apparently in place by 2013, so any effort by outsiders to supply anti regime information would not be accessible.

  Do all these measures work. The German engineers think so. They conclude:

  Quote: "These controls effectively keep the sharing of most information in check and leave people to resort to old-fashioned word-of-mouth."
  

  Full story available at: http://www.38north.org/2017/03/mwilliams030317/

  NB. 38 North is a NK watcher web-site.
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  16

  Warning: A. Vogel (JW-run organization) treatments popping up in the US

  by Anony Mous in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  i've noticed a few of my local grocery stores are stocking a. vogel homeopathy products.

  a. vogel is a company ran primarily by jehovah's witnesses, the "brains" behind the operation, alfred vogel, has since died but he claimed to be one of the anointed.

  the bolle family (co-founders of the company) is a well-known, (now very wealthy) family in the netherlands and there have been significant "contributions" in the past from the company to the watchtower organization.. alfred vogel was a well-known conman, he claimed blood transfusions would change someone's personality, he claimed to have studied native american herbal healing methods... from a native american tourist photo-op actor.

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  fulltimestudent

  Ha! A blast from the past!

  I'v e forgotten the year, but we had an international convention in Sydney and Vogel was there. I know because that year i was given an assignment to look after transportation for international visitors, and late one night (we still had night sessions) and as I was about to go home, this guy with a German accent turns up and wanted transport to his hotel. The organised buses had already left, so I had to take him to his hotel myself, before driving a long way in the opposite direction. Then the following sunday I had to give a PT at Engadine Cong. in the south of Sydney, and Bro Vogel turns up again. Why? Well because he thought Engadine in Sydney may be like the Engadine Valley in Switzerland. I doubt he saw a resemblance.

  So that was my brush with fame!

  Vogel, I believe, had been disfellowshipped at one stage, perhaps over a dispute about 'soul.' But at the time I met him, he was in good standing, and had produced a booklet for the Society on the use of Naturopathy, in the care of tropical diseases, for the WTS missionary field.

  At somewhere around that time I also met a brother and his wife from Tahiti, Vogel had stayed with them for some 6 weeks. They were impressed, as he could talk for hours about the plants on the Island.

  And, some of the brothers here in Australia were involved with him in the baking and sale of Vogel's bread in Australia. Some of the Bioforce (tradename) "medicines" can be found in certain pharmacies and healthfood shops here in Sydney at least.

  I remember, near every German brother I ever met, knew about Vogel and possibly had his book, 'The Nature Doctor,' I think that Vogel could more accurately be described as a naturopath, rather than a homeopath. And, to the extent (as is being evidenced in medical science) that a plant based diet is good for us, then Vogel's thoughts may be helpful.

  I think that in Europe generally, Homeopathy is still held in quite high regard. There used to be a number of hospitals in England (and one here in Sydney too) that included the word Homeopathic in their names.

  We can see an historical development in the history of medicine and homeopathy. At the time Hahnemann developed his ideas, ordinary medical help was useless. One could argue that then, homeopathy was something of an advancement. The idea of testing the results of a certain therapeutic substance was a good one, but research never stands still, and many of the complaints about alternative medicine are likely well founded
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  40

  Did Jesus pre exist? Yes or no?

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  when i first became a witness, i always found the teaching about jesus being the arch angel michael hard to swallow.

  i did however believe that jesus pre existed as a master worker alongside god (the first of his creation).. but now everything is brought into question having watched anthony buzzard explain why jesus could not have pre existed as it is impossible to pre exist yourself.

  also the fact that it all sounds contradictory to suggest, he was already alive millions of years before he was transferred to mary's womb to be born as a human - the son of man?.

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  fulltimestudent

  A poster claimed:

  "Christianity could never have spread so quickly in the first century given the impact he had made during his short life here on earth."

  How quickly did 'Christianity' spread in the first century? And how many followers did it gain?

  There is no way that we can gain any real idea of the numbers of followers, in either the first, the second or the third centuries.

  We can though, I believe, establish how early christianity spread? At first, 'christianity' was not much more than a Jewish sect and it seems to have had a specific appeal to many Jews who wondered why the Romans could defeat them and hold them in subjection, if their god was the true, all-powerful deity they imagined him to be. So irrespective of why they believed, the fact is that the greatest increase was along the Jewish communities along the network of the so-called 'Silk Road' (condemned so enthusiastically in Revelation 18:11 >. These Jewish communities also had groups of gentiles who associated with the Jewish communities.
  
  
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  3

  The Legend of the Death of Arius – Imagination and Propaganda in the Development of Early Christianity.

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the legend of the death of arius – imagination and propaganda in the development of early christianity.. .

  as a jw, i, of course, soon learnt the standard jw belief that there was no such thing as a triune god.

  whereas most other christians believe in a triune god.

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  fulltimestudent

  Muehlberger, develops her analysis of the legend in three sections. First she describes the earliest surviving appearance of the story of Arius’ death and traces the changes that were added to it in late antiquity. The version that ultimately became the dominant one had Arius dying near the famous porphyry column that stood at the centre of the Forum of Constantine, a space constructed as part of the dedication of Constantinople in 337 CE .

  The majority of the additions made to the story were first seen in Christian histories written in or centred on Constantinople during the first half of the fifth century.

  The second section of the article explains the context in which these additions were generated: the late ancient discourse regarding Christian orthodoxy and the co-option, even merger, of Christian and imperial ritual in that city.

  And the third Muehlberger explains why the story was developed. In her conclusion she offers some thoughts on imagined spaces and their representation in antiquity.

  Its interesting that the development of the doctrine supported by Athanasius, became so dependent on imagined stories that reflected other bible stories.
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  3

  The Legend of the Death of Arius – Imagination and Propaganda in the Development of Early Christianity.

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the legend of the death of arius – imagination and propaganda in the development of early christianity.. .

  as a jw, i, of course, soon learnt the standard jw belief that there was no such thing as a triune god.

  whereas most other christians believe in a triune god.

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  fulltimestudent

  The Legend of the Death of Arius – Imagination and Propaganda in the Development of Early Christianity.

  
  

  As a JW, I, of course, soon learnt the standard JW belief that there was no such thing as a triune god. Whereas most other christians believe in a triune god.

  So in one of my classes, a couple of years ago, when we examined the Arian/Athanasian controversy, I could joke with the lecturer, that I was almost certainly the only ‘follower’ of Arius in his class.

  As part of the discussion we had a look at the christian circulated story, detailing the death of Arius. Here’s the story:

  The death occurred (it is related) when Arius was ex-communicated, then went to Constantinople and appealed to the Emperor Constantine to cancel his ex-communication. Constantine issued an instruction that the church should re-admit Arius to the church. Arius and his followers then decidedto press the local bishop, Alexander, for admission to the church and renewed communion with local Christians. But Alexander was a follower of Athanasius, and in the story locked himself in the church and prayed to God to use his power and stop Arius from polluting the church with his presence. We can now read in a letter written by Athanasius (his Letter to Serapion) the drama that followed :

  “Praying about these things, the bishop withdrew, very concerned; but a wondrous and unexpected thing took place. As those with Eusebius threatened, the bishop prayed, and Arius, overconfident in those who were with Eusebius, foolishly went in to the ‘throne’ (toilet) because of the necessity of his gut. Immediately, according to what is written, ‘falling face first, he burst in the middle’. Upon falling, he immediately expired, deprived of both communion and his life at the same time.”

  Note. How closely this resembles the death of an earlier perceived enemy of christianity, Judas, who also it is said, ‘split open’ and died.

  So is there any truth in this story? Likely, no truthiness at all. Ellen Muehlberger, a Professor at the University of Michigan, has made a study of this story, and drew that conclusion in her paper, “The Legend of Arius’ Death: Imagination, Space and Filth in Late Ancient Historiography.”

  If anyone wishes to examine her findings in more detail, you may be able to access her paper at this web reference: https://academic.oup.com/past/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/pastj/gtu042

  
  
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  94

  Karl Marx Genius Of The Modern World

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  he was all for getting rid of religions and their delusions for the betterment of mankind.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mydmc1wio8.

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  fulltimestudent

  MeanMrMustard:

  ay be noted in this discussion that government ownership was common in the past.

  Why is that important to note?

  Right across Asia there is evidence that governments initiated production facilities. For the reason already stated, that there was insufficient private capital available for the project. Not surprising when you consider that most of the population (say 80% to 90%) was engaged in agriculture. Only the state had the resources to inject capital into some enterprise.

  Not having the needed capital to undertake a venture implies something about undertaking that venture. When the government bureaucrats make that decision, how do they really know that more agriculture wouldn’t be the best thing right now? Why not steal money from people and create carrot juicers instead?

  Why? Simply to make the point that historically, most of the monuments built in the past were built by governments

  That would monuments like the vanity tombs we call the Pyramids in Egypt. Similar monuments in South America, Defensive projects like China's Great Wall, And Sasanian Irans, Great wall of Gorgan, or Religious buildings such as the Jerusalem Temple, Egyptian Temples or Roman Temples (converted for christian use) Personally, aside from what they tell us of the past, I do not place a high value on any of these human projects, but they would not have been built without the use of capital accumulated by the state. (Cant say whether they were built efficiently etc.) Maybe we can relegate modern 'marvels' built by private capital like a certain Tower who's descriptive name commences with T (grin) or any other skyscraper built as investments to a similar category.

  So now our views of human life start to converge, as you state:

  What is so important about venture XYZ that you have to steal capital from everyone (taxes), pool it, and start the venture?
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  94

  Karl Marx Genius Of The Modern World

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  he was all for getting rid of religions and their delusions for the betterment of mankind.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mydmc1wio8.

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  fulltimestudent

  MeanMrMustard: The most important factor is not on your list: The members of the town/corporation can make decisions on what to produce because they have prices – prices that come from everywhere else around them. They have prices for their inputs and a good idea of what they can get for their outputs at home and abroad. They are swimming in a sea of market information.

  OK, add market intelligence, to the list of four in my post that you quoted. Market intelligence is important in an open market situation, and certainly competition is important in any economy, which is likely one of the reasons the CPC switched from Mao's concept of socialism to Deng's.

  Of course, when a monopoly situation exists, either in a system of private enterprise or a so-called socialist system, price doesn't have the same importance. It would only be important in establishing how many you be able to sell (i.e. the purchasing power of the consumer is a factor to be considered)

  MMM-This town is just like a large company, giving housing away for their investors as a perk.

  Cool, which is a point I made. In a large corporation the the identity of the 'shareholders' or owners is not nearly as important as the efficiency of the corporation. In Australia, when the Airline Qantas was government owned, it was a good airline and (as I remember it) usually made a profit for the government (or all Australian shareholders).

  The Aust. government got coldfeet over Qantas when it become clear that new aircraft were going to be required (or, at least that was the story), but some think that there was an ideological motive behind the privatisation.
  

  OTOH as Cofty tells his experience in the UK, the UK telecom was a candidate for the feather-bedding award of the century. An example of bad management. And in Australia, the current telecom organisation called Telstra* had similar experiences. The shareholding was sold off in a number of tranches (I think govt. shareholding is down to 17%) But I'm not sure that any shareholder has had real value for their investment.

  In Australia we have a new government owned telecommunications company. NBN Holdings was established to build a nation wide fibre-optics network.' Good or bad? Time will tell.

  Another example is Singapore's government owned Temasek Holdings, best described as a sovereign wealth fund owned by the S. government's, Department of Finance, to invest in a wide range of companies. Since 2011, the government has paid a dividend to some 80% of citizens.

  Can't see much difference between a privately run or a government run investment fund. Of course, if you're opinions are motivated by an ideological bias toward private enterprise or a government enterprise you will find a difference.

  *Telstra's origins date back to 1901, and Australian Federation, when the Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) was established by the Commonwealth Government to manage all domestic telephone, telegraph and postal services 1991-1995
  
  
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  10

  More than 75% of the human genome may be 'junk' DNA.

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  making little or no difference to our daily lives, comes the claim that most of our human genome is not functional.. dan graur an (evolutionary) biologist at the university of houston and other academics made the claim in a paper published in an online journal, genome biology and evolution.. the group's calculations suggest that not more than 25% of the human genome is functional - the rest is seen as 'junk' dna,.

  see science dailys coverage of the report at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170714140234.htm .

  coverage of similar research at the uk's oxford university (reported in the guardian aust.

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  fulltimestudent

  Making little or no difference to our daily lives, comes the claim that most of our human genome is not functional.

  Dan Graur an (evolutionary) biologist at the University of Houston and other academics made the claim in a paper published in an online journal, Genome Biology and Evolution.

  The group's calculations suggest that not more than 25% of the human genome is functional - the rest is seen as 'junk' DNA,

  See Science Dailys coverage of the report at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170714140234.htm

  Coverage of similar research at the UK's Oxford University (reported in The Guardian Aust. web edition)

  https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jul/24/10-percent-human-dna-functional-genome-biological-baggage

  added comments by Gerton Lunter, a member of that research team:

  Who (it is reported), "said that based on the comparisons, 8.2% of human DNA was "functional", meaning that it played an important enough role to be conserved by evolution. ...

  Researchers have known for some time that only 1% of human DNA is held in genes that are used to make crucial proteins to keep cells – and bodies – alive and healthy. The latest study, reported in the journal Plos Genetics, suggests that a further 7% of human DNA is equally vital, regulating where, when, and how genes are expressed.
  

  But if much of our DNA is so worthless, why do we still carry it around? ... " Lunter said. "We haven't been designed. We've evolved and that's a messy process. This other DNA really is just filler. It's not garbage. It might come in useful one day. But it's not a burden."

  Some of our DNA is left over from ancient viruses that inserted their genetic material into our DNA – or our ancestors DNA – and got mutated to pieces over millennia of evolution. Some still have the ability to jump around in our genomes, adding to the filler as they do so, but are so crippled they cannot break out."

  NB: The Guardian report explains what these scientists mean by "functional."