A clear still shot of the tablet from the UK Telegraph (Ifyou'd like one):
fulltimestudent
JoinedPosts by fulltimestudent
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Is this Ancient Babylonian Trig System more accurate than the early Greek system?
by fulltimestudent inscientists at the university of nsw have been investigating an ancient clay tablet, known as plimpton 322, from the time of hammurabi (circa 1800 bce), whose laws may have been the model for the laws attributed to moses.. their conclusions are interesting.
if you want to quickly see what its about, check outs this video by the unsw,.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9-zpgp1aje.
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Is this Ancient Babylonian Trig System more accurate than the early Greek system?
by fulltimestudent inscientists at the university of nsw have been investigating an ancient clay tablet, known as plimpton 322, from the time of hammurabi (circa 1800 bce), whose laws may have been the model for the laws attributed to moses.. their conclusions are interesting.
if you want to quickly see what its about, check outs this video by the unsw,.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9-zpgp1aje.
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fulltimestudent
Scientists at the University of NSW have been investigating an ancient clay tablet, known as Plimpton 322, from the time of Hammurabi (circa 1800 BCE), whose Laws may have been the model for the Laws attributed to Moses.
Their conclusions are interesting. If you want to quickly see what its about, check outs this video by the UNSW,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9-ZPGp1AJE
If you'd like to know more, then watch this longer version:
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The Evolutionary History of the Apple
by fulltimestudent inthis is a fascinating study of how our modern apples evolved.
the study involved examining the genomes of the array of apple varieties, including related types of fruit.. from it we can learn that the fruit types we know today, may not have existed in ancient times.
from its origins in what we now call kazakhstan, it seems the original fruit changed as trees grew in many places along the great ancient network of trade routes we call the silk road, and as different varieties evolved in various ways.. a readable version of the story can be found in popular archaeology:.
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fulltimestudent
smiddy : I`m confused !! which Apple did Eve eat ?
Grin! - When I started this thread, I wanted to use the popular conception of Eve's apple as a starting point, but found it too difficult - so I didnt use it. But that's the point isn't it, as ttdtt points out, the fruit we describe as 'apples' was likely not in existence at the mythical creation point of the bible. And, as most of us know, the Genesis account did not call the forbidden tree from which Eve is described as eating, an "apple.
Some think the confusion arose, because of the similarity, (in Latin translations), between 'mali' (Latin for bad or evil) in the Genesis 2:17 account, and the word 'mala' (Latin for apple) in documents like Proverbs 25:11.
But whatever the reason, its allowed a lot of fun for those who want to take the piss out of Christianity.
This was a few years ago, so I'm now having trouble finding the original version so this version will do - the lyrics translation is terrible, but you will get the idea. It starts off a girl thinks that her boyfriend called her ugly, so she has some surgical beautification - which is a failure - which all gives a chance to sing the theme song, "Little Apple"
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ESPN reassigns commentator Robert Lee over 'name coincidence'
by freemindfade inwish this was fake news, but its not.
for everyone thinking whats the big deal with marxists anarchists forcibly pulling down old offensive statues, this is the slippery slope we are walking onto... fools... please read 1984 people.. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41022954.
espn has removed a sports commentator from covering an american football game in charlottesville because he has the same name as civil war general robert e lee.. stash: /intesoft-inc.appspot.com/post/c782436dc86c4489b3948663ffc029db.html
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fulltimestudent
Siiigh!!!!
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Escaping from the YHWH/JESUS prison
by fulltimestudent ina poster recently inferred that i was never a jw, but was only on this site to spread a 'political' dogma.
not true!.
anyway, cleaning up some old files this morning, i found an old 'story of life' post that i made (i think) on another xjw site.
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fulltimestudent
A poster recently inferred that I was never a JW, but was only on this site to spread a 'political' dogma. Not true!
Anyway, cleaning up some old files this morning, I found an old 'story of life' post that I made (I think) on another XJW site. So here's a 'sortof' explanation ow how I left the YHWH/JESUS prison farm:
Somewhere, the other day, I heard Kenny Rogers singing, 'Lucille' and was instantly transported back to a time when my long imprisonment in the prison of Yahweh and Jesus was coming to an end.
In the last two years of my Christian enslavement, I somehow became conscious of the song, and hung on to it, playing it often (secretly) as it somehow expressed my predicament.
Why does that song have that power? Hard to explain, but I think that the song conveyed a certain sympathy for the two key characters in it. Lucille the burdened housewife caught in a cycle of poverty and grinding work, thinking that there must be a better life somewhere else, and her husband, a hardworking, unthinking character who accepted that grinding work was his destiny, perhaps just doing the best he knew how, without any real appreciation of wife’s feelings.
With 1975 far behind us, the promised land of the Paradise earth seemed as far away as ever. I had started to think my spirit was imprisoned, like Lucille’s. I’d turned to music, mostly classical piano pieces, wanting something beautiful that was missing in me. I took an Art class, learning how to make etchings. I stood down as an elder. All the time, thinking that my spirit was trapped. And when, one day, I heard that song on my car radio, there was an instant appeal. It was not a gender issue, it was simply a human issue,
Lucille's line, [quote] "I finally quit living on dreams" [/quote] presented my situation lucidly. I'd been living on the painted Christian dream of life in a Paradise. It had been promised as only a few years away. The few years had stretched into decades. I'd seen faithful brothers and sisters, older than I was, come to the end of their lives, not seeing the expectation of their faith, and their dream had failed, as they entered the common grave of all mankind. My youth had vanished in the work in the field, I was approaching old age. Reality woke me. The dream was only a dream
Would I be like Lucille's husband, slaving away in the field, while the promises faded into darkness ? Or, was there something else? Again the words placed in Lucille's mind:
"I'm after whatever the other life brings!" had meaning to me. I'd offered my life as a sacrifice to Yahweh and Jesus. But the promised reward was crumbling to dust in front of me.
What of all the legitimate things I had sacrificed? If death ends all, then I had sacrificed them for nothing but dust.
Worse, like Lucille, I had to walk away from things I loved. More accurately, they would be ripped away from me, by those who would claim that they were protecting my family from my faithless apostacy. And I knew that my former wife would never turn away from her concepts, she had built her life's framework around the dream.
And, that was how it turned out. I lost many things that I held dear.
But I regained my freedom, my right to be me, for better or worse. I am me.
Yahweh and Jesus became the illusion. I was Free, free to dream other dreams
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The Evolutionary History of the Apple
by fulltimestudent inthis is a fascinating study of how our modern apples evolved.
the study involved examining the genomes of the array of apple varieties, including related types of fruit.. from it we can learn that the fruit types we know today, may not have existed in ancient times.
from its origins in what we now call kazakhstan, it seems the original fruit changed as trees grew in many places along the great ancient network of trade routes we call the silk road, and as different varieties evolved in various ways.. a readable version of the story can be found in popular archaeology:.
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fulltimestudent
This is a fascinating study of how our modern apples evolved. The study involved examining the genomes of the array of apple varieties, including related types of fruit.
From it we can learn that the fruit types we know today, may not have existed in ancient times
From its origins in what we now call Kazakhstan, it seems the original fruit changed as trees grew in many places along the great ancient network of trade routes we call the Silk Road, and as different varieties evolved in various ways.
A readable version of the story can be found in Popular Archaeology:
But an even more fascinating version (for the technically-minded) may be found in a British academic journal, Nature Communications.
Here's an extract from the Abstract:
"A comprehensive model of apple speciation and domestication along the Silk Road is proposed based on evidence from diverse genomic analyses. Cultivated apples likely originate from Malus sieversii in Kazakhstan, followed by intensive introgressions from M. sylvestris. M. sieversii in Xinjiang of China turns out to be an “ancient” isolated ecotype not directly contributing to apple domestication. We have identified selective sweeps underlying quantitative trait loci/genes of important fruit quality traits including fruit texture and flavor, and provide evidences supporting a model of apple fruit size evolution comprising two major events with one occurring prior to domestication and the other during domestication. This study outlines the genetic basis of apple domestication and evolution, and provides valuable information for facilitating marker-assisted breeding and apple improvement."
The primary authors are: Naibin Duan, Yang Bai and Xuesen Chen.
The lead institution for the research appears to be (at least it's listed first in the journal's write-up),
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, Shandong, PRC.. but there are large number of sharing institutions in both China and the USA.
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Is the End right around the corner or what???
by Lynnie ininteresting observations i've noticed when visiting my uber elder cousin and his wife.
he just inherited a lovely home on the water on puget sound from his non jw dad who passed away earlier this year.
so they have spent many $$$ and months remodeling this house to their standards which are quite expensive tastes.
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fulltimestudent
This 'double standard' is always amusing.
Met an elderly lady once in Australia, whose family had been associated with the Bible students/JWs since before 1914. In the kerfuffle after Russell died and renewed claims of the nearness of the big A, her mother sold their house - a very nice house according to this old lady (sucker!!!). When the news filtered around of the sale, the prominent 'hen' in that particular congregation approached the mother and said, "Why didn't you tell me you were selling, I would have bought it."
The unknown author (perhaps unknown, because it could have been a woman) held up the example of faithful servants of the jewish god in the past.
"They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground." (Hebrews 11:38)
But that example is no longer held up to contemporary witnesses.
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Atheism is likely as old as Religious thinking - thinkers often doubted the existence of supernatural beings.
by fulltimestudent ini've only just discovered an important book on the topic of atheism was published in 2015. it's title is, "battling the gods: atheism in the world.
" by tim whitmarsh, professor of greek culture at the uk's university of cambridge.. whitmarsh reviews a 1000 years of greek/roman writings and can demonstrate that the surviving writings of many famous ancient authors discussed disbelief in the god(s).that alone casts doubts on the concept many 'believers' today promote, that a belief in divinities is hard wired into the brain.
and, just as clearly, atheism is not just a modern view.. whitmarsh argues, " that early societies were far more capable than many since of containing atheism within the spectrum of what they considered normal.
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fulltimestudent
slimboyfat: I had anyway thought that belief and non-belief have a long and paired history.
I'm inclined to agree with you, as generally we agree/disagree once a proposition is placed before us. Sounds a bit silly arguing that there is no god, if no-one around us is proclaiming a belief in a god.
Since we have absolutely no idea as to when the concept of a god first arrived in human thought during the long process of human evolution, we really cant argue as to when a denial of that proposition was first argued. All we can do (in archaeology) is examine the first traces of belief in some form of god.
SBF: I think some atheists have this notion that at one time everyone believed in God(s) but that with the advent of the enlightenment atheism has steadily grown and will eclipse belief.
Yes, maybe, but I've also seen some 'believers' argue in a similar way. Generally, west Asian religion makes that claim. God(s) created men, they believed, and then possibly rebelled. In Christian mythology, surely Adam and his family always believed in a 'god.'
SBF: At the moment the proportion of atheists appears to be going down not up. This is because believers have much higher fertility than atheists.
An interesting claim.Of course, the numbers accepting the truth of any claim has little to do with the truth of the claim. Even if there was only one dissenter to any claim, he could still be correct, and those who accepted the claim wrong.
Do you have statistics for that? I would genuinely be interested in knowing as to how the statistic collectors arrived at that conclusion. Was it a world-wide survey? Did they attempt to measure the cognitive skills of the believers at the same time.
If the statistical survey included Islamic and Indian believers, I could see a certain truth in the stats, although the concept of divinity would vary widely. And, if it included buddhists, and since buddhists may have very strange concepts of what a god is (e.g. they can die) are they really theists? Although, I guess their claim that humans can become supernatural beings and can 'save' others, as in the Pure land beliefs of Mahayana buddhism. Therefore I guess that buddhist teachings have to be seen as a form of theism.
Buddhists who follow this form may believe that if you call on the name of the Amitabha buddha when you are dying, he will come to you and take you to his 'Sukhavati Pure Land' (Actually it may be that every buddha has a pure land) I just happen to have focused on the Amitabha buddha in my studies. because his pure land is very much like the 'city of god' in Revelation 21 and 22. When I studied this and found that the concept of a 'pure land' actually preceded Christianity and that Buddhists had visited the west, I couldn't help wondering whether the author of Revelation had heard of this buddhist teaching and decided to incorporate it into that christian document.
The Amitābha buddha and his attendant bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara (on the right) and Mahāsthāmaprāpta (left)
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Chapter 16 New Boy 50 years a Watchtower Slave
by new boy inchapter 16. the tour .
my three days of housekeeping duty were over and i reported to the bethel office the next morning.
it was customary then get a tour of both the factory and the bethel home.
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fulltimestudent
Grin! memories... In the first residential school ( we got to stay bethel for 2 weeks) for elders that I can recall.I was assigned to work a couple of hours each day in the laundry, testing my humility, I guess. I was assigned to work under an elderly sister. The highlight was her embarrassment at explaining to me that I had to inspect every sheet and all the men's u/pants for semen stains and spray the offending patch (Jude verse 23 NWT) with pre-wash spray.
I also ran into a problem with an elderly brother (he'd been in Bethel before WW2 and had lived there during the Aust. Army occupation of the Strathfield Bethel). Being real conscientious, I'd get up early to study and he counselled me on not wasting the electricity
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Atheism is likely as old as Religious thinking - thinkers often doubted the existence of supernatural beings.
by fulltimestudent ini've only just discovered an important book on the topic of atheism was published in 2015. it's title is, "battling the gods: atheism in the world.
" by tim whitmarsh, professor of greek culture at the uk's university of cambridge.. whitmarsh reviews a 1000 years of greek/roman writings and can demonstrate that the surviving writings of many famous ancient authors discussed disbelief in the god(s).that alone casts doubts on the concept many 'believers' today promote, that a belief in divinities is hard wired into the brain.
and, just as clearly, atheism is not just a modern view.. whitmarsh argues, " that early societies were far more capable than many since of containing atheism within the spectrum of what they considered normal.
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fulltimestudent
I've only just discovered an important book on the topic of atheism was published in 2015. It's title is, "Battling the Gods: Atheism in the World." by Tim Whitmarsh, Professor of Greek Culture at the UK's University of Cambridge.
Whitmarsh reviews a 1000 years of Greek/Roman writings and can demonstrate that the surviving writings of many famous ancient authors discussed disbelief in the God(s).That alone casts doubts on the concept many 'believers' today promote, that a belief in divinities is hard wired into the brain. Clearly it is not! And, just as clearly, atheism is not just a modern view.
Whitmarsh argues, " that early societies were far more capable than many since of containing atheism within the spectrum of what they considered normal."
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2016-02-disbelieve-ancient-history-atheism-natural.html#jCp
"Rather than making judgements based on scientific reason, these early atheists were making what seem to be universal objections about the paradoxical nature of religion – the fact that it asks you to accept things that aren't intuitively there in your world. The fact that this was happening thousands of years ago suggests that forms of disbelief can exist in all cultures, and probably always have."
The book argues that disbelief is actually "as old as the hills". Early examples, such as the atheistic writings of Xenophanes of Colophon (c.570-475 BCE) are contemporary with Second Temple-era Judaism, and significantly predate Christianity and Islam. Even Plato, writing in the 4th Century BCE, said that contemporary non-believers were "not the first to have had this view about the gods."You can inspect the chapters etc on the Amazon web-site: https://www.amazon.com/Battling-Gods-Atheism-Ancient-World/dp/0307958329
Whitmarsh suggests that the structure of Greek society, that is, a multitude of semi-independent city states, each with its own set of divinities and no over-riding authority that enforced belief encouraged independent thinking. He notes that this changed when, in the 4th century CE, Roman emperors accepted Christianity, and ...
Quote: the polytheistic societies that generally tolerated it were replaced by monotheistic imperial forces that demanded an acceptance of one, "true" God. Rome's adoption of Christianity in the 4th Century CE was, he says, "seismic", because it used religious absolutism to hold the Empire together.
Most of the later Roman Empire's ideological energy was expended fighting supposedly heretical beliefs – often other forms of Christianity. In a decree of 380, Emperor Theodosius I even drew a distinction between Catholics, and everyone else – whom he classed as dementes vesanosque ("demented lunatics"). Such rulings left no room for disbelief.
In the course of my studies, I found that, according to surviving documents, ancient Indian thinkers sometimes expressed doubts as to the existence of imagined supernatutural beings.And in early China, in the mid-third century to early-fourth century CE, A Chinese thinker Guo Xiang, expressed these thoughts on the topic, after a discussion on the topic of whether there is a creator or not, concludes:
Hence everything creates itself without the direction of any creator ... This is the norm of the universe.