How Life May have Started on This Planet Without YHWH

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

some may be interested in this research from the scripps research institute.. this research and its conclusion builds on previous work, quote: "in a study published in the chemistry journal angewandte chemie, they demonstrated that a simple compound called diamidophosphate (dap), which was plausibly present on earth before life arose, could have chemically knitted together tiny dna building blocks called deoxynucleosides into strands of primordial dna.. the finding is the latest in a series of discoveries, over the past several years, pointing to the possibility that dna and its close chemical cousin rna arose together as products of similar chemical reactions, and that the first self-replicating molecules -- the first life forms on earth -- were mixes of the two.".

read more at this science daily web-site .... link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201228095428.htm.

fulltimestudent

Some may be interested in this research from the Scripps Research Institute.

This research and its conclusion builds on previous work, Quote: "In a study published in the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, they demonstrated that a simple compound called diamidophosphate (DAP), which was plausibly present on Earth before life arose, could have chemically knitted together tiny DNA building blocks called deoxynucleosides into strands of primordial DNA.

The finding is the latest in a series of discoveries, over the past several years, pointing to the possibility that DNA and its close chemical cousin RNA arose together as products of similar chemical reactions, and that the first self-replicating molecules -- the first life forms on Earth -- were mixes of the two."

Read more at this Science Daily web-site ...

Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201228095428.htm

40

Goodbye yhwh-Goodbye jesus

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

interesting report in a oxford university blog - the world is becoming less religious, (hurray!!!).

quote: "an analysis of religious trends from 1981 to 2007 in 49 countries containing 60% of the world’s population did not find a global resurgence of religion—most high-income countries were becoming less religious—however, it did show that in 33 of the 49 countries studied, people had become more religious (norris and inglehart, 2011).

but since 2007, things have changed with surprising speed.

fulltimestudent

Phizzy: "A lot of good, ethical and moral choices are made in Nature, by what some still like to think of as " lesser " species, co-operation and altruistic works are seen. If we have evolved the intelligence to work out what does the most good and the least harm, we should make those choices, not anything that comes short of that."

Agreed! But, we (humans) still don't know why other animals seem to demonstrate altruism or why they co-operate. For example, a recent YT video showed a lioness killing a ungulate and then apparently realising (?) it was pregnant and then attempting to revive (?) the fetus. Was the lioness's actions true mercy? Or, was it simply a response to a chemical messenger emitted by the killed beast.

It seems apparent that in spite of the biblical teaching at 2 Peter 2:12 (that governed western thought for centuries) that 'beasts' were 'destitute of reason' (hence the NWT's use of the word 'unreasoning'), animal behaviour can be interpreted as indicating some reasoning ability. So do animals 'think' about their conduct and actions?

And, if humans are animals (advanced or not) is intelligence the foundation of our actions, or is 'instinct' the starting point? Think about the English Protestant persecution of Catholics in Elizabethan times. Was it intelligent or merciful to burn people to death (mimicking the flames of hell)? We humans may think we are intelligent, but our behaviour is often stupid.

Which, of course, was the point of the author's remark at 2 Peter 2:12.(except his chosen illustration was false).

Link Dislike Like

40

Goodbye yhwh-Goodbye jesus

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

interesting report in a oxford university blog - the world is becoming less religious, (hurray!!!).

quote: "an analysis of religious trends from 1981 to 2007 in 49 countries containing 60% of the world’s population did not find a global resurgence of religion—most high-income countries were becoming less religious—however, it did show that in 33 of the 49 countries studied, people had become more religious (norris and inglehart, 2011).

but since 2007, things have changed with surprising speed.

fulltimestudent

Interesting report in a Oxford University Blog - the world is becoming less religious, (Hurray!!!)

Quote: "An analysis of religious trends from 1981 to 2007 in 49 countries containing 60% of the world’s population did not find a global resurgence of religion—most high-income countries were becoming less religious—however, it did show that in 33 of the 49 countries studied, people had become more religious (Norris and Inglehart, 2011).

But since 2007, things have changed with surprising speed. From 2007 to 2020, an overwhelming majority (43 out of 49) of these same countries became less religious. This decline in belief is strongest in high-income countries but it is evident across most of the world (Inglehart, 2021)."

And, Surprise, surprise !!! Even in that once bastion of godliness, the good ol' hew ess hay - belief has been declining more rapidly than in most other countries.

The author is Ronald F. Inglehart who is the Lowenstein Professor of Political Science emeritus at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Religion’s Sudden Decline: What’s Causing it, and What Comes Next? (Oxford University Press—forthcoming in January 2021), from which this essay is adapted.

1

Who/what is a "white' man?

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

last year national geographic published this feature that discussed the origins of europeans, who i guess are the typical 'whites' in the imaginations of some white people.. west asia's contribution to european ethnicity.

(that's my title not natgeo's - grin).

national geographic's title for this feature was: 'the first europeans weren’t who you might think.

fulltimestudent

Last year National Geographic published this feature that discussed the origins of Europeans, who I guess are the typical 'whites' in the imaginations of some white people.

West Asia's Contribution to European Ethnicity. (That's my title not NatGeo's - Grin)

National Geographic's title for this feature was: 'The first Europeans weren’t who you might think.'

The article argues that "Europeans today are a mix. The genetic recipe for a typical European would be roughly equal parts Yamnaya (from the Russian Steppes) and Anatolian farmers (from what is now Turkey)., with a much smaller dollop of African hunter-gatherer. But the average conceals large regional variations: more “eastern cowboy” genes in Scandinavia, more farmer ones in Spain and Italy, and significant chunks of hunter-gatherer DNA in the Baltics and eastern Europe."

I'm not having a shot at anyone, after all, I suppose I'm a typical white person - pale skin, fair hair, blue eyes, etc. though I should admit to having two grandmothers who may not have been quite so pure white. One was dark-skinned, but there are no family whispers suggesting any infiltration of indigenous Australian 'blood,' into my lily-white veins. But such accusations have been made against my other grandmother, although she did look to be pure-white. That accusation comes from some of her descendants who claim to have researched the family ancestry, and found that one of her close male forbears had enjoyed some 'black velvet,' as it was known in those days. But I don't give a proverbial rat's arse. I am what I am, and (hopefully-another grin!) logical enough to admit that sometimes racial mixing produces a superior product, in me, if not in all. (That is to say, that if any way I shine, it may be because that ancestor enjoyed that womanly black velvet and did not discard any children produced by that union)

Hope you enjoy this article.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/07/first-europeans-immigrants-genetic-testing-feature/#close

31

What's the Latest re How JW's are Associating and Preaching?

by mikronboy in

jw
friends

i've been out of the loop for a while so some things have passed me by.

so i'm curious how jw's are affected by the covid virus.

are they still preaching or having meetings etc?.

fulltimestudent

Dont know much about how the New World Society (remembered term for Nathan's day) is coping with a no contact society, but I did hear one bit of information through the relatives grapevine,

That is, a certain relative and daughter were selling all their meeting clothes in a market stall, as they dont see any chance of normal meetings for a few years.

3

The Pope Says Gay Couples Have the Right to be a Family

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

ac reported by reuters:.

pope says same-sex couples should be covered by civil union laws.. rome (reuters) - pope francis has said that same-sex couples should be protected by civil union laws in the clearest language he has used on the rights of gay people, prompting praise from liberals and calls for urgent clarification from conservatives.. he made his comments in a new documentary “francesco” by oscar-nominated director evgeny afineevsky that was released on wednesday.. “homosexual people have a right to be in a family.

they are children of god and have a right to a family.

fulltimestudent

Both the above comments reflect a positive reaction to the Pope's announcement. And, I agree its surely a welcome change from a usually much more conservative church. I'm not sure that it will be accepted by all sectors of that church, but it will give more energy to the general trend of acceptance of same sex attraction in western communities,

As, Clarkey posted, " why should we imposed hatred upon people just because of their inherent biological genetics ?"

Whether, their really are 'inherent biological genetics' is not yet proven, except probably, in the case of some of those people generally labelled 'trans.'

During the 10 years I spent in tertiary studies I came to understand, that often in the past, M2M/W2W sex could not be seen as driven by a different genetic inheritance.* Usually, patterns of SSA in past societies could be seen as an opportunity to have sex with someone they were attracted to irrespective of whether they were male or female.

*However, its interesting to note that often SSA (same sex attraction) occurs in family clusters, In my XJW friends family, he knows of one cousin was SSA, and in the next generation three nieces were SSA, Of course, there may be more, but people that are SSA often are reluctant to reveal that attraction because of church driven community stigmatisation,

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

What I was going to discuss, when I was interrupted (in my first post) was what this change in the RC church's attitude towards SSA people, is what it about the past attitudes of the church.

There have been so many terrible acts committed by Christians against SSA people in the past, acts that are now revealed by the Popes announcement to have actually inhumane crimes. These crimes range from castration and imprisonment to murder,

So how could any organisation that encouraged or condoned such crimes, actually have any truth? So we may conclude, there is no loving god controlling the universe.

Any claim that there is such a god, is bullshit.

3

The Pope Says Gay Couples Have the Right to be a Family

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

ac reported by reuters:.

pope says same-sex couples should be covered by civil union laws.. rome (reuters) - pope francis has said that same-sex couples should be protected by civil union laws in the clearest language he has used on the rights of gay people, prompting praise from liberals and calls for urgent clarification from conservatives.. he made his comments in a new documentary “francesco” by oscar-nominated director evgeny afineevsky that was released on wednesday.. “homosexual people have a right to be in a family.

they are children of god and have a right to a family.

fulltimestudent

Ac reported by Reuters:

Pope says same-sex couples should be covered by civil union laws.

ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis has said that same-sex couples should be protected by civil union laws in the clearest language he has used on the rights of gay people, prompting praise from liberals and calls for urgent clarification from conservatives.

He made his comments in a new documentary “Francesco” by Oscar-nominated director Evgeny Afineevsky that was released on Wednesday.

“Homosexual people have a right to be in a family. They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable over it,” he said.

“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that,” he said.

The pope appeared to be referring to when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires and opposed legislation to approve same-sex marriages but supported some kind of legal protection for the rights of gay couples.

The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are not sinful but homosexual acts are. It teaches that homosexuals should be treated with dignity but is opposed to gay marriage."

Link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-film-homosexuals/pope-says-homosexuals-should-be-covered-by-civil-union-laws-idUSKBN276216

The last remark (above) is not doubt based on the church view that marriage is a "sacrament."

And while, I guess that's going to give our ever-loving ex-brothers and sisters more ammunition to fire at the catholic church, whatever our ever-loving ex-brothers and sisters have to say, will be quite insignificant compared to what conservative catholics may say.

But surely, if two men or two women are in a legally recognised relationship whether you call it a civil union or a marriage, there is a recognition that they are going to have sex with each other. What will that do to all the biblical texts that have been used against M2M/W2W sexual acts in the past?

( Interruption, I will continue shortly)

9

Things that YHWH Never Told Me. Did You Know that YHWH Came from Egypt? Hmmmm!!

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

i belong to a group (best description that i can think of) that specialises in sharing academic papers.

ok, sometimes that provides me with all kinds of interesting material pertinent to my research interests.

but, sometimes, (and since i have not read all of it, i'm assuming its fair dinkum, genuine research) something turns up (not among my usual research interests) that blows my simple brain.. anyway, after a brief examination, my conclusion is this: i think charlie russell would have gone gaga over this research.. the author has named his paper, .

fulltimestudent

silentbuddha: (Quote) "Hate to tell you this but this info was previously discussed by the 5 percenters as well as John Henrick Clarke when I was in high-school in the early 1990s...":

No need to hate telling me (or, hopefully us). Thank you so much for sharing. I would not expect that YHWH's 'faithful and discreet slave' would want to share such information, but we should appreciate all information that clarifies the past (or present).

Of course, knowing how information was shared around in ancient societies, (even the ancient Greeks liked Egyptian "wisdom," and knowing that Egypt once ruled much of Palestine) I could have expected that old YHWH had an Egyptian connection. But I had not considered it, so....

9

Things that YHWH Never Told Me. Did You Know that YHWH Came from Egypt? Hmmmm!!

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

i belong to a group (best description that i can think of) that specialises in sharing academic papers.

ok, sometimes that provides me with all kinds of interesting material pertinent to my research interests.

but, sometimes, (and since i have not read all of it, i'm assuming its fair dinkum, genuine research) something turns up (not among my usual research interests) that blows my simple brain.. anyway, after a brief examination, my conclusion is this: i think charlie russell would have gone gaga over this research.. the author has named his paper, .

fulltimestudent

I belong to a group (best description that I can think of) that specialises in sharing academic papers. OK, sometimes that provides me with all kinds of interesting material pertinent to my research interests

But, sometimes, (and since I have not read all of it, I'm assuming its fair dinkum, genuine research) something turns up (not among my usual research interests) that blows my simple brain.

Anyway, after a brief examination, my conclusion is this: I think Charlie Russell would have gone gaga over this research.

The author has named his paper,

"In Search of the Sacred Tetragrammaton Name of God - PART 3.

Here's the Abstract (Sort of Summary).

The oldest discovered artifact of the Tetragrammaton dates from the Divided Kingdom of Israel period and is written in the Phoenician script as - - - - which has evolved into the present-day Hebrew Tetragrammaton - - - - translated into English as YHWH. Many inquisitive people today wanting to know more about The Creator God’s Name are asking such good questions as “Should YHWH be translated as Jehovah or Yahweh?” and “What is the difference between Jehovah and Yahweh?” This research will investigate the origin of the Tetragrammaton and those names. Since these four letters have retained their names in contemporary Hebrew and the ancient languages of Aramaic, Paleo-Hebrew/Phoenician AND EGYPTIAN, there is no doubt that the original four letters making up the Tetragrammaton were written in the Egyptian script! Since this Sacred Name of God came out of Egypt, we must go back to this original location and try to find out not only what the pronunciation of The Sacred Name was, but more importantly What is The Meaning of The Name! In this PART 3, more than a dozen ancient manuscripts will be examined in the quest to find the historical roots of the Tetragrammaton and the meaning of the four letters.

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

If you are intrigued by this document, you may be able to access it at:

https://www.academia.edu/41301784/In_Search_of_the_Sacred_Tetragrammaton_Name_of_God_PART_3

The author (btw) is Russell Jacquet-Acea. He appears to have a couple of degrees, and (shades of Charlie R ) alos seems to own a publishing company>

25

Zoroaster spoke thus

by Doug Mason in

the following is from: cosmos, chaos and the world to come (pp.

222-224), norman cohn.

yale university press.

fulltimestudent

Thnx Phizzy!

Hope you enjoy many happy hours with google scholar. The only hassle you're going to find will likely be being able to access many of the academic sources. You need a good library to help you do that. Not sure where you're located, but in Australia many university libraries will let you join, but charge you. e.g. Sydney uni, charges $40 a semester and that's $160 a year. And, (grin) consider getting a portable HD to store all the stuff you then download.

The video you've watched, I suggest you can be quite confident that any ideas presented are partly tradition and partly time-modified belief. No religion will be unchanged over time. Early Christians would be lost in both a Catholic Cathedral and a Kingdom Hall, and contemporary Zoroastrians will believe things that are different from ancient beliefs. As the saying goes, Change is Constant.

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

I was checking out images of 'fire temples' this morning and my search threw up this Pinterest page:

https://www.pinterest.com.au/mazdayasna/fire-temples/

There could be more, but since Pinterest disfellowshipped* me, (haha) I get a few roadblocks in looking for stuff on that site.

Also there was this longish article ( I havn't checked out the web-site) titled- Is there a network of sacred fires across the Himalayas and Central Asia? From Baku to Nepal and back.

Link: http://www.austriaca.at/0xc1aa5576%200x00358452.pdf

Maybe Zoroastrian influence is greater than imagined.

But, most intriguing to me (it set me off to investigate the changing religious beliefs of the ancient Sogdians, who at one stage were the major traders on the ancient East-West Trade Network, now called the Silk Road).

From a web-site called Quartz India, " The forgotten history of how ancient Zoroastrians helped create the old Silk Road." Link: https://qz.com/india/987379/the-forgotten-history-of-how-ancient-zoroastrians-helped-create-the-old-silk-route/

The Sogdians even attempted to take China over (during the Tang Dynasty) and so weakened that dynasty that it eventually collapsed leading to 50 years of chaos (known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era) until a new strong central authority (the Song Dynasty) established itself.

To understand their full influence in China, check out this article from the (USA) Smithsonian-Freer/Sackler group, "The Sogdians- Influencers on the Silk Road." Link: https://sogdians.si.edu/the-sogdians-abroad/

fulltimestudent

Posts by fulltimestudent

Pope says same-sex couples should be covered by civil union laws.

"In Search of the Sacred Tetragrammaton Name of God - PART 3.