is jehovah a hebrew name?
why i ask, because last night after the agm meeting i was thinking...would god name himself a jewish name, since he in not partial...would he name himself a name that folks could get all puffed up about & say see...god is a jew.
also, jesus, well, he came from the line of jews, not really.
Good point. The reverence for the tetragramaton was obviously a form of idolatry and is part of the leven of the Pharisees.
It fits into the milieu of middle eastern culture.
The name Jehovah's Witnesses was part of a MadMan campaign on the part of Judge "Don Draper"-Rutheford.
we should be getting some reports soon.
aren't some going today?.
i would like to know whether it will be entertaining enough to go tomorrow.. a good report would save me losing half a sunday..
We should be getting some reports soon. Aren't some going today?
I would like to know whether it will be entertaining enough to go tomorrow.
A good report would save me losing half a Sunday.
this morning i wanted to force myself to throw up so i read a few pages from the 2013 yearbook.. and here's what you can read p.7.
"in this time of the end, gods people.
have to cope with many problems, challenges,.
I am totally inoculated against Watchtower influenza. It was a series of shots similar to the desensitization treatment for allergies. And it works for Non-Watchtower organizations too.
latest news from a source (missionary in foreign land):.
no more missionary homes anywhere in the world.. all missionaries presently in missionary homes must vacate.
must get housing on your own / from the locals.. circuit and district overseers have moved into many of these former missionary homes.. reasons: liability, cost savings, real estate to be sold or used for other purposes.. needless to say, many of these longtime servants are very unsettled.
Groups of missionaries living together in a single location make a juicy target for groups that want to lash out at "Western Imperialsts".
This may be a wise move for the missionaries. Maybe it's time for them to get the hell out of some countries.
I wonder if this can be correlated with the move in Mexico to end the English speaking congregations.
a thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
Snare and a Racket:
There is a broad area that you missed in your education.
Look at it this way. Tie a simple slip knot in a rope. Now tell me what that knot is. Is it the rope? It isnt the rope. You can slide the knot to the end of the rope until it disappears. The rope is still there.
The knot was information. It added no weight to the rope because when you slide the knot to the end of the rope the rope still weighs the same. Information is weightless but nevertheless is functional and makes a difference.
Life is emergent. Is that really a new Idea for you? It's the centerpiece of evolution.
i think wickedness comes from evil people.. there are many people in between the two extremes of, overly good people and overly evil persons.. i do not believe in a devil.. i think he is a concept dreampt up by evil ones to blame bad behavior, as a red herring, on anyone but themselves.. the watchtower makes up attrocious lies, brow beats good people not to better themselves,.
all the while, they are building their own empire.. they say, do not isiolate yourself.
it is not good for you.. but if you don't agree with them and their current teachings, you will be shunned, disfellowshipped.. that can and does, have earth shattering results.. so many things, i was taught as a born in, are now considered apostate teachings.
Snare and Racket,
I am not advocating belief in God or the Bible. I quote the Bible because western civilization relies on it as a moral guide. I don't believe in a God who sets the moral tone. Groups of people come up with morality which is supposed to emphasize practices that makes the whole of society function better. I think the scripture that I quoted about where evil comes from shows that a personal Devil is not needed to understand evil.
It's kind of like "company policy" or a statement of purpose in an advocacy group or charity organization.
I believe in evolution. Not just biological evolution but socio/cultural evolution. People over hundreds of thousands of years have figured out what seems to work. Religions try to explain those rules as God given.
I don't believe that.
I like what Dawkins said in the last paragraph of THE SELFISH GENE "We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth. We can even discuss ways of deliberately cultivating and nuturing pure, disinterested altruism-something that has no place in nature, something that has never existed before in the whole history of the world. We, alone on earth can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators."
Sorry but if you re-read what I wrote you will find that you agree with me.
a thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
The world is NOT just forces and particles. The world contains information about relations between forces and particles. Information is weightless. Life is a special structure of relationships and introduces a new level to the universe. It introduces structures that perpetuate themselves. So basically the meaning of life is "life". Life is not a top down formation. It is a bottom up emergence.
Eventually, life produced sentient forms which make up a whole new layer that can plan and decide into the future. The laws that dominate in this sphere produce morality.
i think wickedness comes from evil people.. there are many people in between the two extremes of, overly good people and overly evil persons.. i do not believe in a devil.. i think he is a concept dreampt up by evil ones to blame bad behavior, as a red herring, on anyone but themselves.. the watchtower makes up attrocious lies, brow beats good people not to better themselves,.
all the while, they are building their own empire.. they say, do not isiolate yourself.
it is not good for you.. but if you don't agree with them and their current teachings, you will be shunned, disfellowshipped.. that can and does, have earth shattering results.. so many things, i was taught as a born in, are now considered apostate teachings.
The Bible says everyone is drawn out and enticed by their own desires.
The desires become fertile and give birth to sin.
If we didn't have a reproductive systems we wouldn't have a desire for sex.
If we didn't have a digestive system we wouldn't have a desire for food.
If we didn't have muscles we wouldn't have a desire for exercise and movement.
If we didn't have a brain and nervous system we wouldn't have a "self" or "selfishness".
Sin is moral badness where in the process of satisfying your own desires you cause unnecessary harm. The Bible calls it "that superfluous thing" ie beyond what is necessary.
There seems to be a factor of greed or excess to sin.
People are perfectly equipped to do-evil without any help from a personal d--evil.
i think wickedness comes from evil people.. there are many people in between the two extremes of, overly good people and overly evil persons.. i do not believe in a devil.. i think he is a concept dreampt up by evil ones to blame bad behavior, as a red herring, on anyone but themselves.. the watchtower makes up attrocious lies, brow beats good people not to better themselves,.
all the while, they are building their own empire.. they say, do not isiolate yourself.
it is not good for you.. but if you don't agree with them and their current teachings, you will be shunned, disfellowshipped.. that can and does, have earth shattering results.. so many things, i was taught as a born in, are now considered apostate teachings.
Evil is just another term for selfishness. All organisms are selfish or they couldn't survive. When the big fish eats the little fish it does so for its survival.
The big fish benefits from all the still smaller fish the little fish ate. Life sustaining molecules are in short supply. Every living thing is chasing those molecules.
Plants can't move around but they compete with their roots and vines.
If you are the big fish life is good. Might good!
If you are the little fish. Damn! You must surrender your lifetime collection of precious molecules.
Life is a pair of dice.
whenever i talk to jw's, and even in some of the jw official videos, i detect a definite vibe of sadness coming off these people.. i am very sensitive to "atmospheres" and to peoples emotional state, you wouldn't think so, because more often than not i do not react to what i detect, i just let people get on with it.. but i do get this feeling that they are sad, probably because very, very, very deep down they realise that it is all false, maybe ?.
The real sadness emerges when the baby boomers bury their witness parents who never thought THEY were going to die.
Most baby boomers are in their late 50's and if you are a witness you missed out on the greatest life any group of humans has ever had.
They also know that their own end is close.
