NeonMadman

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Posts by NeonMadman

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  32

  Did you count the time for your "hour talk"?

  by compound complex in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi fellow speakers (sorry, brothers only!):.

  my first public talk, given in my early 20s, was actually a twenty-minute part of a symposium talk.

  my pioneer partner friend and i each had twenty minutes and a "servant" had the concluding part.

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  NeonMadman

  I counted an hour for a public talk, but back then they were 55 minutes long...
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  112

  Supreme Court ruling- refusing to photo gay wedding is discrimination

  by SadElder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  according to bloomberg news:.

  http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-04-07/wedding-photographer-rebuffed-by-top-court-on-same-sex-ceremony.

  "the u.s. supreme court turned away an appeal from a new mexico wedding photographer found to have violated a state anti-discrimination law when she refused to take pictures of a commitment ceremony for a same-sex couple.. the photographer, elaine huguenin, argued unsuccessfully that she was being unconstitutionally forced to convey a message conflicting with her religious beliefs.

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  NeonMadman

  1. If someone wants to hire a Muslim caterer to serve his wedding, does he have the right to demand that the Muslim caterer serve pork chops?

  2. If a black man owns a print shop and a KKK member walks in and asks him to print signs that say "Kill the N------s," does he have the right to refuse the business?

  Just wondering...
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  3

  So I was letting my mind wander during the closing song tonight....

  by Shador in

  1. social
  2. humour

  .... and i noticed that you can take the melody for song 135 and plug in the words to "amazing grace" and it fits perfectly.

  odd..

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  NeonMadman

  There's no special significance to the fact that the lyrics fit, it's just that the two songs have the same meter, and the same pattern of syllables per line. The lyrics to Amazing Grace also work with the melody of the Gilligan's Island theme, for example. Hymnals take advantage of this factor all the time; indexes in some hymnals often show a named pattern that can be used with a particular hymn.
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  13

  New Prince album quite interesting for JWs

  by JimmyPage in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  you've probably already heard that prince is calling his new album "follow the slave".

  but a closer look at the track list raises even more eyebrows.

  check out these song titles: "100 invisible years".

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  NeonMadman

  Larry Graham and George Benson are on the album?
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  6

  1st Century GB... Peter

  by leaving_quietly in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  was there a 1st century gb?

  jws say, it was centralized in jerusalem, and they use acts 15 to prove it.

  however, today's wt study shows something interesting.

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  NeonMadman

  Acts 15 describes a one-time church council to resolve a doctrinal issue. There is nothing either stated or implied indicating the existence of an ongoing "governing body"in the manner understood by JWs today. The elders and apostles came together, resolved a problem, and then went about their business again. Anyone who argues for the existence of a first-century "governing body" needs to find better evidence than Acts 15.
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  3

  Guy Pierce Memorial Program

  by lambsbottom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  forgive me if someone already posted this but here ya go:.

  .

  http://www.sendspace.com/file/udl79c.

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  NeonMadman

  I wonder what the reaction would be if a rank and file JWwho died had a colorful brochure giving his life story made up by his/her friends and family for the funeral? Do you suppose they would be accused of "glorifying a creature?"
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  6

  1993-2014 THE BEST OF WATCHTOWER LETTERS PDF

  by WatchTower87 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1993-2014 the best of watchtower letters pdf.

  instruction: press the 'skip ad' button top right, you should then see the download screen more easily.

  no virus ;-).

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  NeonMadman

  *Comment deleted after I figured out how to get the downloads to work*
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  7

  2014 Convention Program is up on jw.org

  by factfinder in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a new book for children on friday?.

  a brochure about god's organization on saturday?.

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  NeonMadman

  Saturday afternoon's closing talk almost sounds like it could include the release of a new version of the Proclaimers book. Not entirely out of the question; the book is now 21 years old. It would be surprising to see them release another expensive-to-produce book this soon after the new Bible, though.
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  29

  WT Video on how to handle JWs contemplating suicide

  by Oubliette in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  http://www.mediafire.com/watch/cvas6fcrc9zca94/shepherding_instructional_suicidal_widow.avi.

  i just watched beginning of the recently leaked video produced by the wtbts allegedly instructing elders how to treat jws contemplating suicide.

  i am so apalled i cannot even begin to describe it!.

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  NeonMadman

  In the "Good" example, they quote Jeremiah 29:11 out of context and apply it to Mary. It's not a text about Christians, it's about the Jewish captives in Babylon in the 6th century BC. Not that it's unusual for JWs to take texts out of context, but this one gets used that way so commonly among non-JW Christians that I found it amusing to see the JWs doing it too. Minor point, I know...
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  44

  edx-Course --> Early Christianity: The Letters of Paul

  by fastJehu in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  link to the course: https://www.edx.org/course/harvardx/harvardx-hds1544-1x-early-christianity-927.

  intro video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rj3nxoyt7k.

  it's my first time for a edx-course and i will try "early christianity: the letters of paul".

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  NeonMadman

  "I hereby affirm that my prophecy will be correct, JFK will be shot dead near the end of the 60s in Dallas. Cheers, Dixon, 5 May, 1958."

  Technically, that would be an incorrect prophecy, since JFK was killed in 1963.

  But I see what you are getting at.

  I only claim I would then believe (with high certainty) that note was written after Kennedy was killed and it would still take quite a bit of evidence to convince me it was written before JFK was shot. Do you think that is the wrong conclusion to draw?

  I suppose I could see why you would accept that as a prima facie conclusion. What I think bothers me about the statement is the phrase "with high certainty." The problem, again, comes down to the question of whether one accepts that prophecy is a real possibility. You've said that you acknowledge that as being so. If that is the case, why necessarily conclude in an a priori fashion that the prediction almost certainly could not have occurred as claimed? If there really is no anti-prophecy bias at work, then the information should be evaluated as to its claims, not dismissed as being highly improbable.

  Suppose in this scenario, Dixon had accumulated a group of followers prior to 1963 who touted the possibility of a president being shot dead in Dallas at that time? What if these followers believed in Dixon's prophecy so strongly that they were willing to undergo personal hardship or even death in order to spread her message far and wide - a message that, if it was false, they were in a position to know was false? Suppose, further, that the government considered these followers to be a problem and so began to suppress them, even violently? Would things like this happening before 1963 change your view of the possibility of the prediction being a real prophecy?

  Are you saying unicorn and fairies are a-priori impossible but the existence of god, angels etc. is not?

  No, that's not where I was going with that at all. I was trying to gague your openness to actual prophecy by seeing whether you would put real prophecy in the same basket with things like fairies and unicorns, or whether you actually considered it a real possibility.

  And of course, your remarks about unicorns are correct; some might even use the term of a rhinoceros.