peacefulpete

Joined

• started 375 topics
• posted 6,653 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by peacefulpete

• 
  17

  "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

  by Diogenesister in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  can anyone remember the reasoning the watchtower gave for jesus speaking these words?

  if you have a reference that would be even better!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  peacefulpete

  First, The quote is itself a very loose Greek LXX translation of the Hebrew, Ps 22:2, "My God, I call by day, and Thou answerest not, And by night, and there is no silence to me.". So any claim to fulfillment of prophesy is already quite strained.

  Second, the passage appears early in NT manuscript variants as "Why have you reviled me?" Which begs the question, why? Why would a Christian scribe alter the text? The scribe's motive might possibly explain its original intent. Early Gnostic Christians quoted this verse and understood it as support for the doctrine that the man Jesus was a vessel for a Divine entity that left as Jesus was dying. The popular Gospel of Peter words the quote as: "My power, O power, you have left me."

  So Orthodox scribes simply sidestepped the theological debate by altering the text to "why...reviled me?" Is it possible the original writer of Mark had intended something like what the Gnostic Christians understood? We may never know.

  It is interesting that the revision of Mark known as Matthew included this passage verbatim but the later revision called Luke dropped it. Perhaps by then the controversy was already brewing.
• 
  28

  Do You Love The Country You Are In or From?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  most people over the generations have taken pride in their heritage, nationality and country they are from.

  it’s not uncommon to hear of “proud” italians and proud irish people , as an example.

  are you proud of your country and your nationality or do you feel shame or indifference?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  peacefulpete

  Minimus.....Loving your country is a lot like loving your parents. When you are a young child you love them and are convinced they can do no wrong. As you mature and learn more you see them as flawed people you disagree with quite often, but can still love them anyway.

  Telling people who see flaws and wish to improve their country to simply leave displays a toddler perspective.
• 
  32

  Does Anybody Here Pray To God?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i’m just curious..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  peacefulpete

  If I was in a plane that had engine trouble, I'd call my wife and thank her for the life she gave me.
• 
  32

  Does Anybody Here Pray To God?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i’m just curious..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  peacefulpete

  Ask any religious person, of any faith, if their prayers are important to them and if they are listened to. Hindus, Muslims, Animists etc, all of them are convinced what they say to the deities is heard and sometimes responded to.

  Given this universal belief, a person is forced to decide : (1)all prayers to any deities are equally valuable or perhaps (2) what they believe to be true of worshippers of other deities (deluded and mistaken) is also true of themselves.
• 
  17

  Education

  by jelly in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just a little about me: i live in the usa on the west coast, i am currently going to college, ( i know a lot of brothers dont do this but i have some reasons).

  i am curious if any other brothers or sisters are in college, and how everybody feels about school?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  peacefulpete

  I think he has retired by now.
• 
  52

  U.K. Nurse Vaccinated With Covid Shot Has Covid Weeks After Getting Vac!

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  someone i know from england is a nurse.

  she told me there was an outbreak at the hospital and she got the virus after being vaccinated.

  she said she was told it probably would have been much worse for her had she not gotten vaccinated.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  peacefulpete

  My Father is taking D as part of his Covid treatment as directed by his doctor. Legitimate studies have shown it's importance with immunity. It is often prescribed or encouraged in responsible doses. It is not a miracle drug, its just one of the ingredients for immune system functioning.
  
• 
  46

  Sound Familiar?

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a republican congressman voted his conscience to impeach trump.

  the results might surprise some of us.. "my dad's cousins sent me a petition - a certified letter - saying they disowned me because i'm in 'the devil's army' now," kinzinger said in a phone conversation on thursday.

  "it's been crazy, when you have friends - that you thought were good friends that would love you no matter what - that don't.".

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  peacefulpete

  .Divides have always existed. But a new element is the weaponizing of the internet. The ideal that the internet would be a forum for a healthy exchange of ideas has been smothered by the use of the internet to influence and manipulate. Ugly ideologies, bunk pseudoscience, disinformation profiteering have proliferated unchecked by the traditional restraints of threats of liability and libel. When any charismatic or attractive blogger with a sensational story is seen as an expert, the real experts are ignored and distrusted. Facts and best-information approaches to social issues have a hard time competing in a marketplace of ideas offering 24hr scandal and conspiracy.
  

  What's more, people choose not to fact check, that is proof to me not only of disinformation but successful self imposed information control.

  My business involves antiques. We laugh at the quaint and amateurish marketing of generations past. To sell a product they told you about the product. Today's professional influencers and highly paid psychological strategists don't try to sell a product they manipulate buyers. All-pervasive technology has plugged us in to that manipulation many hours a day, endless, relentless, tirelessly competing for our money and minds. Many consumers have grown numb to this with regards products and services but still seem unaware their politics are similarly being shaped. Many so-called news outlets were crafted with influence rather than information as the objective. Truthiness has nearly replaced truth. IMO, Our inherent weakness for confirmation bias and tribal identity have been exploited on a new scale through ubiquitous technology and manipulative marketing.
• 
  46

  Sound Familiar?

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a republican congressman voted his conscience to impeach trump.

  the results might surprise some of us.. "my dad's cousins sent me a petition - a certified letter - saying they disowned me because i'm in 'the devil's army' now," kinzinger said in a phone conversation on thursday.

  "it's been crazy, when you have friends - that you thought were good friends that would love you no matter what - that don't.".

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  peacefulpete

  A Republican congressman voted his conscience to impeach Trump. The results might surprise some of us.

  "My dad's cousins sent me a petition - a certified letter - saying they disowned me because I'm in 'the devil's army' now," Kinzinger said in a phone conversation on Thursday. "It's been crazy, when you have friends - that you thought were good friends that would love you no matter what - that don't."

  OR HOW ABOUT:

  “He specifically told me, ‘You are no longer my mother, because you are voting for Trump’,” Gomez, 41, a personal care worker in Milwaukee, told Reuters.

  The point is, politics can easily become as fanatical as any religion. The dangers of psychological attraction to some consuming group identity and ideology is something former JWs, aware of the pain of loss of family and friends, should be more woke to. But we must be aware it is something we are all susceptible to, there is no vaccine for this all-or-nothing group thinking. Perhaps for some, our experience may even have left us craving a new community similar in its exclusivity and certainty. For some their "new" religion is attacking their old one.

  When I read that first quote above this morning it occurred to me that half the country has disfellowshipped the other half. The reasons from both sides are similarly couched in moralizing arguments of good vs evil, us vs. them.

  Can't we see clearer than the general population just how much pain this divisive rancorous politics has caused families? My JW father is dying of covid19 in the hospital right now and all this bitterness and contempt surrounding me, religious and political, feels so completely empty.

  
  
  
• 
  52

  U.K. Nurse Vaccinated With Covid Shot Has Covid Weeks After Getting Vac!

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  someone i know from england is a nurse.

  she told me there was an outbreak at the hospital and she got the virus after being vaccinated.

  she said she was told it probably would have been much worse for her had she not gotten vaccinated.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  peacefulpete

  The virus is SARS-CoV-2, the disease it often triggers is Covid19. Its like HIV and AIDS.

  The vaccines prepare the body for exposure to the virus to minimize the disease response and lowering the potential shedding of the virus to others. Getting vaccinated has little to no immediate effect. It takes weeks for the immune response to produce adequate antibodies to have protection from the disease response. Vaccines that require 2 stages stretch that time out to weeks longer.

  https://www.verywellhealth.com/covid-19-vaccine-immunity-time-5091651
  
• 
  16

  If god exists why the Galaxy Andromeda is flying towards us ?

  by Jewtwo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  galaxy andromeda flying towards the milcky way is a fact so why god did that ?

  i don't see the point, the galaxies will enter in collision in a very long time but i don't understand why a lovely god would do this it feels stupid.

  (or there is no god).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  peacefulpete

  peacefulpete, in saying that our earth and solar system are in no danger of being destroyed I was quoting from the article which I referenced.

  The some/all the planets themselves might survive, but life would not. It doesn't really matter because our sun will be far too hot by then for water to exist here anyway. The article is making a point of the scale of the distances between solid matter, it is also making clear that the cosmic chaos will leaving everything in a state of flux. Consider how even the changes in solar winds as a system passes through bands of dust completely changes the climate potential. Our system as it currently is is on a blades edge. Just the small influence of general relativity upon mercury's orbit (gravity effect from sun) is predicted to alter its path sufficiently to disrupt neighboring planets (us) in the distant future. Any of these scenarios are projected out many millions of years away and likely to be mute points because we as a species will have moved on or passed away. The present danger to the earth's delicate climate is us ourselves or a rogue asteroid.