peacefulpete
JoinedPosts by peacefulpete
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37
If you were to design a new religion?
by ExBethelitenowPIMA inwhat the jw sect has become and is slowly becoming is far more near what i thought could be a good religion based on the bible.. no more counting hours and no more blindly following direction now they admit they are not inspired.. i would like to design a new sect inside the jws.
it has to be kept secret because the elders would not like it.. this new sect involves giving a tick every month or so saying you are still kindof active talking about the bible.. going to meetings occasionally and attending on zoom sometimes.
very rarely go to ministry groups but don’t ever do first call, just say you are doing street work and have a nice walk somewhere maybe the shops or the park.
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37
If you were to design a new religion?
by ExBethelitenowPIMA inwhat the jw sect has become and is slowly becoming is far more near what i thought could be a good religion based on the bible.. no more counting hours and no more blindly following direction now they admit they are not inspired.. i would like to design a new sect inside the jws.
it has to be kept secret because the elders would not like it.. this new sect involves giving a tick every month or so saying you are still kindof active talking about the bible.. going to meetings occasionally and attending on zoom sometimes.
very rarely go to ministry groups but don’t ever do first call, just say you are doing street work and have a nice walk somewhere maybe the shops or the park.
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peacefulpete
Define "religion". Do you mean a collective of people who share the same values and beliefs? That is also called a "circle jerk".
Do you mean people who enjoy getting together for support and sharing of ideas? That is also called a "salon" group.
I've seen the ugly side of definition one, and the beauty of definition two. When I first left the church, I found a group of lovely people that enjoyed discourse and asking questions. We often had guest speakers on topics as diverse as attracting bluebirds to healthcare. The group lost a few key participants, and the host location was sold. I've often thought of trying to revive it, but it requires some dedicated individuals to keep it alive and interesting.
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Another Inspiring Story
by peacefulpete in“i knew the repercussions of leaving” (chronicle.com).
she did not see any role models around her, and the organization’s requirements and expectations “steered me away from the things i wanted to do in my life.” at age 18, she decided to leave the religion, “even though it was hard, even though it was confusing, and scary … and painful,” to pursue her dreams and goals..
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peacefulpete
“I Knew the Repercussions of Leaving” (chronicle.com)
She did not see any role models around her, and the organization’s requirements and expectations “steered me away from the things I wanted to do in my life.” At age 18, she decided to leave the religion, “even though it was hard, even though it was confusing, and scary … and painful,” to pursue her dreams and goals.
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How to talk to former Witnesses about their beliefs.
by Vanderhoven7 inmark jones writes.
there have been only a handful of occasions where a jehovah’s witness has successfully engaged me in respectable conversation with mutual respect.
one such person started off like this and (unfortunately) has become an angry little man over the years.
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peacefulpete
Ask the JW if they have doubts or difficulty with anything. If they say no, tell them you are available to talk if they ever want to be honest with themselves.
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32
Do you play the LOTTERY?
by Fisherman injw view gambling as a sin and sadly people get addicted to gambling causing them financial and health problems.
but is playing a couple of bucks a week on some lottery tickets actually gambling?
what do you have to lose?
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peacefulpete
Then maybe we should cast lots to decide what to do.
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Do you play the LOTTERY?
by Fisherman injw view gambling as a sin and sadly people get addicted to gambling causing them financial and health problems.
but is playing a couple of bucks a week on some lottery tickets actually gambling?
what do you have to lose?
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peacefulpete
Funny, my folks used to send in publisher's clearing house sweepstakes hoping of course to win the million dollars 💵. They said it wasn't gambling if it only cost a stamp and envelope.
What is gambling? Taking a risk? Is it greed? Is it investing on a longshot?
It's all semantics and splitting hairs. I have bought penny stocks. I have taken a chance and bought low priced cars sight unseen. I bought past dated milk half price. I bought tickets for Trout Unlimited dinners and won door prizes. I got out of bed.
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My Prediction Regarding New Space Telescope That Will See Back to 100 Million Years From the Big Bang
by Sea Breeze ina new space telescope launched a few days age that will supposedly be able to see to within 100 million years of the big bang.
wow... only 100 million years from the big bang.
that is pretty early given the 12 billion year age of the universe assigned by scholars who adhere to naturalism.
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141
My Prediction Regarding New Space Telescope That Will See Back to 100 Million Years From the Big Bang
by Sea Breeze ina new space telescope launched a few days age that will supposedly be able to see to within 100 million years of the big bang.
wow... only 100 million years from the big bang.
that is pretty early given the 12 billion year age of the universe assigned by scholars who adhere to naturalism.
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peacefulpete
From the Cornell article you posted:
Most surprising about these galaxies, considering their age and mass, was their mature metallicity – amounts of elements heavier than helium and hydrogen, such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen – which the team estimated to be similar to our sun. Compared to the sun, which is about 4 billion years old and inherited most of its metals from previous generations of stars that had roughly 8 billion years to build them up, we are observing these galaxies at a time when the universe was less than 1.5 billion years old.
“We are seeing the leftovers of at least a couple of generations of stars having lived and died within the first billion years of the universe’s existence, which is not what we typically see,” Vishwas said. “We speculate that the process of forming stars in these galaxies must have been very efficient and started very early in the universe, particularly to explain the measured abundance of nitrogen relative to oxygen, as this ratio is a reliable measure of how many generations of stars have lived and died.”It's so tiresome to unpack the misrepresentations and half truths of creationists.
We sent the telescope out to learn and we are learning. It would be more than suspicious, and pretty boring, if we saw only what we predicted to see.
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Sign of the Last Days
by Fisherman inin the sermon on the mount, jesus foretold that earthquakes “in one place after another” would be part of the sign of the last days clímaxing in the great tribulation.. what could jesus possibly have meant?
using a phone app nowadays, there are earthquakes detected in one place after another but is this what jesus meant and did they have so many earthquakes throughout the centuries affter his prophecy or are these modern day detected earthquakes unique to this epoch?
how can we be sure unequivocally that modern day earthquakes are part of the sign fulfilling bible prophecy?.
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peacefulpete
Matt is striking in his use of the word seismos in the calming the sea episode. Luke follows his (and Matt's) source, Mark, in saying the lailaps (wind storm) was rocking the boat. The simplest explanation is that Matt was referring to the commotion of the water appearing like an earthquake. Either that or Matt was again altering his source to introduce an earthquake as he does at the death scene.
All three use the word seismos as one of the signs. If storms were intended, the authors would have used the word for storms, lailaps.
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Acts 15
by peacefulpete inacts 15. the pericope has been long interpreted by the catholic church as a proof text for a central authority.
churches like the wt repeat this claim.
however, reading the text without this coloring reveals something very different.. the story starts with paul and barnabas going to the antioch church and there they encounter pharisee christians from jerusalem (15:24) contradicting the doctrine held by the antioch church.
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peacefulpete
Acts 15
The pericope has been long interpreted by the Catholic Church as a proof text for a central authority. Churches like the WT repeat this claim. However, reading the text without this coloring reveals something very different.
The story starts with Paul and Barnabas going to the Antioch church and there they encounter Pharisee Christians from Jerusalem (15:24) contradicting the doctrine held by the Antioch church. The church leaders in Antioch send Paul and Barnabas to go to the church these guys were from (Jerusalem) and find out if they had in fact sent them with what was deemed heretical doctrine by Paul. They are greeted and a short airing of opinions ensues. Then the leaders of the Jerusalem church make clear they in fact had not sent the guys and they did not agree with them (again 15:24). Then James declares his opinion is that the Pharisee brothers needed to accept the changes but at the same time thought it best if the Antioch church would accommodate the Jewish Christians on matters that they (the Pharisees) regarded as "essential/necessary" The Jerusalem church then sent 2 guys along with Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch to ensure the relationship between churches was 'back on track'.
IMO the story was created was to create the impression that these powerful churches had in fact been unified at an early date (6:5 also) not to suggest Jerusalem was in control. However, soon after, the Catholic church used it to support the role of Rome and the apostolic succession doctrine. The long Catholic tradition has widely influenced the interpretation of this story. It has also influenced the translating with words like "commanded" rather than 'Instructed' and James saying I "judge" rather than 'in my opinion'. (Unless we are conceding James was in charge of all Christians)
BTW, Paul effectively denies this version of history in Gal 2.
Also Acts 21:21 relates a slightly different version wherein Paul has to be informed of the Jerusalem letters distributed rather than Paul being present and involved in the distribution of the letters. This contradiction reflects the complicated textual history of the work.
As an aside, this pericope has many textural variants. A number of manuscripts changed the list of necessary things or preserved an older form. And what also cues me editing is involved is the simple change from a definite article before each item in the list in verse 20 to no articles in 29. A small thing but reflecting a different hand IMO.
For a modern student of religious studies, the text represents a Proto-Orthodox polemical attempt to revise the story of Christian beginnings. The pericope is a 2nd century retrojection of unity between the historically divided branches of Christianity.
The story certainly reflects real issues of the day that divided the churches and it is possible that some early effort was made to find a middle ground. Paulinist positions on sexuality (real or perceived) and freedom from ceremonial taboos were upsetting Jewish Christian converts around Jerusalem. (Acts 21:21) It appears to me however that this argument was of secondary importance to the author of Acts 15. The subject merely served as part of the plot, as a literary device. The historical divisions over Jewish views of ritual and sex were well known to the second century readers, (in fact little had changed by the time of the writing of Acts) and would serve the story purpose of uniting the branches of Christianity of the early 2nd century.
Some might add a secondary purpose, that of supporting a central hierarchal church structure. I am not presently convinced this is evidenced by the story details, but it certainly was used that way and has influenced the translating.