Posts by peacefulpete

23

Where Adam and Eve Vegan/Vegetarian?

by KerryKing in

jws seem to firmly believe that before the flood mankind eas vegan or at least vegetarian.. however, in gen 1:24,25 it says that god created livestock (domestic animals) and beasts of the eart (wild beasts).. why would adam and eve need livestock if they were vegan and naked?

wouldn't need wool or hide for clothing, nor meat for food.

possibly for dairy products only?

peacefulpete

As a recent poster, and fluent Jew, has argued, our literalist/Fundamentalist training is very difficult to see around. Tales and stories need not be read as documentaries (and generally shouldn't) to have profound importance for teachers and students. Suspending our critical mind to enter the stories to try to feel what the author intended is not the same thing as dismissing the stories as worthless 'lies'. Nor is it the same as mistaking stories as history and dismissing scientific and historical reality.

It's a big pill to swallow, I know.

23

Where Adam and Eve Vegan/Vegetarian?

by KerryKing in

jws seem to firmly believe that before the flood mankind eas vegan or at least vegetarian.. however, in gen 1:24,25 it says that god created livestock (domestic animals) and beasts of the eart (wild beasts).. why would adam and eve need livestock if they were vegan and naked?

wouldn't need wool or hide for clothing, nor meat for food.

possibly for dairy products only?

peacefulpete

Kerry...the two versions of creation stories are both in Genesis. Roughly chapter 1-2:3 and chapt 2:4-3. Note the end of the first version at 2:2,3 is a conclusion, then the redactor/compiler introduces a new creation story immediately after with a new introduction (2:4).

They are completely different in just about every way.

16

League of Nations as the disgusting thing that causes desolation

by xaminewt in

so, the organization says the “disgusting thing that causes desolation” in daniel 11:31 is the united nations being set up in 1945, but in daniel 12:11 when they interpret the 1,290 days they say it’s the league of nations in 1919. please could someone play devils advocate and tell why this could be anything but inconsistent?

.

peacefulpete

Daniel Made Simple!

23

Where Adam and Eve Vegan/Vegetarian?

by KerryKing in

jws seem to firmly believe that before the flood mankind eas vegan or at least vegetarian.. however, in gen 1:24,25 it says that god created livestock (domestic animals) and beasts of the eart (wild beasts).. why would adam and eve need livestock if they were vegan and naked?

wouldn't need wool or hide for clothing, nor meat for food.

possibly for dairy products only?

peacefulpete

Remember there are two creation stories. The first in Genesis 1-2:2 (traditionally ascribed to P, Priestly) has a particular focus on the exclusivity of temple rite and Sabbath (7-day template). In this version, animals and people only eat vegetation, because in his idealized past blood is never shed not even by animals. Blood is reserved for sacrifices (that only comes later with the Moses Tabernacle story and performed by priests). In his mind therefore, the imagined golden beginning has no blood shed. P picks up again with his version of a Flood story, after which it has God grant humans a carnivorous diet (but does not have Noah do a sacrifice).

In contrast, J (the Yahwist Gen 2:3-) has animals used (skinned for clothes, and sacrificed (Abel and Noah) right from the beginning. J having Abel and Noah doing sacrifices explains why he has 7 pairs of "clean" animals whereas P only has 1 pair of all animals.

The two stories were each idealizations, filled with allegory. They were never supposed to exist side by side, and didn't until a compiler in the Persian period made it so.

152

Do JWs believe Jesus is an angel?

by slimboyfat in

i would suggest:.

the short answer is yes.. the longer answer is a qualified yes, with some caveats.

the short answer is yes because jehovah’s witnesses teach that jesus is michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful, and have taught this since the very beginning of the religion.

peacefulpete

deleted just because.

115

Vice President Kamala Harris…your thoughts??

by minimus in

jw
friends

good pick?

bad pick?

helpful to president biden?

peacefulpete

PolitiFact | In Context: What Gov. Tim Walz said about the border wall and investing in a 'ladder factory'

Not that facts matter or character or words or criminal records or anything.

152

Do JWs believe Jesus is an angel?

by slimboyfat in

i would suggest:.

the short answer is yes.. the longer answer is a qualified yes, with some caveats.

the short answer is yes because jehovah’s witnesses teach that jesus is michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful, and have taught this since the very beginning of the religion.

peacefulpete

In contexts like this, responses like, "You believe in God, don't you?" or ""You believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, don't you?" are classic thought stoppers. They put the brakes on rational dispassionate discussion through a rhetorical religious test. The one who says them is simultaneously saying they will not engage on that topic and that someone who doesn't pass the test is not worthy of being taken serious.

It's not just JWs who use thought stopping triggers phrases.

16

League of Nations as the disgusting thing that causes desolation

by xaminewt in

so, the organization says the “disgusting thing that causes desolation” in daniel 11:31 is the united nations being set up in 1945, but in daniel 12:11 when they interpret the 1,290 days they say it’s the league of nations in 1919. please could someone play devils advocate and tell why this could be anything but inconsistent?

.

peacefulpete

Some might find this really old thread interesting.

The UN, was the WTS given special knowledge?

43

Is 1st Century advice on marriage still relevant in today’s modern world?

by liam in

republicans want to make a law that forbids ‘uncontested divorce”.

they based this on this scripture.. matthew 19. is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”.

4 “haven’t you read,” jesus replied, “that at the beginning the creator ‘made them male and female,’and said, ‘for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’ so they are no longer two, but one flesh.

peacefulpete

Mark 10:11,12 has Jesus forbid divorce for anyone. When the redactor of Matt revised this passage, he added the interrupter phrase, "except for porneia" he was reflecting the times and community he lived in. Interestingly G. Luke (16:18) either saw and disagreed with the redactor of Matt or it was not yet in the copy of Matt he was using. He also has Jesus forbid divorce on any grounds.

75

God won't lift a finger to help you.

by nicolaou in

sea breeze: @nicolau,i stated my case rather succiently, which you failed to address.

if you have a better solution to the problem of evil than what jesus offers, then why don't you present that in a new topic?.

pathetic diversion.

peacefulpete

Life is not hopeless of meaningless because it is limited in scope. I cannot leap more than a few feet but that does not make my legs worthless. I cannot do advanced math in my head but that doesn't make my thoughts without value. Every day has an evening but that doesn't mean we don't enjoy and appreciate the sunlight.

How strange the idea that some have, that if we cannot live forever there is no 'point' to living. We sound like whining children demanding more candy when we have handfuls in our pockets.

Equally inane is the trope that if we were not the willful product of a deity we have no purpose. Years ago I learned I wasn't a planned child, ought I have concluded I had no value, and my life was purposeless?