Come to think of it, this is a continuation of the same trend seen in the announcement that "the toes mean nothing". Now it's "the loaves mean nothing", "the talents mean nothing", "the goggles do nothing", etc. Oops, that last one is from something else.
Apognophos
JoinedPosts by Apognophos
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AGM 2014 Detailed Highlights - including talks summary.
by Da.Furious init is more likely to be one attack under different names.. gog of magog is not satan but a coalition of nations.
1. what do talents represent?
so who has the 5 talents?
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Apognophos
In a way, I think "new light" triggers the same part of the brain in true believers that is triggered for gamers who get an Achievement on an Xbox or Steam game. It's like, "Wow, I made a little progress! Good for me!" It gives a constant feeling of incremental improvement. When a speaker at a convention is relating something new to the audience ("The toes mean nothing!"), a little 'ding' should sound and a message appear, "New Light Unlocked: -THE TOES MEAN NOTHING-".
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A "My Book of Bible Stories" tale that I've always hated
by JimmyPage ini've always hated story #53: "jepthah's promise".
i always felt sorry for the daughter who had to spend the rest of her days at the tabernacle because her father made a numb-nuts promise to god.
who did he think he was, making promises for other people?
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Apognophos
It's true, the ancient Hebrew is alarmingly brief and simple when you read a direct translation. Reminds me of Japanese, actually. Much of every sentence is inferred rather than verbalized.
Then, to make matters worse, you're looking at an ancient language where word meaning has shifted in the modern form, and some words are hapax legomena only translateable by guesswork, and on top of that, the text often shows the hand of two or three groups involved at different times in editing or compiling the stories.
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JWs and Exclusivity
by Don Schneider injesus, mark 9-40 (nwt).
the jehovahs witnesses assert exclusivity.
that is, they are the only true christian faith.
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Apognophos
Interesting thread. Welcome, Don. I and a number of others here are in fact active Witnesses, which is to be contrasted with believing Witnesses. Our actual beliefs range from "the Society has most things right" to "total atheist".
I suppose the Society's explanation of Jesus' words makes sense, as long as one accepts that Jesus would make a statement that was very temporally limited: 'Whoever is not against us is for us... until such time as the first Christian congregation is established. Then whoever is not for us is against us.'
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Killing In Self Defense
by Cold Steel inthe man was moving around in the darkness of j's home with a gun.
he was certain j. and his family weren't there, but he was wrong.
when a door suddenly opened and a dark figure fumbled for the hallway light, he had only a moment to act.
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Apognophos
Are you saying that a JW has the right the defend his home and use deadly force?
The Society didn't say that; they said a person might die unintentionally from injuries sustained if a brother defends himself, and this would not place bloodguilt on the brother. That's different from saying that a brother can set out to use deadly force in self-defense, which could be extended to justify war.
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Apognophos
It could be simply convergent evolution.
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A "My Book of Bible Stories" tale that I've always hated
by JimmyPage ini've always hated story #53: "jepthah's promise".
i always felt sorry for the daughter who had to spend the rest of her days at the tabernacle because her father made a numb-nuts promise to god.
who did he think he was, making promises for other people?
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Apognophos
I also feel some confusion over this account. You'd think if it was an actual human sacrifice then it would be stated a bit more explicitly. It feels like a story that was softened in the process of writing it down in the text that eventually became part of the Bible.
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Apognophos
The sex drive is the strongest drive in an animal, isn't it? Besides maybe protecting offspring and self-preservation. So maybe #3. Well, imagine being the poor sucker whose genes tell him to be attracted mainly to kids.
That being said, the conscience should prevent them from acting much on that instinct because they should know that it's damaging to children and deeply upsetting to parents.
It's my personal suspicion that pedophiles who actively molest children are actually a combination of pedophile and sociopath.
However, to some degree they are probably also rationalizing desperately in order to be able to fulfill their basic instincts. Humans are remarkably good at rationalizing behaviors that come from deep-seated needs. So it could be that the inner conflict between conscience and pedophiliac instinct sometimes results in a deadening of the conscience, in effect making someone who was not born with sociopathy into a functionally sociopathic person.
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Watchtower April 15, 1928
by pixel inmy first post.
i'm new posting, but i feel like i now everybody here since i have been reading this forum since last year.
ok. to the thing: i would like to know if somebody here has a copy of the watchtower april 15, 1928 page 162, where it talks about that the bible has mistakes.
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Apognophos
Wow, this is new to me. Thanks for bumping, Mr.Pickles, and welcome. However it doesn't seem to me that the writer in the WT was saying that the enemy says this. They wrote "as every one knows". There are no quote marks to indicate that it's a statement attributed to some "enemy".
The only way I can understand the Society making this remark is if they mean that the modern translations of the Bible texts contain errors. The fact that the Society had not made their own translation yet would mean that this was in reference to Christendom's translations, which would make it a consistent statement with later criticisms of those translations.
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Apognophos
ptt7000, you're right, my post was not worded the way I meant it to be. The comment "look, they have all the printing presses and are still publishing Studies in the Scriptures, etc.!" was meant to refer to the Society back when Russell took it over. I know the Society has long since stopped printing those.
