I pray to Joe Pesci
Saintbertholdt
JoinedPosts by Saintbertholdt
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74
That's it! The Jesus stories are most reasonably explained as myth. History makes this obvious.
by Island Man ina careful examination of the historical pagan religious context existing at the time of the genesis of christianity leads any reasonable person to conclude that jesus is just another one of several similar myths.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7teoa9ark.
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74
That's it! The Jesus stories are most reasonably explained as myth. History makes this obvious.
by Island Man ina careful examination of the historical pagan religious context existing at the time of the genesis of christianity leads any reasonable person to conclude that jesus is just another one of several similar myths.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7teoa9ark.
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Saintbertholdt
That a man called Jesus existed that roamed in Palestine and that claimed to be a Messiah is actually not a stretch at all. That he garnered disciples is also not a stretch.
In the 20th century there was a similar type of fellow. Charles Manson was not allowed to testify in front of a jury for fear that he would unduly influence the jury members. If you have ever watched an uncut interview with the man (where Manson hasn't been doped up with tranquilizers), you'll notice he's very convincing, charismatic, crazy but also has a coherent original philosophy even though he is a lay person. He has claimed to be Jesus (sometimes) but more a human incarnation of Abraxis. To this day he still receives thousands of letters a year from followers and admirers.
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110
Just had a former elder friend tell me, “This Overlapping generation is crap.
by John Aquila inlast night i ran into a former elder friend, he is in his late 70s.
he asked how i was doing and i asked how he was doing.
then out of the blue he tells me; .
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Saintbertholdt
I think it's exciting because just a few years ago, there was still some believability in what the organization said, but not anymore.
So they finally jumped the shark?
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21
Saturday morning us newly weds visited by closet gay Special pioneer see why we stayed home!!? WIERD!!
by Witness 007 infirst let me tell you about george (his real name) the special pioneer.
not that good looking...a bit goofy, he had spiritual sisters literally ask him to date and flutter eyelids because of his positon.
he always made excuses about why sisters were "not his type"...had a bedroom full of pics of him hugging other brothers with a content strange look on his face....like this is my girlfriend look!
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Saintbertholdt
Every good army, physical or spiritual, needs sterling tail gunners.
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24
If they go bankrupt, so what?
by maksutov init seems likely that the watchtower is worried about its finances, given the downsizing, property schemes, and money-grabs we have been seeing over the last few years.
perhaps they suffered badly from the financial crisis.
for sure, there will be more expenses to come from child abuse payouts.
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Saintbertholdt
My own worst projection for the Watchtower looks as follows:
For example: On 5 November 2017 the Watchtower declares chapter 11.
Who knows why? Perhaps bad investments, and they run out of funds during their building project upheaval and end up making lots of debt that the faithful can't cover. Who knows? Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria. Then the scandals keep on coming (sexual abuse, lawsuits etc.) and they do something really dumb like they try another date prediction, which backfires.The Average publisher level in 2050 is 1.38 million. Very bad but the organization still survives. Come to think of it, its actually not that bad for the Governing Body. The Risk of Ruin of the organization is virtually zero.
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17
A note on the Watchtowers property investments
by Saintbertholdt inabout a year ago there was a thread regarding the 2008 watchtower bible and tract society of new yorks tax return.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/287098/2008-watchtower-income-tax-return?page=1.
a reference was made to the provictor property fund iv which was listed as their primary alternate business activity.. turns out that at that time 75% of the chrysler building was owned by the provictor property fund iv until it was sold during that year.. http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/09/news/international/chrysler_building/?postversion=2008070913.
just thought you should know :).
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Saintbertholdt
Hello there,
About a year ago there was a thread regarding the 2008 Watchtower Bible and tract Society of New Yorks tax return.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/287098/2008-watchtower-income-tax-return?page=1
A reference was made to the Provictor Property Fund IV which was listed as their primary alternate business activity.
Turns out that at that time 75% of the Chrysler Building was owned by the Provictor Property fund IV until it was sold during that year.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/09/news/international/chrysler_building/?postversion=2008070913
Just thought you should know :)
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79
Death is not something to be feared!
by iconoclastic inscience can explain how of things, but it cannot explain why of certain things (for example, why did life arise from non-life and evolved from simpler creatures to more complex life forms only to die and disappear?
) so are the conflicted religions whose chief concern is in safeguarding each ones separate identity..
next option is to look for pearls among the stonesusing power of our own reason.
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Saintbertholdt
(although Neil deGrasse Tyson comes close, IMO).
Yeah he has inherited the title of chief science communicator :)
Why is only Carl Sagan singled out? Why does no one touch Abraham Linclon, Shakespeare, Will Durant?
I'll touch Will Durant. You didn't half quote him but generally I disagree with his prediction of secularism causing society's downfall. He looks to Greece and Rome but he ignores the fact that those cultures did not replace religion with secularism, but mainly replaced religion with hedonism. On the other hand Durants fear is actually a good cautionary phobia which modern society should still take note of.
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79
Death is not something to be feared!
by iconoclastic inscience can explain how of things, but it cannot explain why of certain things (for example, why did life arise from non-life and evolved from simpler creatures to more complex life forms only to die and disappear?
) so are the conflicted religions whose chief concern is in safeguarding each ones separate identity..
next option is to look for pearls among the stonesusing power of our own reason.
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Saintbertholdt
Carl Sagan was also a marijuana user, who felt it enhanced his creative process and had other benefits.
How I loved that man.
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79
Death is not something to be feared!
by iconoclastic inscience can explain how of things, but it cannot explain why of certain things (for example, why did life arise from non-life and evolved from simpler creatures to more complex life forms only to die and disappear?
) so are the conflicted religions whose chief concern is in safeguarding each ones separate identity..
next option is to look for pearls among the stonesusing power of our own reason.
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Saintbertholdt
Carl Sagan WAS strictly scientific.
He was also poetic. From cosmos (1980): "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries."
and
"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it's forever."
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3
Who has the latest stats?
by Dogpatch inwho has the latest stats on watchtower growth?.
the most complete?.
(i've lost the link somewhere).
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Saintbertholdt
Anyone?
(It's been 13 years since Randy asked this question.)I'm still looking into it. My modem login to AOL only went through three years ago and my pc is a bit slow.
In the meantime Marley Cole's Jehovah's Witnesses New World Society has reasonably up to date stats.