Posts by kaik

63

How dishonest was the Apostle Paul?

by opusdei1972 in

may be some of you will be shocked by this question.

however, when i was studying the bible with critical eyes i detected that paul ( or saul of tarsus) misquoted the hebrew bible in order to get false support for his arguments.

of course, this tricky kind of use of the "scriptures" was not only used by him, but others, like the author of the gospel of matthew got unsupported doctrines misquoting verses.

kaik

I would also add regarding long hair.. Paul was a Roman citizen and as such influenced by customs normal in the Roman Empire. He lived during the reign of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, where behavior, fashions and standards were dictated by imperial court. What was fashionable in the court, entire empire followed. The long hair fashion was disapproved by Caligula, who was bald by age 25 and had very big handicap from it. He did not allowed men with long hair around him or hoovering over him due balding.

When I read Paul with view that it was written by Roman person who acted on it when it was profitable and suitable, I cannot shake negative feeling on him. Additionally, it is rather ridiculous when Paul demanded a justice from the hand of Emperor Nero.

28

Ray Franz and You.

by John Aquila in

if ray franz would have kept his mouth shut and not disfellowshipped, and remained part of the governing body how many of us ex-jw would still be trapped in the cult?.

would we have come this far?.

kaik

He did not had effect on my decision. I have only read his book some years later after I had left. There were people who left WT cult before him and they will be people leaving regardless if he stayed in highest circle of the borg.

36

Human Potential is Awesome - We Visited Pluto Today

by cofty in

nasa's probe "new horizons" was launched in 2006 and since then has been speeding across 3 billion miles of space to the most distant planet in our solar system.. the first pictures arrived today with higher resolution images due tomorrow.. i fu~~ing love science.. more details from the bbc here.... .

kaik

I wish we have technology that would allows us to investigate space beyond the solar system like Oort clouds that would tells us more about origin of our Sun and Earth. Unfortunately by the time the satellites reach Kuiper belt, the communication with Earth is not possible as the batteries and power in them is too weak or depleted. New Horizon is would provide interesting information on Kuiper belt all the way till 2030 or so. If any new satellite are launched to investigate the edges of our solar system, by the time it reaches, we will not be alive to see it.

2

Youth Unemployment in Europe - Will there be Social Consequences?

by fulltimestudent in

think for a moment about this chart and wonder as to effect that unemployment may have on young people.. .

kaik

As you can see there is a huge gap between southern Europe and countries north of the Alps. The issue in the south is that entire generation is growing without gaining employable skills and working habits like waking up for work and having responsibilities. Also it is crucial that youth unemployment rate in USA is also high, officially around 13-15%, which is on level UK, but higher than Germany. Also the statistics should look overall entire workforce where labor participation in many EU countries is much higher than in USA. In Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Austria, the number is about 70% for 18-65 year old, much higher than in USA where is hoovering around 60%. Actually, Germany has the highest labor participation rate since 1990. Czech Republic since 1994. Big issue in EU is the mobility, but USA youth labor force is skewed by such thing as much higher incarceration rate and higher military participation than in EU.

69

The 1995 Generation Change

by sloppyjoe2 in

jw
friends

i was just a teenager and have a vivid memory of sitting in a chair doing a microphone for the sunday meeting.

everyone was commenting that it didn't mean the end was far off, and it didn't change the condition of the dead, or the 144,000, or the trinity so we should still remain faithful.

this is my first memory as a kid being just a teen that i ever had a single doubt.

kaik

I left prior this overlapping generation nonsense. After my family informed me on the new light as "yeah, the generations of 1914 can mean multiple biogenesis", I knew my decision to walk away from JW was alright. My sibling explained that last generation was in fact, generation spanning of several centuries, because people were the witnesses of the last day. In the KH they explained that renaissance generation was all generations between 1450 and 1600 because all these people were part of the same event.

43

My sister is being harassed by the elders

by opusdei1972 in

sometime ago i wrote here in this forum about the case of my sister, who decided to stop attending the meetings because she realised that the watchtower society is an evil organization.

this happened more than one year ago.

i am not living in the same country of my sister, so i learn about her case when she calls me or when she write me through whatsapp.

kaik

Your sister should call police and file police report subsequently.

9

The end of a Chinese 'nail' house

by fulltimestudent in

disputes between residents of resumed property in china, often become dramatic, as in these two cases.. .

these problems are not unique to china, but can arise in any society when the community (government) wants to use the land on which a house stands for somethings different (e.g.

a new school, roads, railways, etc).

kaik

This is a problem in the Czech Republic where after the fall of communism people insist to hold on property and would not negotiate a sell while it is often necessary for many infrastructure project. At the extreme cases the sales has to be forced by the court, but people often accuse the government of communist theft practice. Some cases it is a disaster, where government cannot build flood barriers after disastrous floods of 1997/2002 because people would not sell the land and would let tens of thousands people to suffer as consequences. One place there was old guy who refused to sell a part of the land for city bypass, and it was not until his granddaughter was run over and killed by a truck. He was the loudest afterwards accusing the municipality for not building the bypass. Unfortunately in many cases, the government has very little ways to prevent speculation on properties or forcing a sale of the land for the better good of the community.

52

Try Other Religions

by Sofia Lose in

sometimes i get a strong curiosity to start dabbling into other religions, other faiths, you know?

really different ones such as islam, judaism, hinduism, etc.. has anyone here looked into something else?

has your spirituality been satisfied by any other than christianity?.

kaik

My conclusion dealing with Christianity, it is a fraud faith by selling snake oil for a promise of reward after someone have died. It is unverified, unconfirmed assurance to make present life on this earth at this time worthless by promising something after death. To me, spirituality is an invention of mind. I love medieval Christianity with all these Gothic churches, cathedrals, and abbeys, other non-european non Christian crowd feel ambivalent to it, and thus make spirituality ethnocentric.

I have studied with rabbi and my in-laws are Jewish ranging from non-practicing Jews in sense of religion but maintain Jewish customs and culture as way of life to my mother-in-law who is born into Orthodox family. Jews do not have centralized faith. My in-laws do not proselyte me nor have forced me to follow their customs and traditions. We do not talk about religion unless we have a reason to bring it up.

Anyway, chasing a spirituality is like chasing the castle in the air, while distracting society from dealing with real issues like social inequality, environment, mismanagement of public finances. If someone is spiritual and hopes to live on that castle in the air, he or she can care less what this earth looks like.

4

Greece-China-United States-Financial collapse. But Jehovah protects the Watchtower.

by John Aquila in

the financial collapse that might happen in greece---could it happen in the u.s. .

if so, how would it affect the watchtower?

or is the wt impervious to everything?

kaik

Financial booms and busts are part of the market cycle and were known already in the 19th century as a natural course of the economy. Economic collapses happened in every type of economy everywhere, from Roman Empire to medieval European economy to industrial economies of the 19th to 21st century. What we see is happening is return to normal cycle of economy after robust stock growth in the last seven years (while incomes have not grew up), and market corrections are inevitable. Some economists already describe the economy of the 21st century as a return to cycle of several years of growth followed by recession to similar phenomena that happened between 1870 and 1907 with on and off economic growth. Income grew only due better productivity and plunging value of raw materials.

Recession will hit WT money flow as there will be less donations and much of the real estate won't be worth much. Some sales were KH were postponed after 2008 recession due plunging values. In Prague, the local bethel suppose to be sold in 2009 after its closure, but collapse of the real estate prices and weakening Czech crown made this sale less profitable. The branch sale was postponed indefinitely and what I have heard because the value is less than was six years ago.

59

A difficult yet necessary decision

by Brother Jeramy in

the past five weeks have been perhaps the most painful in my life as a witness.. some months ago a young man (i'd say in his late thirties or early forties) began attending meetings at my kingdom hall.

he had just moved to my area from another state.

he had disassociated himself from his home congregation many years back, when he was 20 years old and going through many of the typical trials and temptations most young men experience.. two of the elders met with him initially, and they later shared the details with the body of elders.

kaik

Generally once person stumble, there is little forgiveness and it lingers permanently with your personal record to the death. Exception are if the person has extensive family in the KH that irons the wrinkles on the persona. My sibling was not DA or DF, but had some issues in the past where until today some JW consider my sibling to be reinstated apostate (but this is not true). I also knew a a person whose husband was elder, but she was not. She actually opposed until he died, and she got baptized after his death. However, the association of her past lingered and lingered and many JWs ostracized her for her prior action. Nonetheless, she is very nice person and I really liked her, but elderette wives always mentioned her past behind her back.