Posts by kaik

179

Largest amount of refugees since WW2 in Europe

by Powermetal4ever in

jw
friends

so i had a discussion with my mother about this, and she claims that because of this that: "we are surely living in the last days right now" while i must admit myself that the situation seem chaotic, i don't want to believe that it is the last days.

so question is, how do i face an opinion like that?

kaik

WWII was a case for own, especially on Germans who were resettled by force from the Central and Eastern Europe into Germany. Some areas of Czech Republic and Poland still bear marks of sudden depopulation from 1945-1948 and had not recovered. Western Bohemia is one of the prime example, so is Silesia in Poland. Mass population movements even by violent means are nothing new in the world's history. During the movement of nations, several millions of people from Goths to Huns to Slavs to Saxons moved westward and in the process destroyed anything what was associated with Roman civilization. Often these people did NOT want to destroy Rome, they just wanted to live as good and prosperous as the Roman citizens, but they were unable to cope with the requirements of the Roman society. China experienced similar movement under the onslaught of Mongols in the 13th and 14th century where several millions of them migrated to south to escape them. Generally, the mass exodus is triggered by some widespread crisis. They spell nothing good and will destabilize everything in the path.

I believe the outcome from it will be collapse of the EU as political entity and each country will protect is borders from invasion. Hungary is already deploying militarized force, Czech Republic and Slovakia is very close to seal borders by its military. There is very close step the refugee crisis will be stopped by military means at any cost. I am old enough to remember Iron Curtain and how borders were sealed and very difficult to travel within Eastern Block or to the West. Germany, Sweden, France, and UK can very little do to stop them, and besides, these countries care less what the European powerhouses think. They see them as weak.

179

Largest amount of refugees since WW2 in Europe

by Powermetal4ever in

jw
friends

so i had a discussion with my mother about this, and she claims that because of this that: "we are surely living in the last days right now" while i must admit myself that the situation seem chaotic, i don't want to believe that it is the last days.

so question is, how do i face an opinion like that?

kaik

In the history of the mankind, 14th century was probably the hardest on world population due Black Death, Mongol/Timur wars, and 100 Years War. This whipped out half of the humanity. Chinese population dropped by 1/2, European by 2/3 by the end of the century. For example population of France did not recover from the crisis until in the 1700's. Bohemia had 3 million people around 1350 but only 800,000 by 1500s. It did not reach the population peak again until 1620 and yet later until 1750. Middle East and India had similar drop of population, somewhere between 50% and 80%. Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Central Asia were depopulated for 400 years.

Prior 1350 crisis, similar depopulation happened in 500-550 coinciding with the collapse of the Roman civilization and culture of the Antiquity. Plague of Justinian killed between 30 to 50 million of people. Population of Italy dropped from 12 millions to two and entire western Europe was emptied out. Cities disappeared under time all over the known world in the matter of 50-75 years. Some places, the population shrunk so much that entire city moved to local arena in order to survive. Similar process of depopulation happened in Middle East and China which was fragmented into many smaller kingdoms.

Other scholars will say that collapse of the Bronze Age civilization after 1200BC was also as bad as the collapse of the Roman civilization. Entire civilizations from Mycenae Greece to Hittites to China collapsed as well. This is often attributed by volcanic explosion of Hekla in Iceland (around 1130 BC) which caused widespread cooling of the northern hemisphere for several decades, and destroying food supplies during the Bronze Age.

41

The elders of the 1980s are now in their 60s and 70s

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

having just come back from the uk and spoke with some witnesses to find out how my old congregation is doing, i realized i am now the age that my elders were when i was a kid.

and i wonder what the elders who are now in their 60s and 70s are thinking when they look in the mirror and an old face looks back at them.

many of the elders in my old hall are now retired.

kaik

My mom is 79 and she is resigned that she would see the end. I was the youngest grandchild, so many of my cousins are between age 50 and 60 and they thought that the end will be in their prime years. Their mom, my JW aunt is dead for 15 years, and they still maintain her bedroom and all her clothing because she will be resurrected shortly. Two of my cousins are elders and they think the big "A" is just behind the corner. They told my mom last month that she is wasting her time to go for hip surgery in the fall, because it is 101 years since Jesus rule and reminder her that while she is on surgery and recovery, she would miss a chance to jump into the arc and survive Armageddon in THIS year.

Elders in my old KH are either dead, debilitated by age, or resigned, but still insist that the End is near. They are not giving up. It is hard when for 70 years people are brainwashed for the End to come to realize that the only end they will see is their own biological. I have yet to meet elder JW who would admit that the end is not coming in his lifetime.

179

Largest amount of refugees since WW2 in Europe

by Powermetal4ever in

jw
friends

so i had a discussion with my mother about this, and she claims that because of this that: "we are surely living in the last days right now" while i must admit myself that the situation seem chaotic, i don't want to believe that it is the last days.

so question is, how do i face an opinion like that?

kaik

I returned from Europe couple days ago, and the refugee crisis is real and it creates a havoc in the society. It radicalize the majority of population while politicians are refusing to address the issue. It also singled out left-wing liberals as the main supporter of the refugee crisis, which means that upcoming elections, they will be routed up. Additionally, Catholic church is stepping up to accept as many refugees into its wing to offset losing membership on the Continent. Any case, majority population is against the refugees and will be a matter of time, when they will take a things into their hands because governments are refusing to address it. The craziest country there is Germany and France. In Germany it is going so far, that the government will size private properties that are not used by the owners to house the refugees. There are widespread anti-refugee riots in Germany, but censorship is so strong that it is even not mentioned in the local press. In the Czech Republic, all discussions against refugees are blocked, and biggest opponents are prosecuted or threatened with arrest. Slovakia is not much better. Only Hungary seems to stop it at any means, even considering to use armed forces to stop the refugees on the borders.

27

Nearly Killing My Mother Wasn't Enough !

by cookiemaster in

as some of you might have read last week, my mother had extremely low hemoglobin and without it, she would have died.

i have somehow managed to bring her to reason and accept the transfusion.

it saved her life.

kaik

I am not sure if you can file with local police first for endangerment of elderly. It could be criminal what they been doing, and it will give a space for you and your mom for them to back off until she recovers.

28

help me understand: My wife seems to be utterly detested by skelletons and skulls. Why?

by goingthruthemotions in

so, here i am again....asking more questions to help me understand my wife.

she was brought up in the cult in the 70's and 80's.

so i can only imagine what kind of indoctrination she deals with.

kaik

Many years ago I helped on of my acquaintances who is an artist with Czech translation on the Bone churches of Bohemia. At that time he had a theme which was has to do with macabre arts for some Halloween production and I introduced him into this heritage of medieval Europe. Sedlec ossuary appeared in several movies like Dungeon and Dragons. In the peak of the medieval times, there were at least 250 of these Bone churches in Kingdom of Bohemia alone, from which 1/4 survived until today. I have not feel anything negative by visiting these sites. I actually find them peaceful. It also tells me that JW beliefs on resurrection is all BS. All these million of people lived, had dreams, and died, and nothing is left of them than bones. There won't be any earthly resurrection, Earth cannot accommodate all these people (about 90 billions). JWs are afraid of these places, because it will reveal how deficient is the system of beliefs, especially dealing with death.

Evora in Portugal, Kudowa in Poland, or Milano are known for its Bone Churches. There are probably hundreds of more around Europe, forgotten and hidden from public eye. If sex was a taboo in 18th and especially in 19th century, the death is the taboo of the 21st century. Skulls and bones are not demonic nor has nothing to do with occultism. It is one of the made-up WT things to control its members.

34

Hebrew Was The First Language

by Bloody Hotdogs! in

according to the newest watchtower:.

jehovah communicated with adam in the garden of eden, using human language.

god likely did so in an ancient form of hebrew.

kaik

WT claims the Hebrew language for Adam and Eve for decades. I remember these claims 30 years ago when in the 1980's there was an article in WT where Adam named animals in the Hebrew language. As other had said, WT debated it for at least half-century.

35

why did the sacrafice have to be so BRUTAL

by Tater-T in

why did the sacrifice have to be so brutal... i mean what value does that add to the equation of justice.couldn't he jesus have came down and just been slaughtered like a regular sacrifice without the brutal torture.why is justice served by brutalityanyone anyone bueller... lolnow you know i don't like to type for hours but this is always bothered me

kaik

From Judaism point of view, Jesus sacrifice is invalid and does not make any sense. It never made sense to me either. Jews do not believe that someone can pay out anyone sin, but only you are responsible for your own sin and inability to uphold the Laws.

We also need to look into the era, when Roman ruled the known world and their execution methods were extremely harsh, brutal, and painful. Idea that person should not suffer through execution is rather modern under influence of the French Revolution and Enlightened thinking. However, until that time for thousands of years, executions were extremely brutal. Modern era starting with a French Revolution needed more efficient way to dispose thousands of people, thus less painful methods were implemented. Guillotine in France between 1792-1795 executed around 35000 people. It would be much more difficult to end lives of so many people if government would have to break victims on wheels.

39

Let’s Speculate!!!

by John Aquila in

you know the organization is slowly going down.

not as fast as we would wish, but nevertheless it is crumbling.

five (5) year old child baptisms, smaller magazines, child sexual abuse exposed, smaller annual growth, no one wants to reach out, young ones leaving.

kaik

Many of you have wishful thinking, but in reality, JWs are not going anywhere. They will be here, but transformed from the religion we had left. Many predicted WT collapse 40 years ago, but suckers into the organization are born in every minute. WT may even prefer smaller organization of loyal followers over larger pack of followers with 20 million people which would be much harder to maintain, indoctrinate, and control. GB would be still well fed and happy with 8 million followers.

One of the issue is that religious organizations tends to outlive its founders for decades and centuries. WT can last very, very long time.

28

help me understand: My wife seems to be utterly detested by skelletons and skulls. Why?

by goingthruthemotions in

so, here i am again....asking more questions to help me understand my wife.

she was brought up in the cult in the 70's and 80's.

so i can only imagine what kind of indoctrination she deals with.

kaik

Skeletons had different meaning in different times. Medieval Europe was fascinated with the issue of death after Black Death pandemic and throughout the Catholic world, many charnel houses were build around Europe. These ossuaries were often called the Church of the Bones. They were a reminder to people that life is temporary, while the death is permanent. Bones also symbolized the building block of the human body, so the bones were used in the churches as a building block in true spiritual and religious sense for these people. In the peak of the late feudal era, there were hundreds of these charnel houses around Europe. In Czech Republic there are still several Bone churches open to public. While many people in the 21st century are puzzled by the existence, they were nothing to be feared in the middle ages. I had visited several of them and I really liked them. I think how these people looked, what were their hopes and worries, what they were doing for livelihood, and how they died.

Some of the bone churches in Bohemia: