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xero

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Everything posted by xero

  1. xero
    It's just Dan. His parents were missionaries and he used to be a pioneer, then he got DF'ed and reinstated. I don't know what it was for, but he's really sharp. I remember when I got him the DVD "Legally Blonde" for a graduation gift from law school (he'd previously refused to see it)...but anyway, he's super legalistic about everything. He'd hassle me about how long I conducted the meetings for FS and complain about how he was pioneering that month and needed to get in more time. So...I called his whiney little complaint and since I was pioneering too, I dragged him out in the Texas summer sun and we worked this whole hilly street about a mile long until sweat was dripping off the end of his nose at the door. Since he and I were like oil and water personality-wise I figured I needed to spend as much time w/him as possible to get over how much he annoyed me. (you know like when people only do service enough to hate it?...you have to push on through).
  2. xero
    Just out of curiosity (the lawyers thing made me think of this) ....How many people imagine the new world to be completely conflict free?
  3. xero
    Speaking of hellfire. How many here wish that Jesus had never used the illustration of Lazarus and the rich man?
  4. xero
    More on language. In Genesis, during the antediluvian times we see the blessed lineage, the line of Seth accomplishing nothing of note, whereas the lineage from Cain is engaging in all manner of building, engineering, music, etc. That implies something as well.
  5. xero
    Along these lines I decided to harass this one brother (who's really annoyed me, so fair play) ... he's an IRS Lawyer/CPA... anyway I asked him: "Dan...Could Jehovah have created Adam and Even with faux free will such that these imagined they were free to perform a forbidden or evil action, but lacked the capacity to actually act on the imagined act?" Dan says "Sure, Jehovah could have done that." I continue..."So then, if he had done that, would Adam or Eve have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and bad?" Dan responds "Well, no, of course." I ask..."So what do you suppose Adam and Eve have thought when presented with Satan's challenge" Dan says "I suppose they might have considered the situation, well at least Eve might, since it says she was deceived, but she wouldn't have eaten, because of not having free will. She'd have been wired to continue doing good, even though she had the capacity to consider doing the wrong thing." Then I say "In all this, though she would have felt free, though wouldn't she...both she and Adam?" Dan responds "In this thought experiment, the answer would be 'Yes'." Then I ask "So then, the fall of man, death and sin would never have taken place?" Dan says "Correct." And I continue "...and Adam and Eve would imagine in all this that they were still free moral agents." Dan says "That's what faux free will looks like." And I continue "So we'd all be in a paradise earth now, then wouldn't we, and none the wiser for lacking free will..." Dan says "Sure...." And I say "So why didn't Jehovah do it that way? We'd all be happy and be congratulating ourselves on how we we are so wise that we always obey Jehovah..." Dan says "Well Jehovah would know..." And I blurt out "So it's all about him is it?" Dan says "What about the angels? They'd know we didn't have free will?" I say "Would they? If Jehovah could make humans with faux free will, then couldn't he likewise do so with any sentient being giving some actual free will and some faux and not allowing the knowledge of who here or there actually possesses the same?" Dan says "What about love? They couldn't actually love each other or Jehovah." I say "With faux free will you could imagine you were doing so..." Then I say "Don't worry Dan. I'm sure we have free will. Maybe."
  6. xero
    Well it's very Calvinist. https://babylonbee.com/news/calvinist-explains-wife-didnt-choose-beard-beard-chose
  7. xero
    Kant was a pedant, who was wrong about his categorical imperative. He knew nothing about the scalability of actions or even the capability of any given actor performing a given action. I think of him as a pigeon walking in circles imagining he'd circumnavigated the globe.
  8. xero
    I suspect that the interpretation of the locus of the action leading to the hardening of pharaoh's heart is interpreted variously due to social values and ideas current at any given time. Both can be true with qualification. Jehovah has created this universe and all the natural cause-effect relations which allow for a measure of free will so one could say he caused the heart-hardening, on the other hand we could also say he allowed it insofar as he allows us to have free will. Of course we could ask how we pretend to know our will is free.
  9. xero
    Gallipoli (the movie) - Just because your leaders tell you something, doesn't mean A. They are lying or B. They always correct
  10. xero
    @JW Insider Where did the extra 2 years come from? 1943+100=2043. 2043-3960=1917 (adjusted no zero is 1916)
  11. xero
    The same thing is involved when I hear people say "I encouraged that brother". I always say, no you didn't. If you'll look and see he still appears to be discouraged. What you should have said is "I attempted to encourage that brother, but I failed."
  12. xero
    I liked the garden = 144 thingy. 144 x 10 x 10 x 10 = 144,000
  13. xero
  14. xero
    For example we've been recently admonished via scripture to "not hurry ourselves to become offended" and in the same admonishment hear the words "someone hurt our feelings". Do you see how the former suggests the locus of control is internal, that becoming offended is an act of the will on our part, whereas the latter is an external locus of control and lacking in free will, but rather a reaction to an external act? The latter, in my view is more along the lines of "I didn't like what you said" vs "you hurt my feelings" as if ones "feelings" was some naked worm crawling along the sidewalk defenseless against being stepped on.
  15. xero
    It's click "bait".
  16. xero
    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/19966-because-children-have-abounding-vitality-because-they-are-in-spirit
  17. xero
    What does red taste like, what does it sound like, what does it smell like? Is your perception of red the same as mine?
  18. xero
    It's next to the third tesseract on the left.
  19. xero
    You can't do that if you aren't attached to some kind of congregation. The scriptures are absolutely clear on this. You can dispute WHICH congregation of people who consider themselves Christians you should be attached to, but you can't avoid the attachment. Not if you are a TRUE Christian. A person in regular attendance at a baptist church imagining Jesus is part of a trinity is closer to the truth than an EX-JW who imagines he can go it alone.
  20. xero
    Imagine yourself living at the end of the 1st and the beginning of the second century and you were in one of the seven congregations. Imagine the letter was read to you how Jesus viewed your congregation. You also got to hear what he had to say about the other congregations. If you thought the others were getting a better report, would you abandon your congregation to move to the one with the better report, or would you have stayed and helped to improve it? Or would you have abandoned the project of being a Christian entirely imagining wrongly that you could go it alone. "It's just me, Jesus and Jehovah against the world of darkness out there!", you might imagine to yourself. (and you'd be wrong). You simply cannot be a Christian by yourself. You need the perpetual annoyances of the congregation to live up to the requirements. Oh, you might say to yourself "What about the baptists, the seventh day adventists, the christadelphians, the way or any other non-denomnational group. What about the catholics, lutherans, episcopalians, methodists, etc?" Well, I'd say, if you feel that these are better at following the bible, then you need to hook up with them ASAP and be a REAL Christian (if that's what these are and I'm not the ultimate judge) otherwise you're not a Christian, because you absolutely need to be attached to a congregation to be one.
  21. xero
    Like Tom pointed out earlier w/regard to the actual congregations of the 1st century - the congregations weren't free from strife. Why would anyone imagine it would be so today? To believe that you must not be reading your bible with any depth of understanding. In fact it seems sometimes that there's more there to give us all something to deal with - we get some great learning experiences.
  22. xero
    It's a reflex. Like <begin analogous shibboleth>Pudgy's dog.</end analogous shibboleth>
  23. xero
    In Texas we have Aggie jokes. I worked in an office w/a few Texas A&M grads and was always ripping them. "You know what you call this?", I asked one while holding up a black felt marker. "No", he replied. "It's an Aggie highlighter!", I responded. (yes I made that joke up allll by myself)
  24. xero
    I just rope-a-dope and ignore any counsel I don't think applies or is unscriptural and keep the aforementioned reaction to myself. I had young brothers coming to me to confess that they'd seen a boob on the internet, I asked one "So what do you want me to do about it? Just stop doing that. Maybe meditate on where staring at boobs got King David and realize going down that path leads to nothing good."
  25. xero
    You know I really love how some are so concerned about the contents of other people's heads.
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