You are totally right about the dubious 'discussions' after the sermon. They seem to consist of reading portions of their Watchtower magazine, and then the guy asks questions about how these statements relate to peoples' lives. Nothing whatsoever in the way of critical analysis. I took a class called Critical Thinking a couple years back, and while the course itself was actually a pretty useless introductory course on logic, in the textbook it outlined a number of useful logical fallacies. I can't imagine that anyone there would have an understanding of these (given that everying I heard was an example of one fallacy or another). I would have felt uncomfortable questioning their beliefs, especially given that there were children there (disturbing in itself). The people there seemed very pleasant and sincere, like they were a big family. But there was also a palpable cultish quality which I found disturbing. Moreover, during the sermon the guy spent a noticeable amount of time near the end speaking about the need to always attend meetings, pray constantly, meditate about god, reassure others, etc. Otherwise they seemed to lose faith... (you think?)
Bible Contradictions?
by Aequitus 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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freetosee
I attended meetings from childhood on and yes it is very disturbing that children are sucked into a cult without having a choice. Those meetings are difficult for children, since the information is not designed for children yet they are expected to keep still and silent for such a long time. Children are the biggest victims!
Then you always have those in every congregation who become very irritated and annoyed over babies and children crying or making noise, so they give the young parents a hard time through constant complaining and bad looks. It just shows what kind of people they really are. The aim is to have a big happy family atmosphere, but the more you know about the many enmities, the pressure, and the constant control of the members also the covered-up mental and physical abuse of children, you can see it has little to do with love, patients and care.
The members are forever drilled to attend all meetings, to prepare and actively participate at these meetings, to go out to the public placing literature and to make more members. The leadership knows that once the members get more time to think for themselves they loose faith. That is what helped me to break free. After a short time the powerful elders lost all their "glory" and I questioned more and more what is taught and really achieved at those meetings. I realised that the "truth" I was indoctrinated to believe was actually brainwashing. I never thought that would be possible.
I think it is very affective to point out to jws that the bible has many contradictions, even more so to show how the WTS teachings contradict the bible in order to demonstrate that the jw approach to the scriptures is not healthy and only productive for the interests of the WT Corporation.
fts
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enlightenedcynic
Here's one that I have noticed for some time.....
Moses supposedly wrote the book of Deuteronomy. The wts supports that "fact" by listing him as the ONLY writer both in the table of the books of the bible found in the back of the NWT and the All Scripture Is Inspired Of God book. Yet at Deut. 34:5, 6 we encounter a very big problem. Asked an elder once about this and he said he would get back to me.........still waiting!!
ec
P.S.- Was it common practice to write a document in the third person during that time period? Either that or Moses was one egotistical dude! -
onesong
Gen. 10 concludes the flood account and says that all the families dispersed taking with them their languages. Chapter 11 starts with " now all the earth continued to be of one language."
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Narkissos
Was it common practice to write a document in the third person during that time period? Either that or Moses was one egotistical dude!
Nah, remember he wrote: "the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth." (Numbers 12:3.)
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Steam
"WHOM THE LORD KNEW FACE TO FACE" To others of the prophets the Lord usually manifested himself through visions or dreams or by angels in human form, but seemingly Moses was granted a still closer approach to the divine presence. When thinking of the expression, "face to face," we should understand it to signify that Moses enjoyed a closeness of fellowship and favor with the Lord rather than that he really looked into the face of Jehovah, concerning which it is written, "No man can see my face and live" (`Ex. 33:20`); and again, "Whom no man hath seen or can see." (`I Tim. 6:16`.) It may be that our Lord Jesus as Michael especially represented the Father with Moses, as it was he who prevented the Adversary from having Moses' body after death. But in any event, applying the matter antitypically to the Christ, we see that in a special sense the antitypical Moses in the flesh throughout this Gospel Age has had a favor in connection with the divine presence not enjoyed by any others of previous times. We see the Lord's face with the eye of faith, for we have seen our Lord Jesus, who represents the Father, and who declares that whosoever hath seen him hath seen the Father--has enjoyed the best possible revelation of the Father whom no man hath seen. Again he declares respecting the Church, his Body, "Their angels [messengers] do always have access to the face of my Father," as though he would tell us that all of our interests and affairs are brought directly to the Father's attention, so that there is no danger of any delay and any peradventure that all things will work together for good to them who love him. Again we see the Father's face in the sense that we see his love, which is displayed to us through a knowledge of the Truth by the holy Spirit granted to us. Not merely divine Exxcerpt from WT, Reprints, page 4055. Available on ctrussell.us Probably most if not all of your contradictions can be explained in Pastor Russell's writings. Sad that you do not believe the Bible to be from God. Steam Psalm 50:5 145:18-20
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Aequitus
Alright. The second rhelm of questions I had was regarding how old the earth is, and about Adam and Eve. Do Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the earth is 6000 years old, or 4.5 billion? And if Adam and Eve were the first people on the earth, how would the multitude of races come about from the inbreeding of Adam and Eve's children? And during this time, people became wildly dispersed across the planet and adopted various other religions. I believe in the year 1AD there were 1 million people on the earth--how is it that one million people are produced from two people procreating in the span of 4000 years? And what was with people living to be hundreds of years old at the beginning of the bible? I heard recently that the maximum possible lifespan of humans was determined to be 140. And Eve being created from Adam's rib...what does that even mean?