It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened 11530 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Vintage

  So glad you are here to brighten my day, Anna Marina. Yes, "Atheism may require a tweek". Lol. But no "prophecy or raising the dead"? Aw, that's too bad. Watchtower has experimented with "prophecy". They seem to have found that if the "pay-off" is too far in the future, people loose interest in working day and night for the "religion",... but if the "pay-off" is scheduled to arrive too soon, then reality catches up with the religion when the date comes but nothing happens. And then that requires a stroke of genious like "over-lapping generations" to postpone a mass exodus.

  LMsA is probably right where he said,

  " I think [Evans] was planning on living a life of semi-retirement from exJW activism at his beach retreat and handing over the keys to the Lloyd Evans channel... '

  [to a paid worker], and just making cameo appearances himself. Ah, the good life! Opps! Where'd it go?

  Somehow, I just don't see Evans' soaring to success and being hailed as a hero on the shoulders of his fellow Atheists. I mean, after all, didn't most of them become atheists because they were fed up with paying tribute to religious leaders? Maybe he can still sell key fobs, Croatian folk crafts,... oh yeah, and music albums.
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  TonusOH

  Atheism wouldn't require much of a tweak. Humans are social animals, and we seek out groups based on one or more similar interests/features. For many people who were religious, the 'atheist community' becomes a seemingly logical way to fill that role, so it becomes a surrogate religious community for them. Some will break away from that once they recognize it. I didn't want to get back into a religious community, I was happy to be free of it. I'd spent far too long proselytizing for a religion. The last thing I wanted to do was proselytize to get people out of religion.

  You can see from some of Evans's posts that he is still in that part of it. He is still actively rejecting religion, instead of being free of it. He's also embracing the political side of the 'atheist community.' If you're not pandering to the extreme left, you can have a pretty rough time of it, so he's gone all-in. Whether that will be enough for them to overlook his treatment of women... let's just say he may be in for a bit of disappointment.
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  slimboyfat

  Thanks Las Malv for the explanation 👍
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  Anna Marina

  Hi Vintage - Watchtower always enjoy a new dawn of something. They play a waiting game - a new generation is born and... there's one baby born ever minute (so to speak). So there's always a new audience with no knowledge of what went before that can be sucked in, organized and fleeced.

  dawn bible students (jehovahs-witness.com)

  I wonder if Lloyd ever wonders about living in the part the world that acted as a tinder box for 1914. There could be some ironies ahead.

  TonusOH - if you get a chance take a look at this video from 1989 - I think you'll be impress with what this man says.

  https://www.bitchute.com/video/aRy1oZSQqs58/
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  NonCoinCollector

  Atheist churches do exist. Not sure what purpose they would serve as there is only so many times one can say, "God does not exist." They could go over morals, ethics, and human decency. Maybe they sing a song or two. Lloyd Evans is not likely being motivated enough to start that type of venture and he lacks morals, ethics and human decency.
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  Vintage

  NCC said,

  "Lloyd Evans is not likely being motivated enough to start that type of venture and he lacks morals, ethics and human decency."

  In other words, any self-respecting Atheist church would soon have to disfellowship Evans?
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  Anna Marina

  He could set up new Masonic lodge. I think they even do dramas.

  Oh and they like pyramids.
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  slimboyfat

  I’m a connoisseur of churches, at least pre pandemic. I’ve not been to anything called an “atheist church”, exactly, but the nearest thing is probably the “Sunday Assemblies” that have spring up in various places.

  There are more than a few atheists in Unitarian churches (particularly New Unity, in London) probably a few at Quaker meeting houses, and a few spiritual atheist types in very liberal churches such as the Episcopal church (Richard Holloway being an example).

  Many Unitarians would describe themselves as agnostic or deist or some other non traditional theist position falling a bit short of outright atheism.
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  Vintage

  “Agnostic” is probably an easier position to defend than “Atheist”. As an agnostic, others won’t be asking them, “Then how do you explain the existence of this, and how do you explain the existence of that?” “Agnostic” probably ruffles fewer feathers than “Atheist”.
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  nicolaou

  There is no such thing as Agnosticism. Agnostics do not exist!