sparrowdown

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Posts by sparrowdown

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  32

  This Article Won't Change Your Mind - Great Read

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this article won’t change your mind - the facts on why facts alone can’t fight false beliefs.

  brilliant article in the atlantic by julie beck discussing the phenomena of cognitive dissonance and how it affects religious and political beliefs.

  it includes some interesting thoughts on how social media has magnified the problem.. spoiler - she is not optimistic about the possibility of successfully reasoning with members of religious cults.. the article also has a link to the 45 minute audio version.. link....

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  sparrowdown

  I remember watching a documentary on the latest neuroscience a few years ago that whennit comes to making decisions facts are important but it's our emotions that will sway us. Particularly when we have facts that cancel each other out, but even if the face of a mountain of evidence we will often go with the response what we are emotionally attached to, it was really interesting.

  That's why I think a social trauma will often be the catalyst for researching facts or vice versa but they work in tandem.
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  31

  Beards and Circumcision: turning their argument around

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  one argument against beards i've heard multiple times, both from individual jws and from the platform is roughly:.

  'timothy got circumcised so as not to stumble others!

  shouldn't you be thankful you don't have to do that?

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  sparrowdown

  Everytime I see the title of this thread my mind sees "breads and circumspection..." although I know what it actually says.

  I suppose you could apply the alternative title interchangeably, particularly memorial breads and the not-annointed are a def no-no and we all know how they hate circumspection.
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  8

  Focus on the Sin of Homosexuality

  by StainedGlassHeart in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  since the jws love to control the sex lives of its followers, it seems reasonable that they would be freaking out about same-sex sex as it becomes more open in the current culture (thus videos like that horrible cartoon).

  are they going to start not allowing "girlfriends" to have slumber parties or require they are chaperoned by a "mature" elder or older sister?

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  sparrowdown

  Hi SGH.

  Yes I always thought it a strange oversight on WT's part that they didn't pay any attention to the fact that same sex attraction occurs or is even experimented with and yet they were hypervigilant, paranoid even, about hetero sex acts occurring at mere sight of an un stockinged ankle or just being in the vicinity of a member of fhe opposite sex.

  Maybe they will start to highlight this now, good point SGH.
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  10

  Guidelines For Proper Uses For Sold Kingdom Halls

  by Charles Gillette in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how does the watchtower dispose of kingdom halls no longer usable because of poor attendance and or merging with another kingdom hall.the rank and file contributed lots of money to keep it active.. then they tell us their not using it anymore.where does the money for that hall go.

  and what they do with the money they get for the sale of that property.

  they certainly don't give the rank and file anything.. and what use will the new owners use it for.

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  sparrowdown

  Seems WT are now in the business of disposable real estate.
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  14

  Guardian interview with Apostasy director

  by cobweb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is a really long article about the film apostasy and interview with the director about his story and how he came to make the film.

  apostasy director: ‘it was liberating to leave the jehovah’s witnesses’.

  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/15/apostasy-director-daniel-kokotajlo-liberating-to-leave-jehovahs-witnesses-interview?cmp=share_androidapp_copy_to_clipboard.

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  sparrowdown

  I find the constant pedantic nit-picking frustrating as well. It's a sign of either a lack of ability or an unwillingness because of bias, to think and sort through concepts and ideas on their own merit and just put aside the ones we don't agree with into either a pending or a discard file in order to grasp the big picture of what is being said.

  In the real world no one person, book, movie, video, course etc has all the answers to everything at all times so if you go around dismissing every person or book or movie because their was an error or you didn't like the colour of his jumper or the way he said it your mind will stay permanently closed!

  It is possible to get the gist of what someone is saying in its entirety or to understand the message without accepting all of it or the messenger. If we can learn this there isn't anything or anyone we can't learn something from.
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  13

  Watchtower Says: "Please Do Not Touch CALEB and SOPHIA" (at Warwick HQ)

  by HiddlesWife in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  please check out this thread from exjw reddit: .

  https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/8ev6qv/watchtower_says_please_do_not_touch_caleb_and/ .

  any thoughts?.

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  sparrowdown

  And if someone does touch them will they call the police or the service department?
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  15

  GDPR Congregation Record of Processing Activities

  by Fay Dehr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  gdpr congregation record of processing activities: https://1drv.ms/f/s!amcrvjcxi6m6gx7oc1gksxolaeae.

  ...and associated files.... .

  letter to boe dated january 6, 2017: https://1drv.ms/b/s!amcrvjcxi6m6gxyqlciog-dt815_.

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  sparrowdown

  That's interesting stuck, good on you for doing this if every XJW in every country did this in an organized, systematic way WT might just begin to worry.
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  18

  Ministry experiences

  by Freedom rocks in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hi does anyone have any bad ministry experiences to share or really funny ones?.

  some of mine were:.

  - having water sprayed on us with a hose.

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  sparrowdown

  Naked guy answering the door.

  Yes a tract burned on the doorstep and the chared remains blowing up the street to where the group had regrouped and a sister insisting it was a demonic attack.

  Going witnessing with a sister that had a bird phobia was ...interesting.

  Guy telling me I was nothing more than "cannon fodder" to WT - I actually went away and thought about that one in fact it turned out to be a seed of truth that germinated a year or so later, so a big thanks and a shout out to that strange weird little guy!
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  28

  What happened to Caleb and Sofia?

  by Sliced in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  where are the "golden children" lately?

  lol .

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  sparrowdown

  Maybe they got wind of the bad reviews lol.
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  43

  Anyone watching the handmaids tail?

  by blownaway in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i thought this was all about the 18th century.

  but its current or just post current times.

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  sparrowdown

  Sliced - yeah, I thought that too, silly me.

  It's called fiction.