Posts by Onager

9

Charles Darwin appreciation thread

by unsure in

charles darwin was a gift to humanity.. he was a brave and brilliant man who revolutionized our understanding of life on earth.. since leaving the cult of jehovah's witnesses, he has become one of my personal heroes.. thank you charles darwin..

Onager

Charles Darwin is ok I guess... :)

I prefer Alfred Russel Wallace though. He was more of a boots on the ground naturalist and not as obsessed with barnacles as Darwin. He also (possibly) came up with natural selection before Darwin, which spurred Darwin into publishing Origin, so even if he wasn't first, he certainly played a part.

It's this quote, from his book The Malay Archipelago that really made me like him though:

"The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length captured it. On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious wings, my heart began to beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt much more like fainting than I have done when in apprehension of immediate death. I had a headache the rest of the day, so great was the excitement produced by what will appear to most people a very inadequate cause."

That butterfly (species) now bears his name, Wallace's Golden Birdwing.

18

Xmas, love it or leave it??

by DATA-DOG in

i have to say that i’m not enjoying the xmas season.

i have no emotional ties and i’m spending money that i have not set aside for xmas during a slow work season for my trade.. i’m not happy about it, because it’s foolish to spend money when you aren’t making any.

then i feel like i’m expected to do all this, and to be happy about spending money and time on persons that i’m not that involved with.

Onager

I can't say that I love it as such, but I don't hate it either. It's a bit of cheer in a grey month and I get to see the family. Having said that I went to my 3 year old's nativity play yesterday and it made me distinctly uncomfortable. Seeing all those little faces squeaking out "Jesus is born, we love you Jesus...". I comforted myself with the thought , though, that the vast majority of the population of the UK goes through exactly the same sort of thing growing up but we're still a happily godless nation for the most part.

13

Coming out of the Woodwork

by Solzhenitsyn in

jw
friends

who was i to think that we would be left alone?

it has been a dream for 2+ months.

a few calls i let go to voicemail but now the wife and i are getting bombarded with text messages.. this isn't going to be easy.. since we're not looking to throw a grenade into decades of relationships, text replies thus far have been..."thank you so much.".

Onager

Sounds like it's time to not keep your old number when you get a new phone...

30

Do you have any assembly memories/stories?

by RisingEagle in

jw
friends

on an earlier thread about ice cream i remembered a snack that was sold at assemblies and that started me thinking about some of my memories of childhood at conventions/assemblies.

i guess it was the taste/smell association because even today when i go to various convention halls for home improvement expos, car shows and the like it takes me right back to the past.

i have many memories wrapped around the conventions and experienced different things because i have lots of elders in the family that were used, literally, for food service, the accounting office, security and dramas.

Onager

I remember camping in the park near the stadium in Cardiff 30+ years ago. We caught Elvers (baby eels) in the nearby river but the best bit is that it rained and the whole site turned into a quagmire and us kids helped push the cars through the mud. After sitting through the endless tedium of the convention slipping and sliding about all over the place and getting absolutely covered in mud was absolute heaven!

I also remember making sandwiches with my brother at Dudley assembly hall and getting into trouble because we wrote things like "Comrade Mattski" and "Captain Sam" on our paper hats, which looked vaguely military to us. We only got that "privilege" once.

19

New introduction

by formerministerial in

jw
friends

hello to all of you,.

here goes an introduction of a new member.

i'm 45 years old now and we wake up my wife and i from borg a few years ago.. i'm living between spain and france, due to my work.. it has been always refreshing to listen and read many of you here.. i hope it will continue the same..

Onager

Welcome from the UK!

12

The Purity of God's word

by JW Answers in

god says otherwise.

therefore who will you trust... the word of god or satan?

satan uses many people today to corrupt the things of god, as well as god's word.

Onager

"Does God's word contain any errors?"

Woah! Hold up there. Who say's it's God's word?

I tell you what I see: A book, written by men, claiming that the entities called God and Satan exist. These men have also written some stories to back up this claim and these stories involve talking animals, magic, the sun stopping it's movement across the sky. etc. etc.

You can't prove something incredible by citing things that are impossible.

There is nothing more than this to prove the existence of Jehovah God and Satan. All other, non-biblical, proofs, could only ever prove the existence of A deity, not this particular deity. There is nothing to link the claims the bible makes with any other proofs.

To answer your question, No human has ever read God's word.

23

2018 Service Year Report

by Rattigan350 in

is there any word on what the results are for the 2018 service year report?.

Onager

I can give you my report:

Hours - 0

F**ks given - 0

15

JW Publishers Please Let Your Articles Be Based on Facts not Opinion

by Daniel tells the Naked Truth in

whoever published this article should strive to get his or her facts straight.

the gospel should not be preached based on people's opinion rather it should be preached as a message, just as it is.

this article implies that astrology, fortune telling, divination and fortune telling as being all wrong and all.

Onager

Astrology, witchcraft and divination works. Travel the world and you'll see. There are biblical proofs to that and physical proofs as well. If these things do not take place in places near you they do happen elsewhere and trust me, they are real

But I don't trust you Daniel tells the Naked Truth. Don't get me wrong, I am sure you are a good, honest person, but put the shoe on the other foot, do you trust me? :)

All we have to go on is words on a screen.

15

JW Publishers Please Let Your Articles Be Based on Facts not Opinion

by Daniel tells the Naked Truth in

whoever published this article should strive to get his or her facts straight.

the gospel should not be preached based on people's opinion rather it should be preached as a message, just as it is.

this article implies that astrology, fortune telling, divination and fortune telling as being all wrong and all.

Onager

Thanks for your reply Vanderhoven7, but I hope you'll agree that we can't use written texts as proofs.

There are written (well, carved) accounts of Sumerian Kings reigning for over 20,000 years. I'm sure you don't accept those texts as proof so I hope you can understand why I, and the majority of the rest of humanity, don't accept bible verses as proof.

I mean this is the same bible that when it's writers were compiling their own dynastic lists copied the Sumerian idea of ridiculous life spans for their patriarchs. Further, it has more magic in it than The Lord of the Rings, more talking animals in it than the Chronicles of Narnia and more moral ambiguity than Tomas de Torquemada's personal diary.

Why would anyone accept anything written in it as proof of anything happening in the real world?

15

JW Publishers Please Let Your Articles Be Based on Facts not Opinion

by Daniel tells the Naked Truth in

whoever published this article should strive to get his or her facts straight.

the gospel should not be preached based on people's opinion rather it should be preached as a message, just as it is.

this article implies that astrology, fortune telling, divination and fortune telling as being all wrong and all.

Onager

If God can use the devil to accomplish His will, why not astrologers, mediums and those with familiar spirits.

First you need to prove that God uses the devil to accomplish his will, *then* you can use that fact to extrapolate that God also uses astrologers, mediums etc.

Of course if you can do that you'll be the most famous man on the planet, so good luck.