OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

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  40

  Athiests: Do you ever wonder... what if?

  by toweragent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'll start by saying, i'm a ministerial servant who is trapped in the religion.

  my wife is hardcore...but i've slowly been getting her to lighten up, so i'll take it!

  all my friends and family are jw's, and i am employed by a jw (who is actually a great boss).

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  OneEyedJoe

  I've personally come to the conclusion that there's absolutely no conclusive evidence for the existance of any god or gods. There's plenty of evidence that the universe, matter, and life itself could (and very likely did) come about independently as emergent properties of a system ruled by fairly simple physical laws. In short, if god created everything, he must've intentionally created the universe in such a way as to completely hide his involvement. If such a god exists, he'd certainly be kinda a dick if he was going to start punishing people for not believing in him based on a book written thousands of years ago by a backwards tribal nomadic nation.

  Yes, the realization that you're not going to have a perfect life in the future is kinda a bummer. But wouldn't you rather realize it and act accordingly, than live your life just waiting for the next life, only to find that there's nothing there? If I'm lucky, I'll have 70-80 years (maybe well beyond that given the rate at which medicine is advancing) to live, love, have fun, and see good for my hard work. That's not a bad deal, considering I did nothing to earn it.

  If the god of the bible does somehow happen to exist, then I fully expect to be rewarded exactly the same as the most faithful christian. If an omniscient, omni-benevolent god that practices perfect justice, and can read the hearts of men exists, then he knows full well that I arrived at my conclusions though pure intentions. I sought only truth, and was ready to believe whatever I found, and act accordingly. It's not by some selfish desire to sleep in on sundays that I found myself to be athiest. If I, using all my supposedly god-given powers of reason, couldn't come to the conclusion that god exists, then I can't imagine how he could hold me accountable for his failing to give me whatever I needed to believe in him. Any god that wants to punish me for being an athiest is a dick that I wouldn't want to serve anyway.
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  27

  WTBTS continues to move to paperless

  by pronomono in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  during my last meeting i was approached to see if i would be willing to switch to the electronic version of the km/watchtower.

  i thought to myself "i'm way ahead of you here, buddy.

  been doing it for almost a year.

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  OneEyedJoe

  I got a similar comment myself. I was told that I need to get my wife to comment more because they wanted to be able to reccomend me to be an MS. My first thought was the same as vidiot's- my second was joy that I would never qualify to be an MS. This was before I was even awake to TTATT.
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  40

  Silence after stating my confusion about "144,000"

  by tidalblitz in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the other night, i was told about a question that a friend's bible study had asked them.

  the bible study asked: "if jesus is perfect, why does he need the 144,000 to help him rule?

  " this friend does not know how to answer this question.

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  OneEyedJoe

  You're not supposed to work it out. You're supposed to smile and nod like a good little drone, that way when you finally can't stand it anymore and you can't hold in all your complaints about everything that doesn't make sense, it all explodes out of you to anyone who'll listen. Now you neatly fit into the "mentally diseased" appostate category, because no normal person would go off like that.
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  38

  Did you ever actually believe the JW fantasy version of "Paradise"?

  by Darth Fader The Sequel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am sure this topic has probably been discussed many times before but,......... i would like reassurance that i am not the only one who gagged every time i heard a jw pontificating on their fantasy version of what "paradise" will be like.

  particularly when it comes to the animals.

  more specifically, that the animals will all become vegetarians.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Vidiot -

  Yep, that's the conclusion I came to.

  Meanwhile I know some JWs (elders even) who think we're going to colonize other planets once we have the use of the 90% of our brain that's currently sitting idle.
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  15

  Not willing to meet with Elders? DF?

  by thedepressedsoul in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if a person says that they are not willing to meet with the elders or does not meet with them, will that get them df'ed?

  there is a rumor about a person who has left the truth (went inactive) about being imoral.

  they do not have the 2 person witness so they can't take actions because of this.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Technically you're right, but I suspect it wouldn't be without precedent for someone to get DF'd just for 'brazen conduct' because they refused to meet with the elders. Also, from what I've read here, I wouldn't be surprised if they manufactured evidence or witnesses to DF someone if they want it bad enough.
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  38

  Did you ever actually believe the JW fantasy version of "Paradise"?

  by Darth Fader The Sequel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am sure this topic has probably been discussed many times before but,......... i would like reassurance that i am not the only one who gagged every time i heard a jw pontificating on their fantasy version of what "paradise" will be like.

  particularly when it comes to the animals.

  more specifically, that the animals will all become vegetarians.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Yeah, there's TONs of holes in the paradise logic. I stopped asking my parents about it when I was about 11 or 12, as I realized that the answer was always basically a variation of "with god all things are possible" or "it's not for us to know at this time."

  Obviously there's a problem with predators. They couldn't survive on a vegetarian lifestyle without significant help from humans because their digestive system is not physically large enough for them to consume enough grass or whatever to survive. Just compare the stomach of a cow and a cheetah to get the point. Humans' entire job would be processing food into a higher nutritional density form for the predators to survive on. That's all there'd be time to do.

  Every time I ate a steak I thought to myself "I'm not sure if I could be happy in paradise as a vegetarian." Of course that's one of the questions I asked before I wised up, and at the time "jehovah will take away our desire to eat meat" satisfied my 10yr old brain, but as an adult I couldn't help but wonder how much of my personality would have to be lobotomized for me to be happy in this "paradise."

  The accidental injury thing always bothered me too. I mean we're supposedly going to be 10x smarter since the JWs bought into the myth that we only use 10% of our brains, but that doesn't mean we're never going to accidentally hit our thumb with a hammer while building our new house.

  Speaking of construction, I'm pretty sure I'm not cut out for building my own house, and I definitely wouldn't enjoy that type of work over the technical career that I have now. I guess that's just another target for Jehovah the great lobotomizer.
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  19

  How do you measure a Jehovah’s Witness?

  by Londo111 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  im just thinking outloud and, of course, you are welcome to think aloud with me.. (1) there are the metrics used in the yearbook totals.

  the average publisher count measures only those who reported time.

  likely, most of those who attend the memorial are those inactive or somehow associated in some way, shape, or form.. (2) there is meeting attendance.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Everyone is thinking too broadly. The only TRUE JWs are the ones who only use one paper towel in the restrooms at the KH.
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  10

  Bovine blood in lieu of human blood? What's the story with this?

  by QuestioningEverything in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  my mom is in the hospital with internal bleeding.

  she has agreed, much to my surprise, to accept the blood alternative of bovine blood.

  i've never heard of it but it appears that the jw hospital liason elders told her about it and that it was a conscious matter.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Welp, there ya go. It's so rediculous what the blood ban has come to. They've gone so far with their literal interpretation of it as to ban life-saving treatments that use willingly donated blood from a living host, while allowing blood from a slautered animal (what the origonal biblical ban was all about) to be used!
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  10

  Bovine blood in lieu of human blood? What's the story with this?

  by QuestioningEverything in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  my mom is in the hospital with internal bleeding.

  she has agreed, much to my surprise, to accept the blood alternative of bovine blood.

  i've never heard of it but it appears that the jw hospital liason elders told her about it and that it was a conscious matter.

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  OneEyedJoe

  That's new to me. Last I heard on that topic specifically was during one of the annual parts on the topic in which they specifically said something about a product called 'bogus blood' that is derived from cow's blood, and as such is unfit for christians.

  I wish your mom a swift recovery. Hopefully this cult's apparent relaxation of the blood ban will prevent it from claiming her life.

  Edit: I should probably note that the last I heard of this was about 15 years ago.
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  10

  An Invitation and a Question

  by Shepherd Book in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if you live in the twin cities in minnesota, come to the uu church in bloomington on sunday, july 27th.

  i'm giving a presentation there about jws and about leaving, shunning, things like that.

  one hour, 10:30, free on-site childcare available.. here's a link with more info.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Teamwork! Thanks for doing the legwork, Splash.

  I almost listened to it, but I think just knowing that they proudly post it on their website gives me more than enough disgust to start the day off.