OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

• 
  387

  Active JW's, can you defend "THE TRUTH?"

  by DATA-DOG in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as of yet, no member of the jehovah's witness faith can defend their unique beliefs.

  when the dust settles, it all comes down to blind faith in men's ever-changing ideas.

  this "unique belief" was not a "true teaching of the bible.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Well I guess that makes one of us.

  Great thread BTW.
• 
  387

  Active JW's, can you defend "THE TRUTH?"

  by DATA-DOG in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as of yet, no member of the jehovah's witness faith can defend their unique beliefs.

  when the dust settles, it all comes down to blind faith in men's ever-changing ideas.

  this "unique belief" was not a "true teaching of the bible.

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  OneEyedJoe

  How's that drink, DATA-DOG?
• 
  63

  Where was the dead body of Jesus? Did the disciples disappear it?

  by opusdei1972 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i am currently an skeptic, but i have to admit that i can't assure that all the stuff of early christianity was false.. for instance, we know that the genuine letters of paul were written before the destruction of jerusalem.

  so, paul affirmed that jesus resurrected, though he was not there when it supposedly happened.

  but, if jesus did not resurrect, why didn't the jews expose this falsehood?.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Before you can prove Jesus' body disappeared, you'll have to prove that Jesus existed at all. There's no evidence that he did, and even of there was a man on whom the story is based, the story most certainly has plenty of holes.
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  19

  needing advice on neighbors and ...

  by advice-on-neighbors in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  guns.

  i am not jehovahs' witness, so thank you for allowing me this visit.

  i have friends i respect deeply who are, and much apprecaite their faith and integrity.. however i have a problem with my jehovah witness neigbors shooting guns often, five days this week.

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  OneEyedJoe

  On second thought, you might get some traction if you write a letter of complaint to your local kingdom hall specifying their unchristian behavior. That may not be likely to get you any great result, depending on their status with the cult, but it may put them in an awkward situation. JWs put a lot of lip service to "giving a good witness" and setting an example so they will likely get a talking to from the local cult leaders at the very least.
• 
  19

  needing advice on neighbors and ...

  by advice-on-neighbors in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  guns.

  i am not jehovahs' witness, so thank you for allowing me this visit.

  i have friends i respect deeply who are, and much apprecaite their faith and integrity.. however i have a problem with my jehovah witness neigbors shooting guns often, five days this week.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Unfortunately JWs are only able to apply scriptural principles to others, not themselves. If you've already talked to them and they've made no attempt to accommodate your concerns, I don't see many options other than to contact the police, if indeed they are violating any laws.
• 
  16

  Today's public talk: shameless indoctrination

  by OneEyedJoe in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  today's talk was really somethin'.

  so much so that i felt compelled to post this during the wt study.... i didn't pay attention to the theme, but where i to title the talk it would be "logical fallacy, scripture out of context, and phobia indoctrination: a case study in cult indoctrination.".

  that's certainly a more honest title than whatever they gave, i'm sure.. it starts out by saying that sometimes people are skeptical about things they're told, and feel compelled to look for evidence of the claims.

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  OneEyedJoe

  You're absolutely right. I guess writing up my thoughts on the "parroted s***" is my way of cleaning it off.
• 
  16

  Today's public talk: shameless indoctrination

  by OneEyedJoe in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  today's talk was really somethin'.

  so much so that i felt compelled to post this during the wt study.... i didn't pay attention to the theme, but where i to title the talk it would be "logical fallacy, scripture out of context, and phobia indoctrination: a case study in cult indoctrination.".

  that's certainly a more honest title than whatever they gave, i'm sure.. it starts out by saying that sometimes people are skeptical about things they're told, and feel compelled to look for evidence of the claims.

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• 

  OneEyedJoe

  DD the only reason I'm still going is for my wife. I'd be fine if my family summed me, and I don't have many friends in, but I feel like I owe her as much to try to make something like a graceful exit. I think I've given up trying to wake her up before I leave, but I want her to at least have some understanding of why I'm leaving.

  This sort of talk (really, just about every talk) always used to irritate me as I was always aware of the fallacy and fear mongering, but now that the "it's for a good reason" justification is out of my head, I just can't stand it.
• 
  16

  Today's public talk: shameless indoctrination

  by OneEyedJoe in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  today's talk was really somethin'.

  so much so that i felt compelled to post this during the wt study.... i didn't pay attention to the theme, but where i to title the talk it would be "logical fallacy, scripture out of context, and phobia indoctrination: a case study in cult indoctrination.".

  that's certainly a more honest title than whatever they gave, i'm sure.. it starts out by saying that sometimes people are skeptical about things they're told, and feel compelled to look for evidence of the claims.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  Today's talk was really somethin'. So much so that I felt compelled to post this during the WT study...

  I didn't pay attention to the theme, but where I to title the talk it would be "Logical fallacy, scripture out of context, and phobia indoctrination: a case study in cult indoctrination.". That's certainly a more honest title than whatever they gave, I'm sure.

  It starts out by saying that sometimes people are skeptical about things they're told, and feel compelled to look for evidence of the claims. Already I'm thinking "oh, this is gonna be good." The example was given of someone claiming that a strawberry wasn't technically a berry, but bananas are, the speaker says "that may sound hard to believe." He then goes on to describe in generic terms the concept of a literal Satan as a personal entity, saying that even some theologians endorse the view that Satan is just a metaphors for evil. His proof that Satan is a literal person was to quote a few scriptures, all of which where some variation of "the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.". The fun part was that in each case, if you replaced "Satan" with "evil" the scripture still made sense, and sometimes it made more sense that the scripture was using the devil as a metaphors for human tendency towards evil. He then asserted that if you believed in the idea of Satan being a metaphor for evil, you'd have to throw out all the teachings of Jesus, the apostles and a few others because they said he was a person (even though that wasn't necessarily the case). I've never heard such a compelling argument to believe that Satan isnt a real person! He sums up this topic by asserting (in what's known as an appeal to consequences) that without a personal entity of Satan, you have no satisfying answers for such evil as rape, murder warfare, etc. Not to mention the fact that as an atheist, I've found quite satisfying answers to the world's conditions.

  Next up he goes into a long tirade about pop music, TV shows, the occult, etc. (BTW, we're now 15-20 minutes in and no scriptures read from the bible) on the topic of the occult, he asks if we may watch movies or TV shows featuring the occult and say that it doesn't affect you because you only see it as a story of fiction. Then he directs us to the first scripture of the day: 2 Corinthians 11:3, which read in the context of his talk seems to be a word of caution about how sneaky Satan is and warning not to be tempted by him. The problem is, that if you read the next verse, it is clearly a warning against being tempted by others who preach a version of Jesus that doesn't match what paul preached. Now, who do we know of that preaches a version oof Jesus that's not supported by scripture? Just saying...

  He closes with some strong phobia indoctrination. He asks us to imagine (a common technique used to bypass critical thinking) being in a storm cellar while an EF-5 tornado rages outside. He asks, "are you tempted to open the hatch and peak outside to see if it's really as dangerous as you're told?" My thought was that of I was born in the cellar, and never heard any wind raging outside, yeah I might be tempted to look out. Not to see if the storm was as dangerous as I was told, but to see if it even existed. You probably know where he was going - we're safe in "the organization" and shouldn't be tempted by anything in the world, no matter how innocent it may seem. So, if you leave the organization (or so much as watch an episode of the walking dead), its the same as walking into a tornado.

  I really need to get out of this cult. I can't stand listening to this BS much longer.
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  63

  Your "Things That Make You Go Hmmm?" List

  by FlyingHighNow in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'll wager that the number is close to 100 percent.

  what number?

  the number of jws who have lists--lists of things that make them go hmmm or even wha'???

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  OneEyedJoe

  Fernando, your list makes me feel better about my list. Its really amazing how much you can be willing to overlook while under the undue influence of a cult.
• 
  63

  Your "Things That Make You Go Hmmm?" List

  by FlyingHighNow in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'll wager that the number is close to 100 percent.

  what number?

  the number of jws who have lists--lists of things that make them go hmmm or even wha'???

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  The change to the study watchtower was a big one for me too, I can't believe I left that of my list.

  I remember thinking about a year prior to their fling the public vs private WT that the study articles often contained stuff that would be offensive to non-jws that we should probably not be giving that stuff to people the first time we meet them. I mean how should we expect people to react if we give then a magazine that contains specific condemnation of their religion? Then not long after that I read an article that analyzed the Catholic church through the lends of it being a religion of secrets, where theres layers of of doctrine that only get revealed as you get deeper in. A comparison was made to Scientology wherein people start out thinking it's just some sorta spiritual thing, but once they're sucked in they're told of aliens and furnished souls possessing humans etc. At first, I read the article as confirmation that Catholics didn't know anything about the Bible and it was all about tradition, but then I started to see the parallels. When they started the study/public WT thing, it became a lot stronger.