Posts by OneEyedJoe

42

Today's WT study! So hypocritical!

by stuckinarut2 in

so today's study is all about being kindly, and not judgemental to those in the congregation....we don't know their circumstances etc.... i can't believe the hypocrisy being spewed out...both in the article and by means of the answers from the audience!.

we know the reality is so different!

unless a witness does everything exactly as the gb directs...in every aspects of life, they are effectively no longer a good person, but are viewed as spiritually lacking or weak..... they are going directly beyond the biblical directives, and being ones who condemn, rather than ones who commend!.

OneEyedJoe

two things stood out to me in this one. We got a rare (in context) reading of one of the JWs favorite scriptures (james 2:17 - faith without works is dead). But this time (because the scripture actually applied for once) they read the preceding verses that put it in context and allow you to realize that the "works" in question have nothing to do with preaching.

The other thing worked out to my advantage. The conductor went a little of script and proposed a situation where it came to light that a brother that was being used in the congregation had been watching inappropriate movies. He basically asked how the elders should handle the situation, adding "should they just immediately bench him from handling the mics?" The elder that answered said that they should have a conversation with him to try to help him and that he wouldn't necessarily lose any privileges. This, of course meet with approval and nodding heads from all in attendance.

This was useful to me because, as I've mentioned here once or twice, my "privilege" of reading for the WT or book studies was revoked for failure to comment regularly at the meetings. When they did this, there was no discussion of attempt to help or understand my situation. Nope, they just told me how it was. Afterwards, I joked to my wife "I guess it's good to know that failure to comment regularly is worse than watching bad movies." She was a little confused (as I intended) so I reminded her of what they did to me, including the implication that was made that she also needed to comment more for me to have privileges. I could hardly have hoed for a better reaction. She was pretty upset despite throwing out a variation of the "imperfect men" excuse. I didn't push the issue, and a few minutes later she stated getting more upset and began naming others that are allowed to read, but comment even less frequently than I do. Then the thing about her commenting sank in and she started naming all the elders whose wives literally never comment and said "I guess they shouldn't be elders then." It was a struggle to contain my excitement. I managed to say almost nothing and just let her think it through and I just said "I guess that's just what happens when you have a couple men making a bunch of arbitrary rules."

17

Question du jour - How Many of God's Servants in the Bible Had No Beard?

by berrygerry in

question du jour - how many of god's servants in the bible had no beard?.

legit question..

OneEyedJoe

Well I went to my meeting today with 1 day's growth and was asked by two elders if I'm growing a beard. I'm running a little experiment to see what the response will be for stepping out. I'm going to try to have about a days growth at as many meetings as I can. If tag doesn't yield results, I'll go further.

2

Symposium: Those Who Will Inherit God's Kingdom

by 88JM in

it's been said before that once you know ttatt, then you listen with very different ears to talks at conventions.

i thought the second symposium this year on saturday morning of the convention was particularly terrible - here's what i had as the summary of the four parts:.

those "who are poor".

OneEyedJoe

The becoming as young children bit really hit me. My convention was shortly after I finished reading one of Steve Hassan's books in which he talked about how cults often stress being child-like as a virtue in order to age regress adherents to a point before the had critical thinking skills.

106

The long weekend of B.S begins - UK.

by quellycatface in

jw
friends

isn't going to be wonderful??.

not being there..

OneEyedJoe

Lurker - sound like you'll be having a better time than those that attend the convention. I know I would have preferred food poisoning to the mental poisoning at the convention.

27

public WT november 2014

by fastJehu in

since many years the nov public wt has only one color and no picture on the front cover.. very strange.

so the design department saves time and can go from door to door ...... .

download: http://download.jw.org/files/media_magazines/42/wp_e_20141101.pdf.

OneEyedJoe

Random thought: has the WTS ever depicted an interracial couple? I don't think I've ever seen a white/black combo...maybe a white dude and an Asian chick... my point though is that it seems like continued influence of the "old white man" world view that is clearly prevalent in the WTS.

Now back on topic...

20

Being a SPIRITUAL ATHEIST is a good step!

by Pinku in

religions, in general, did not inspire people to be good, because the means they used was illogicality.

for example: one religion teaches: humans became sinners through one man, and would become righteous through another man.

no answer!

OneEyedJoe

My point is that you framed it as a (false) choice between the two options of materialistic (which you clearly used in an effort to invoke the negative connotation) and spiritual (which inherently includes the idea of intangible forces on the order of karma, or whatever).

I reject both. I'm an atheist that believes what there is evidence for, and part of that evidence supports the idea that treating others well and looking out for the benefit of the group (I.e. your company vs self analogy) yields the best result for everyone. I treat others in a moral manner because that's the right thing to do, but there is nothing spiritual about that.

20

Being a SPIRITUAL ATHEIST is a good step!

by Pinku in

religions, in general, did not inspire people to be good, because the means they used was illogicality.

for example: one religion teaches: humans became sinners through one man, and would become righteous through another man.

no answer!

OneEyedJoe

What you describe isn't necessarily "spiritual atheism" just moral atheism.

Also, I'm not sure how that Einstein quote supports your assertions.

Furthermore, I object to your obviously biased use of the false choice between "spiritual" and "materialistic.". One can pursue an evidence based belief system (which would preclude anything "spiritual") without being materialistic.

2

Who stumbled who?

by Brainfloss in

don't have too many people at parties, be carefull about drinking alchohol, dancing, music,anything that can stumble another brother whether or not it is condemned in the bible the list is endless.. how is 100+ years of flip flops and constantly changing doctrine not been a stumbling block to brothers?.

OneEyedJoe

Not to mention the folks who are stumbled by everyone else's over-sensitivity to things that aren't prohibited in the bible.

You're right, of course. It's a tremendous double standard. If you stumble someone else, you're responsible, but if anyone (especially the org) stumbles you, you're still responsible. When you can be convinced that you're always in the wrong, you'll be willing to put up with a lot of doctrines and practices that just don't make sense.

84

Satan and the demons, ghosts, spirits, fortune tellers. Are they real?

by KateWild in

i believe in god.

i don't believe he punishes or rewards people.

so by the same extention i don't believe any spirit beings can communicate with or influence humans.. many who do not believe in god though, have gone to fortune tellers.

OneEyedJoe

Many testimonies of 'spirit guides' giving known-only-to hearer accurate family information (not cheap stage-act types using an 'assistant') to lure in victims and then soon mercilessly torturing all those involved, both physically and psychologically.

You can't trust testimonials for psychics or astrologers or palm readers. These con-artists design the experience in a way that allows people to suspend their critical thinking skills. Once they acheive that, they are able to take litterally hundreds of guesses until they hit one that the mark reacts to, and then emphasize the hits. That's how they arrive at the "known-only-to hearer" information. Either that, or they do prior research if they know you're coming. Either way, it's all been proven to be a scam countless times, but people still believe in it. Fools and their money are soon parted.

If you're superstitious and you already believe that you'll be bothered by demons if you go to a palm reader then it's not hard to see why a you might come away from a palm reading (or whatever) only to experience a bunch of 'spooky' events. You leave the con artist in a state of hyper-sensitivity to any event that might be perceived as supernatural. When you happen upon such an event, you immediately explain it as being supernatural, even though it has a reasonable explanation that does not require a supernatural cause.

Once you've settled on this supernatural explanation an odd psychological effect takes hold - the more evidence that goes contrary to your belief in the supernatural explanation that you see, the more you dig your heels in and hold tight to the supernatural explanation. This is the same sort of effect that doctors struggle with when it comes to getting kids immunized. Some parents have a (false) belief that immunizations can cause autism, seizures, you name it. The more information that is presented to such a person, the more they hold to their false belief, but the moment that any evidence seems to confirm their belief (i.e. an autistic kid that was only diagnosed as such shortly after initial imunization) they seize on it and their belief is confirmed, even if there are litterally millions of kids getting vaccinated that don't come out autistic.

It's the same thing with supernatural believers. Any time they hear a sound they don't expect, they may ascribe a meaning or supernatural origin to it. Then when confronted with evidence that it's not supernatural at all, they'll continue to hold fast to their belief. Or, in the occassion that they might conceed that a particular event wasn't supernatural, they imediately flood the skeptic with a list of other so-called evidence so long that the skeptic figures them for a lost cause and doesn't bother disproving each event individually....it's just not worth it.

15

How the organization's bad advice messes up young people

by kneehighmiah in

jw
friends

so recently a governing body helper gave a part on the convention.

he said young ones who are saying and not financially ready should knock it off.

what conflicting advice.

OneEyedJoe

Don't have sex until you're married.

Don't get married until you're able to support yourself and your new family financially.

Once you graduate high school, don't go to college - endeavor to (barely) support yourself through part-time work that allows you to pioneer.

So obviously the ideal young person is a financially destitue, single virgin with no life experience who spends all their time going to people's houses to tell them how they can be happy.

I don't see the problem.