dear brothers:.
re: personal literature supply.
reducing existing stock at the branch office before the revisions are released.
So if I contributed for the literature when I got them, do I get a rebate when I turn it back in?
You have a great point...the org is not only trying to save money by getting people to use less literature, by having people turn in old stuff and re-use it, they're also trying to maintain the current level of "literature donations"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iranians-behind-tehran-version-of-happy-sentenced-to-six-months-in-prison-and-91-lashes-9741014.html.
good grief.
the more fanatical the religion, the more it seems to lack a sense of self reflective irony.. .
A sense of irony requires a certain amount of objectivity. So the wackier the belief system, the less objectivity the adherents have and therefore the less they're able to take a joke.
The lack of objectivity is enforced by the fact that a) people instinctively know that if they look at things objectively their belief system will fall apart and b) those that have a certain level of objectivity are the ones that eventually leave behind the wacky beliefs.
now i'm not preaching hatred here i am just expressing how i've felt for years even when i was a jw.. i totally loathe the police/policticians...any authority......anyone that is over anyone else.
i have a total hatred of them all.
i wonder if it's because i was raised a jw?.
I don't loathe authority per se, but I do loathe misplaced and misused authority, which seems to be the most common form. Hipocrites are also up there on my list, and there's a lot of overlap.
well my wife and i have been through a roller coaster of life since i convinced her the dibs werent the truth.
the hardest tests have been lived but we are closer than ever now.
now recently shes read "the shack" nd watched some movies about god and just cant seem to inderstand why god would allow all of this suffering just to prove to satan that hes "the man" (or woman).
This comes up time and again, but it boils down to this: religion is man-made and thus morality is too. Clearly morality doesn't require a judge/jury/executioner in the sky. There are devout Christians that cheat on their wives, murder their neighbors and steal from their friends, just as there are atheists who are genuinely moral people. Belief in an imaginary friend doesn't automatically make you a better person, and even if it makes you behave a little better, I'd still contend that you'd have to be a pretty shitty person if it takes threat of eternal torture to get you to be nice.
Once you give up belief in god(s) you may reevaluate aspects of your morality (views of homosexuality is a common one) but most will remain intact because it just makes good sense. There may be a period where you feel a bit lost, but once things settle down you realize you're the same person you always were, if not better off.
i've seen him referred to as both on this forum.. did he sincerely believe that he was an inspired prophet whose end-time predictions and biblical interpretations came from god?
or was he just a shrewd businessman who saw a market of disillusioned christians who believed that armageddon was imminent that he could exploit?.
i personally lean toward the latter.. .
He lied under oath in court over the Solon Society and got caught red-handed. That was not the actions of a conscientious believer.
I don't know, sounds like theocratic warfare to me
the secretary of the congregation said in a talk, what the congregation should have as goal for the new service year: attend field service meetings!.
he explained in a sad tone, that he visited all of our 3 or 4 service groups.
and what happened at the field service meetings.
Maybe they knew he was coming, and didn't want to get stuck in his car group.
You might be on to something. At least in my cong, getting stuck out in serve-us with the serve-us coordinator (or whatever they're called these days, since they seem to like changing titles for no reason) is about the worst fate there is.
i've seen him referred to as both on this forum.. did he sincerely believe that he was an inspired prophet whose end-time predictions and biblical interpretations came from god?
or was he just a shrewd businessman who saw a market of disillusioned christians who believed that armageddon was imminent that he could exploit?.
i personally lean toward the latter.. .
Probably a bit of both. Things are hardly black and white. From what I've learned since waking up, it seems as though the cult started out much more benign under CTR. It wasn't till the Rutherford took over that things started getting super culty and oppressive. I tend to think that Rutherford was a con-man who'd deluded himself into believing he was doing god's work just so he could sleep at night. Not a particularly unique story.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/09/child-mortality-rates-have-dropped-in.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed%3a+blogspot%2fadvancednano+%28nextbigfuture%29.
worldwide, child mortality has plunged remarkably...................because of the success of human efforts !.
"worse and worse" yup, yup, yup..... .
This old system can't last much longer.
one thing i would like to say is will the union jack be changed because the scottish flag is incorpreted in it.
if the union jack is changed will we change our australian flag because the union jack is in our flag?
even hawawi has the union jack also fiji and many other commonwealth countries.. .
It doesn't affect me much, but if it will cause scotch prices to go down in the US I'm all for it. From what I understand they're planning on keeping the pound as their currency so that's not likely to happen...
what are ur thoughts on this subject just wondering.
.
.
Yes, still being taught in that it hasn't been changed, but it doesn't get brought up much. I believe the last time it was mentioned was about 6 months back when they did the #4 on the topic of the abyss. Apparently satan will actually be dead for 1000 years, not just trapped but conscious.
