I would encourage you to examine evolution and the potential existence of evil spirits as two seperate topics. They really have nothing to do with one another and your belief in spirits should not influence your examination of the evidence for evolution. Once you confirm that evolution is indeed well founded in fact, you may need to revisit your belief in spirits. That's not to say that the two are mutually exclusive, but once you start letting the evidence guide your beliefs you'll likely want to continue.
OneEyedJoe
JoinedPosts by OneEyedJoe
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149
Evolution and spirits
by Chris Tann inas of now iam making an unbiased examination of evolution.
however one thing keeps me hanging on to the belief of a supreme spirit being; the existence of spirits.
i have heard countless accounts of people who have experienced frightening encounters with evil forces.
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Scared of Armageddon?
by naja inin the light of the following promises made by jehovah, how can there be an armageddon?.
genesis 8:21: ... so jehovah said in his heart: never again will i cursethe groundon mans account, for the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up;and never again will i strike down every living thing as i have done.. genesis 9:15, 16: and i will certainly remember my covenant that i made between me and you and every living creature of every kind;and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh.and the rainbow will occur in the cloud, and i will certainly see it and remember the everlasting covenant between god and every living creature of every kindon the earth.. does it make sense to say "i will never kill you by a flood, next time i will use fire?
just asking.. .
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OneEyedJoe
Does it make sense to say "I will never kill you by a flood, next time I will use fire? Just asking.
Makes about as much sense as a talking donkey, a talking snake, God killing his son to pay a debt to himself, etc. etc.
So, no...it doesn't make sense.
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news item...9 yr old baptised
by returnvisit ingrrrrrrrrrrrrr!.
check out website for dunedin, nzs newspaper www.odt.co.nz re the 9yr old that got baptised at the convention in dunedin this last weekend... can't you just hear everyone there gushing about it??.
as i said grrrrrrrrrrrrr .
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OneEyedJoe
It would be worthwhile doing some research to test whether people's baptized status (yes=baptized;no=not baptized) is more likely to influence decisions to subsequently leave or stay in the organization.
You could argue that, once baptized, the consequences of leaving change (i.e., you can now be disfellowshipped if you break any of the organization's rules), but it may well be that an individual's baptized status doesn't influence decisions to leave. That is, just as many ultimately leave who are baptized as are not such as those who study, go to meetings, go out in field service but who never take that step.)
I suspect that the push to get kids baptized before they know better is more about retention of those around them. If they get baptized and later DA or get DFd for being appostate or whatever, there's organizationally enforced shunning to protect the org's other assets (i.e. the r/f jws that might otherwise talk to them) but if they never get baptized and leave the cult without ever being baptized, there's less justification to keep people from communicating with them (especially for family). If there is communication between cult members and ex members (even if they're not baptized) it increases the odds that someone will see that a rewarding, happy life is possible outside the org.
In short, I think the shunning policies are more about preventing active JWs from learning TTATT than they are about punishing those who leave.
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OneEyedJoe
Bttt any video leaked yet? Trying to decide if I want to go to the meeting to see it.
I can't imagine any scenario in which it would be worth it to go to the meeting.
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Let's Say 1914 Was The Establishment of God's Kingdom....what is the significance?
by minimus inas hillary clinton might say, what difference does it make???.
even if god's kingdom was established in 1914, why is that such a big deal?
other than unprovable actions in heaven, what can jws say is the significance of it all...with a straight face?.
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OneEyedJoe
AFS - wikipedia has numbers on the mormons. One of the biggest differences between lds and jws, though, seems to be that the mormons aren't really obsessed with stats
If I remember correctly, there's roughly 15 million that identify as LDS/Mormon but only 5-6 million regularly attend mormon services. Since mormons are more family oriented (with many having only family services or setting up small groups hosted in homes) it's difficult to make a direct comparison. For your purposes, though, I'd just go with the ~15 mil number.
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OneEyedJoe
This makes me think of Winston Smith out of 1984 with the TV on his wall.
Just wait 'till they start having public talks by GB members played. Not to mention the tie-ins at the convention this year. Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the parallels to 1984.
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No longer angry or bitter.
by quellycatface ini saw some jw's in my neighbourhood today from my ex kh.
they were on the ministry and happened to call at my door!!.
i calmly explained i had da'd and now went to a regular church.
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OneEyedJoe
Well done. As was wisely said, harboring resentment is like taking poison and hoping it kills your enemy. I envy your freedom, go live life for all those who are still trapped!
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Melbourne's Herald Sun -- "confessions of a Jehovah's Witness"
by MrMonroe inall the dubs pouring into melbourne, australia for the international convention gonna choke on their cornflakes when they read this .... http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/former-jehovahs-witness-lifts-lid-on-stifling-doomobsessed-religion/story-fni0ffsx-1227092921890.
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OneEyedJoe
That's a great article, written just right. Just enough in there to stir up any doubts that an active JW might have without setting off the "appostate" alarm bells. They don't make any accusations except for the revisionist history, and most dubs know of at least one instance of that (1914). The fact that it also seems to be aimed at the general public, not active JWs, it provides yet another excuse for the doubting JW to read it - I want to see what the public is being told about us (to use in my ministry, of course!).
Plus it also makes JWism sound like miserable drudgery to the public (which, of course, it is) and will add just a little more to the public apathy towards the cult.
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Watchtower circulation jumps up!
by factfinder inthe jan. 1, 2015 w shows an updated printing of 52,946,000 copies each issue in 228 languages.. this is an increase of 7,002,000 copies per issue over last year, this is the biggest increase i have seen in the printing of the w per issue for any one year.
thus, including the study edition over 70 million copies of the w are now being printed each month.. .
i wonder if awake!
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OneEyedJoe
With just a monthly public Watchtower and monthly Awake, it now covers a distribution time that two editions of the Watchtower and Awakes used to, so it would make sense that it is far higher than the past. Add to that it is now being left in the streets on trolleys for free pick up. I couldn't find any print numbers on the study edition? That must have dropped off dramatically since it became an internal only magazine, and even more so now JWs are encouraged to download it instead.
A great point, paul. If the circulation hasn't doubled since they switched from two magazines a month to one, then it really should be interpreted as a decline.
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OneEyedJoe
Viva la Viva nailed it:
Agreed.
I also agree that this is definitely not to help JWs explain 1914 to others, it's to shut down any doubts that are coming up due to the fact that 100 years have gone by and not one damn thing has happened. if someone at the door asks about 1914, there's no way that they're a potential bible study...they're asking because they know a thing or two about JWs and they're trying to sow seeds of doubt. That's why the 1914 stuff is always at the very end of their indoctrination manual - for them to have any chance of convincing someone of it, they have to wait until they're already deeply invested.
Also, just because they're doing this big 1914 shebang right now, doesn't mean that they're not planning on scrapping it eventually. Right now they're doing damage control and buying time. Afterall, they can't be seen as having capitulated to the passage of time by changing/abandoning 1914 on the 100 year aniversary. Or maybe they just don't quite have the votes to change it yet. Personally I'm about 50/50 on whether they change 1914 before 2034 or a few years after. They do love to set dates, and the current GB is far enough removed from 1975 that they may well believe the lies they tell about what happened then (that some witness privately speculated that 1975 would be the end but the WTS never promoted the date). If they believe the lie that they've been forced to tell for years, then they'll probably see 2034 as valid because they're predicting it, not "some witnesses." 2034 is a long ways off, though, so I don't expect them to start pushing it for another 10-12 years. In that time a lot of things (including 1914) could change.