OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

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  13

  Thank you...

  by Garrett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you may have seen my previous post regarding my concerns with leaving the organization.. so many of you responded and were so kind and helpful, that is was rather overwhelming.

  i didn't expect so many responses.

  a lot of you also provided links to research as well as some books to read.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Congrats on your new freedom and good luck with the beginning of the rest of your life!
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  23

  No such thing as history

  by woodforde in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  why do you think it is that wts limit accessibility to watchtowers and awakes to only issues since year 2000 on jworg?

  a whiff of something slightly orwellian?

  not a case of re-writing history but nixing it altogether?

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  OneEyedJoe

  Wow, that is sneaky.  And a strategy that they continue to employ.  Look no further than the reasoning book's entry on false prophets - which excludes the scripture that clearly indicates that anyone predicting something in god's name that doesn't happen is a false prophet, even though an adjacent scripture is mentioned.  Also, when you search for a scripture on the app or website, it sorts by frequency of use in the publications.  So the embarrassing scriptures that they don't refer to fall to the bottom of a long search results page.
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  58

  Musical video on JW-TV February monthly program - must see !!

  by Viva la Vida in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  you must see the musical video at the end of this month program (aprox.

  at 1:04:30).... i don't like to use "must" but this is wow... if you think they couldn't get any lower... just be prepared...

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  OneEyedJoe

  well i just watched it just so I could compare with cappytan's version.  I really have no words.  

  Ugh and Herd afterwards - he really could use a personality transplant.  It must take him a lot of concentration to read the teleprompter and not go off on misogynist rants.
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  13

  South Texas Introduction

  by artsteel in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  wow, amazing to read all these experiences.. luckily, i walked away from them 20 some odd years ago because i wasn't making it financially and decided to pursue higher education.

  best decision i ever made.

  i was able to finish my degrees and i still shake my head at how these people really believe, really mind boggling.. most family members and friends i knew stopped talking to me, and up to this day i'm glad they did.. .

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  OneEyedJoe

  Welcome to the forum.  It's always great to hear of another one that got away!
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  23

  No such thing as history

  by woodforde in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  why do you think it is that wts limit accessibility to watchtowers and awakes to only issues since year 2000 on jworg?

  a whiff of something slightly orwellian?

  not a case of re-writing history but nixing it altogether?

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  OneEyedJoe

  Well there's that, plus wasn't it in the 60's Awakes that women's brains are smaller than men's thus they are less intelligent, or something like that?
  

  I guess you're right.  I'm probably allowing the way the quote affected me personally to impact my judgement of it's significance.  If I'd been confronted with the blatant misogyny of the older literature as a loyal JW, I would've just dismissed it as having been influenced by popular views of the time.  For others, though, it would've probably had a much larger effect.

  I do wonder why they bothered to include the older WTs.  Some of those have some pretty damning stuff in them too.  
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  23

  No such thing as history

  by woodforde in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  why do you think it is that wts limit accessibility to watchtowers and awakes to only issues since year 2000 on jworg?

  a whiff of something slightly orwellian?

  not a case of re-writing history but nixing it altogether?

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  OneEyedJoe

  I sometimes think that the reason for the differing cut-offs on WTs and Awakes on WT-library (1950 for WTs and 1970 for Awakes) is the infamous 1969 Awake quote that says something about young ones never growing old in this system, encouraging them to neglect schooling, etc.  

  They've got a pretty perfect system set up that makes it easy for them to throw away the old literature anyways.  All the literature is just the same regurgitated crap year after year, so if you go back 50 years you won't really have anything more (other than doctrinal flip-flops) than you would be able to get by just going back 10 years.  

  I'm interested to see if they start removing old stuff from the website too eventually.  Now that would be telling.
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  51

  EXPERTS ONLY! A Pop Quiz on (current) Watchtower teaching

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  pop quiz on jw (current) teaching.

  1. was jesus 2nd coming in 1914?.

  2. is jesus 2nd (parousia) presence the same thing as his coming?.

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  OneEyedJoe

  screw it, I'll take a go.

  1. No, that was the beginning of his presence.  He's magic, he can be somewhere without actually going there.

  2. No, see above.

  3. Whichever is most convenient at the time.  I think it's been called a parable most recently, but they still treat it as a prophecy, so you choose.

  4. Nope.  Jesus is present, but hasn't come.  Once he comes he'll do the appointing.

  5. I think that's still 1914.

  6. Yet to come

  7. Nope, they just get the fringe benefits of hanging out with the uber special anointed ones.

  8. You shouldn't!  don't you know that reading the bible is how you become an apostate!

  9. No clear stance that I'm aware of after the recent FDS changes, so by default he must still have been (that's a fun conjugation) anointed since they haven't spelled it out.  

  
  

  How'd I do?  Am I wasting enough of my life to have passed the quiz?

  
  
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  6

  Something JWs don't understand how to do

  by enigma1863 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i had to share this quote.

  it reminds me of trying to reason with jws.

  you can only go so far before they shut down.. .

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  OneEyedJoe

  Love that quote, and I agree 100%.  Just trying to get a JW to entertain a premise that they don't agree with in order to draw a logical conclusion is impossible.  For example, they'll claim that evolution couldn't have created the eye.  If someone entertains the idea of evolution, it's easy to see how our eyes could have formed that way, but as soon as you start talking about it they immediately reject it because they think you're trying to force it on them.
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  28

  If you're bothered by god murdering innocent children, you must have a "critical heart"

  by OneEyedJoe in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  this week's book study contains this gem:.

  the way in which the bible is written serves to test what is in our heart.

  hebrews 4:12 says: the word [or, message] of god is alive and exerts power and is sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces even to the dividing of soul and spirit .

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  OneEyedJoe

  I do not approve of infanticide. And even if I did, in your view it could not be morally repugnant because there is no God to set the standards of morality. Also, I am a great proponent of Mormonism. If there is no penalty or eternal consequence, there is no law. As the Book of Mormon prophet Alma wrote:
  

  The assertion that god is required for morality is completely unsupported.  infanticide is wrong not because god says so, but because I myself was once an infant and I wouldn't much have liked to have been killed.  If you need a penalty or eternal consequence not to behave like an evil person, then that just means you're an evil person and a wuss.

  If there is no God, then there can be no law; so where else can the law come? From men. But men aren't consistent in their laws or moral outlooks. In the Canaanite religions, it was okay to commit infanticide and to combine it with torture and to have orgies as part of the religious order. If there's no God, then the laws of men could be reprehensible to me, but A-Okay with our society. In either way, Cofty, what gives you the right to set the precepts of morality? Or to condemn the infanticide of the Canaanites? I could feed kittens to bulldogs and who could condemn it if I thought it was okay? The only way man instinctively knows right from wrong is through the Light of Christ, which is given to all men. And you condemn the author of that light which you misuse to judge God which is the greatest irony of your argument. 
  

  I, for one, am quite grateful that men aren't consistent in their laws and moral outlooks.  If they'd stuck with it, then rape would still be a viable way to choose your wife (read your bible, if an isrealite rapes a woman he gets to marry her and she has no say) and we'd be stoning people to death because their father stole a robe.  There are certainly many laws that I find reprehensible, but other support.  why is that proof that god exists?  Everyone has the right to determine their own morality, just so long as it doesn't interfere with the reasonable rights of others.  

  You make a blind assertion that instinctive morality can only come from god, I make the evidence-based assertion that instinctive morality comes from evolution.  Species that didn't have some instinctive desire to help each other out and not kill their own kind likely went extinct pretty quickly.  It doesn't take much thought to conclude that morality is an important aspect of human (and many animals') nature and without it we would not have survived as a species.  What evidence do you have that god is the origin of morality?  Just going to stick with your argument from incredulity?
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  34

  Quick introduction

  by OzGirl in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  only have a few minutes to spare so thought i would throw this together.. been in for about 30 years.

  questions and doubts gathered over that time.

  i have a keen interest in the legal and financial matters of the watchtower.. came across this site about 5 years ago.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Welcome!  Hopefully this forum will be as much of a help to you as it has been (and continues to be) for me.  I second the encouragement to share some (as much as you're comfortable with) of your story.  For me, just writing out all the things I'm not allowed to say out loud is helpful, and you never know who your story might help.  It's always good to know we're not alone.

  Stay a while, and chime in.  The forum benefits from a variety of viewpoints.