OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

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  17

  Jehovahs Witness Shunning & the Crusades

  by freemindfade in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  while discussing being mistreated by my own jw family last night with my wife, i wanted to try to make her think critically about what shunning really is, and at its root what how beneficial it is.

  earlier in the day i sent her non-apostate scholarly article on religious shunning being tantamount to psychological torture.

  and most witnesses don't think into much about why they do things, its more of a "this is the way we do it, don't over think it" process.

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  OneEyedJoe

  To answer your question about the 2/3rds thing, I think you might be misapplying it. The statistic (at least the one that I know of) is that roughly 2/3rds of born-ins leave. This is inferred from a pew poll that indicated that roughly 1/3 of people polled that were raised JW still identified as JW.

  http://religions.pewforum.org/reports
  
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  12

  door to door

  by gda in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some jw's at my daughters door saturday morning.

  they said nothing, nada, zip, zero, and just passed the mags to her and left.

  is there no interaction any more?

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  OneEyedJoe

  There's been a pretty steady decline in the zeal most JWs (at least in my area) have for d2d. There are a few older ones that still act like they did when 1975 was coming, but for the most part anyone under 40 is just there to count time and make the morning as easy as possible.

  When it comes to the "special campaign" stuff that they do for memorial, conventions and, apparently, the website - they're told to get in and out as quickly as possible, so in that case it comes from the top that they don't linger and talk to people.
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  31

  Who Will Be The Next Member Of The Governing Body To Defect From The Corporation?

  by frankiespeakin in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  while it may seem unlikely which of the currant governing body members do you feel would be most likely to defect?

  i know it is a loaded question.. what about wealthy anthony morris iii?

  or mark sanderson or geoffrey jackson?

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  OneEyedJoe

  They just don't make them like Ray anymore.
  

  The world and the cult has changed tremendously. Anyone who's got one ounce of intellectual honesty will have their crisis of conscience much earlier due to the abundance of available information. Ray defected after doing years of research that today would only take a few days or weeks to put together today. The result is that even though I'm sure there are men like Ray Franz that will pass through the cult in the future one way or another, none of them will stick around long enough to make it very high in the org.
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  29

  To all anointed wannabe losers, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, OR ELSE!!!!!

  by DATA-DOG in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  once again the beloved and loving governing body are demonstrating their utmost disdain for the rank and file members of the jehovah church.

  let us review this interesting trend, starting with some facts!

  yay, facts!!!

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  OneEyedJoe

  If they're so concerned about the rising number of ones partaking, why don't they just shoot out an BOE letter scolding the elders to be very discerning about who to officially count as partaking. That would seem to at least lower the number or slow the growth at worst.
  

  Maybe someone else will be able to confirm with more certainty than I have, but I could've sworn I read that there was indeed some procedure that elders follow in order to determine who is "rightfully" partaking. I don't know what it is, but I think at the very least they weed out all non-JWs.
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  102

  A couple questions for atheists on Suffering

  by little_Socrates in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  who told you that the world should be free from suffering?.

  do you find any value in suffering?.

  do you think it is possible to experience all the beauty and goodness and pleasure the world offers without also experiencing the bad?

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  OneEyedJoe

  The only people that ever told me that the world should be without suffering had a religious agenda to sell.

  Personally I don't get caught up in trying to categorize things as good or bad, they just are. I accept that the world is what it is and I can't change most of it. This frees me up to focus on the things I can change, and to do what good I can without getting bogged down with things that don't matter.

  I also couldn't speculate much on what a perfect suffering free world might look like. Our universe is intrinsically disorderly, and a permanent state of stable perfection is unimaginable in the context of the universe that we live in.

  It's also difficult to speculate on what id do were I God, since I expect omniscience would give me a bit of a different perspective on things.

  Edit:

  Theists SHOULD be the ones defending themselves, because they're the ones making outrageous claims without evidence. They also seem to be incapable of providing a description of god(s) that is both internally consistent and matches with observable reality.
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  65

  Will this Memorial be our last?

  by pixel in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  they just put up the march km 2014 on the private website.

  most of it is same-old-same-old, with info here and there about the memorial.. somebody here might post the march km for all to see, i wont.. i just wanted to share the paragraph from page 2 q&a anticle: will you seize the opportunity?

  upcoming memorial enables us to show gratitude .

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  OneEyedJoe

  I wish this memorial would be my last, but being realistic I've probably got 2 or 3 left to go to...
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  20

  Skills Gap

  by M*A*S*H in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the jws have now been discouraging higher education and critical thinking for a long time.

  we have all seen the 'dumbing down' of the wt literature.

  on a personal level i have seen many of the perceivably intelligent younger members of congregations leave.

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  OneEyedJoe

  It's a mix around here, there were some (and still are a few, mostly retirement age now) very intelligent elders, but I came from a poor area so growing up there were definitely a lot of idiots (not to say poor people are all idiots, just that idiots tend to be poor)

  It does seem like the WTS is aware of the problem and that it may be getting worse, since they now have the simplified watchtower (and that's saying something because the regular WT is like 5th grade level) and they had to revise the bible to dumb it down as well.
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  20

  Skills Gap

  by M*A*S*H in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the jws have now been discouraging higher education and critical thinking for a long time.

  we have all seen the 'dumbing down' of the wt literature.

  on a personal level i have seen many of the perceivably intelligent younger members of congregations leave.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Agreed. Smart kids aren't sticking around like they used to because education and the internet has made it too easy for anyone with an ounce of intellectual curiosity to find real truth that doesn't force you into a mental prison.

  That said, I remember as a pre-teen in the 90's asking my parents why it seemed like most of the people in the congregation weren't as smart as worldly people, so it's by no means a new trend.
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  29

  The Days if Noah - Is this the new unofficial generation?

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  edit - "the days of noah" damn!.

  long story short - i need to go to bed!

  i was in edinburgh today with my wife (football, coffee, walks, food, cinema) and i always try to take 10 minutes to have a chat with the jws on the trolley in the "big city".. i challenged an older guy who turned out to be an pioneer about the generation.

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  OneEyedJoe

  The math certainly checks out, and they've really committed to this overlap business so I think at this point I'd be more surprised if they didn't at least strongly hint at 2034 once it gets a little closer.
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  29

  I Haven't Missed a Meeting in Years!

  by Oubliette in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i recently ran into a jw i knew from a few years back.you know how it goes, a few pleasantries that always seem much more awkward than they really should (not for me, mind you--for him).and then the question, "so what congregation are you attending?

  are you able to make the meetings?

  "i'm thinking: do you always start conversations this way?so anyways, knowing full well the jw-mindset, i decided to have a bit of fun.furrowing my brow, i said, "that's an odd question!

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  OneEyedJoe

  Haha. When I saw the title I immediately knew where you were going. I've taken to quoting the movie office space anyone someone "notices" that I've missed some meetings. "I wouldn't say I've been missing them, Bob."

  It's fun to confuse people by failing to act like the miserable wretch that they think you are.