OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

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  18

  What to say to JWs at a funeral

  by dogon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  my father passed away this week.

  we are going to have a funeral for him.

  he was not a witness for many years but a lot of his family is still associated.

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  OneEyedJoe

  I'd just say thank you. Like you say, it's probably the wrong time to make a thing of it...just acknowledge their intent - to be comforting - and move on.
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  11

  A prospective juror(JW) really ticks of Judge!

  by truthseekeriam in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  an appellate court has reversed the conviction of a bacliff woman who recorded her boyfriend raping his 14-month-old granddaughter on her cell phone, saying the trial judge tainted the jury by arresting a prospective juror during jury selection.

  alisha marie drake had been sentenced in 2013 to 15 years in prison for using her cell phone to record the act.

  her boyfriend, jason grant, was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child and possession of child pornography and is awaiting trial.

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  OneEyedJoe

  If you believe in God, God wants you to protect the children.
  

  At this point Juror 48 stood up and said authoritatively, "Not my god! He wants child-rape to be swept under the rug!"

  I don't see why the judge was insistent on this man being a juror. I would have let him go and go on to the next potential juror.
  

  I suppose it might have something to do with people trying anything/everything they can to get out of jury duty.
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  19

  Since man is unable to create life does this mean

  by Crazyguy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does this mean possible a creator did or does exist.

  there is plenty of evidence of a slow evolutionary changes over millions of years and i do not disagree with this.

  but again that fact that mankind can not create a living creature from scratch mean there must be a creator?

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  OneEyedJoe

  A squirrel can't create a comet either, but that doesn't mean that comets didn't form through entirely unaided processes.
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  11

  is it more likely to be the men or women who leave first?

  by sowhatnow in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was just pondering the other day, is it more likely that a man will leave a religion, or a woman?

  is there a way to know if the men on the site outnumber the women or vice versa as to who found out ttat first and left.. im going to suggest men.

  basically because men in general, do not like to be told what to do.

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  OneEyedJoe

  im going to suggest men. basically because men in general, do not like to be told what to do. lol
  

  We must not have know any women in common...

  In reality there are so many factors in play here that I think it's difficult to have a useful discussion of the issues without resorting to over generalization and stereotypes.
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  23

  Another reason god is a terrible "father"

  by _Morpheus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  its easy to look around and say if a singular all powerful were real he would stop the suffering of man and animal, a position i support.

  however there is another even more basic premise i have pondered at times as well (im sure im not the first of course) : would any loving parent ever hide from their children?

  consider it... our all knowing all loving father hides from us even though we cry out to know him.

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  OneEyedJoe

  But but but he had his secretary write us a long-winded and contradictory letter to tell us how to live so that he doesn't have to kill us!
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  3

  Found this article cited on Reddit today, Interesting

  by XBEHERE in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in their fantastic book about cognitive dissonance, mistakes were made (but not by me), carol tavris and elliot aronson write about the great psychologist leon festinger who, in 1957, infiltrated a doomsday cult.

  the cult was led by dorothy martin who called herself sister thedra.

  she convinced her followers in chicago an alien spacecraft would suck them up and fly away right as a massive flood ended the human race on december 21, 1954. many of her followers gave away everything they owned, including their homes, as the day approached.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Funny when that guy that predicted the end only a few years back in the states was in the news, my Jw mom was rolling her eyes and laughing about how moronic he and his followers were. I cautioned her not to laugh to hard because Jws did the same thing, 1870's 1914 1925 (ancient worthy resurrection) 1975. That guy was not very different and the look on her face was sadly priceless. Like huh? It hit home but dissonance hit back and she went back under the spell.
  

  I think you're talking about Harold Camping. I had a similar experience (though it wasn't intentional) when I and a few others were joking around arrogantly (as JWs often do haha) about how obviously wrong he was. "The bible says no man knows the day or the hour!" etc etc. One older woman said "I don't think we should be joking around about that. A lot of people are still sensitive after what happened in 1975." That sentence was probably one of the top 3 things that led me to eventually look at apostate sites online. When they rehashed the new overlapping generation, I couldn't get the question out of my head "How are we any different than Harold Camping?" That's a question that can't be answered honestly and leave you still wanting to be a JW.
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  3

  Found this article cited on Reddit today, Interesting

  by XBEHERE in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in their fantastic book about cognitive dissonance, mistakes were made (but not by me), carol tavris and elliot aronson write about the great psychologist leon festinger who, in 1957, infiltrated a doomsday cult.

  the cult was led by dorothy martin who called herself sister thedra.

  she convinced her followers in chicago an alien spacecraft would suck them up and fly away right as a massive flood ended the human race on december 21, 1954. many of her followers gave away everything they owned, including their homes, as the day approached.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Reading about this was one of the biggest factors that allowed me to break free from the cult - once you understand how even really intelligent people can sometimes get fooled into staying in a cult, it gives you a little more resolve to trust yourself and not just blindly follow because other smart people are doing so. There was one particular elder in my congregation that I appreciated for his intelligence, and that kept me uncertain of the validity of my own doubts.

  If you're interested, the book When Prophecy Fails was written about this cult by Leon Festinger himself.
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  30

  Nothing Says, "I Love You!" Like Institutionalized Shunning!

  by Oubliette in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  why disfellowshipping is a loving provision.

  .

  may 15, 2105 watchtower, pp.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Let's review?
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  10

  With Jehovah's HELP

  by B4Right in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  how many times have you said that phrase?.

  how often have you heard it in conversation with the friends?.

  how often have you heard it in talks?.

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  OneEyedJoe

  It's also a subtle way of reinforcing the idea that leaving the cult will result in failure in all areas of life, as you'll no longer have Jehovah's help.
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  13

  607 article on JW website

  by Pubsinger in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011736.

  i've not bothered to read anything on this for years as i addressed it personally years ago.

  but in this official article they appear to be focusing all their argument on the '70 years' part of the debate.

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  OneEyedJoe

  What I am asking is: are they no longer tying 607 to the 2520 years ending in 1914? And just using the 'signs of the times' to support 1914?

  They still tie 607 to 1914 via the 70 weeks of years nonsense. I think the reason they fail to mention 1914 is because it would show the obvious bias of the article. When you're trying to convince someone of something you don't want them to know that everything else you're trying to convince them of hangs on that one thing. Also, a lot of JWs don't have a clue about how 1914 was arrived at (or, really, how it was supposedly arrived at) so they don't want to tie it to 607 in an article that calls the 607 date into question.

  It's all rather clever - you "prove" something to someone as if it doesn't really matter, so they'll be less likely to care enough to really investigate it. Then, later on, you reference the "fact" that you've "proven" earlier and they'll remember accepting the prior point and not that they didn't bother to really investigate it. They'll just assume it's true because they accepted it at the time. That's how so much of cult indoctrination goes, and why the indoctrination is slow in the case of JWs. They say things that don't seem important, so it's not worth pushing the matter and risking the new friends you have - but when you find out that it was important, you don't realize you never actually had it explained in a satisfactory way.