Posts by OneEyedJoe

39

CO visit; going to meeting.

by SG098 in

hello everyone!just a little background info, i haven't been to a meeting in over a year.

my wife has asked me to go with her tonight to help watch our son since it's the circuit overseers visit...my wife wants to be able to pay attention and get something out of the meeting since our son is 1yr old he can be a handful some times.. a few things of note about the situation:.

- i'm going to the meeting no matter what.

OneEyedJoe

SIAR - I think there was already a thread related to this CO talk outline:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6670687083167744/inspired-error-new-phrase-among-jw-co

26

Michio Kaku: can universes form from "nothing" ?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

jw
friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlchmi0cc00

OneEyedJoe

I always enjoy Michio Kaku when I come across anything he's done on various TV shows and such, but I agree that this was sorta poorly done. I suspect, though, that this has more to do with how it was cut together than it was a problem of his being unable to explain things clearly (though he did seem a little rushed as well when talking about string theory and dark matter).

24

Stalking people

by Esmeralda001 in

have you ever been stalked/spied on by fellow jws?

OneEyedJoe

Stalking on social media definitely happens all the time. In my experience this is mostly done by the women in the congregation (who invariably love to gossip - I'm not making a statement about women in general so much as JW women who are kept powerless and have little outlet for their natural desire for some feeling of control) and if they find something out they'll report it to their elder husband/father.

35

What did being a JW teach you?

by punkofnice in

these are some of the things the wbt$ 'taught' me:.

dishonesty is fine if it's to trick people into joining the cult.. if your spouse stops believeing, the best thing you can do is break up the family.. the laws of the governing body overrule any other laws...or else!.

my friends are conditional.. avoid loving people, they'll only let you down or get df'd.. unintelligent dumbos are better than intelligent ones if the dumbos are elders or above.. hate is better than love.. i am not good enough and god will probably enjoy killing me.. demons will appear in my room at night.. ignore practicallity if being practical or loving prevents the leaders getting money or praise.. god hates.

OneEyedJoe

Things the cult taught me (that I didn't recognize the truth of until I left)

"worldly" people are mostly kind, loving people. I learned this time and again based on how I was treated by people who I bothered on their day off, and in hindsight I believe they mostly felt sorry for me.
The more you think you're impervious to having been fooled, the more likely it is that you're currently being fooled.
People need not have malicious intent to use effective propaganda techniques in order to trick you.
Smart people can be fooled too - don't trust what someone says just because they're intelligent if they can't explain it in a way that's logical.

13

Has Watchtower financial strategy taken a very dark turn?

by slimboyfat in

as shepherdless pointed out on another thread, the watchtower business model of using free labour to produce and sell books and magazines for profit started to break down when charging for the literature ended in 1990, and has now begun disintegrating completely in the face of the internet and declining donations.

over this same period there has been a noted increase in hardline rhetoric on disfellowshipping and pushing early baptism.

might these hardline trends actually be related to their money woes?

OneEyedJoe

Hasn't getting the inheritance of older ones been part of their financial strategy for a while now? I think the increased rhetoric around child baptism is probably more because they've done some investigation (formal or informal) and noticed that the kids that leave or the families that leave often correlate to kids that didn't get baptized while they were young. Same thing goes for the hard-line stance on separating from DF/DA kids and family. They probably asked around about some people who'd left and found that those with family that left are more likely to leave too.

The cult seems more reactionary than forward-looking. I guess that's what you'd expect if the leadership really believes their own BS about the nearness of armageddon. So while I don't think its overly cynical to think that part of their financial plan is to take the money/property of older ones when they die, I think you might be attributing a little too much forethought to the cult leaders.

26

When does it end? My marriage is 90% great for the most part, except when it come to this cult

by goingthruthemotions in

i know marriage is tough and it takes work on both parts.

we have been together for 27 years.

the last eight have been involved with this cult.

OneEyedJoe

You and me both, buddy.

14

Do Jehovah's Witnesses dedicate themselves to an organization or not? Which one is it?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

anyone that is/was a dedicated jehovah's witness knows that the worship of the ''faithful and discreet slave'' is the only relationship we know.i don't remember having a personal relationship with jehovah without the governing body being in the way.they make all the rules on every matter.anyone who thinks that jehovah has any control on your daily matters is a fool.jehovah's witnesses only answer to an organization!.

"we do not dedicate ourselves to a religion, nor to a man, nor to an organization.

no, we dedicate ourselves to the supreme sovereign of the universe, our creator, jehovah god himself.

OneEyedJoe

clearly that watchtower has some old light left in it.

39

CO visit; going to meeting.

by SG098 in

hello everyone!just a little background info, i haven't been to a meeting in over a year.

my wife has asked me to go with her tonight to help watch our son since it's the circuit overseers visit...my wife wants to be able to pay attention and get something out of the meeting since our son is 1yr old he can be a handful some times.. a few things of note about the situation:.

- i'm going to the meeting no matter what.

OneEyedJoe

"We missed you"
"That's strange I haven't missed a meeting in the past year!"

Yes! That reminds me of my favorite line to use while I was still going to some meetings. If someone noticed that I'd "missed" a few meetings, I would just quote the movie Office Space: "I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob."

23

"Theocratic Warfare" still alive and well within Watchtower in 2016!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

it seems like the watchtower is still encouraging "theocratic warfare".

in the no.1 watchtower of 2016, they (ironically) printed an article on honesty.here is something they said:"lyingwhat is it?

saying something false to someone who is entitledto know the truth.

OneEyedJoe

Should someone forward this to the Austrailian RC or are they done now? They did ask about theocratic warfare afterall, and this would be a great additional peice of evidence to demonstrate that it was very likely that the elders were lying constantly (though from their findings it seems that they'd already worked that out)

33

Why do girls have a hymen?

by JWchange in

if you believe humans evolved, and were not created, why would having a hymen help, especially as no other mammal has one?

if you believe humans were created by {a} god, or intelligent beings with advanced technology, what was the reason for a hymen?

i'm interested to hear your thoughts on this unusual subject, not many people talk about..

OneEyedJoe

Why the need to be condescending with people who wish to engage in a friendly discussion?

As he said, in this day and age, ignorance is a choice. Ignorance is not something that deserves respect. It's one thing to be ignorant privately but to go proclaiming something as a reason to doubt evolution after doing absolutely no investigation (the lack of investigation is apparent because there is plenty of readily available information explaining why the differences in the sexes is in no way a problem for evolution) is inexcusable.

Professor Cofty, where did the first living cell come from? How did it originate?

This is one of the watchtower's favorite tricks - conflating abiogenesis and evolution. Evolution makes no claims about the origin of the first living cell (and if you'll look at Cofty's post, you'll see that he did not either). Again, though, if you'd bother to do a little investigation on your own you'd find that there are several different plausible explanations for this that are backed up by observable evidence. Certainly more convincing than the observable evidence for the claim "god did it."