Posts by OneEyedJoe

11

Evolution is a Fact #40 - What Use is Half an Eye?

by cofty in

creationists often refer to the words of darwin when he pondered the evolution of the complex eye.

he said that to suppose that the complex eye evolve by natural selection seems "absurd in the highest possible degree".

what they always ignore is that darwin went right on in the very next sentence to propose how the eye could have evolved and that numerous gradations must exist between the simplest light detecting organs and the complex vertebrate eye.. in the 150 years since darwin published his book not only have those gradations been discovered in the natural world but the very genes that build the eye have been discovered by science.

OneEyedJoe

Creationists often refer to the words of Darwin when he pondered the evolution of the complex eye. He said that to suppose that the complex eye evolve by natural selection seems "absurd in the highest possible degree". What they always ignore is that Darwin went right on in the very next sentence to propose how the eye could have evolved and that numerous gradations must exist between the simplest light detecting organs and the complex vertebrate eye.

This very misquote in the creation book is what flipped the switch for me from "it still could be the truth" to "it's definitely a cult." Everything I'd seen in my research (much of it on jwfacts.com) up to that point (607, child abuse, various fairly obvious doctrinal flaws, etc) I had a way to rationalize. Obviously it was all building my already substantial doubts, but seeing this misquote, followed by the statement that scientists still hadn't resolved the problem (when Darwin himself did in the very next sentence) I couldn't rationalize away as anything other than an outright lie, staring at me in black and white.

The cult (and indeed all religions) would do well to invest their time in rationalizing how their religious tradition is still significant in the light of the fact of evolution and other scientific facts than spreading outright lies that are so easily exposed as this one.

21

The spinning blade of a Sword and the 2 Angels guarding the gate....

by stuckinarut2 in

for some reason i found myself shaking my head once again in disbelief at the story in genesis.. amongst all things, the very concept of a "flaming sword" spinning around and blocking the "entrance to the garden of eden" is so stupid!.

do people really believe that as a fact?.

seriously, swords were not even invented at that time!

OneEyedJoe

I never thought about the fact that this would mean that god invented weaponry. I think in general people just take for granted that swords have always existed, at least I did. Just another plot hole in what has to be one of the most poorly thought out books ever written, I guess.

17

Good luck with that

by Lost his mind in

what is the big deal when you say "good luck with that" or he just had bad luck?

i have never been a jw, but what is the problem with saying these things?

my husband was so mad, he went to bed and would not talk to me.

OneEyedJoe

Sounds like the phobia indoctrination (which is probably one of the most persistent parts of the cult mind control) still has a hold on him. It'd probably be worthwhile to try to expose him to information about how cult brainwashing works - once you lay bare the mechanism of the indoctrination, it loses most of its power. The books by Steve Hassan (www.freedomofmind.com) are really good for this purpose.

I hope he's able to get completely free.

17

Good luck with that

by Lost his mind in

what is the big deal when you say "good luck with that" or he just had bad luck?

i have never been a jw, but what is the problem with saying these things?

my husband was so mad, he went to bed and would not talk to me.

OneEyedJoe

Just wait until he sneezes and you say "bless you."

It's a cult. They're conditioned to strongly reject very common things. Phrases like good luck and bless you. Objects like crosses and steeples. Personal choices like beards, long hair on men, piercings, etc. These are all things that they've been conditioned to recognize as "worldly" which, in turn, is recognized as being evil, lying in the hand of satan, and a part of satan's wicked system of things. This is designed such that outsiders can't help but give themselves away as being an outsider in a way that any JW will be all too aware of. This builds walls between the JW and the non-JW to prevent them from developing relationships outside the cult that might undermine the cult's control and leave them with a system of support should they ever consider leaving.

39

(Not so) Subliminal Shave Your Beard Message

by Funchback in

i'm in the middle of dissecting the june 2017 jw broadcasting video.. in the first minute, they summarize a story about a guy who apparently was a one-time bad ass (showed a picture of him with a beard while posing on a chopper).

then, they show him shaving at the exact same moment the narrator is saying how he regained "a clean conscience".. this no-beard obsession by the jws is beyond nuts.. .

OneEyedJoe

John, you're missing the point altogether. The beard thing is about hypocrisy. They're obsessed with beards when it doesn't make sense to be. There's no prohibition on beards in the bible, and they claim to be lead solely by the bible. In fact there's explicit instruction in the bible that men have beards, and they use an adjacent verse to justify their prohibition on tattoos. Hypocrites. They say they rely on bible principles and leave things to the conscience of their members where the scriptures aren't clear, yet they ban beards. Hypocrites. They criticize other religions for violating Paul's instruction not to go beyond the things written in scripture, yet they ban beards. Hypocrites. It's such an insane place for them to make a stand, and as such it stands out. It's possibly one of the clearest places to see how rigid and intrusive their control is. And when you understand how cult brainwashing works, it begins to make perfect sense. The beard ban is one of the places where the cult exposes itself in every way for what it is.

Another thing that makes the beard ban such a sticking point is that it's something that no one has any emotional attachment to. No one has died refusing to grow a beard for the cult, so there's hesitance to accept that the ban may be wrong due to a refusal to accept that people died for nothing (as there is with the blood ban). Adding to that the explicit biblical ban on shaving, and the fact that many men would like to grow a beard it leaves this issue as a unique seam that can allow someone to start to break into the cult mind control.

19

Gog of Magog - Watchtower says it has two identities

by Listener in

the searcher started a topic addressing the gt, a comment from sparrowdown asked an interesting question -.

"...the political powers of satan's world will form a coalition..."that's the statement that interests me.

what are they alluding to?.

OneEyedJoe

When will people get a clue, these idiots just write stuff to keep people enslaved, they have no clue what their writtings.

At least for me, doing this sort of analysis is more about a fascination with how I was ever fooled by them when there are plot holes scattered literally everywhere.

I hope your summary is correct ,because if it is , it should wake up a lot more old timers and hopefully others that this religion just makes things up as the years drag on.

I predict that no one will wake up due to this particular failure of interpretation. It's too impersonal a doctrine to base the enormous decision/commitment of leaving the cult on. Anyone that sees the holes will just say "well that doesn't make sense, they'll probably clarify this soon." Really, anything in revelation (an exception being the literal nature of the 144k, probably) is a little thin to wake someone up - at least I don't think I'd ever have committed to doing research on whether the cult is really 'the truth' based on the interpretation of an exiled old man's fever dream.

8

Does anyone know how many partook of the emblems last memorial ?

by Chook in

i think this is the only growth area in jw land..

OneEyedJoe

Those numbers mean nothing.
In the Spanish congs here, I know of about 5 nutty women who partake. At least 3 of these ladies are flat out crazy, on meds for depression, bipolar, C-R-A-Z-Y!!!
Who really knows what the batshit crazy stuff found in Revelations really means.

The elders are supposed to harass anyone who partakes to see if it's valid before they're counted, so theres a fair chance they're not counting them. In my experience, though, anyone who partakes is a bit off their rocker (i mean they'd have to be, they have to essentially be hearing voices to qualify). In any event it's an interesting metric given that they so frequently stated that the dwindling number was a sign of the nearness of the end and now it's on the rise.

I think they advance some of the yearbook report at the annual meeting talks, that includes the memorial attendance and participants.
This from memory, I might be wrong.

Yeah, sometimes they'll publish key stats in WT study articles towards the end of the year, or they'll announce it at the annual meeting.

8

Does anyone know how many partook of the emblems last memorial ?

by Chook in

i think this is the only growth area in jw land..

OneEyedJoe

They do not "release" any figures for memorial partakers until the next year's Yearbook is up on JW organization. In this instance, you'll have to wait until early January 2018

It seems like this usually gets leaked around the annual meeting timeframe but I could be wrong.

18

Human element seen in 10 commandments

by venus in

i appreciate 10 commandments because they try to ensure law and order in the society.

however, i have problem with introductory statements that say: “you shall have no other gods before[a] me… you shall not bow down to them or worship them; for i, the lord your god, am a jealous god, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (exodus 20:3-6).

1) this contradicts the characteristics of god described in mathew 5:44-48 where love is described as loving everyone without thinking whether others reciprocate or not.

OneEyedJoe

Yeah, I always thought that the tacit acknowledgement of the existence of other gods was odd. It shows that whoever wrote that fully believed that other nations were worshiping entities that were gods in their own right, but yahweh was just better or something. It's interesting that christians today now accept that not only should they not worship those gods, but those gods don't even exist. Now that we understand fertility, weather, etc, there's no need for those other specific gods but we as a culture haven't managed to share the swiss army knife god yahweh, even though he apparently fully believed in those other gods.

What about the last Commandment something about not boiling a baby goat in its mothers milk?? What the hell?

That's not one of the 10 but it's actually pretty applicable to the topic at hand - my understanding is that this was a specific prohibition on a common pagan fertility ritual in which they would take an infant goat and boil it in its mother's milk and then spread the result onto the fields to get good crops. Basically this was just another in a long string of "don't worship anyone else" type commands.

The other thing that's interesting about this one is that this one very specific command has now been morphed by strict jews into such absurdity like not having cheeseburgers or even going to extremes of having two sets of dishwashers and dishes/utensils so as not to allow something that's touched dairy also touch meat. It's interesting how religion seems to always snatch up as much control as it can over its adherents' day to day lives as a means of keeping them indoctrinated.

56

Would You Outlaw Jehovah's Witnesses If You Had Your Way?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i still believe in freedom of religion even if i disagree with the beliefsof the religion.

what about you?.

OneEyedJoe

I think kids should be taught about fallacy and social pressure and cults in school far more than they are. That would do much more to kill JWs and other cults than banning them.