Posts by Billyblobber

79

Right everyone watch this video its insane!

by username in

i'm just watching this video.

now bare in mind this guy has never been a jehovah's witness so he has no investment in this cult.. https://youtu.be/_ry-onhbkya.

Billyblobber

It boggles my mind how some exjws use critical thinking to escape the cult and then refuse to use it when it comes to GMOs.

A big chunk of ex-JWs DON'T use critical thinking to escape from there. They get mad at the organization for emotional reasons, and then latch on to any "anti" stuff from there, without checking the validity just to justify their emotions. They just happened to latch on to correct information in those instances.

There's a difference between "this doesn't make logical sense," *does research on both ends and gradually finds out most doctrines are lies,* as opposed to, "I'm mad at the organization for whatever reason, or simply don't want to do this any more," *reads third party saying that the organization is basically lies and agrees right off the bat because it supports their feelings." Both lead to a positive outcome in a sense, but both don't come from the same way of thinking.

14

Did anyone learn the truth from having their prayers answered by a knock at the door and then eventually leave the JWs?

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i know of one person who had a difficult life, prayed for help, got the knock at the door, got baptized and eventually left the jws believing they were a cult.. has this happened to any of you?

and if so, did you still feel your prayers were answered at that time?.

Billyblobber

Am I right in saying JWs teach that god no longer performs miracles? I guess it depends on your definition of miracle (for which there is no consensus, naturally) but surely a knock on the door after praying is a form of miracle if god is behind it? If not, then it is pure coincidence (which of course it is).

JWs teach that God doesn't do OBVIOUS miracles that would actually prove his existence. He "uses the angels and his holy spirit" to do things that can't be proven or seen and are indistinguishable from coincidence, though.

14

Child care and abortion - two examples of the complexity of the issue

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

in a perfect world, one would hope that no woman would need to consider an abortion.

there is unfortunately, no perfect world and there does not seem there will ever be a perfect world.

so consider .... 1. a child rape case in paraguay.. ... but the plot unfolding in paraguay is so dark and twisted that it is currently tearing the south american country apart.it began on april 21 when a mother brought her 10-year-old daughter to a public hospital.

Billyblobber

If the reason for going against abortion is to protect human life, then allowing it in cases of rape or incest make no sense at all and break that logic. The only logical reason to allow a rape/incest clause is if your REAL reasons are that you think people should be punished for their mistakes more. So, no, that doesn't really work either.

Abortion is an unsolvable issue because the yay and nay of it relate to philosophical concepts that have no factual answer. Fetuses/zygotes/embryos/sperm cells/egg cells are all "human life," so none of that is in question. The question is "personhood," which is a philosophical concept, as it relates to when someone else's personhood overrides the mother that it is feeding off of's wishes. And there's no "true" answer to that because everyone doesn't agree on when that starts.

The U.S. Supreme Court set it at viability - when it can reasonably survive outside of the mother, which also happens to coincide with where it actually begins to think and feel. That's a logical stance based on the available actual data that we have.

Really, the biggest issue is so many people being raised in a human-centric religious atmosphere in which they are force-fed the idea that human life is the most important thing ever and must be preserved at all costs, no matter what because it's ultra special because it is. That causes people to think of even something as non developed as zygotes, which think and feel less than worms, as more precious than the self aware, fully feeling dinner they had that night, and assign it more importance than they actually do fully grown people who actually -do- suffer and die constantly around the world.

13

Day Text - Sept. 19, 2015 - Obey even if not appear practical, sound, or strategic from a human standpoint - Reminder from WT 2013 Nov.15

by Muddy Waters in

day text -- saturday, september 19 - "he will certainly bring about deliverance from the assyrian."mic.

today, jehovah certainly has provided an abundance of spiritual men to shepherd his precious sheep, to strengthen his people for the future attack of the modern-day assyrian.

the most practical step that we can take to prepare for the coming attack of the assyrian is that of strengthening our faith in god and helping our brothers to do the same.

Billyblobber

Didn't the Assyrians BEAT God, though?

“And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.”

—Judges 1:19

75

Lurker trying to gain clarity

by questioningmyfaith in

jw
friends

hello all, i would like to first say that i am basically questioning my faith in god.

i am not negative towards the wt at all.

so honestly i am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the wt because i still love the organization and the people in it.

Billyblobber

I think that there are good people within the JW organization, and i don't think the Governing Body is as evil as other people here make them out to be, but I still think that if you remove all emotion and look strictly from a "net benefit" basis, Witnesses are hurting people more than they're helping due to many of their rules. If those rules are proven to have no basis, then there is reason to speak out against the organization. Ignoring blood, there are other things that have a huge effect that are basically ignored with a "Jehovah will make up for it like he did with Job in the future" type platitudes.

- With so few numbers, it's nearly impossible to find TRULY compatible romantic relationships. Most people within -force- relationships with whoever is around, and many people miss out on them completely. This causes a lot of unhappiness in people's lives. The could still get the "afterlife" happiness in other religions that don't force that rule on their followers. This also applies to true friendships - in retrospect, I probably had ONE that wasn't fully surface, and it was a guy that's out now as well.

- The disfellowshipping rule, based on one scripture that Paul wrote, that goes against the spirit of Jesus' teachings, has caused pain and suffering for innumerable people. It being stretched in relatively recent years to, "anyone who doubts anything the Governing Body says," is a whole different level of control and pressure.

- If life -is- limited, spending so much time going to multiple meetings a week, assemblies, field service, etc. is a huge waste of it.

...and many more things. That's why people are "against" it, above and beyond just living and let living. Any many have emotional reasons, since they're blocked from communicating with beloved family members because of it.

75

Lurker trying to gain clarity

by questioningmyfaith in

jw
friends

hello all, i would like to first say that i am basically questioning my faith in god.

i am not negative towards the wt at all.

so honestly i am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the wt because i still love the organization and the people in it.

Billyblobber

Climate change isn't "hopeless." You're looking at this from a strictly human-centric perspective, first of all, which makes sense when you've been around a religion that makes humanity the center of the universe.

If humans are just another animal, then they don't matter to this planet any more than the dinosaurs, which were on the planet longer. Even if they have an effect on the climate or blow themselves up in nuclear war, the earth will change as it has always been changing, and new life will appear or other life that survives will evolve and become the dominant species. So what humans do, only matters to humans themselves. And as such, we have the best chance of any species that ever existed on this planet to possibly outlive the planet itself (the planet will eventually die unless we can reignite the sun waaayyyy in the future - something that JWs assume God will do or something).

We are living in the best time in history. Life is safer, per capita, for people more than any time on this planet. Diseases are contained far better than they ever war. Wars are actually slowing down and have less of an impact on the average individual. People are living longer. People are getting closer towards cracking aging and other things.

The news, etc. is purposely centered around constantly scaring people so that they tune back in, but stats don't match that. Similarly, religions have to tell people everything is going badly to give their followers a reason to pour themselves into them. But, again, facts don't match this. Look these things up for yourself.

103

Need advice: Intimacy with my wife almost non existint because she considers me an apostate

by goingthruthemotions in

just on of the perks of being an apostate who is married to a branwashed, blinded jw woman.

you know, we have been married for ~27 years....most of which we had nothing to do with the piece of shite cult.

up till the begining of 2014 was when i woke up.

Billyblobber

Throw the sexist, "render to a husband your due" scripture in her face. JW women are OBLIGATED to have sex with their husbands. Even her elders will tell her to do that, if they go by the JW interpretation instead of their own.

You can also threaten divorce, reminding her that she can't get remarried unless you cheated on her because it's not a "real" divorce, and also reminding her that old JW women don't get married, or if they do, it's to the worst people ever.

21

Sheep who mate in front of stripey trees will produce stripey offspring

by purrpurr in

genesis 30:37 leaving aside the whole "joseph cheats laham out of his flock" issue.

one passage of scripture that i've missed until now is 30:37 where it says how joseph got all the sheep to be stripey etc ( btw have you ever seen a stripey sheep?

cos i certainly haven't!).

Billyblobber

A later verse says God did it. It's still ultra stupid, and makes Jacob look like a moron.

17

Photosynthesis and the problem with the creation story

by purrpurr in

i just noticed in the bible that on day three, god created the plants and trees on the earth.... day four, god created the sun, moon and stars!

so that means that the vegetation that is by its very nature dependant upon light to grow and photosynthesise was created a day before the sun that it needs to live!???.

this gets even more strange when you factor in the jw exhuse that a day to god is like a thousand years.

Billyblobber

To be more specific, they say that the creation story is given from an earthly perspective, and is given as someone on the planet seeing it being made around them. Therefore, when it agrees with science, it's because it was inspired, where it doesn't; because "different perspective."

16

Getting ready to visit the San Diego area......Any suggestions?

by drewcoul in

jw
friends

my son is getting ready to move to hawaii.

we are driving from indianapolis to san diego next week so that they can ship his car from the west coast and save about a thousand dollars versus shipping it from here.

i am only going to be there for a few days, thursday through sunday and would like some suggestions of what to do while i'm there.

Billyblobber

Whale watching. Also, spend time on Coronado and its beach; it's wonderful.