Posts by cypher50

27

"friend" sends me email about Einstein and God...

by tetrapod.sapien in

the young man replied, "in fact sir, cold does not exist.

"professor, does darkness exist?".

"sir, does evil exist?".

cypher50

also would like to know why it is seemingly impossible for young Einstien to have held radically different views from an older Einstien. Do we not give him credit for the ability to change his opinion, if he so wished?
Seems poor ole Einstien has posthumously been placed in a very confining box, by those who admire his work but cannot tolerate those things which may (or may not) be at odds with their own flavour of visualisation of how the world is...

Notice the part I highlighted? Noticed how you said "if he so wished"? Where in that piece of glurge that was originally posted did it give a reference to prove that Einstein ever said anything like what that email story said? Those who are admirers of Einstein don't put him in a "very confining box"...instead, they tend to only use reason & proof when it comes to stories concerning his life. There is no reason & no proof that can back this story up so why should anyone take it seriously?

There are plenty of real life scholars who have equally nice little tales that are true and to even try to justify made up urban legends like this is intellectually dishonest.

27

"friend" sends me email about Einstein and God...

by tetrapod.sapien in

the young man replied, "in fact sir, cold does not exist.

"professor, does darkness exist?".

"sir, does evil exist?".

cypher50

Any "friend" that forwards crappy glurge emails like this are automatically taken out of my address book and put on my blocked email list...I have confidence that most the people I know are smart enough not to believe crap like this...

I like how you used Snopes to own this fool :).

36

Did it ever bother you that Watchtower never did charitible works?

by AK - Jeff in

i mean, for forty years believing the witness lie it always made me wonder.. judas was the keeper of the money box - and there are statements that indicated that the apostles thought that wasting money that could be used to aid the poor was sinful - so indications are that the earliest christians were doing charitible works.

of course there are many scriptural passages that encourage that activity among believers.

today all the organization ever does is pay lip service to charity.

cypher50

It always bothered me...my mom used to try and use that rationalized thinking of "the good news is more valuable then a few dollars to a charity" but I always felt that the "good news" didn't help when you can't feed your children today. The fact that the WTBTS discourages charity work except when it approves it is another reason that the whole UN thing seems especially hypocritical (since the UN definitely believes in charitable works of all kinds).

20

Very weird dream. JW action figures? WTF?

by kwintestal in

jw
friends

i woke up this morning just after having the oddest dream that i've ever had.

i dreamed that i created a jw action figure set and saw the commercial for it.. here is the commercial as i remember it:.

"new from hasno toys, jehovah's witness action figures with real door knocking action and sound!".

cypher50

Inspiration? <- It's a link

18

Exploitation of brothers & sisters

by LouBelle in

jw
friends

in the past i visited bethel and got to 'tour' around.

here men & women worked their asses off every single day - a full 8 & 1/2 hours a day.

they had to make sure they were up at the crack of dawn to attend the reading of the day text.

cypher50

I was reading in Crisis of Conscience that @ bethel they were getting paid $14 - I'm sure it's gone up since then but it blows my mind that these people give so much, are expected to function normally at the end of an 8 1/2 hour day, still go to all meetings, fieldies, preparation, whatever other bethel service they had to do.

When I left the Watchtower Farms area in 1998, the stipend at that time was $90/month. At the time, I actually believed that it was very noble to dedicate your life to "assist in spreading the good news"...now, Bethel brothers do get a lot of services at discount but looking back I can see that it was a burden for them in the sense that they didn't have a life outside of the organization: with just enough money to operate for field service & meetings, they didn't have discretionary money to spend on simple things like CDs, movies, magazines, and etc. I remember Bethel brothers loved hanging out with us teens because we had things like Playstation...sad, isn't it?

6

God always is with his servants

by tata in

.

alright i'm being sarcastic.... let me tell you why i said that.

i had to preach this saturday, i do not want to talk with nobody, but i do not had any excuse not to, so i talked in this house and the girl ask me to bring her the magazines because she love to read it.. i laughed later thinking that in another time i would think it was god sending me a "sheep", someone with study the bible.

cypher50

I suppose it is hard for you to have to talk to people about the WTS at a time when you no longer believe in it.

I have to agree...I don't know your situation but I know I wouldn't be able to even think about propogating the lie in any form or fashion. Should of had fun with it and actually done some anti-witnessing by telling the householder such fun things like "if I don't preach then my family will shun me!".

15

The small size of KH windows

by helios in

it was only a few days ago when driving through a small town in the uk i noted a kh.

nothing unusual except that one side wall was totally devoid of anything.

the other side of the building revealed three very small windows, and i mean small.

cypher50

Sounds crazy but this is one of the things that got me thinking about whether there was something wrong with the organization...I never could feel like the grand cathedrals of Europe or mosques in the Middle East were an "abomination" but I felt the architecture of the Kingdom Halls wasn't inviting but instead insular & cold. It is one thing to not want extravagant edefices but the JWs architecture emits a level of paranoia about safety...

45

Twin Towers\ Armageddon

by Es in

jw
friends

hey all this may have been mentioned before.

i was thinking last night about when the twin towers fell and i remembered thinking how close armageddon must be did anybody else think similar....i guess it would only apply to those who were still in the borg at the time es

cypher50

Yes, I thought it was "finally" a sign of the end of time...boy, I feel ashamed about how I handled it. I was extremely scared but it was because I was thinking about the draft coming back and what Armeggedon would be like; I look back now and feel like someone in the Middle Ages who was afraid of witches & goblins. Fortunately, after 9/11 I really worked at studying my JW teachings and that eventually led to me getting out...

53

Do you still shudder at the sight of a Elder?

by kls in

i remember so long ago i thought elders were like a god and would always make sure i smiled at them and put on my innocent act in front of them .

even being out of the cult it took me years to finally get it through my head that they are human and not a god as they themselves think.

then one day a jw elder came to my door and at that time i had a newborn baby that i had been up with all night .

cypher50

Shudder at the sight of a random Elder? Nope...JW is a JW in my eyes and I pity with the Elders/COs/DOs as much as I pity the rank & file members...

Now, if it was an Elder that actually knew me when I was growing up then yes, it would be uncomfortable to see them now because they would make it uncomfortable. Myself, if they don't have a problem with being cordial and civil then I would love to bump into one just to say 'Hi' and catch up on how life is treating them...I have a problem with the JW doctrine & teachings but I still feel close to many of the friends I had growing up even if it isn't reciprocal. But I know the reaction I would get instead of "cordial and civil": it would be either a) a cold stare and then the Elder walks away, b) a curt 'hello' and subtle inquiry about my Mom's health so as to try and lay down a guilt trip, or c) a long boring conversation on why I disagree with doctrines for a religion who version of God I honestly am skeptical about now days. I don't need the stress nor bother so I would shudder not at the person but at the subsequent scenarios I just described...

29

your JW experience hides something deeper

by seesthesky in

as odd as this may sound i believe that your continual struggle with your past life as a jw is in fact a cover for something else - i do not know what that something else is but i am almost 100 percent certain that somehow someone or something has used your jw experience to disguise some greater violation of your souls - any thoughts?

cypher50

not a wt writer - what is the style of those writers?

You have never been a JW, have you? If not then how can you even come here and make a general statement like your original post? I understand what you are saying (some people use their prior past as a JW for a sympathy crutch) but to assume that all the people here are doing that is wrong on so many levels...