Posts by seattleniceguy

44

My wife and I ...

by Brummie in

jw
friends

...are seperating, and darn it feels so weird.

one day i'm like "yeah, ok, sounds like this could be for the best" and the next day i'm feelin like :( i'm all packed up and ready to go on the 28th of this month, have arranged a new place to live not too far away from my boys, cant imagine life without them running around causing havoc everyday...but my wife and i are still handling things well and arranging weekly visits for them so i guess i have to look on the bright side.

wont share anymore except to say there is no 3rd person involved or anything like that .

seattleniceguy

My thought are with you, Brummie.

SNG

1

Headship arrangement as basic brainwashing?

by seattleniceguy in

i had this thought occur to me the other day.

we all find it amazing that witnesses can point out the faults in other religions, but believe their own is wonderful, in spite of the raft of problems it has.

confronted with such, the witness will respond with, "oh, no one says our organization is perfect.

seattleniceguy

I had this thought occur to me the other day. We all find it amazing that Witnesses can point out the faults in other religions, but believe their own is wonderful, in spite of the raft of problems it has. Confronted with such, the Witness will respond with, "Oh, no one says our organization is perfect. But it is led by God."

I started thinking about the way the Witnesses portray the "headship arrangement." They would often describe a scenario in which a husband and wife disagreed on a topic, but the husband, being so obviously qualified by his malehood, would make the bindind decision for the family. Meanwhile, the wife would know the plan was doomed to failure. But what was the wife supposed to do? Support the decision and try to make it work, even if she sincerely believed it was wrong.

Thus interactions in the family, in which faulty decisions are supported rather than thought through critically, become a small version (No wait! the "type") for the larger reality (the "anti-type," if you will ) of supporting an organization that is obviously making bad policies.

I dunno. Struck me as interesting as I was shaving the other morning.

SNG

117

Is It Possible To Reason With A Typical Jehovah's Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

from what i can see, it's nearly impossible to reason with a witness, even if you might consider them somewhat intelligent.

seattleniceguy

LOL @ Nathan!

63

Do you believe the Bible is the inspired word of God?

by desib77 in

do you believe the bible is the inspired word of god?

have you somehow attempted to prove this to yourself or have you just accepted it?

seattleniceguy

I have found no good reason to believe it is, and I tried exceedingly hard to believe when I was a Witness. In fact, the main reason I left the organization was because I felt that belief in the Bible (at least in the manner required by the WTS) was intellectually dishonest.

The main reasons I felt that I could not honestly believe in the Bible is because it simply does not reconcile with science and history in many respects. But I certainly agree with what Bubbamar wrote above. If God really did communicate with humans, and if God were a loving God, wouldn't we expect to have a book that painted a picture of really great, warm, loving person? And for God's sake, shouldn't it make sense? Why all the riddles? Why all the double-speak, contradiction, and just plain gibberish? When I was a Witness I felt like I was constantly making excuses for God. "Well, yeah, that seems kind of rough, but, see, God had to do that because...." Like when Moses has to talk God out of destroying Israel at Mount Sinai. Or how about the wholesale destruction of entire cities and nations? "Well, God gave the Canaanites 400 years to repent." Nevermind the fact that - even if individuals did receive clear indication of exactly what the requirements for life were - which I don't think anyone can demonstrate that the Bible portrays - there were still innocent children mercilessly crushed by the invading Israelites whose eyes were not to feel sorry for "old man or virgin."

What actual book from God would require so much defending of the description that God himself supposedly wrote? Couldn't God paint a flattering picture of himself?

I mean, really. When you're honest, you have to agree that you really have to search to find scriptures where God seems nice. If God's such a great guy and he did inspire the Bible, shouldn't you be able to just flip it open and feel the love flow? I actually find the Bible to be incredible in that, it seems as though collecting writings together at random, you'd stand a better chance of getting something from which you'd be able to wring some good, loving quotes. We've got 1500 pages of 6-point type, and the "God is a Nice Guy" collection amounts to a very small Greatest Hits album of like 25 scriptures.

So my conclusion is that, either God did inspire the Bible and he happens to be schizophrenic with a decidedly angry streak and a penchant for arbitrarily punishing humans and livestock, or that the Bible was written by people bent on controlling their fellowmen by claiming to be the divine channel. Seeing that the Bible has consistently been used the the latter, I find it quite probable that that was the original purpose as well.

Seattle

9

How about using their own illustrations?

by Doubtfully Yours in

a long time ago, while giving bible studies to poor unsuspecting souls, i used one of their illustrations when people claimed that other religions had a lot of good things, and it went something like this:.

"yes, but would you drink a glass of water where most of it was good but it had a just a drop of poison in it?".

then, i was just thinking this very morning.... i'll from now on use that same illustration on them, regarding issues like the un, the spousal abuse, or the child molestation!.

seattleniceguy

DY,

That's really great. I remember emphasizing that point to one of my most "progressive" Bible studies as well. Funny when you find yourself staring down the business end of your own illustration!

SNG

25

have you done things BECAUSE they were condemned by the WTS?

by doogie in

jw
friends

hey guys,.

since leaving, has anyone done anything specifically because it was condemned by the society?.

- i went and got a tattoo (i had wanted one anyway, but really enjoyed it since it was a no-no...i'm getting a big'n next week...).

seattleniceguy

I don't really do anything just because it's condemned by the WTS. If anything, I was a little hesitant to try some things because of the indoctrination, and had to finally do them in spite of the WTS training. I subsequently found them to be great of course.

Perhaps the thing that would be most shocking to those who knew me previously is that I've now been known to use a little herb on occasion. I'm just beginning to really understand it...in that groovy kind of way. And I made an incredible discovery last night: listening to music while stoned is totally, insanely, mind-blowingly AWESOME!!

SNG, of the "far out, man" class

And for those lurkers out there: Here's a great collection of articles from a good source on the true effects of pot (summary: it's totally cool in moderation): http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/marijuana/marijuana.jsp

37

Alternative Fuel Source...TOO COOL...Or is that HOT!

by Yerusalyim in

here it is folks, one solution to our gas crunch.

i support this kind of thing.

look up veggie car on the web, this is for real.. http://www.rherald.com/news/2003/0320/people/p03.htmlmcgrath?s ?veggie car?.

seattleniceguy

Not only that, but with biodiesel, there is no net output of CO2. When the plants that will eventually provide the oil are alive, they extract CO2 from the atmosphere. When they are burned, that CO2 is returned. The only reason fossil fuels result in an increase is that you are releasing carbon that has been locked chemically for thousands of years, in a few moments.

I'm waiting for a biodiesel fueling station in Seattle. Then I want to get a new Passat TDI!

SNG

38

I had a visitor!!!!!!

by Sunspot in

whoooeeeee!

about 10 minutes ago i had a visitor!

she was a sister that we used to pal around with, we had several dinners together and she and her husband and my husband played cards together.

seattleniceguy

Wow, that's pretty awesome. I hope your prediction that more and more of us will have that experience is true.

SNG

65

Should Saddam Be Executed If Found Guilty?

by Englishman in

there is only so far you can go in inflicting just punishment upon an evil person.

yet how evil is someone who has murdered one person in cold blood, compared to someone who is guilty of genocide?

the crime of murder is heinous in itself, but does the fact that someone may be responsible for millions of deaths make the crime of multiple murder a million times worse than the person who kills only once?

seattleniceguy

Hello Englishman,

I thoroughly enjoyed your post. I wrote an opinion piece back in December in which I wondered whether killing Saddam would be the most productive course of action:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/14/63606/1.ashx

You stated:

For anyone to legally kill anyone, does, IMHO, simply re-inforce the belief that violence against a person is the ultimate answer. Killing killers might be appealing to those who are outraged by them, but that just makes us killers ourselves.

I totally agree. I think that the concept of violent revenge is dangerous. For example, one poster stated:

I would put Saddam in a harness and lower him slowly, feet first, into one of his infamous plastic bottle shredders. no, slower...slower... yeah, like that. is someone using a circular saw, or is that this f*cker screaming?

I find this to be totally unhealthy. This solution does remove Saddam from the picture, but unfortunately it reinforces a strong cultural paradigm that it is acceptable to use horrible violence when it happens to fit into our particular agenda. I think that this concept filters down into other aspects of our life and promotes vindictive justice when that is not ultimately the most productive course.

The way we treat our most hated enemies says much about ourselves. If Saddam Hussein is killed by the state, the manner of such execution should not foster the very values that he stood for. If he is kept alive, it should be as a common prisoner, with no special treatment.

The lust for vengeance is strong, but I submit that in most cases it is a weakness. Let us be better than that. Let cool-headed justice prevail.

SNG

68

Is there proof of Evolution out there? help needed

by trumangirl in

i've faded, but i still would like to have faith in a creator/god.

but i am really not sure if my belief in god is the result of being brought up a jw and being stuck with a particular world-view.

the best thing i can do is challenge myself by reading some material that explains proof of the evolution, but i have not seen anything that does this yet, i've only seen explanations of the theory, not the proof.

seattleniceguy

Hello TrumanGirl,

First, let me say I love your name and avatar!

On the subject of evolution, I found the book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, by Michael Denton, to be very helpful. Although you might assume from the title that it is an anti-evolution book, and from the cherry-picked quotes the Society makes, you might be led to believe so, it actually takes a very balanced look. Denton's goal is not to prove or disprove evolution, but to show where it succeeds, and where it needs more work.

This book really help improve my understanding of the tenets and mechanisms of evolution. It showed that evolution in some form does definitely occur - species are not immutable - while at the same time showing what areas seemed less certain. His goal in writing the book was not to try to discredit evolution, but to take a look at where we are in our understanding of it and where we might go in the future.

You'll almost definitely need a dictionary as you read it, but the writing is clear and enjoyable, and you'll learn a lot.

Hope that helps!
SNG