Posts by seattleniceguy

20

Mosquitoes

by averyniceguy in

jw
friends

i was wondering if there is a mosquitoes expert here that can answer my question.

i have tried to find the answer thru the search engine, but could not find the answer so my question is does white light or red light after dark attract or repel mosquitoes?

thank you in advance for answering my question!

Real religion?

by I-follow-the-narrow-path in

with all the talk around of people saying they know the real religion... do you (presonally) think that there is a real religion?.

personally, i think that it is hard to argue what the right religion is.

there are so many different translations of the bible.

seattleniceguy

Hey there, IFTNP,

Nice post. I'm personally not religious in any sense, but I wanted to draw your attention to an implicit assumption you're making:

Personally, I think that it is hard to argue what the right religion is. There are so many different translations of the bible. <BR>

This is really a non sequitur. The only possible way to join these two sentences together is with the assumption that some translation of Bible is tied the "right religion." But there are many religious people out there that might argue that the true religion is based on another book altogether. In this statement, you reveal that you have a bias toward some flavor of Christianity, as though you have dismissed all other religions completely. I'm sure you probably realize that most of the planet follows different holy books.

Anyway. I'm just pointing it out to make you think. Questioning your assumptions is always a good thing. Many good wishes to you on your spiritual journey.

SNG

9

Is there somewhere to get more information about the masses leaving?

by spawn2u in

jw
friends

i am interested in getting some facts about how many people are leaving the jw religion, anywhere or anyone have an idea of how many?

are we talking 1 from each congregation monthly, or what?

i see there are a bunch of people here ex-jw's and potential witnesses alike, i am sure that this is just a small measure of the poeple leaving.. thanks.

seattleniceguy

It depends on which demographic you look at. They had zero or negative growth in around 80 countries last year, compared to only 27 (I think) the year before.

They are almost certainly losing members in English congregations in the USA, probably at a rate of about 1-2% per year.

Also, with regard to the "zero or negative growth" figures, keep in mind that they represent the average number of publishers. Since they still report substantial baptisms, there is a great deal of "churn" happening to maintain zero growth.

Northern Europe has posted negative growth for around 10 years now. Japan turned a corner and went negative recently. The pattern is basically, countries that are developed and have free access to information (e.g., the Internet) are running out of steam as far as JW growth is concerned.

This page (http://www.jwic.com/stat.htm) has some interesting charts based on their numbers, but unfortunately he hasn't put the most recent year's numbers in (if he had, the end of their growth would be even more apparent).

Hope that helps!

SNG

41

The Challange of Faith

by truth_be_told in

jw
friends

i stumbled on this site dong some research, i post now only for those you have not sinned against jehovah's holy spirit, since only jehovah knows this, some value might be taken form this.

i currently serve as the service overseer in my congregation, i have been an elder for over 10 years.. the fundmental issue that challanges every jw faith at some point are the imperfections of the wtbs, & those that take the lead sometimes make huge errors.

as a third generation jw with a huge network of elders, i have heard many bad things about those that take the lead.. some of these have effected myself and my family, this is the test, no different than what job faced, but it is more on the emotional and mental level.

seattleniceguy

truth_be_told,

Welcome to the board. To reply to your original post,

The fundmental issue that challanges every JW faith at some point are the imperfections of the WTBS, & those that take the lead sometimes make huge errors.

These probably do challenge many JWs, but I thought you might be interested in knowing that they did not challenge me. The fundamental issue that challenged me was that I came to see that several underlying aspects of the Witness worldview are simply not true. This is especially true as relates to the JW positions on the Bible and the natural world.

Being wrong about a few things isn't so bad, but I next discovered that Society frequently engages in deception. They lie about their history, and they quote authors to make it appear that they are saying things that they are not. By distorting the facts to support their own viewpoint, they demonstrate that they are not interested in the truth.

Because I am very interested in science, to me, the most eggregious examples of this misrepresentation comes in the Society's treatment of evolution, which borders on absurd. Almost everything they say about evolution is just flat-out wrong. You can easily prove this by doing some basic study about what evolution actually is and what precisely the evidence is, and then re-reading the Society's books on it. I can provide you some links in that regard if you're interested.

The long and short of it is that I am convinced that the JWs are wrong about just about everything. It was an immensely painful conclusion to come to, let me tell you, but much better to accept a painful reality and move on than to try vainly to will a fantasy to be true.

Best wishes to you on your journey.

SNG

7

Couldn't Happen to a More Deserving Fellow

by SixofNine in

jw
friends

.

well, almost.. .

the picture is fantasy, of course, but the indictment is real.

seattleniceguy

I believe that's supposed to be Karl Rove.

SNG

30

I've had it. I want to DA myself

by White Waves in

jw
friends

but i am afraid to send a letter to my old kh.

what should i write to make sure they don't just df me?

also, they refused my request to da myself before.

seattleniceguy

WW,

There is a difference between DF and DA. In one, you're the helpless victim of a kangaroo court. In the other, you say, "I hereby resign from your organization." I heartily disagree with those who say that DA'ing is "playing by their rules." It isn't. If the reason you wanted to DA is that you wanted to make a statement, then there is real value in it for you as a person.

The Society has tried to take that power away from people who leave by homogenizing the two announcements. But there is a very simple way of making sure that the DA still has its full face-value. Simply send a letter to everyone in your congregation (or to the people who you know well) in which you make it clear that you are resigning from the organization because of conscientious reasons. The organization did not meet your standards, not vice versa.

Those are my two cents. Please take them with a grain of salt and do what is right for your particular situation. Best wishes.

SNG

10

I have a feeling that "The Watchtower" of 4/1/2006 was an April Fool

by MinisterAmos in

the issue contains the "life story" of a brother who has been in for sixty years, but it really sounds like someone from jwd who is subtly bashing the org.. according to him he only got dunked some 60 years ago because "my mother (repeatedly) emphasized one point to me; armageddon is coming soon"!

when he was baptized to age 13 he "only understood basic bible teachings and understood that he was responsible to jehovah for my conduct".

note he specifically omits mention of the wtbs as being representive of god and fails to mention "showing glory to the elders and others" as demanded in wt 9/1/97 but is seeming to mock the wt with the "soon" remark and also with the fact that he was baptized at 13, without his parent's permission and with little knowledge.. anyway, his mom is dead and here we are 60 years later.

seattleniceguy

Here's how you respond to the "but it's a good way of life" argument:

Them: ...so even if it turned out to be false, I still have good friends, a good family, and I live a moral life. It's a good way to live.

You: So even if it's not true per se, it basically has some stuff on the ball, and you like that.

Them: Yeah.

You: But if it's not true, there might be other ways of life that also have some stuff on the ball, wouldn't you agree?

Them: There might be.

You: And in the case that it weren't true, you would certainly be free to check out whether other ways of life were better, would you not?

Them: ...

You: Because, myself, I'm pretty positive that there are even better ways to live. I don't think I would want to settle for just a good way. I'd want to find the best way. And you can't really know until you do an objective comparison. Personally, I'm glad I took the time to keep looking.

SNG

13

Google Trends: The Mormons are kicking the JW's asses

by seattleniceguy in

jw
friends

i thought that title would get your attention.. google has released a new and fascinating tool, called google trends (http://www.google.com/trends).

it allows you to see what people search on over time.

just type in a search term, and you'll see how people have searched on that term over the past two years.

seattleniceguy

Sheesh, I wasn't actually trying to make this about JWs vs. Mormons. Everyone is taking this so seriously. It's like searching on peanut butter versus jelly. I was just joking around! ;-)

I think the tool is actually a response to the recent episode where the US government demanded search figures from Google. They've put this tool out to say, here, you can see relative search volumes just like everyone else. Neener neener neener!

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty cool tool.

SNG

13

Google Trends: The Mormons are kicking the JW's asses

by seattleniceguy in

jw
friends

i thought that title would get your attention.. google has released a new and fascinating tool, called google trends (http://www.google.com/trends).

it allows you to see what people search on over time.

just type in a search term, and you'll see how people have searched on that term over the past two years.

seattleniceguy

I thought that title would get your attention.

Google has released a new and fascinating tool, called Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends). It allows you to see what people search on over time. Just type in a search term, and you'll see how people have searched on that term over the past two years. You can also enter multiple search terms separated by commas to see the the trends overlaid.

For some real fun, add a third search term that everybody else in the world is interested, like, oh, I don't know, sex.

Anyway, I thought this was pretty cool. Have fun!

SNG

38

greetings from another newbie

by lost_sheep in

jw
friends

well... i've finally worked up the courage to get an account & start posting on this site.

i've been lurking for a couple of months now, voraciously reading all the, mmm, "delightful words of truth" i've found here.

i'm currently deep in dubdom, so i have to be pretty ambiguous about some personal details, (i'm really paranoid, hopefully that will pass :-/) but my story in a nutshell is: i was born into this religion, baptised in my mid teens, happily married to a wonderful (& thankfully, somewhat open-minded) jw lady, & now, several years later, i'm starting to seriously question some of what i believe.

seattleniceguy

lost_sheep,

A warm, warm welcome to you. I also left without a non-JW friend in the world. (LOL, no pun intended.) The feeling of mental freedom is the most wonderful sensation I think a person can experience. Read, read, read about every topic that interests you. And welcome to the real world.

SNG