Posts by dorayakii

170

What does your name MEAN?

by RichieRich in

jw
friends

we all are identified by our names here on jwd.

some use their real names, and others pick a moniker that is their nickname or perhaps a few words from a song they like.. why did you pick your name?.

for instance,.

dorayakii

I thought Frances came from "France." Which is why St. Francis was named so, b/c his father liked France (in Italian, Francesco).

Actually classicist, the word "France" itself may mean 'land of the free man' and may have in turn been derived from the Proto-Germanic (Teutonic) word for 'free man', *frank. There is much confusion among linguists as to whether the Frankish word for "free" was derived from the ethnic name of the germanic tribe of the Franks who conquered Gaul from the Romans, or the other way around. The two concepts of freemanship and Frankish ethnicity became confused and intertwined because at that time, from the 5th to the 9th century, only the Francks had the status of "free man". Our English word "frank" meaning "honest" may also have been derived from this Germanic root and passed down to us through the Old French word "franc" meaning "free, noble, true". Another popular etymological theory is that the word comes from the Proto-Germanic word for 'spear' or 'javelin', *frankon, but this is less widely accepted. Interestingly the word "frankinsence" was derived from the Old French words franc "noble, true, high quality" and " encens" meaning "sweet-smelling substance"... which was in turn derived from Classical Latin " incendere" which literally meant "something burnt or set on fire" (think of it as "in cinders"). You've set me off now. Phonology, etymology and other aspects of linguistics can keep me talking for hours...

47

what proves jw's aren't true?

by jwfacts in

i am inactive and it took years of doubt to convince myself the jw's arent true.

i started doubting because i hated the idea that jehovah would kill 6 billion non-jw's.

the thing now that is the most important proof for me is that until 1954 jw's worshipped jesus and it is still in the watchtower charter, even though you now get disfellowshipped for worshipping jesus.

dorayakii

The language is padded, soothing, creating an almost hypnotic effect. In the "real world", editors would rip these articles apart and cut them to a tenth of their size to expose what is really being said.

jgnat i really appreciate your eloquence in expressing verbally what we all feel. I've also noticed this from some of your other posts.

Reading a WT publication is a surreal experience, even now when i read one i feel like nodding (or nodding off!). Its padded language misleads you as to the real purpose of the discussion, leading you to reason with your emotions rather than your intellect. It's loaded with emotional "cues", which cause you to agree with whats being said without really hearing and analysing it. These cues are often juxtaposed with subtle lies. Scripture is also used and taken out of its context to add an illusion of weight to the emotionally loaded statements.

eg. "[Quotes from Rev. 21:3,4]Just imagine how happy life will be when those words come true! How though, can you make sure that you and your family will enjoy this promised future? You will find the answer in the bible lierature we publish". - Good News for People of All Nations (English)

The public talks are also designed like that, to be soothing to the ears. In this state of mind you can accept anything that comes from the platform as truth simply because of how believable it sounded.

170

What does your name MEAN?

by RichieRich in

jw
friends

we all are identified by our names here on jwd.

some use their real names, and others pick a moniker that is their nickname or perhaps a few words from a song they like.. why did you pick your name?.

for instance,.

dorayakii

I have to admit though, I thought you were female, just cuz the nam starts off Dora...

Well i am gay, lol... in fact it's pronounced in between the "l" and "r", similar to but shorter than the Scottish "r". The "l" and "r" are allophones in Japanese so you could just as well say "dolayaki" (or even "dotayaki" in american accent).

The allophonic nature of "r" and "l" in some oriental languages is the sourse of some jokes like "flied lice" for "fried rice" or "rubbery" for "lovely". It's a very difficult sound to master but its most definately not pronounced like english "Dorah".

The chinese character in my avatar means "love" when used in Japanese.

170

What does your name MEAN?

by RichieRich in

jw
friends

we all are identified by our names here on jwd.

some use their real names, and others pick a moniker that is their nickname or perhaps a few words from a song they like.. why did you pick your name?.

for instance,.

dorayakii

Forscher as in "Bibelforscher"? At a good-bye party for a Japanese friend of mine, we performed a "kabuki" play in her honour where all of the characters' names were names of japanese food. The character i played was called "dorayaki" which is a type of small thick pancake folded over and filled with "anko" (sweet azuki-bean filling). It was then that i started to get interested in Japanese culture and started studying the language, and the name kinda stuck. I added an extra "i" to make it unique. ( My real name's Stephen or Steve)

44

Consolidated Guerilla Apostasy Tactics for 2005 District Conventions

by seattleniceguy in

jw
friends

we've had several very interesting threads going on about how those of us who are still on the inside can work to open the eyes of the witnesses at the district conventions this summer.

since people have been making scattered suggestions on scattered threads, i thought we should start a consolidated thread here that lays all the options out on the table for those that want to be a part of it.

here are the ideas that have stood out in my mind so far (please add any that i have missed): .

dorayakii

I'll most definately be putting my cheques in, and doing as much as i can to further the aposta-cause. I've never actually seen any "apostates" hanging around outside assemblies, and i even look for them. I keep my eye out more and more every year. I think it would be good to actually meet someone this year so that we can have an "interchange of encouragement". I'm fed up with just sitting around pretending to listen to the talks, pretending to be a good note-taking dub and doing nothing at break times except eating a sandwich and walking around aimlessly.

I'll try and take a few photographs as well this year. My DC is quite a long way off tho, a whole month. Anyone else going to Twickenham Stadium, London on the 5th to the 7th of August?

19

Please post pictures of the Ageing Governing Body and Helpers(Nethinim).

by frankiespeakin in

jw
friends

if any on this board have relatively currant pictures of the gb and nethinim please post them here.

i think if all the lurkers could actually see how pathetically old these people are who run the organization, it might open thier eyes to the fact that they are letting people that should for all intents and purposes should be retired and a good portion should be in a nursing home, and the real possiblity that many suffer from dimentia while continuing to overseer the spiritual need of the world wide brotherhood.. certainly thier advanced age is showing up in the dumbing down of all the currant literature.

so i think a few pictures would nicely illustrate this.

dorayakii

He was definitely in no postion to hoard pedophiles or browse the UN library.

LOOOOOL

Yah it's kinda funny how they change the generation dogma but still insist that the anointing was cut off in 1935

What is their "scriptural" reasoning on this date anyway? This "cutting-off" date for the annointed in 1935 was mentionned over and over again, but it seems completely unfounded on scripture. It seems that it was all based on some special talk that was given in the year. I always used to question this date when i was going tomeetings but i never got a satifying answer.

here's a link to the page i think u were talking about: http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/gb.htm

25

Warning my dog eats JW's

by DannyHaszard in

don't try to convert me, please

macon area online - macon,ga,usa .

"we're jehovah's witnesses," one of the women said.

dorayakii

Wicked story Danny. Very amusing. I never buy anything from people who come to my door whether they're selling tea-towels, double-glazing or bibles. Its a completely useless and annoying work both for the publisher and for the house-holder.

I've never seen the point of the field ministry, i even thought it was a cruel work... In the JW doctrine all who were ignorant of the Good News get a resurrection. So instead of spoiling their chance for ressurection by telling them about it all, let them keep their "ignorance" and keep that resurrection option open... Let people believe what they believe for god's sake.

My dog, Catfish, the black Lab,

That took a micro-second for my brain to understand that it was a DOG and not a cat, a fish or a "black laboratory".

25

Warning my dog eats JW's

by DannyHaszard in

don't try to convert me, please

macon area online - macon,ga,usa .

"we're jehovah's witnesses," one of the women said.

dorayakii

I'd also like to see some verification. You have a videotape of this supposed experience do you, or a tape recording of the dog's snarls?

100

A Christian question, but applies to all thinking Christian too!

by free2beme in

jw
friends

no longer being a christian, it has become a mind opening experience to look back and see certian things i once ignored or just brushed off.

yet now i can not help but see these things and wonder why other christians do not.. if you have ever studied greek, roman or any other cultures religions in history.

then you have no doubt read their legends, about gods and how things came to be, and no doubt you have enjoyed these and at the same time you must have wondered how people actually bought this enough to make it a religion.

dorayakii

I don`t believe in religion ... I don`t believe in Dylan .... I just believe ... in me.

Quite right. This may seem egotistical by "Christian" standards, but i wholeheartedly agree with the comment. Instead of putting our confidence in other people's doctrines and dogmas about whether Jesus was Christ or God or whatnot... we should be focusing on improving ourselves and our relationships with people.

Although i don't hold Jesus in special high regard in this matter, (and i don't believe Jesus or anyone was the "Christ") i still acknowledge that the teaching that Jesus taught on the Sermon on the Mount and the message of "love" that pervades his speeches are wonderful concepts to live life by and were unique and refreshing ideas at that time and place.

Jesus also spoke out against the Pharisees who wrote every law down in a book and wanted people to tithe a tenth of the cumin and such. But the very religion (Christianity in its every mutation whether Catholic, JW, Mormon, etc.), which claims to advance Jesus' teaching of "just love, nothing else", ignores his principal teaching, and each fraction has its own story of bloodshed, hatred, mind-control and the need to write down everything in a book and get follwers to listen to it or be burned in Hell (or cut-off in She'ol). This is why i often find it better to refer to the real Jesus and his simple teachings as "the historical Jesus" and to call the embellished immortal Jesus, who was resurrected or who is the archangel Michael or who is the human manifestation of God, "religion's Jesus".

A guy i used to date who labelled himself as just "Christian" told me that when you die you can come out of your body and see your body as if you were standing next to it. I thought about this for a while, because all the other things that he had just told me about Jesus' love and compassion were so attractive and comforting. But then i asked him, have you ever died and seen this? He obviously said well, "no". Then i said, even if you have seen this phenomenon, all i've got is your word. What evidence apart from the lovely comforting concept of grace can you offer me? Obviously he was beyond rational reasoning and could only offer me what i already knew, that humans should be civil to one another. His religion sounded good, but the extra trappings he had developped were founded in unreality.

I would consider myself honest hearted and open minded, so if God came to me in a vision and told me which religion was right and how i should worship Him to get "saved", i would acknowledge His existance and whole-heartedly go down that path, as long as it was proven and didn't involve hurting others or trying to convince them of what they cannot see even though i can see it.

The people who asked Jesus to perform a sign or a miracle in the gospels were not doing so out of lack of appreciation, they were doing so because they just wanted proof that these things were true. I refuse to follow a religion just because a group of people saw something that i haven't seen. Give everyone a chance to see the sign, then make a judgement as to what their "heart condition" is, Not the other way around.

When my parents used to warn me about the demons in certain books, i used to say to myself, if i ever saw a demon, that would even strengthen my faith in Jehovah, because at least then something in the Bible would be proved as correct. My "heart condition" was open minded to accept any thing that i could see demonstrated. A reasonable God would provide all the nessesary proof for his existance. If He destroyed all those who didn't believe in Him because they had no "proof", i don't think such a God is even worth worshipping. I'm not interested in whether the gospels were really written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John... that has absolutely NO relevance for my spirituality. Nor do references to "first hand witness accounts" or "proof that they wanted to control people". Its basically their word against mine. They saw Jesus lifted up into the sky (or they knew people who saw Jesus lifted up into the sky): but I didn't, its as simple as that. On top of that i've never seen anyone else lifted up into the sky. Simple.

The love they preach (and that a small minority actually show) is admirable but i don't need a message that has been slowly embellished and corrupted over 20 centuries to show me that.

46

just created a site www.jwfacts.com

by jwfacts in

i just put together a site that tries to logically show the witnesses are not the true religion.

just wondering how to get the information out to people that most need it.

also any ideas on how to get the site found by search engines.

dorayakii

Great site jwf!! The site is well set out and all the links are provided neatly on the homepage without need for a separate sitemap. I also enjoyed immensly the introduction to the site encouraging "honest-hearted ones" to examine the WTS free from guilt, quoted from their own precious journal.

I haven't read all of the site yet, but from among the sections i have read, i especially enjoyed "Fear & Mind Control". I would like to see the little bit on instilling terror into children about Armageddon, to be elaborated and put in its own paragraph or even section, and i would like to see it stressed that the brochure Enjoy Life on Earth Forever, (in which the terrifying pictures are found), is aimed specifically at young children who are just beginning to learn to read and write.

One of the reasons i enjoy Quote's site (http://quotes.watchtower.ca/) is because he doesn't comment or pass explicit judgement about whether the beliefs are wrong or right, he merely takes masses of quotes from the Watchtower publications and transcripts from talks and presents them in a readily accesible format while keeping them in their original context. I'm not saying you should specifically do this, (coz it's already been done very successfully), but i'd advise you to give thought to people in the early stages of WTS-doubt who may not believe fully in the WTS but still don't want to feel like the beliefs they still hold are being attacked by loaded words such as "bias", "dishonest", or "wrong". However i did enjoy the personal expressions and experiences scattered throughout.

It would also be interesting to have a section about cover-ups such as the child abuse and UN fiascos. Yet another thing which would make it stand out would be to have bible quotes and WT quotes in bold or italics.

I think your site should automatically get found by search engines, i don't think there's any need to register. It may take a few hours/days to get recognised though. If you do a bit of non-intrusive advertising it should also help to boost your hit count. I'd also edit the Wikipedia entry for "Jehovah's Witnesses" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovahs_Witnesses) to provide a link to your page in the section "Resources Critical of the Group" at the bottom of the page.

A very well thought out and organised site, well done, good luck, and thank you for yet another Aposto-page.