Posts by Pole

Dave,

I had very similar experiences last year. I had known the doctrine was bogus long before, but somehow it was only last year that I stoppped fooling myself altogether and left the org. What I needed to realize was that the kind of relations I had with other witnesses weren't worth a penny because most of them would shun me if I expressed my disagreement with one point of doctrine or another. And my wife has joined me on my way out too!

Pole

8

Your biggest discovery of 2004?

by Pole in

jw
friends

what was your biggest intelectual/philosophical/psychological/religious discovery of the year 2004?

was there anything new that you "understood" about our existence?

did you learn something new about human relations or your spirituality?

Pole

What was your biggest intelectual/philosophical/psychological/religious discovery of the year 2004?

Was there anything new that you "understood" about our existence? Did you learn something new about human relations or your spirituality? Did you do any research and come up with interesting conclusions? Was there a major breakthrough that taught you somethingnew? Can others benefit from your discovery? Or is it strictly personal?

Share it!

Pole

23

Hoorah for Australia and Germany!

by Kenneson in

jw
friends

as it now stands, the australian government has pledged $810 million to the tsunami relief effort.. germany is next with $674 million.. japan--$500 million.. u.s. trails in fourth place with $350 million.

http://news.yahoo.com/asiadisaster click on "leaders tour tsunami areas, up donations".

while the u.s. government could do a lot better, the private sector is not doing too badly.

Pole

ColdRain,

I smell a poker-like deal where the US is underbetting so the other countries can reveal their real amounts and then the USA puts in an unreachable amount like 2 billion.

That would be nice but we'll see.

Eyebrow2,

I was very pleased when I saw what Australia gave, but not really surprised. They are a lot closer to the region after all, so I think they really appreciate how hard it the people are even more than the rest of the world may.

Makes sense, but it doesn't justify the US's pledge at all. Germany is not Asia either and it has given more.

There are a lot of things we need to get done here at home too. I am sure that sounds cold, but I don't want the US to promise more money than it can deliver, or end up taking money away from necessary programs here because they over extend.

Germany's economy has been rather poor for the last few years. They have recession and record unemployment.

That wouldn't help anyone.

What do you mean that wouldn't help anyone?

By the way, Germany can afford it, since it didn't spend any real money in Iraq. (oooo just poking the bear with a stick is all heehee)

Let's hope all the board's bears are deep asleep.

If the US can, they great, I hope we can raise the amount. But I was hoping this wouldn't turn into a contest to see what country can give the most.

It certainly can. And I think it's better to raise more money in a contest than raise little just because you avoid having a contest.

upside/down.

By my math that's over 1.687 Billion SO FAR. Divide that up amongst the 150,000 poor souls and their families. Or does most of it go to greedy developers and damaged hotels? What is the per capita income for most of those people- I'll bet not much!

Remember we're talking about Asia so this money does mean something to the affected countries (check the GDP per capita in India to see what I mean), although I understand your concerns abuot the distribution of the money.

Pole

81

Covenant with Noah, VOID!!! So much for the rainbow..........

by deceit in

jw
friends

was it not jehovah?s promise to never kill humans again by means of massive floods?

i guess knocking on 100,000 deaths is just a minor slip-up.

knowing the response of jw's to the horrible situation in asia and their reasoning of it, makes me feel indescribably sick in the stomach!

Pole

So you think the Almighty God needs a lawyer do you? ROFLMAO!!!

Oh Schizmus, my joke may have been poor, but I'm glad you have had a good laugh misunderstanding it. Really funny, but wait... don't you see you have just made a joke about yourself? I hope you did realize that before you Laughed Your A Off (as you put it) :)

You still haven't answered my question. When there is no answer, pretend there is no question, right?

Cheers,

Pole

61

Should the Christian faith be rationally defended?

by Narkissos in

jw
friends

in the pretty miscellaneous "global flood" thread there were a couple of exchanges on the value of "apologetics" per se.

i think this subject is worth a thread of its own.

i will here recall some statements in the aforementioned thread:.

Pole

Sunchild,

Actually, the above exchange illustrates my "different sports, different rules" analogy very well. What I meant by it was that believers and non-believers play by very different rules which are often incompatible. This makes it kind of pointless for Christians to try to "prove" their faith in an atheistic context (or vice versa) since each group tends to interpret the world in very different ways. I also think that Christian attempts to prove their faith in terms of science is often a betrayal of that faith because it tends to marginalize the value of spiritual experience, as if said experience is somehow not as good as what you see and touch. It's not less; it's just different.

Agreed. You have managed to demonstrate an alternative to apologetics, and it was interesting to hear your opinion.

Bur if you want to talk about Paul's letters, weren't they addressed to people who were already Christians? People for whom (with some exceptions) his words were accepted facts, not "proof" of some idea which was beyond their ken? If I remember right, what prompted some of those letters was a handful of people in the congregation who had introduced some rather... "interesting" teachings, and Paul was trying to keep order among the believers. It's not much different from when my pastor gives a sermon. There aren't a lot of people sitting in the pews who really need convincing.

Honestly I think that's a bit of a stretch in the case of this particular passage. Of course there could have been some who would remain Christian no matter what "facts" were presented to them. But I guess Narkissos is right when he says we shouldn't judge Chistianity by the characteristics of any single variety.

Pole

81

Covenant with Noah, VOID!!! So much for the rainbow..........

by deceit in

jw
friends

was it not jehovah?s promise to never kill humans again by means of massive floods?

i guess knocking on 100,000 deaths is just a minor slip-up.

knowing the response of jw's to the horrible situation in asia and their reasoning of it, makes me feel indescribably sick in the stomach!

Pole

Schizm,

When you have no answer, you pretend there is no question.

If Jehovah really existed, the first thing he'd do would be fire you as his lawyer. This is nothing personal. Just a way of disagreeing with your no-reply.
Peace and a happy new year!

Pole

24

USA ups the stakes to $350million

by Brummie in

jw
friends

.

just announced on sky news.com, but what a disgrace for sky news to mention an email sent by some american joe bloggs who stated that he didnt think the usa should support the crisis since indonesia is anti american... after all the help the usa give they have to refer to one measly stupid email!

grr.

Pole

BTW, I've just heard on BBC that Japan pledged $500 million. What's really important though is the sum total.

Pole

3

Common Language

by Gary W. Bush in

hi folks!.

why does not jehovah's witnesses (jw) use one common.

language for its worship services, let us say, english.. does not the bible say that the whole earth originally had.

Pole

Hi Gary.

How do you mean that? Are all JWs around the world supposed to learn it? Or am I missing something (probably I am - it's 3:47 here)?

G'nite and a happy NY!!!!

81

Covenant with Noah, VOID!!! So much for the rainbow..........

by deceit in

jw
friends

was it not jehovah?s promise to never kill humans again by means of massive floods?

i guess knocking on 100,000 deaths is just a minor slip-up.

knowing the response of jw's to the horrible situation in asia and their reasoning of it, makes me feel indescribably sick in the stomach!

Pole

It appears that Gumby has chosen not to answer my last post to him. Could it be that he can't contend with what I've said? Looks like it!

Schizm,

So acting on your own advice, will you tell me why some accidental deaths result from the way the universe and humans were designed? Like the interdependece (interference) of the digestive and the respiratory systems in the human body?

Pole