badwillie

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Posts by badwillie

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  11

  What the world thinks of America

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  a special tv programme on the bbc next tuesday.. website here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/america.

  should be interesting !.

  c'mon ... i betcha clicked thinking i was going to be saying something didn't ya !

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  badwillie

  Homer Simpson? This demonstrates that the Brits are watching WAY too much telly, and not doing nearly enough reading!
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  Raising Children Without Religion

  by badwillie in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  raising children without religion

  by dave silverman.

  i often get requests for advice from parents who wish to raise their children without religion, or who at least want to provide a religion -free influence in the lives of their children.

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  badwillie

  Raising Children without Religion
  by Dave Silverman

  I often get requests for advice from parents who wish to raise their children without religion, or who at least want to provide a religion -free influence in the lives of their children. While I am far from an expert in the subject matter, I have what I think are some pretty good ideas on raising nonreligious children.

  My ideas (not all are mine -- I openly admit to having stolen the last one from Ellen [ Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists. Ed. ]) are outlined below in no particular order. This list is as anything but complete, and suggestions and additions are welcomed. However, I hope and think this will help answer some of the frequent questions I get on the subject.
  

  1. Address the issues of gods as common nouns. There is not one god, there are many. Thousands in fact, all the same and all fictional. Talk about Zeus, Qetzalcoatl, Thor, and Jesus. Explain how these gods were used in the past (to answer unknowns), how followers of these gods were absolutely positive of the god’s existence, and how they even killed in their names. As gods got old, new gods came along, for no real reason other than a need for change and the progress of science. Now, there are far fewer gods left, and many people still believe in them, for the same reasons they believed in ancient Tiki gods.
     

     By equating all gods and mythologies in their minds, they will be more skeptical when someone tells them that one of them is real.

  2. Teach them magic tricks. As early as I can remember, my dad gave me magic tricks to astound my friends. I would tell them “There’s no trick - it’s Magic!” All the while, I knew those who believed it were being fooled. I learned that there is always a trick, always an explanation, even if I didn’t know what it was at the time. Sound familiar?
     

  3. For older kids, there’s a wonderful game out there called “MindTrap”. It’s this great card game where you try to think outside the box to solve a problem. Here’s an example:
     

     A black dog is standing in the middle of a street with no streetlights and no houses. A car with no headlights comes around the corner and stops before it hits the dog. Why? Because it was daytime.

     This game encourages critical thinking, problem solving, and rational processes. I love it!

  4. Get some hands-on, face-to-face charity in there. Show them how good it feels to help someone. Tell them this is the Atheist way (which is true) - hands that do are much better than lips that pray.
     

  5. On a related note, see if you can find people on TV who are praying instead of helping, and point it out.
     

  6. Finally, and most importantly, make sure your kids know that your love is unconditional. Gods provide unconditional love, and there is a temptation to go to that ideal if it’s not at home. Naturally, you love your kids, but some of us are less adept at communicating that love to our children than others. This needs to be reinforced over and over again until they are about 50 years old.

  Got more suggestions on raising an Atheist child?
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  65

  What are you currently reading?

  by Sirona in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as ex-dubs we are free to read whatever the hell we want to read.

  in celebration of that fact (and to give me some ideas on what to read next .

  sirona

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  badwillie

  "All God's Children" - I just finished this book, I thought it was excellent - very enlightening.
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  18

  Mankind's Search For God

  by rocketman in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  many of you no doubt remember when the society released the book mankind's search for god.

  i had always figured that, since there were questions printed at the bottom of each page, the book would be studied at the congregation book study.

  till this day, it has not been studied, and in fact, besides a couple of placement campaigns, not much was ever really done with that book.

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  badwillie

  Excellent point.
  When it first came out I read it through twice, it was my favorite WT release. I seemed to be the only one who was really into that book.

  I too wanted to go through it in the Book Study and was baffled that it just sort of disappeared into obscurity without much mention ever again. In retrospect, I probably did start to view the Borg from a more realistic perspective after reading that.
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  10

  WT video "Protect Your Children" wins Award! (gag)

  by badwillie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://jw-media.org/edu_videos/psa4e2856.htm

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  badwillie

  http://jw-media.org/edu_videos/psa4e2856.htm
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  17

  They lost 7 bible studies

  by caballoSentado in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi friends, .

  i just found out that one of the persons i talked to about the un scandal and .

  the wtbs hypocrisy, a very good & loving person, a real christian, has cancelled .

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  badwillie

  great news! Since I left in Sept 2001 (the UN cover up was my "final straw"), there are 4 others who I have approached that have left or are in the process of leaving the Borg. The most interesting one is a guy I was friends with many years ago who I bumped into about a year ago.He was disfellowshipped a few years back and was currently "making his comeback" - he had already been re-attending meetings for 6 months and was about to submit his letter asking (begging) for reinstatement. When I first ran into him (at a bar), he said right away "I'm disfellowshipped", I said "I know" - which kind of threw him a little.

  Anyway I told him about the UN thing and many other reasons for my leaving the "truth". He told me he knew there were imperfections...Jehovah uses them...blah blah blah. That was it, didn't talk to him again..then about 4 months later he called me and asked to borrow Crisis of Conscience - the rest is ex JW history. Another one bites the dust - I love it!
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  Poem therapy

  by badwillie in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just wrote these words today at work on a scrap of paper.

  anyone else want to share their thoughts too.. "thinking i had all these people around me that loved me... .

  instead it was the thought that i think just like them that they loved.... i exposed my true thoughts - now there's no love.... they never loved me.

• 

  badwillie

  I just wrote these words today at work on a scrap of paper. Anyone else want to share their thoughts too.

  "Thinking I had all these people around me that loved me...

  Instead it was the thought that I think just like them that they loved...

  I exposed my true thoughts - now there's no love...

  They never loved me."
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  11

  The Watchtower Letters, part 2

  by NeonMadman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  here's the next entry in the series of examples of correspondence i had with the wts back during the 1970's (mostly).

  this letter concerns the establishment of the year 1918 as being the time for the "first resurrection," i.e., the resurrection to spirit life of the anointed ones who had died previous to that time.

  what i find interesting about this letter is that no attempt was made to address the question i actually asked.

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  badwillie

  Thanks Neon. They manage to say absolutely NOTHING for a whole page!

  Incredible that I used to lap this crap right up. Damn!
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  10

  Profit of watchtower & awake, can anyone tell me???

  by jamey X in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was raised as a jw until the age of 16, when i supposidly "drifted" to the worldly world (which i love) i am 29 now and have my own family and am very happy.

  in the last month i have stopped feeling guilty & frightened about not being involved.

  i have always tried to compensate to my parents in other ways, but am getting tired never being able to make them really happy.

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  badwillie

  I work as a commercial printing estimator for a very old and large multi national printing company. (So, basically a "worldy" equivalent to the WTS)

  I just ran an estimate on what it would cost my company to produce 11MM copies (I think that was the average printing of each issue) of a WT or Awake! (errr..that stupid exclamation mark).

  The unit cost per magazine is about $0.12 each. Keep in mind that we are PAYING top dollar for labor, also they probably buy the paper a lot cheaper than what I priced it at.
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  20

  Does the president believe he has a divine mandate

  by Ravyn in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  an evolving faith .

  does the president believe he has a divine mandate?

  http://www.beliefnet.com/story/121/story_12112.html

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  badwillie

  Ravyn,

  Good thread. Did you see this from yesterday?

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.aspx?id=46580&site=3