Phizzy
Posts by rmt1
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21Oh I thought JWs were just a "normal" religion
by fresh prince of ohio ini have found that, since leaving jws, that few "wordly" people seem interested in hearing my escape story (although some certainly have shown great interest).
when i've mentioned that i used to be a jw and that i left, the reaction i've gotten on more than one occasion is a "oh i thought they were just a normal religion", and not only that, it's like they just weren't at all even open to the idea that jws could be a really strange and cultish group.
on these occasions, i felt a little lost for words trying to explain to people just how crazy jwism is, because there's so much crazy to tell about, where do you even start?.
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21
Oh I thought JWs were just a "normal" religion
by fresh prince of ohio ini have found that, since leaving jws, that few "wordly" people seem interested in hearing my escape story (although some certainly have shown great interest).
when i've mentioned that i used to be a jw and that i left, the reaction i've gotten on more than one occasion is a "oh i thought they were just a normal religion", and not only that, it's like they just weren't at all even open to the idea that jws could be a really strange and cultish group.
on these occasions, i felt a little lost for words trying to explain to people just how crazy jwism is, because there's so much crazy to tell about, where do you even start?.
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rmt1
At least where I've come to roost now, here in Tucson, I can't get anyone to give a rat's ass that I came from JW's, or that JW's are a cult guilty of negligent manslaughter. The JWs are such a non-entity as far as the real world goes. They toot their horn about stinging messages, but, uh, no. Nobody that's real gives a crap, Brooklyn.
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20
Rewriting the dictionary
by rebel8 ini got a really lengthy pm from a poster i don't know, scolding me for saying there is a difference between rape and religious abuse.
i recently had a conversation with someone who says eating oysters is vegetarian.
when i pointed out it isn't, the person said we all have different definitions of vegetarian.
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rmt1
The operative concept is 'to seize'. That covers what TWS does to its young.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=rape
- rape (v.)
- late 14c., "seize prey; abduct, take by force," from rape (n.) and from Anglo-French raper (Old French rapir ) "to seize, abduct," a legal term, probably from past participle of Latin rapere "seize, carry off by force, abduct" (see rapid).
Latin rapere was used for "sexually violate," but only very rarely; the usual Latin word being stuprare "to defile, ravish, violate," related to stuprum (n.), literally "disgrace." Meaning "to abduct (a woman), ravish;" also "seduce (a man)" is from early 15c. in English. Related: Raped ; raping . Uncertain connection to Low German and Dutch rapen in the same sense. - rape (n.1)
- early 14c., "booty, prey;" mid-14c., "forceful seizure; plundering, robbery, extortion," from Anglo-French rap , rape , and directly from Latin rapere "seize" (see rape (v.)). Meaning "act of abducting a woman or sexually violating her or both" is from early 15c., but perhaps late 13c. in Anglo-Latin.
- rape (v.)
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13
Create ten laws
by enigma1863 ina new country is being formed and you are given the task to make only ten official rules or laws the people of this country have to follow.
what are the ten laws?.
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rmt1
If your child cannot point on a map to the major nations of the world, or major geographical features, such as oceans, continents, mountain ranges, rivers, and the major cities of the world, take him to the city gates and stone him and yourself.
Trimester abortions of new television shows should be reviewed by a panel of viewers comprising no less than one tenth the target market audience in order that cancellation of shows is afforded a modicum of checks and balances.
One near-term, realistic, non-exploitation space exploration film shall be made per year.
All police officers in every role and of every rank will be recorded during their dispatch of public duties. If an off-duty officer commenses public operations, he will have such equipment that automatically begins recording the event under every circumstance, no exceptions.
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10
God's good for "$66 dollars"
by Separation of Powers inlast week's watchtower study related an experience of a sister who prayed that god would help her with her rent.
she needed $66 dollars.
she went to her waitressing job on an off night and would you believe?
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rmt1
A rudimentary comprehension of statistics and probability, particularly a Gaussian normal distribution with its sigma or standard deviation, is probably tantamount to apostate thinking. It would be apostate because WTS is crafting a mode of high significance from an outlier of low significance. But in the real world, like say science, you frequently have to 'sigma clip', or disregard outliers above a pre-selected sigma. What is more, for equal populations of good and bad people, statistically equivalent numbers of 'acts of god' will occur to each. Does the WTS mention the apostate who accidentally came by an extra $66? Did Jehovah let that slip? Was it part of Jehovah's active, mindful, purposeful plan? If it was not, and Jehovah simply allows (sort of like an ambivalent or groovy Deist deity) a normalized Gaussian distribution of $66 dollars to be awarded to a random sampling of good and bad people, why does WTS treat it as special?
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rmt1
I cannot think of a pressure of the world that the JWs have not converted into a reverse pressure of twice the magnitude.
The pressure of conformity would be sustainable if you had excellent arguments for it.
The pressure of maintaining physical endurance in the face of adversity, ditto.
The pressure of hourly active self-denial, or anti-disillusionment, or enduring cognitive dissonance, when you don't have excellent arguments for it is probably worse than anything physical.
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44
Interesting experience while protesting at district conventions
by theron ware infor three weekends this summer, a friend and i protested outside district assemblies being held in the tucson convention center.
our approach was very low key and completely non-confrontational: we just held our posters and smiled.
this was our experience at the first two assemblies (for the third assembly, see the next paragraph).
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rmt1
I just realized you said Tucson. I've lived in Tucson for 12 years now. Moved in from Central PA, HBG/Dauphin/Middletown/Swatara congs. Even had the notion to go see how JWs do things here. I'm going to suppose this was a heavily Latino crowd, and a lot less uptight than crowds of the northeast.
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44
Interesting experience while protesting at district conventions
by theron ware infor three weekends this summer, a friend and i protested outside district assemblies being held in the tucson convention center.
our approach was very low key and completely non-confrontational: we just held our posters and smiled.
this was our experience at the first two assemblies (for the third assembly, see the next paragraph).
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rmt1
Actual JWs stopped to argue with apostates in front of the DC venue? That's a huge crack in the firmament right there. When I was in/kid/teen, apostates at the DC were bitter, angry, unattractive, dog meat that you would calmly pretend was not there. You were permitted to acknowledge the physical existence of such a one only if it was immediately followed up by some kind of JW-language warding spell, genuflection, abjectification, or purification rite, usually accomplished in a pithy derisive quip.
Good job!
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36
Would You Shun Your Own Son or Daughter For A Million Dollars for the rest of your life??
by Narcissistic Supply insimply for the money..
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rmt1
http://www.babycenter.com/cost-of-raising-child-calculator
We probably need a shunning calculator to make the most pragmatic and informed choice. I bet you TWS has one. It incorporates the formula, "How much additional guilt contributions, activity, involvement, human life-years, etc, can we extract from remaining family members after one is ejected? Solve for x."
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18
To the young JW visitors....
by snare&racket intruth does not need protecting, it can protect itself.
no knowledge is dangerous to what is true as what is true can never be proven otherwise.. .
ask questions, trust yourself, trust your motives as you will never know anothers, trust your reading and research.
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rmt1
OP: Nowhere close to trillions of humans who have ever lived, although there is a character Trillian in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. "Billions", like Carl Sagan.
A sound mind does not interpret all available evidence as supporting JWs being anything but a publishing company fronted by a cult which the publishing company would have you believe is a bona fide religion (whatever that is). Don't think of them as a cult fronted by a legitimate publishing company of trash cartoons on cheap paper. Nope. Money is what makes the world go round (aside from classical angular momentum), and money is the primordial, fundamental truth to the whole JW enterprise. Has nothing to do with some wrinkled farts really betting their lives, fortunes and sacred honor that they have a red phone to god. They're betting YOUR lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. The truth about The Truth is money. The pursuit of money requires all number of coercions, threats, hostage-taking, emotional terrorism, information control, brainwashing, duckspeak, doublespeak, denial, inhumanely unnecessary long-suffering and endurance, hypocrisy, unaccountability, guilt, costly signalling, false hope, false prophesy, you can add more of your own observations <here>. Money is the root cause of all these symptoms. Money is something you can research. There are plenty of numbers to look up and think about quantitatively. The correct conclusion, or arriving at the truth about The Truth, can occur just by following the money.
