Posts by slimboyfat

I reckon we'll see fewer and fewer statistics released in coming years. This is just the start. In fact it's not the start. It's part of a long trend going back at least to when they ceased publishing the monthly figures in the Kingdom Ministry.

I see Russia has been removed from the listing and added to the "other" column. Which produces an overall decrease. Comparison of this table with yours should reveal exactly how many Russian JWs have been lost in the last year.

I make that out to be 165,594, down 6,234 (3.6%) from 171,828. Not that big a decrease, considering the ban.

22

Things society interferes with

by Jrjw in

i was just lying here thinking about mind control and thought it'd write a list just to see how much the wts does try to control every aspect of people's lives.

some of the things i've come up with are:.

xmas,.

slimboyfat

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/4886421972189184/regulating-speech-conversation

8

Grandma's Guilty Conscience

by m3tadata in

for the holidays my girlfriend and i had planned to travel home and enjoy some time in our home area and visit with all our families.

she has several siblings and both our parents are divorced and living separately so it was a really busy time traveling around visiting each home.

my girlfriend was never a jw, but as for me i have been df'd for about 7 years now.

slimboyfat

Article from page 16, especially last few pragraphs, studied a few weeks ago.

https://download-a.akamaihd.net/files/media_magazines/86/w_f-lp_E_201710.pdf

12

the watchtower in the uk

by pepperheart in

the watchtower in the uk are expecting volunters in the uk to travel many 100s of miles for a days work either skilled or unskilled in the new bethel at chelmsford;from edinborough in scotland its almost a 800 mile roundtrip.

slimboyfat

Not only that, but if you submit an application you need to be vetted to see if you're suitable, is that right?

Has anyone simply asked them what the headquarters will be used for?

As for building in order to make money: I don't think the building adds value. It's the land that's worth money,

8

Grandma's Guilty Conscience

by m3tadata in

for the holidays my girlfriend and i had planned to travel home and enjoy some time in our home area and visit with all our families.

she has several siblings and both our parents are divorced and living separately so it was a really busy time traveling around visiting each home.

my girlfriend was never a jw, but as for me i have been df'd for about 7 years now.

slimboyfat

In that case it might be because of the recent WT. It was very strong, and you had JWs with DFed relatives answering up affirming the policy.

WT has a lot to answer for.

Best to see the good in your Gran for disobeying the WT all these years. It must be difficult sometimes.

8

Grandma's Guilty Conscience

by m3tadata in

for the holidays my girlfriend and i had planned to travel home and enjoy some time in our home area and visit with all our families.

she has several siblings and both our parents are divorced and living separately so it was a really busy time traveling around visiting each home.

my girlfriend was never a jw, but as for me i have been df'd for about 7 years now.

slimboyfat

It's probably just because she heard your girlfriend is pregnant. Even non-JWs who are old fashioned (and old) can be funny about that. Apart from anything else she might find it embarrassing. But she will probably adjust. The fact that she's wanted to talk to you all these years is a good sign, and much better treatment than many former JWs experience. I'd suggest it's far too soon to give up on your Gran. Situations can be complicated, and WT is only one factor among many.

168

Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

slimboyfat

Matt 26 50 Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.”

Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51 With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilledthat say it must happen in this way?”

Acts 15:14 Symʹe·on has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name. And with this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written: After these things I will return and raise up again the tent of David that is fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins and restore it, so that the men who remain may earnestly seek Jehovah, together with people of all the nations, people who are called by my name, says Jehovah, who is doing these things, known from of old.'

Revelatio. 4:11 You are worthy, Jehovah our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things; and because of your will they came into existence and were created.”

168

Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

slimboyfat

I agree.

Except I think there might be a real God behind the Bible. A lot of it is human interpretation a d myth of course. I found James Barr on the subject helpful. A lot of former JWs have found James Barr useful for his books on the "fundamentalist" outlook. Which describes JWs very well. But he also defended a liberal reading of the Bible in books like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Ideology-Old-Testament-Millennium/dp/0199280533/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Escaping-Fundamentalism-James-Barr/dp/0334003857/

168

Where to draw the line: how Platonism haunts our discourse and the search for exorcism

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

in the discussion about race i adopted a position i am not entirely comfortable with.

i think there is a sense in which it is useful to distinguish categories of description that can be fruitfully defended (apples and bananas) and those that cannot (caucasian or other racial descriptions for example).

but there is a more fundamental sense in which i believe that everything is socially constructed, every single line you can think of.

slimboyfat

It is possible there is nothing behind it, it just is. It just doesn't seem very likely that's all.

I find I agree completely with Krauthammer on this topic, although I agree with him about little else. (I wrote an essay about him once as a seminal neocon for an assignment)

Krauthammer says the idea that humans are able to answer such questions is dubious. And that atheism is one explanation among many, and doesn't seem very likely as an explanation.

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2013/12/23/i-dont-believe-in-god-but-i-fear-him-greatly-krauthammer-explains-his-thoughts-on-religion

“I feel the way that I think Newton once said. I feel like a snail on the side of a great ocean and the idea that I can understand a notion like God or humans can as if we’re expecting a snail to understand the motion of the tides through calculus and physics,” he said.
Krauthammer added, “That’s not possible. So I see the same kind of intellectual gap in the capacity of humans to understand in any deep sense about theology of God as for a snail to figure out how the tides work.”
“I’m not at all an atheist. I mean, of all the possible theologies, atheism is the least plausible,” he said at the time. “I mean, you’ve got to explain the existence of the universe, and to assume it invented itself or created itself is rather odd.”
Krauthammer added, “I mean, the only important question, the most important question is why is there or can there be anything, and how can there be consciousness? Atheism is not an answer that is plausible in any way to me.”

Exactly so. Two weeks ago at church we had an open discussion about whether religion is a crutch. We all agree that it was, but that various things in life can be a crutch. Atheism is a crutch as well, for those who find comfort in a universe that doesn't have meaning. We also discussed whether different kinds of religion can be a crutch more or less. Some tend to think liberal traditions, like Unitarianism or universalism are less crutch-like than more fundamentalist beliefs, but we agreed this may be wishful thinking. Unitarianism has been described as, "the featherbed for the falling Chrisitan".