Take me with you! Are you going back to the meetings? I've been thinking about going back for good I have to admit it. Once you know the truth you can't shake it off.
slimboyfat
JoinedPosts by slimboyfat
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38
Goodbye my friends.
by StephaneLaliberte infor almost 12 years now, i have been coming to this site on a regular basis and in the last 5, i “faded out”.
i never regretted this and never will.
unfortunately though, yesterday, i realized that, until i can publically tell all my old acquaintances why i have left, i will never be truly free.
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29
Are JWs capable of a genuine discussion?
by stuckinarut2 ini was just pondering whether jws are capable of having a calm, in depth discussion about religious or faith topics?.
i have just finished listening to a great podcast by "dogma debate" (dan) episode 333. this fantastic, in-depth conversation between a theist and an atheist was a masterful example of how a dignified conversation can take place without it resorting to abruptness or even nastiness.. jws on the other hand seem incapable of having such discussion without ending up in the following ways:.
1)they get dogmatic and defensive if a differing view is presented.. 2)if the conversation doesn't go their way, they cut it short saying something like "well, we had better agree to disagree" or the like.. so why the arrogance?
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slimboyfat
No. It's one of the most disappointing realisations I've had, that people I grew up regarding as intelligent and thoughtful, when it comes down to it just don't want to discuss topics they find difficult. Conversations need to be on their terms or it's ruled out of order and you can be reported. Well if that's how it is, I just won't discuss anything with them. But they should know that silencing all contrary thoughts and ideas doesn't make you right. I don't think they realise this. Or more likely they don't care. Presumably because what they derive psychologically from affirming their beliefs is more important to them than open discussion and toleration.
Much of the training for the ministry is apparently designed to prevent proper discussions. If anyone raises a genuine question JWs are instructed to go away and find the answer in the publications rather than engaging the question. Plus JWs are constantly on the lookout for signs that a householder is an "opposer" or worse still an "apostate" and close down any such interaction quickly. They are only interested in talking to people who they think know less than they do, and strictly only on their terms
Ironically JWs often meet people on the ministry who know an awful lot more than they do, whether that be about biology, the Bible, history or whatever. But because discussion of such specialised areas of knowledge is not expressed in terms that JWs can recognise or easily understand, JWs somehow manage to come away from such encounters believing that they possess vitally important information that outside experts lack. This is quite an amazing organisational and psychological feat when you consider just how superficial JW knowledge of such areas of human knowledge is.
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18
Attention!! There will be sex in heaven
by James Mixon inwell i thought i had heard it all but, the mercury columns "will christians enjoy sex in heaven" just hurt my brain.
how can god allow sexual relations in heaven without marriage??
in heaven there is no need for anyone to belong exclusively to another(wow!!!
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slimboyfat
Oh right, somehow I didn't think this sounded like WT style new light.
I wonder about Mormon heaven.
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18
Attention!! There will be sex in heaven
by James Mixon inwell i thought i had heard it all but, the mercury columns "will christians enjoy sex in heaven" just hurt my brain.
how can god allow sexual relations in heaven without marriage??
in heaven there is no need for anyone to belong exclusively to another(wow!!!
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slimboyfat
This is new WT reaching, or what? I'm totally lost.
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36
The Harp of God book
by blownaway ini am looking for the book the harp of god.
i am told it has some crazy passages in it.
can anyone put up some quotes of the book?
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slimboyfat
It still majors on Zionism I think.
I was reading Comfort for the Jews the other day, which promoted Zionism very strongly in 1925. Yet by the early 1930s Rutherford had totally rejected Zionism. I wonder what happened in just five years to so radically alter his view.
There is some irony in the fact that Watchtower strongly predicted a Jewish homeland for decades, but abandoned the prediction just a few years before it actually happened.
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36
The Harp of God book
by blownaway ini am looking for the book the harp of god.
i am told it has some crazy passages in it.
can anyone put up some quotes of the book?
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slimboyfat
It was the first real study book, wasn't it? I got a copy at a car boot sale in Wales 20 years ago for 30p. I know because it still has 30p marked on it. I tried to read it but honestly it's not the easiest read. I seem to remember a lot about 1799 and jubilees. I can't help falling asleep when I read about jubilees.
Incidentally I do think I remember the reason given for the unusual title. The Harp of God was the instrument David played, and each chapter represents a string in the harp, and together they convey the melody of the truth. I forget because the metaphor breaks down there.
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Sweden May Call in Army to Deal With Immigrant Violence
by cofty inin 2016 there were over 300 shootings in sweden, mostly in turf battles between gangs over drugs, protection rackets and prostitution.. “people are shot to death in pizza restaurants, people are killed by hand grenades they find on the street,” sweden democrat leader jimmie akesson said in parliament on wednesday.
“this is the new sweden; the new, exciting dynamic, multicultural paradise that so many here in this assembly ... have fought to create for so many years.” reuters....
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slimboyfat
'Sweden is what Tumblr would look like if it was a country'.
Somewhat intrigued by this enigmatic statement. The more predictable scaremongering: less intrigued.
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How to Argue for Creationism
by cofty inall creationist arguments follow an identical pattern.. first a quick way to remember the format - 'complexity, complexity, complexity; therefore god'.. now a more detailed guide to formulating an argument.. identify some complex feature of the natural world.
a quick google search or nature documentary will quickly provide inspiration.
creationist websites have hundreds of them you can copy-paste without attribution.. do no research at all on what is currently known about the evolutionary history of this feature.
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slimboyfat
Emma was not a conventional Christian. She was a Unitarian. We were discussing this in church last Sunday. Unitarianism in the nineteenth century was not as liberal as today, but it still stressed tolerance, reason and personal faith rather than literal reliance on scriptural texts. Emma was troubled by her husband's lack of faith, but perhaps less troubled and more supportive than a conventional Christian might have been.
https://web.archive.org/web/20090225124103/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/content/view/130/125/
My reason tells me that honest & conscientious doubts cannot be a sin, but I feel it would be a painful void between us. I thank you from my heart for your openness with me & I should dread the feeling that you were concealing your opinions from the fear of giving me pain … my own dear Charley we now do belong to each other & I cannot help being open with you.
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The anonymity of Jehovah's Witness material
by stuckinarut2 inis it vital for credibility to have the name of the writer of an article referenced?.
does this allow for honesty and accountability?
does this assist in ensuring that whatever is presented is as factual as possible, or not biased in some way toward the religion's ideas?.
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slimboyfat
I think people are naturally more careful about what they write when they need to put their name to it.
The reason Watchtower publications became anonymous upon the death of president Rutherford is purportedly because the new president Knorr didn't write Watchtower material and didn't want this to be known, which it would be if someone else's name appeared on the literature.
Fred Franz is credited with authoring a large amount of Watchtower literature including the NWT and many of the prophetical commentaries and doctrinal tracts of the postwar period, such as Babylon the Great Has Fallen and The Word Who is He According to John.
Some have speculated that Franz also wrote the later books attributed to Rutherford. Technical analysis should now/soon be able to settle that question, as well as the authorship of the Studies in the Scriptures. (Maria Russell claimed she wrote them)
Notable books that were not authored by Fred Franz include the Aid/Insight books, the Commentary on James, Happiness, Life How Did it Get Here? Writers included Ed Dunlap, Raymond Franz, Colin Quackenbush and others.
Lloyd Barry and John Barr are credited with some of the writing in the 1980s and 1990s.
Who took over from them is a bit of a mystery. Among current GB members, Jackson, Sanderson and Splane appear to be the most likely candidates for involvement in the revised NWT and other projects. But GB members perhaps have little time for writing.
Plus Watchtower doesn't actually publish much new material now anyway, do they? Maybe they don't need many writers any more. Even WT study articles are revisions of earlier articles (the latest "avenger of blood" article a case in point).
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Leaked 2018 Elders Training Video RE: Elders Reviewing Pionieers
by pale.emperor inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhq5viughny&feature=youtu.be.
quite frankly im disturbed at the lack of love and compassion.
especially for the first sister they talk about!.
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slimboyfat
I think the main point of the whole exercise is simply to give elders the smug feeling that they've done something extraordinarily wonderful by understanding and applying some (pretty arbitrary) rules correctly.
You can see it all over the middle elder's face, that he really thinks they have scaled the heights of pure wisdom itself by ingeniously deciphering the "correct" solution to each case. They consider it a blessing for the young sister to be relieved of pioneering, plus they feel a warm glow that the decision "upholds the high standards of pioneering", that the rules about the elder taking time off are wise and just, that showing consideration for the older sister is a demonstration of unparalleled compassion, but that in all cases it's absolutely vital to understand and follow the minutiae of the instructions and always consult the circuit overseer when indicated.
They could just as easily have come to completely the opposite solutions: remove elder and old sister as pioneers, and keep younger sister, quote scriptures and make up rules to justify each decision. Like many Watchtower rules they are arbitrary and subject to change.
But having such rules fosters the idea that they belong to a considerate and orderly theocratic system, and they derive their own sense of worth by recognising and respecting the instructions and their own role in implementing them.