Reefton Jack

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Posts by Reefton Jack

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  39

  Happy Friday 13th! Are you superstitious about anything?

  by Crumpet in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a friend kindly pointed out it was friday 13th!!!

  now i am not normally superstitious about anything, but i try and avoid going out on a full moon and am not overly keen on friday 13th.

  i know its irrational but hey - i'm female (sorry that was a bad joke)!.

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  Reefton Jack

  With what happened here on last Friday, it is (almost) enough to make you superstitious!
  
  I won't go into every graphic detail - but suffice to say, there was one fatality involved; and
  as of 1810 hrs on Monday evening (local time), I am still trying to pick up the pieces.
  
  
  Jack.
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  31

  If most men decided to wear a beard today, would the JW's follow?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the jw's will say that in jesus time, it was ok to have a beard because it was their custom back then, and today jw's should not have a beard because it's not our custom to have one today.. since the world is ever changing, it will continue changing, and beards might come back and be popular once more.. it's only a cheap excuse on their part, because they will never accept beards, even if every man wore one today..

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  Reefton Jack

  For several years, I lived in a country where most men are bearded.
  That, however, made no difference to the dubs stand about beards - the local brothers were not permitted to
  follow the local custom on this matter.
  
  So based on that, I would say no!
  
  
  
  
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  68

  ANOTHER 200 Scientists Document Global Climate Change - Yo Deniers!

  by Seeker4 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/science/earth/07climate.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin.

  another international slate of scientists have released their findings regarding global climate change and human's effect on that (see the above link).. after the last major study released by several hundred scientists a few months ago, it does seem there is a serious concensus here among the leading thinkers and scientists on this issue.

  i know i've banged heads with a few who disagree with this, but it does seem as though that handful of folks who disagree with the science are looking more and more like deniers, as in holocaust deniers, moon landing deniers, etc.. in other words, out there on the lunatic fringe.. so, do you folks think it might be time to reconsider?.

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  Reefton Jack

  This is further to Uninformed's comments about "Average" temperatures.
  Although I am not a meteorologist, I have always had a keen interest in the subject.
  Also, for many decades, one of my father's jobs was that of a Weather Observer for the then Dominion Weather Office (Now known as the "Met Service").
  
  A locality's "average" weather - temperatures, rainfall, snowfall, frosts ect. - is calculated from daily weather readings that are collected over a thirty year period.
  
  This allows for usual ups and downs that occur between one year and another.
  
  
  Just as importantly,though, it establishes a standard in measurement by which one set of results can be compared with another.
  
  
  What this means is before you can say that "average" temperatures are now higher / lower / or the same as "average" temperatures of previously; you first have to calculate what the average has been from the daily temperatures of the previous thirty years.
  - Otherwise you are not comparing "Apples with Apples", as the saying goes!
  
  (Incidentally, Meteorology is by no means the only discipline to establish standards by which test data is collected.
  Those of us who have been involved in Industrial Measurements - such as I have been for 11 out of the last 18 years - will know that there are rigid standards spelled out for the measurement of just about everything.
  These standards are necessary for that very same reason
  - i.e. so that one set of test results can be compared with another.
  To do otherwise is - at best, untrustworthy - and at the worst, meaningless).
  
  
  Sorry, Uninformed, if I have bored you
  - It is just that your remarks about whether a " 10 or 20 year period" is significant sparked this!
  
  Seriously, though:
  - to determine by how much the average temperature has changed,it would be first necessary to establish what the "average" temperature now is.
  -Furthermore, so that this current "average" can be compared with what was previously the "average", it would have to be calculated in the same mannner.
  
  i.e. From the average of the daily temperature readings taken over the last 30 years (1977 - 2007).
  
  With all the dialogue that is going on currently about the matter of climate change, I have not seen anywhere yet a comprehensive study of how the "average temperature" - as measured by the accepted procedures - has altered.
  (Such data should now be dead simple to come by - with automated weather stations, that can be accessed remotely from someone's computer.Unlike in my father's time, when sombody had to go around and painstakingly read the data, and record it by hand).
  
  Perhaps someone can direct me to such a study?
  
  
  Jack.
• 
  13

  Atheists For Jesus - Richard Dawkins

  by mavie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://richarddawkins.net/article,20,atheists-for-jesus,richard-dawkins.

  rather enjoyable, especially the picture of dawkins in the "atheists for jesus" t-shirt..

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  Reefton Jack

  At the risk of being accused of trying to "bump" this thread, I would go along with those that maintain that nobody would want to mistake religion for ethics:
  - The two things are quite different!.
  
  It is possible (quite possible, in fact) to be ethical, at the same time as being non-religious.
  
  The flip side of that is also true:
  - namely, all too often we see people who are super religious,but who are at the same time rather deficient in the ethics department
  (this happens both inside and outside the Borg).
  
  To know if something is right or wrong, you only have to imagine a world either without it
  - or where everyone practised it.
  
  Jack.
• 
  52

  How many here have actually read the bible............all of it?????

  by vitty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was in the org for 20 years and never actually read the bible from beginning to end.

  then i bought a living bible and found even the most difficult parts easy to read.

  but i still couldnt find time.

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  Reefton Jack

  I read the whole thing cover to cover once, using the New English version
  (only because its layout seemed easier to follow;to me, anyway).
  
  If reading the bible is supposed to enlighten a person - well, it didn't work to well in my case!
  
  
  Jack.
• 
  46

  How did you dispose of your JW books? (Or did you?)

  by exwitless in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  little drummer boy and i have a small house and we do not have room for the wasted space all of these books are creating.

  here's a brief rundown of what we have:.

  several nwt hardcover bibles, chinese bibles (lots of chinese students in our town), insight on the scriptures, concordances, a few bound volumes, song books, km books, reasoning books, the entire bible on audio tape, and more.

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  Reefton Jack

  Rather swiftly - with a liberal supply of kerosene, plus a couple of matches.
  
  In some ways now, it might be useful to still have some of those books on hand.
  However, it felt bloody good at the time to put the lot to the torch:
  - you could almost say that it was therapeutic!
  
  Jack.
• 
  49

  Stuck in a dead-end job because of obeying anti-higher education policy?

  by nvrgnbk in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  did you refrain from obtaining a degree or advanced studies when you had the chance because it wasn't the witness thing to do?

  how has this affected your life?

  comments, rants, and personal experiences please.

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  Reefton Jack

  I've struggled because the local elders had sufficient pull with my father to stop me completing the final year of high school - and then from going to university.
  Had these bright boys kept out of it, I would have gone for a degree in Electrical Engineering - and a large company had already offered to sponsor me through the degree course.
  
  The best I have been able to do since is managing a Power Station, located in a clearing in a malarial jungle - somewhere out on the other side of the proverbial "Black Stump."
  (Actually, on the other side of the Torres Strait!)
  
  
  The job pays well enough - but there are reasons why that this is so:
  
  (i) Like the time last December when one of my crew decided that my skull would look better with a 3 lb hammer driven clean through it!
  (ii) Or the time exactly one month later,when the duty Mechanical Fitter tried to wrap a crowbar around his supervisor's neck.
  (iii) Or the way in which two of the guys working the opposite roster to me have
  gone mad after a month or two on the job
  (I just hope the condition is not contagious!)
  
  
  Even with this; at the time, there were those in the congregation who took exception to the fact that - at the age of 24 - I entered into an adult apprenticeship and learned the Electrical Trade.
  By then, 1975 had passed, but "The End" was still near!
  
  After completing the Trade Course, my employer offered to sponsor me to do the Diploma Course in Electrical Engineering.
  I was keen to do this.
  However, by then I was married, with two children.
  My wife insisted (probably quite rightly) that "the children needed a father" - so that was the end of that!
  
  No matter what the well-wishers may say, the best time to learn things is when you are straight out of school.
  It is extremely diffcult to pick things up later on - particularly when you have family responsibilities.
  
  Meanwhile, in my present job, I frequently feel the lack of learning that the degree course would have provided - certainly a higher level than what is acquired by pulling cables and crimping Terminal Lugs!
  
  And yes,I do resent the WTS - to the point of regarding them as a hazard in the community.
  
  
  Jack.
  
  
  PS:
  Lack of advanced learning is not a crutch - just reality.
  I would go to university tomorrow if I could find a way to support myself and my family for those four years needed to complete the Bachelor of Engineering Course:
  - but then again, I once believed in the Tooth Fairy as well!
• 
  108

  How Far Up The "Ranks" Did You Go In The Organization?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  at age 18, i was a regular pioneer.

  at 20, a ministerial servant.

  at 24 an elder.

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  Reefton Jack

  Early on, I did several different stints at what they used to call "Temporary Pioneering."
  Later, I was a Regular Pioneer.
  After getting married though, I wasn't so popular with those that matter!
  This was because of the rather Victorian attitude that was (and perhaps still is ) prevalent in the congregations toward those suffering from Mental Illness.
  
  Not that I was mentally ill
  (not that I know of, anyway - although my non-JW family were convinced that I had completely lost all my marbles about the time that I agreed to attend my first JW "meeting"!)
  Rather, my wife of the time suffered from (and still does suffer from) several long-term psyhchiatric disorders.
  (While these weren't caused by her being a JW - the JW lifestyle in no way helped matters, either).
  
  
  Anyway, the Body of Elders didn't seem to be comfortable with the idea that anyone with a mentally ill wife could also be a Ministerial Servant.
  I was evidently on their S##t List for a quite a long time, and wasn't appointed an
  MS until I was 35.
  I used to conduct the Book Study, and give Public Talks in our congregation.
  However, it was not long after that that I began to wise-up to what the WTS was all about.
  
  
  Jack.
  
  PS:
  The only benefit that I have from 28 years with the dubs is having learned to speak in public.
  This has come in handy in recent years in facing down a crowd of angry, striking workers - and just lately in dealing with a semi-mutinous workforce; one of whom was determined to put a 3 lb Hammer clean through my skull, before the day was out.
  Just the same, I would readily volunteer that it was a very costly Training Programme in Public Speaking that I did with the JWs!
• 
  3

  Going into the Service To Remain Out of the Service Vietnam War How Many?

  by uwishufish in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the us the draft was still in effect.

  my lotery # was 94 they were calling to # 95. so ah pioneering we will go.

  this got you at least co status with the local draft board.

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  Reefton Jack

  The issue of Military Service was used by some to try and frighten me into becoming a "Regular Publisher of the Good News" (or some other such damned fool JW-ism).
  I resisted, figuring that dodging the draft was no motive for trying to get
  10 hours + 12 magazines + 1 Bible Study per month entered onto your Publisher Record Card.
  
  The irony of this one is that it was the "brother" who was trying to frighten me with the issue of Military Service who ended up in trouble with the authorities:
  - for failing to register for Military Service himself, some three years earlier; when he should have done so.
  
  Luckily for that overbearing smart-a#s# , the National Service Act(1961) was repealed before any action was taken against him.
  
  
  Jack.
• 
  21

  Sex in the Organization

  by Save My Soul in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been associated with the organization for almost 40 years.

  i have served and been on several assemblies.

  i am now irregular, but still attend meetings occassionally.

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  Reefton Jack

  Perhaps all the ones that I knew must have been rather straight-laced / boring or something?
  
  Anyway - all jokes aside - in the 28 years that I was with the JWs, I never knew of anything like that happening.
  
  
  Jack.