the article about the mennonite family becoming jws is on the main page of the wts website.. http://watchtower.org/library/w/2005/9/1/article_01.htm.
in the course of the article they give a little history of the sect but the juicy parts that would interest most of us here in "apostate land" are in the second half of the article.
some snippets:.
Like Parakeet I'm skeptical of that story. I don't own a hat but if that stories true I'll go out and buy a hat and then eat it.
The funny thing with these apocryphal stories is that other cults have very similar ones. The mormons probably have a version where it's an Amish crowd in Guatamala knocking on the gates of their temple asking to be taught about their ways.
from links, to personal things you discovered yourself.
i want the dirt on the jehovah's witnesses.
while i've pretty much decided that they are wrong, i want to leave nothing to chance.
Just thought I'd add one more site to the list
.
newssplash: tour de france winner floyd landis fails drug test, his phonak team says, according to media reports.. .
does this mean i will have to repay my betfair winnings if he's disqualified?
It's a real shame about Landis testing positive. I'm hoping his B result will be negative. Cycling's governing bodies really need to get a handle on this cos it happens every year. It's not a witch hunt for american riders either, more French, Spanish, Italian, German etc riders have been thrown out in the past.
I'd like to think positively about Lance Armstrong as he was put under far more scrutiny than any other rider in history when it came to doping and he came out clean. There were studies on his natural physical attributes and how he has superbly trained his body to pump more blood, use more oxygen and work with greater efficiency.
Just perusing the news it looks like the 100m sprinter Justin Gatlin has tested positive too. Still got a B sample to test yet though like Landis.
not long ago i bet no one from this site would have been able to stand me for 2 seconds.
i was one of the most fiercest jws of all time.
i'd argue until i was blue in the face and i was darn good at it to.
Welcome to the board Keo
I enjoyed reading your post. Your point about not being allowed to test out the teachings of the WTS was something I could never reconcile too. After all truth can stand on it's own, it doesn't need to be ring-fenced and protected from scrutiny. From some of the arguments I've had with JW's on doctrinal issues some of them don't even care if a lot of it isn't 'the truth'. It just suits them, it fits into their own personal wishes of what they want to be true.
I would encourage your further reading into biblical and religious history. The books Arthur suggested are excellent and some of the older books and articles by Thomas Paine, David Hume, Bertrand Russell and Joseph Wheless are definitely worth a read too. I found it amazing that a whole new vista of understanding opened up when studying the bible academically without being confined by religious dogma.
yesterday, i received a notice of an arts grant available for people in urban areas.
in reading the materials it stated (and i'm going to bold the same words the application did): must be a person of color from african, asian, or hispanic heritage.
i was quite offended by this.
Well everyone is of African descent going back far enough. If they didn't state a timescale on ancestry take them some biological evolutionary proof from someone like Prof Dawkins
how important is it for you to be certain about something before you act on it?
example: certain about the watchtower having the truth.
then certain that they don't have the truth.
I was looking for one of those JW dating web sites Stumbled across Freeminds - couple of hours later I'm out. Told my family I was no longer a JW and ordered CoC. Suddenly all the questions, doubts and disappointments that weren't reconciled when I was a witness made sense.
1 thessalonians 5:1-11 .
5 now as for the times and the seasons, brothers, you need nothing to be written to you.
2 for you yourselves know quite well that jehovahs day is coming exactly as a thief in the night.
There's about as much chance of the big A as me being pregnant and having pangs of distress.
"i regard most church leaders however as simply the victims of the christian delusion.
i believe the delusion comandeers the leaders' rational faculties and shields itself from the light of reason.
i regard myself as formerly a victim of the delusion, and i regard you as still a victim of the delusion.
Interesting web site. The link with Dennis Mckinsey's work on looks interesting, I'll have to read through it when I have time.
IMO those who leave the WT org but join another church or christian group have only made half the journey (maybe the easiest half in some ways?).
I left the org not because of any particular JW teaching but from reading Thomas Paine, Joseph Wheless, David Hume, Richard Dawkins, Frank Zindler, Robert Ingersoll. That killed two birds with one stone so to speak, the myth of the WT org and the myth of christianity.
i'm sure you all have seen this video, but i just had to comment on it.
it shows off the humanitarian work that jws did in a selected part of africa.
this is such doubble speak.
I don't think I can stomach watching that video at the mo'. Maybe later when my fortitude is stronger!
We all know the witnesses do very little actual charity work and when they do it's of the reactive kind, usually to large media covered disasters where they will get maximum publicity, like Done4good said. This is in contrast to pro-active organisations like the red cross, medicine sans frontier and others who are always helping those in need and whose workers put themselves in harms way every day of the week. It disgusts me that the WT org can call itself a charity organisation.
what are your thoughts about her?
there has been some controversy about her lately.
anyone read her book the godless?.
Jeremy Paxman on BBC's newsnight interviewed Coulter not long back. He seemed slightly perplexed by her (not surprisingly) I think the last line of hers in the interview pretty much sums her up as a self propagandist. Watch it here -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/5102062.stm
If I want a right wing viewpoint and have a laugh at the same time I'll take PJ O'Rourke. Ann Coulter's a nut.
