You're kidding! I just finished my disassociation letter this week, stating that I would come to bethel at my own expense to discuss various matters, including evolution. This is something.
Spook
Posts by Spook
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30Scholar, 607 and Evolutionary Change
by AlanF injehovah's witnesses have recently done an about-face on their teachings about god, the bible, creation and evolution, and are about to announce major changes in their teachings on these things.
on their website, they say that "faith in god is merely an emotional experience.
" "god is not an explanation" of the universe, they now teach.. as regards the question of origins, "our universe is all a matter of chance.
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Does Anyone Really Celebrate The Last Supper As Commanded In The Bible?
by adelmaal ini know the jws try but imho they miss the mark because they do not all partake, as described in the bible, and they do not do the foot washing as commanded in those verses as well.
i am hard pressed to find a religion that actually does "do this in remembrance of me" as explained in the bible accounts by jesus.
does anyone know if there is a religion that tries to re-enact the event as it is described in the bible?
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Spook
I think it came from a Mithraic pagan tradition, and is as such moot.
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35
Do you consider yourself as being 'reasonable? '
by Golf inwhat is your understanding of reasonableness and do you think your a reasonable person.
cite examples.
golf
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Spook
I draw a symantic distinction between being reasonable and being rational.
I'm disassociating myself from the congregation. That is unreasonable. The reasons to not do it are immense. I'm being extremely unreasonable with myself in taking a stand.
Power is a myth, and myths are powerful.
Spook~
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The brainwashing around the "Schiavo" case...
by Brummie inup until this evening i had thought teresa schiavo was in an unconcious state, lying on a bed with just a machine keeping her alive.
how wrong was i?
i saw her smiling and showing awareness of her surroundings.
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Spook
The utilitarian aspect on this is that the millions of dollars and thousands of man hours - all the human energy that are going into the coverage of this case and the possible additonal millions spent on indefinite life support could all be used to provide definite, statistically assured life to vast numbers of other perfectly healthy people, many of them children with their whole lives ahea of them.
I've had the related criticism against JW's for wasting millions of dollars on tracts about HIV's coming end in the la-la-land of the new system, when they could spend the millions on HIV treatment, prevention, and research. They cut down thousands of trees and run energy consuming printing operations - hauling around the country in SUV's, vans and huge cars, all so they can distribute stuperous magazines on the environment. Disgusting.
From a moral standpoint, her husband is in the best situation to know what she would have wanted. I hold him morally responsible for the decision.
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Should I "picket" the JW assembly with my "apostate" friends or not?
by booker-t inevery year since i da'ed myself i have two good friends that are ex-jws that beg me to come and "picket'' the jw assemblies with them.
i have turn them down every year but i kind of think i want to do it because my reasoning is that if i picket i will finally be telling jw's and the wts that i am not afraid of them.
i didn't realize how much "fear" the wts puts into its members until the other day when i ran into my jw sister at the supermarket and she literally left her 1/2 full shopping cart and ran out of the store without speaking to me.
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Spook
Resistance produces persistance. That activity has a reinforcing place in their theology. A transformation beyond the context is required.
Consider writing an editorial to the local papers, mentioning some things like the UN, statistical development, etc. Send it to all sorts of news sources. This would likely be read by many people.
If you decide to picket, the best thing I could think of would be making exact copies of the "religion is a snare and a racket" sandwhich boards, with a one-line message as well. Something like "120 years of failure is enough."
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For Hooberus -- Falsifiability of Creation?
by AlanF inwhat experiment or observation would falsify creation?
alanf
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Spook
The "kinds" theory is not valid. It requires a whole system of biology, completely different to real science. Real science is evolutionary biology.
If "kinds" = species, then there were over 500,000 species on the ark, not including insects and various other life.
The theory of "kinds" is not valid. Attempts to reconcile it with reality have failed in several creationist publications.
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"Organized to do Jehovah's Will" - anybody get the book yet?
by ithinkisee ini'm heading out in a moment to the meeting.
just wondering if anyone had a chance to actually flip through the pages yet?
funny how the wt study for today is basically a "never question jehovah or his organization" and we get a new organization book.
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Spook
Got my copy - last Sunday meeting I'm attending. Of note, according to the Societies own definition, they have disassociated themselves.
On page 155, they say of disassociation: "For example, a person might renounce his place in the Christian congregation by his actions, such as becoming part of a secular organization that has objectives contrary to the Bible and, hence, is under judgement by Jehovah God."
Two words: United Nations.
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The Future of WTBTS: A prediction.
by Spook inin light of the recent statistics and change in awake publication, i have the following thoughts:.
1. the work in western lands is steady or decreasing.
2. foreign territory in western lands is increasing proportionately.. 3. therefore, the established, wealthier population of publishers in western lands is decreasing more rapidly, being replaced by foreign/special language territories.. 4. a majority of the financial support for publication comes from the decreasing base of wealthy western culture.. 5. the pressure for material in foreign languages is increasing.. 6. the cost of the preaching work is increasing, due to #5, and the increased costs of transportation due to oil prices, and the economics of electronic transmittals reducing the global demand for shipping.. 7. a large portion of the most zealous young peple switch to foreign territory, reducing the activity of established congregations in western lands.. 8. due to #7, #1-6 will increase in the future.. i predict: (1) further seperation of printing and operations into branches.
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Spook
In light of the recent statistics and change in Awake publication, I have the following thoughts:
1. The work in western lands is steady or decreasing.
2. Foreign territory in western lands is increasing proportionately.
3. Therefore, the established, wealthier population of publishers in Western lands is decreasing more rapidly, being replaced by foreign/special language territories.
4. A majority of the financial support for publication comes from the decreasing base of wealthy western culture.
5. The pressure for material in foreign languages is increasing.
6. The cost of the preaching work is increasing, due to #5, and the increased costs of transportation due to oil prices, and the economics of electronic transmittals reducing the global demand for shipping.
7. A large portion of the most zealous young peple switch to foreign territory, reducing the activity of established congregations in western lands.
8. Due to #7, #1-6 will increase in the future.
I predict: (1) Further seperation of printing and operations into branches. (2) Admonition for 'need-greaters' to consider that the greater need may be in struggling local congregations. (3) Continued decrease in printing activities. (4) Overall decrease in preaching work.
Not to be ignored is that the world population is increasing much more rapidly than the preaching work in most areas. The work is becoming more futile.
Thoughts?
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Making provisions for Armageddon
by JH inif you knew that armageddon was just around the corner, what would you stock up upon, just incase you wouldn't find any in the new system?
you know, the better things of this system that you wouldn't find again even in the new system.... .
i would buy a truck load of coke a cola .
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Spook
Ammo. Lot's of ammo.
But seriously, the New World is so rediculously improbable. The concept is a la-la land of seemingly agrarian beauty, yet with factory spun textiles, flush toilets, glass windows...most like to think there would be modern technology. All of this requires one thing: infrastructure.
Millions of man hours go into all of this: Electrical and sewer distribution, metallurgy and foundry scientists. On top of all this, for these things to exhist, a world of computers, engineers, instrumentations, steel workers, coal miners...all need to work.
This was the first place I really realized how rediculous of a concept the new world was. Further, the planet is allready overpopulated. If everyone who has ever lived truly had a chance at life, the planet would be unliveable. The current population, if divided equally over all landmass on earth, would have a population density of over 10,000 people within easy walking radias of an hour or two. That's not including any room for the roads, pipes, powerplants, logmills, foundries....
Has anyone noticed how so many witnesses feel 'we might live on other planets some day?'
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Give Reasons Why You're Happy That You're No Longer A Witness
by minimus inone reason is that you don't have to go to boring meetings 5 times per week and field service where you knock on doors knowing no one will answer.
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Spook
Being powerfully connected to reality is the way. Dissatisfaction, mania, and suffereing result from attachment to lies, stories, and negativity about the way things are.