last week my wife and i were returning from a trip to the store and she starts talking about how amazing the bible is and how one should really not need to take any science classes, cause everything that one needs to know is in the bible.
she sites the creation story on how it is all in the bible that there was first water, then earth, then vegetation.........i really did not even know how to reply.
i asked her if she ever really critically read genesis for what it said, it is an interesting story, but there are many inconsistencies and even contradictions within the written word.....but of course she attributes that to the mistakes of man recording the information, since every word of the bible is of course inspired by jehovah.
Oh, it's even better than that. How about Israelites being so numerous they could have stretched in a line across the entire desert. More gold in Solomon's temple than exists on earth. Several billion more quail than have ever existed.
If you believe in ad-hoc miracles, you can believe in absolutely anything. I don't even bother anymore.
have any of you had the experience of a bethelite brother visiting your kh?.
here's how it always seemed to go in my experience:.
there is a general kh-wide excitement in the air that a real, live bethelite rockstar is at the hall; overheard are numerous convo's featuring words like "o, he's a bethelite".. visiting brother bethelite gives the closing prayer and is immediately mobbed by adoring fans.. all the single sisters are on high alert, you can smell the estrogen in the air.
JW's simultaneously encourage and discourage class thinking and external pride.
someone who shall remain nameless (*cough*snowbird*cough) mentioned she has never been to a bar.. this shocks me.. i was remembering how terrified i was of going to a bar when i was exiting the mother ship.
i was looking for the lightning bolts to get me.
and it was a big nothing really.
I was terrified of going to bars...terrified I'd spend all my money on shots!
Nah, I went all the time. Eventually got in trouble by bringing a traitorous prick with me though. Bachelor's party for a good buddy - he wanted to come, then felt guilty and ratted everyone out without talking to them first. I went to a wedding recently at a KH, and I shunned him! Muhahaha.
i am not talking about here!!!
i understand that website owners have the right to run their sites as they see fit.
not talking about that.. i'm talking about government or political censorship.
I think human nature tends to have a drive toward censoriousness. I recognize it as an unproductive reaction. Though I don't buy into slippery slope arguments.
i haven't posted on here for quite a while, but i was wondering if someone could do me a huge favor and look up the definition of apostasy for me in the reasoning book.
i'm at my university's library working on a paper and i forgot to bring along the ol' reasoning book.
i tried to find it online but had no success.
It seems to me a more accurate understanding of Apostasy would be one who is actively trying to cause sectarian divisions within a religion. A little different than heresy.
evidence of god's confidence in the anointed, who "keep following the lamb no matter where he goes.
16 "my sheep listen to my voice," said jesus, "and i know them, and they follow me.
what shows that jesus christ completely trusts the slave class?
| There are many reasons why the slave class deserves our trust. Two outstanding reasons are: (1) Jehovah trusts the slave class. (2) Jesus also trusts the slave. |
Were it true that Jehovah existed and the theology about him entailed the existence of the FDS class, it still would not follow that Jehovah/Jesus trust them. It would be more accurate from the tone of the bible that Jehovah / Jesus (were they to exist) entrusted the FDS. Further, based on biblical examples of those whom J&J entrusted with responsibility, obedience to an entrusted theocratic authority never abdicated personal responsibility even when the exercise of personal responsibility required disobeying the entrusted authority.
Stick that in their cracktower pipe & smoke it.
Here are some simple reasons they don't deserve our trust:
1. They shy from personal responsibility by writing in a third person anonymous manner.
2. They maintain the logical contradiction of requiring individuals to behave as-if they are inspired while at the same time admitting they are not inspired.
3. They fail to acknowledge or retract past mistakes.
4. They lack virtues they themselves espouse, such as humility.
5. They argue from the authority of their position, not the strength of their evidence.
6. They require people to do work technically entrusted to them (preaching), while taking the credit for it.
When a GB member starts washing feet, I'll listen to what they have to say about character.
wow.
and so the wt society tightens down the screwdriver a bit more !
one of my wife and my lurking jw friends sent us this article which has some very pointed words in it inciting all jehovah's witnesses to take an even harder line view of apostates in this recent april 15th wt.. on pg.
| Their mind may be poisoned by a critical attitude |
A critical attitude isn't a problem. It's a solution - a solution to being defrauded by individuals and institutions. A critical attitude is the single best attitude you could teach your children - I might add a recommendation to also encourage a reflective component so that they aren't narcissistic.
the only effective saftey for your family would be total isolation for 12 months....no one comes in, no one goes out.
the spanish flu did not reach one island at the mouth of the amazon river since it was isolated from the mainland.
i think if i had enough baked beans, water and god my plasma tv i could make it otherwise, me and my wife may not make it...he he..
I live in DT Chicago. I have a few weeks worth, plus water purification & camping gear. I have a good "emergency bag" together. But in general, I've always known I'll have to get out of the city if there is a big disaster. That's where my garrage comes in. Complete mechanics shop, custom motorcycles & off road dirt bikes. Industrial lathe, drill press, three welders, generator, etc....Muhahaha. I'm a mechanical engineer and my room mate's a mechanic. Got a 100 year old fortress of a house where we do nothing but drink PBR and fantasize about a blade runner post apocalyptic future.
(Not that bad, really. But I'm totally with BTS in secretly crossing my fingers for a zombie-geddon.)
I'll join another church if they can convince me I get to fight zombies for a thousand years.
after reading steven hassan's book, i really believe the jw's are in a high mind control group, like so many other cult-like religions.
one point stuck out to me though....hassan said he will not do interventions if the purpose is selfishly motivated.
i don't know why, but it's made me question some things.
I recommend NOT taking them seriously. The whole notion of reasoning with the deeply converted doesn't make sense to me. Those who are more independant minded are good targets here for serious "ideas" - knew a few elders / pioneers who stepped down b/c they disagreed with politics, etc. But in general, I don't give respect to things just because people believe them.
I try to shame them, and in general act as if their ideas are just as preposterous.
"Right, you can have blood fractions, but not blood. So, you can eat a peanut, a cashew or an almond, but not a handful of mixed nuts? Makes perfect sense."
If anyone thinks this is cruel, I disagree. I won't afford others intellectual respect they don't themselves afford me. If they spread magazines which call the godless "fools" for not knowing Jehovah, I have no problem calling them fools for once distributing magazines where the heart was described as a literal organ of emotions.
Unfortunately, I don't think you can reason people out until and unless you change their social situation and environment.
i am still active to try and help family and friends, so that's why i say we.
i know i have brought this up before, but i cannot get over the fact that every service group i go in, and every dinner after the meeting, or coffee or whatever, no one seems to be reading the magazines.
no one understands the doctrines of the generation, 1919, not even blood.. when i bring up one of those subjects, one in the group will repeat the phrase we learned at the meetings, such as "blood fractions is not really blood" or "i think the generation refers more to the anointed or something like that.
They are not encouraged to think critically. Without criticial thinking, they don't really understand their doctrines. They are, in essence, memorizing "routines" in short term memory.
Since leaving I have encountered many looooong arguments about theology and philosophy. I can recount these with ease, yet I could never remember the basis for generation prophecies or anything like that.
