1. intentionally twist any scripture to have less or more than it's intended meaning.. 2) ignore dispensational exgesis and time tested methods of interpretation in favor of jw style single scripture exgesis.. 3) pretend that you are above everyone else in intelligence and knowledge.. 4) pretend that your every statement is factual and there is no room for disagreement.. 5) intimidate your opponent by slander and insult.. 6) use various 'logical' terms to make yourself sound well...logical!.
7) use 'straw man' arguments and generalization to gain an edge from the beginning of the debate.. 8) pretend that science is clearly on your side and that no 'reputable scientist' would disagree with your claims.. 9) have your various allies and followers 'chime in' by attacking your opponent while you work on your response.. 10) above all, pretend that god doesn't exist and that there is no evidence beyond the physical.
make it sound reasonable to believe that all life came from nothing and totally by accident.. rex
lol dedalus - excellent post !
I agree Dedalus, although it’s hard to believe you took the time and mental energy necessary to make such an articulate response to this sort of nonsense.
I’d like to read the article (in context) that Rex lifted (plagiarized?) to form his post. Does anyone know who authored it?
1. intentionally twist any scripture to have less or more than it's intended meaning.. 2) ignore dispensational exgesis and time tested methods of interpretation in favor of jw style single scripture exgesis.. 3) pretend that you are above everyone else in intelligence and knowledge.. 4) pretend that your every statement is factual and there is no room for disagreement.. 5) intimidate your opponent by slander and insult.. 6) use various 'logical' terms to make yourself sound well...logical!.
7) use 'straw man' arguments and generalization to gain an edge from the beginning of the debate.. 8) pretend that science is clearly on your side and that no 'reputable scientist' would disagree with your claims.. 9) have your various allies and followers 'chime in' by attacking your opponent while you work on your response.. 10) above all, pretend that god doesn't exist and that there is no evidence beyond the physical.
make it sound reasonable to believe that all life came from nothing and totally by accident.. rex
This thread should have been more appropriately titled: “Reasons Why Rex Can’t Win A Debate.”
Or alternately: “golly, gosh, gee, dem dang atheists just won’t play fair!!!!!”
By the way ol' buddy, I’m still waiting for the lurid details of your WW to Rex transformation. Did it involve (ouch!) the genitals? I suspect so.
having only started to study with a jw she has yet to inform me of these elders, the book she gave me says a little, but after reading this board i see there is more i have yet to learn.
who are these elders?
i'm picturing a bunch of old men in velvet purple robes sitting around a circular table.
Only instead of a paycheck, you receive conterfeit ideas for your efforts while the WTBTS or whatever you call it these days, expands its real estate and investment empire.
What a scam. . . hey, Flip.
I was so glad to hear about the WTS being forced to pay retirement benefits to German bethel workers (and I hope that's just the beginning). Slave labor is slave labor, I don't care what kind of religious bullshit they wrap it in.
some may ask themselves why they post on forums such as this one.
they may wonder what compels them to do so.
you may wonder what causes others to keep at this so frequently.
Nice post Amazing - enjoyed your thoughts as always.
The Watch Tower leadership has not accepted responsibility for the harm they caused, the lies told, or made any attempt to be accountable. Therefore, by working together, we are going to force them to become accountable.
I hope so, I really hope so.
i watched an entertaining german film on cable last night called run.
lola, run.
the plot revolves around how a young woman named lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 marks or her boyfriend gets executed by the mob.. the film cleverly replays a 20 minutes running scene in which lola reacts differently each time to things which happen on her run(s).. one incident has lola nearly knocking down an old woman pedestrian as she rounds a corner.
It wasn’t in a movie, but I remember an old X-Files episode that had two dubs knocking at the door of a dead woman, and then the door of the psycho who killed her. The guy was totally schizoid, and hearing voices. After encountering the witnesses, the voice said: “even that witness bitch won’t have anything to do with you.”
I remember at the time, I found it very disturbing. Hell, it WAS very disturbing.
Also there is the classic witness bashing of Kevin Costner’s movie. . . what was it called? Perfect World? I remember thinking how stupid the conversation was were the witness boy he kidnapped talked about going to hell, ha, ha. There have often been derogatory witness comments written into his movies. Seems he has a problem with them, wonder why that might be?
(headline) toppled tower.
(dateline) october 2029, brooklyn, new york; associated internet media news service.
after a century and a half of preaching and publishing, the wtbts (watchtower bible and tract society) has closed its doors.. the group was started in the 1870s with most of its doomsday doctrines borrowed from the second adventists, another american-born religion of the 19th century.
AP- October 21, 2029
New York
In a long awaited move, agents of the federally mandated “Religious Fraud and Anti-Cult” task force raided offices of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society today. This action, which was heralded by the Societies many opponents, marked the closing of one of the last functioning cults left in the continental USA, and ended the dubious, 140 history of a group who proclaimed themselves to be “God’s channel of communication on earth.”
No word from God as yet on this event.
Handcuffed, and led by agents from the Society’s Brooklyn headquarters was Robert King (AKA: YouKnow), the last “professed” member of the “anointed remnant” who held the position of corporate president (North America operations) and who was the leader of the cult’s “Governing Body” at the time of his arrest.
Mr. King was heckled by “great crowds” of people as he was escorted to an armored vehicle in preparation for his transport to a facility especially designed to house current and former cult members convicted of various crimes. Many in the crowd shouted obscenities at King, while waving multi-paged print outs of his many failed prophetic speculations that had been widely published on the group’s Internet home page.
This group, long known (and much hated) in the past for its annoying door to door proselytizing activities, had in the past 10 years, been confined by law to utilizing only non-personal conventional media outlets.
Upon questioning, sources close to the investigation (know only as AF, Norm, Maximus, and Farkle) claimed that the continued failure of a single one of the Society’s predictions marking the arrival of Armageddon (an obscure biblical term) drove Mr. King and his cronies to near desperation, as they watched the cults membership dwindle to less then 100 thousand. Down from the millions enjoyed in the heydays of the last decade of the 20th century.
Enforcement arms of the Security and Exchange Commission jointly spearheaded the investigation. It had been observed that Mr. King had been attempting to utilize his group’s few remaining financial assets in a desperate, hopeless attempt to bring about his perpetually predicted collapse of the world’s economic systems.
Mr. King is expected to plead guilty to stock fraud, in addition to having been charged with a multitude of other recently enacted anti-cult law violations. These charges could bring about a life sentence – as Mr. King expects to live forever, this could mean a very long prison stay indeed.
While being led away, in alternating fits of weeping and frothing at the mouth, Mr. King could be heard to mutter numerous out of context bible verses, and was heard saying soon, soon, soon, over and over again. His claim that someone named “Jehovah,” would send fire from the sky to effect his rescue and ascension to heaven, have as yet gone unrealized. Federal authorities are not taking this “threat” seriously at this time.
A panel of leading physiatrists will have to certify Mr. King as sane and fit to stand trial (very doubtful under the circumstances), before the case can progress to trial.
Your reporter on the scene. . .
Copernicus
having only started to study with a jw she has yet to inform me of these elders, the book she gave me says a little, but after reading this board i see there is more i have yet to learn.
who are these elders?
i'm picturing a bunch of old men in velvet purple robes sitting around a circular table.
OrangeBlossom - I apprecated your thought here:
Sometimes I wonder what the organization would be like if the good elders would have stuck around and tried to reform things.
But I'd have to say. . .
From my perspective at the time – I’d say there is no possibility for any single elder, or group of elders for that matter, to effect reform of even the slightest magnitude in the WTS. The most that one could do, at the congregational level, was to try and mitigate some of the bullshit pulled by the various idiots on the local body.
In my experience, elders were constantly scrutinized by their own, with very few deviations going unnoticed for long. Eventually, if you persist in going against the groupthink, you are branded a rebel, castigated by dip-shit CO’s, isolated, and then removed under some imagined or contrived pretext. Or you simply give up in disgust and step down of your own volition.
For instance, I often had serious misgivings about presenting certain material forced upon us by the WTS (many public talk outlines and KM parts are notoriously questionable). After making my feelings known, the only reaction was to dismiss me from presenting the offensive part(s), and then assign some other mature elder (read: Society ass-kisser) whose more “flexible conscience” would “allow” him to do the job. This scenario applies across the board in all instances when handling congregational matters.
I’ll also never forget how while out in field service, discussion would often come up between us over the need to “shepherd” so-and-so. Perhaps they were sick, or in some other type of need. The reluctance to break away from completely unprofitable door knocking to tend to the “flock” was a sure sign of an elder who had missed the boat – in my opinion.
It’s very sad really. We often had opportunities to actually HELP some people, but the focus just isn’t on it. Only during the CO visits was there any real interest in visiting ones missing in action, and then only to bring the weight of the CO’s authority to bear upon them. Very sad indeed. But in the org, you’re only as good as your last time slip.
Oh well. . .
having only started to study with a jw she has yet to inform me of these elders, the book she gave me says a little, but after reading this board i see there is more i have yet to learn.
who are these elders?
i'm picturing a bunch of old men in velvet purple robes sitting around a circular table.
These strutting banty roosters lord it over the congregation like the psychopaths they are. Quite a few are pederasts. All of 'em are jackasses. Their wives are plainly unbearable. Their children should be boxed up and shipped to deepest, darkest Africa. Little hellions.You don't really want to get to know them. They're really bad people: bad breath, B.O., mis-matched socks, they've got it all. Stay away from 'em, they're trouble.
Hey Francoise – I must take one exception to your rant. My socks were NEVER mismatched! My unbearable wife (I’ve since divorced her) made sure of it! And I dare you to prove otherwise! ROTFL
(headline) toppled tower.
(dateline) october 2029, brooklyn, new york; associated internet media news service.
after a century and a half of preaching and publishing, the wtbts (watchtower bible and tract society) has closed its doors.. the group was started in the 1870s with most of its doomsday doctrines borrowed from the second adventists, another american-born religion of the 19th century.
Great post Skimmer! Sounds as if you touched a sensitive nerve with YK, but you had me laughing through all of it. But before I buy in, I’d like some biblical support for your 2029 chronology. I’m sure if you look hard enough you can find some, LOL
[moving this to its own thread so as to avoid hijacking the original thread to a new topic.].
when i pointed out how you know was associating with apostates by being here, as the society has pointed out, he responded:.
my conscience doesn't bother me.
Joel:
But hey, you are no different than any of us. We all want what’s good for us to be truth, it just seldom is.
I enjoyed your thought here my friend. . . and the my own voice of experience suggests that, unfortunately, you’re right: “it just seldom is.”
As in the case of Rex’s postulation of a child’s question about death, for instance:
Choices: Too young to understand: Tell the child that the person has gone to be with God. Old enough to understand: No one except God knows if "...." they accepted our Lord as their savior.
I suppose than we can safely say that the vast majority of mankind, not being practicing Christians by virtue of birthplace, racial bias, or preference, do not fall under your God’s selective umbrella of salvation. They never will go to "be with God." How incomprehensive of a God of love – wouldn’t you say? How would this be explained to your hypothetical child? By expressing more palliatives?
Both factual.
Please Rex, take a moment to look up factual in your dictionary. Though a tenet (eg: dogma) of your faith, what you propose is simply supposition, not fact.
Rhetoric upon line of rhetoric. You have to get in your "myths & fairy tales", don't you? See my reply to Rochelle.
Rhetoric is simply the skilled use of speech or language. Is there some crime or sin inherent in that ability? Or is your problem more simply in that you’re lacking this ability yourself? Since it is YOU who continually resorts to "myths & fairy tales" as though fact, expecting others to share your delusions and attacking them if they don’t, you shouldn’t be surprised to be challenged on that issue.
You are going to be one surprised ridiculer when you here that final trump sound.
I wish a had a nickel for every time this empty threat was uttered by some fundy. I ridicule the ridiculous Rex. Why? Because it’s deserving of it.
