Pyramidiots of a feather flock together.
streets76
JoinedPosts by streets76
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pyramid and the bs students
by serein inwhy is it that the bible students are so in to the pyramid, i just dont get it one bit,i know they say bro russel beleived in its statuse acording to isaiah 19;19, but what the heck i dont see it at all,.
i do no that even thoe russel beleived, rutherford didnt,.
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Are atheists on the march?
by sabastious init just seems like every day more and more atheists start going on the march.. -sab.
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streets76
Millions of atheists now living are doing just fine, thanks.
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Why You Loyal Witnesses Should Oppose Disfellowshipping
by metatron inone night you are driving down a dark road.
another car swerves into your lane and hits you head on.
you wake up days later and discover you are paralyzed.
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streets76
Disfellowshipping will exist for as long as JW 1.0 follows the High Control Group model.
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streets76
...not really. (We're usually incognito.)
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Faith in God and the fear of death
by Nickolas inin his book die zukunft einer illusion (the future of an illusion), sigmund freud described belief in god as a collective neurosis.
he wrote that the religious impulse is essentially ineradicable until or unless the human species can conquer its fear of death and its tendency toward wish-thinking.. freud was a smart guy but he postulated a great deal on some things, fear of death in particular.
he was a committed atheist but did see the benefit of belief in god for the jewish people, of which he was a member.. but did he get it right?
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streets76
[no god for me]
I obsess over death constantly. Particularly sudden, out-of-the-blue, unexpected, unexplained death. Seems to be a middle-age thing.
It's not death I fear, per se, it's non-existence. Maybe there is no distinction.
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Challenges Facing the Watchtower Org
by eric356 inive been thinking about the future of the watchtower organization and the challenges it faces in coming decades.
its difficult to address the issue without allowing personal feelings affect the analysis.
many people seem to think that the society will collapse fairly soon, based mostly on the fact that the person dislikes the leadership or cant understand how others can believe the doctrine.
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streets76
Eric: I think you've hit on something that I and most of us here haven't fully understood or keep forgetting:
The WT fills a specific niche: high-commitment, high-control, high-social cohesion. Each member gives up a lot to be a member: time, freedom, worldly relationships. In return they are part of a special "select" group that is very tight knit.
So many of us want to "fix" JW 1.0, or convince our loved ones to leave it, that we've lost sight of the most obvious fact: They actually want to be a JW. (In some cases, they absolutely NEED to be a JW.)
Those of us that managed to escape are just the walking wounded, doing the best we can. You can take the boy out of the witnesses, but you can never take the witness out of the boy. If only.
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Challenges Facing the Watchtower Org
by eric356 inive been thinking about the future of the watchtower organization and the challenges it faces in coming decades.
its difficult to address the issue without allowing personal feelings affect the analysis.
many people seem to think that the society will collapse fairly soon, based mostly on the fact that the person dislikes the leadership or cant understand how others can believe the doctrine.
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streets76
Listener:
the WTS would start age specific Sunday school type classes on the weekend. Perhaps a half hour or so in the classroom and then an hour +/- in the field ministry. That would help retain their youth.
I think the last thing any JW youth wants is to go out in FS with the "I'm a dork" sign around their necks for all their friends to see. At least that's how I felt.
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Challenges Facing the Watchtower Org
by eric356 inive been thinking about the future of the watchtower organization and the challenges it faces in coming decades.
its difficult to address the issue without allowing personal feelings affect the analysis.
many people seem to think that the society will collapse fairly soon, based mostly on the fact that the person dislikes the leadership or cant understand how others can believe the doctrine.
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streets76
Doubting Bro, yes I agree, the whole "we speak for God" mindset is a hinderance for changing existing doctrine. But if they are going to survive long-term, they will need pull boat loads of "new light" out of the hat in the coming years. So why not new light that actually makes sense?
With the present rate of drop-outs from the young born-ins, in a couple of generations the JWs will be a sad shell of their old selves. JW 2.0 is a way to prevent that.
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Challenges Facing the Watchtower Org
by eric356 inive been thinking about the future of the watchtower organization and the challenges it faces in coming decades.
its difficult to address the issue without allowing personal feelings affect the analysis.
many people seem to think that the society will collapse fairly soon, based mostly on the fact that the person dislikes the leadership or cant understand how others can believe the doctrine.
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streets76
NEJ: re-invent the religion in significant ways
This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. They need a new brand, or at least a new version number. Jehovah's Witnesses 2.0, if you will.
JW 2.0 would be different in two significant ways.
One: Change in doctrinal emphasis. Still keep "the end is probably just around the corner" mantra, but don't make it the focus. Put the focus on the family unit. Throw away all the mindless things that make the typical JW family so disfunctional, like the no-birthdays rule, no-holidays rule, no-higher-education rule, no-blood rule, and especially the shunning/disfellowshipping policy, which is the biggest destroyer of JW families. (It goes without saying that the child abuse coverups will need to stop as well.)
Two: This is the major change, and has to do with the WTBS business model. The old JW 1.0 model of peddling printed literature is a dinasaur of the past. The new money-maker for JW 2.0 is higher education! And the beauty is, they can make this tie in with their End Time doctrine.
What will the world need after Armageddon? Smart people who will already be prepared to step in and start the clean-up at the beginning of the thousand-year reign. Not PhD philosophy-smart, though. They need mechanical-smart. Engineer-smart. Most of the same skills the typical two year community college specializing in providing.Except, the JW kids won't go to the local community college. They'll go to the Watchtower University (or whatever it will be called). They can locate it in Brooklyn or upstate New York or whereever. The object will be to teach the kids a skill that is valuable now and will still be of value after Armageddon.
Here's the kicker: the loyal WTU graduate goes out into the working world, makes a decent wage, and tithes a certain (and significant) percentage to the WTBTS. He can earn a solid middle-class wage and provide for his family, who by the way are solidly JW and no longer dysfunctional (see part one). No more minimum-wage window washing, carpet cleaning careers.
WTU is the new Bethel! The folks back home will be so proud that little Johnny got accepted at WTU. A few years later, he returns home, gets married to sweet little sister Susie, has a nice job and two little JWs, loyally sends his tithe back to headquarters (and is no longer hounded about spending ten mindless hours a month in field service)...and the cycle repeats.
This is similar to the Mormon model, I guess, though JW 2.0 should aim for more mainstream and less whacky. Look at the success of Brigham Young University. Look at the success of Liberty University, which was started as a podunk fundamentalist bible college and is now (amazingly) a fully accredited university. Jerry Falwell (the late founder of Liberty University) was a bigotted racist intolerant miserable bible-thumping son-of-a-moonshiner jackass, but he was no fool. He died a very wealthy man, and his heirs are doing just fine, thank you.
The key to part two is that Watchtower University will need to get accredidation. But if BYU and LU can get it with the crap they teach, anyone can get it.
It can be done.
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Rain on a Tin Roof
by Broken Promises init's currently raining bucketloads while i type this.
we've had a typical summer-time storm with thunder, rolling clouds, heat, then the cooling winds which come with the thunderstorm.. (a loud crack of thunder just exploded when i typed thunderstorm, yikes!).
i have a tin roof, which only amplifies the sound of the rain!
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streets76
When I was a small child, my family lived in a trailer in a stereotypical run-down trailer park in the south (USA). One good memory I have from that trailer is the rainy nights, lying in bed, listening to the rain hitting the tin roof over my head. Very rhythmic and soothing.
(Of course, the cosy feeling was usually ruined when the dude in the next trailer over would come home drunk and beat his wife. Good times.)