Posts by Arthur

5

A matter of concience

by Damien Thorn in

jw
friends

[edited: violation of posting guidelines].

Arthur

and she is my best friends daughter.

This sounds like a significant age gap between the two of you. If that is true, (strike one).

But i don't believe everything the witnesses preach. First of all it seems to me that they listen more to the officials than to the bible itself.

This is absolutely true. If you can see this now; it will only become more apparent, and more disturbing the longer you are in the org. - and it will make you miserable if you try to go through the motions. (strike two)

I grew up in gladiator shool (I.E. Juvenile Hall and i will whip someones azz for that type of shite ) I consider that type of thing to be between a husband and wife and if one of the elders were to inquire about such a thing he would only do it once before he swallowed his teeth

If you and your wife are going to be Witnesses, you better accept the fact that if you are doing anything against what the Society says; your wife will most likely go to the elders. Physically assaulting a congregation elder will not make your relationship with your wife any better. (this should be strike 3, but I'll assume that you wouldn't really do that).

I want to know what brain washing methods the use in order to strengthen my resolve against their tactics. I was fed a plethora of pharmaceuticals in juvie and they found out i still couldn't be mind fucked. I just want some helpful advise as i am an intelligent person and not taken to letting stupidity enter my mental arena.

If you are already aware that the WTS uses very manipulative and coercive indoctrination tactics, you will only become more and more unconfortable as you are a Witness for a longer period of time. Trust me, it is a miserable life trying to go through the motions with something you don't really believe in. This will be painfully apparent to your wife; and will only strain your relationship further. (strike 3)

Given everything, you just wrote, I don't see how in the world a relationship would work between the two of you (especially if she is devout). You both would be miserable. Trust me, you may think that you can join this religion and just happily go through the motions even though you don't really believe in a lot of it. It just doesn't work this way. You will be very unhappy; and will eventually fade out in the same way that many of us on this site did. I was a JW for over 20 years, and I have seen this kind of thing happen several times. It never has a happy ending. I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but becomming a JW for a woman is a horrible plan. In the long term, it will never work.

23

Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10 in the NWT

by Zico in

5 for the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten.

10 all that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in she ol, the place to which you are going.

as i'm sure you know, the society always use this scripture as proof that the bible teaches that those who die have no mind at all.

Arthur

It does not say that the body's thoughts perish or that the person lives on as a soul and has thoughts, but the persons thoughts perish, period.

What about other verses in Psalms? Ps. 42:6 says: "Oh my God, my soul is in despair within me" (NASB)

Ps. 43:5 says: "Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me?" (NASB)

Why would the Psalmist need to specify this; speaking of his soul as something that is within himself; if he knows that he merely is a living soul?

28

Picture on book "You can live forever"

by Motema Bolingo in

jw
friends

i remember that a few months ago, a member gave the reproduction of a publicity corresponding exactly to the picture of a nice swimming girl appearing in the "you can live forever ..." book.. this image is on my website (the first one on the page) :.

http://www.aggelia.be/subliminal4b.html.

would it be possible to put again this publicity on the forum ?.

Arthur

I have looked at most of the pictures, and I must say that these "hidden demonic faces" are dubious at best. I really think that this is grasping at straws. I have been able to see similar images in clouds and in pictures of smoke.

Just for fun, I decided to pick up a National Geographic magazine off of my book shelf right now. Within just 2 minutes of glancing at various photos, I was able to pick out about 3 skulls, and 2 demonic faces. It wasn't hard at all. I challenge any of you reading this post to try it too, and count how many faces and skulls you can find within various pictures.

Whenever looking at photos of images that contain a lot of random and chaotic shadows, and textures, it is always easy for the human eye to pick up patterns. Faces can always be found.

I'm not saying that the people who create these websites are dishonest or deceitful. I just think that they may be a little overzealous.

Just my own personal opinion.

60

Do you buy into conspiracy theories?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

i guess since leaving the witnesses, i have become willing to listen to more things.

mainly because i learned in life, that if the religion you were raised to live and die for is wrong, and deceptive, then couldn't that be said of government and science?

so with this in mind, of the ones i am going to list below.

Arthur

Generally speaking, I don't believe in most of the conspiracy theories that are floating around out there. However, I am not always cynically closed minded.

JFK Assasination:

I believe that there was a second shooter (who's bullet was the fatal shot). Beyond this, I have no theories; except that it may have been kept secret due to him being a Cuban national; which would had huge geo-political implications if released to the public.

Moon Landing:

Yes, I do believe the moon landing really took place.

Government Hiding Alien UFOs?

No. All of the hype regarding Area 51 has been shown to be the Pentagon and Air Force experiments with spy technologies which were kept top secret due to the Cold War. I think many UFO sightings are merely US Air Force test flights of experimental aircraft. (it's no coincidence that most UFOs are spotted near Air Force bases).

19

Camping fun....

by Peaches-n-Cream in

jw
friends

packed and ready to go.... i don't think we could have fit one more item!

no, this isn't all mine, there were 4 of us.

the camp ground we went to.

Arthur

I certainly hope you all considered the Daily Text each morning. (despite your hangovers)

28

Picture on book "You can live forever"

by Motema Bolingo in

jw
friends

i remember that a few months ago, a member gave the reproduction of a publicity corresponding exactly to the picture of a nice swimming girl appearing in the "you can live forever ..." book.. this image is on my website (the first one on the page) :.

http://www.aggelia.be/subliminal4b.html.

would it be possible to put again this publicity on the forum ?.

Arthur

Interesting website, but very few of us on this site know how to read French.

25

WHERE DID POST -FLOOD VEGETATION COME FROM?

by badboy in

jw
friends

its occurs to one that the floof would have destroyed virtually all vegetation,so where does wt say post flood vegetation come from?

Arthur

I emailed a university in Arizona about 2 years ago as they seem to be involved in this tree ring research and asked some professorwas there any proof for the trees concerned being submerged for up to a year in water about 4300 years ago. I didn't think I would get an answer but a very short reply came back....................'No, none whatsoever.'

Yes, this is a good point that I forgot about. Other solid evididence is the soil sediments in various parts of the world that prove that those particular ecosystems have been uninterrupted for hundreds of thousands of years. A prime example is the Amazon basin; which I made reference to before. This is a very fragile ecosystem that contains unique vegetation, and flowers that don't grow anywhere else on earth. There are many insect species unique to this area, because they survive by either eating or inhabiting such vegetation. According to geologists, they have a solid geological record of the region which spans millions of years. According to botanists, there has never been any evidence which shows a massive disrruption or extenction in this ecosystem in the past 10,000 years.

25

WHERE DID POST -FLOOD VEGETATION COME FROM?

by badboy in

jw
friends

its occurs to one that the floof would have destroyed virtually all vegetation,so where does wt say post flood vegetation come from?

Arthur

2. In verse 23 the inspired and infallible word of God says that every living thing that was on the face of the earth died. It doesn't say "except plants," it says EVERY LIVING THING.

Well, maybe Johober caused vegetation to grow out of dead wood the way he caused flowers to grow out of Aaron's rod. With Johober, all things are possible !

Let's not be like Korah and Miriam, and become "wise in our own eyes" friends.

22

The Best Revenge as a so called "Apostate" is...HAPPINESS

by Lady Liberty in

jw
friends

good morning all and happy sunday to you and your families..... don't you find that when you are asked by a jw how you are doing, they expect you to say.... horrible, terrible, i am so unhappy..blah blah blah.

witing for that kind of reply so they can say in return,"well if you would only return to jehovah, and his spirit appointed organization you would be happy again.

" you know the drill.

Arthur

Every one is hoping to see trouble in my life so they can say see that is what happens

This reminds me of what the Soviets used to do. They indoctrinated the people to be terrified of ever defecting to a democratic country; telling them that their lives would be horrible. When Russians did defect to a Western country, many of their former associates desperately hoped that they would be treated badly by their new friends, and be mired in poverty.

35

THE JW MALE

by Dansk in

jw
friends

i honestly believe most jw males stay in the orgnisation because they are given control, i.e.

married males have ultimate control over their wives and children.

i know a woman who was married to an elder and who said that prior to becoming a jw she would never be submissive to her husband.

Arthur

This ideology perpetuates itself because the JW religion puts an irrational emphasis on positions and titles. A brother's spirituality is based upon whether he has a title or not (pioneer, MS, elder). I found that so many sisters evaluated a man's moral character upon whether he was a "Servant", or an "Elder". They used this as the prevailing criteria as to whether or not he would make a good husband. So, it is a thought system that both the men and women feed into and perpetuate. This became really disheartening to me after awhile. It seemed like such a shallow way to evaluate a man's moral character and worthiness. So, when I would see those sisters find their "perfect" Elder, or Servant husband; and he would wind up treating them like an employee; there was a part of me that didn't feel sorry for them.