Posts by dedalus

42

Official Blood Document for Legal Purposes

by AlanF in

below are scans for the two-page document that jehovah's witnesses give to legal authorities to state their official policy on blood.. page 1:.

page 2 can be found here, but is too large to comfortably include as an image: http://home.attbi.com/~alanf00/images/med_alt_p2.jpg.

alanf

Has your life gotten better as an athiest/agnostic?

by StinkyPantz in

this quote got me thinking:if you pray sincerely and admit you are a sinner and accept christ as your savior you can have the holy spirit come into your life.. .

i used to do this everyday.

when i was being abused, i used to pray incessantly for god to help me.

Um, there are other places to meet people and make friends besides Kingdom Halls. And, I don't know if you've noticed, but if it's an instant community you're looking for, there are, like, about a billion churches in the country. Most of them are nicer to look at than Kingdom Halls, and most of them aren't attended by self-righteous bloodthirsty zealots who disown their own children over theological disagreements.

Another example, maybe?

Dedalus

153

Has your life gotten better as an athiest/agnostic?

by StinkyPantz in

this quote got me thinking:if you pray sincerely and admit you are a sinner and accept christ as your savior you can have the holy spirit come into your life.. .

i used to do this everyday.

when i was being abused, i used to pray incessantly for god to help me.

dedalus

Oxnard,

You wrote:

Oh, I understand why you don't believe in God. I just don't like the negative tone directed at those of us who do believe. It's not like Christians aren't educated about various topics. In our eyes, the Bible is the oldest book and it's never been proven wrong. Every prophecy in it has come true.

1) The Bible isn't the oldest book.

2) Biblical claims have been proven wrong.

3) Prophecies in it have failed.

I don't think people who believe in God are foolish -- see my earlier post on this thread. I just think that, when you try to argue for the factual authenticity of an historical text as a sort of empirical proof for your belief, you're coming at things from the wrong direction.

Dedalus

15

"Young People Ask- How Can I Make Real Friends" Video

by Nosferatu in

jw
friends

have any of you watched this piece of shit?

a little while ago, i saw it in my mom's video collection, and i popped it in just to see what it said.

it was incredibly sad to see so many brainwashed youths.. the real life drama at the end was the worst perception of "the world" that i've ever seen.

dedalus

LOL I can imagine dedalus pleasuring himself adding an entire new scen to the video. (in his mind)

Oh, I don't think I'd have to add a new scene -- I'd just opt for the director's cut, in which the parking-in-the-SUV scene is restored to its original, steamy, bump-and-grind glory.

Dedalus

9

God Helps Everyone?

by ClassAvenger in

i talked with a jehovah witness and he told me that god only helped those who obeyed him, that it said somewhere in the bible.

the discussion came when i told him about soldiers asking god for help.

he said that god wouldn't listent to them because the soldiers knew they were sinning by killing and they kept on doing it.

dedalus

Faith in God is what is lacking in this world.

Faith in which God? Your God? But my faith in my God is what's lacking! If people stopped having faith in your God and had faith in my God, the world would be a better place. In fact, I think we should do away with all of those who have faith in your God who is not my God.

Wake up, Amen. There is way too much faith in God in the world. Faith in God is how world leaders justify acts of heinous violence; it's how they rationalize things like rape, torture, and genocide. It's the last thing we need more of.

Dedalus

21

There's just something about theists that say they were once atheists....

by logansrun in

jw
friends

you know the type, the ones that say, "oh yes.

i tried to not believe in god..." or "when i left the jws i became an atheist, but since i found jesus..." simply put, i don't believe them.

i don't think they ever really stopped believing in god.

dedalus

The theist says I can prove that god does exist and the atheist says I can prove that god does not exist.

Neither should be saying he can prove anything. Substitute the word "believe" for "prove" and you've got it right. And I suppose it could be that disbelieving God is therefore something like an act of faith -- you gather as many fragments of logic and fact (and probably experience) as you can and leap the gap where conclusive evidence should be. But there are far more compelling reasons for it, in my opinion.

How about that, though? Does it take faith to be an atheist? Or is that simply too clever?

Dedalus

"It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return the ticket to him." ~ Ivan Karamazov, in Dostoevesky's The Brothers Karamazov

16

How would a JW respond to this question?

by Oxnard Hamster in

before i met my first jw after going off to college, i came from a town of about 3,000 people.

the town is primarily various protestant denominations, catholic, and mormon, but certainly no jws.

as a matter of fact, i hung out with people who had friends of varying religions and denominations, but i never heard anything about a jw.

dedalus

I'm not exactly sure how Witnesses would answer that question, but whatever they said, they would certainly LIE.

Witnesses are great liars.

Dedalus

69

The new book for children.

by dmouse in

jw
friends

my wife went to the convention yesterday and brought back the new book for children 'learn from the great teacher'.. it's certainly much better than the old pink book, larger and more colourful, even if the pictures have a 1950's feel to them.

the introduction mentions that there are questions throughout the book that you should ask children to find out what is on their mind... saying ' true, the child may come out with with answers that are not correct.

but the printed material that follows each question is designed to help the child to develop wholesome patterns of thinking'.... 'wholesome patterns of thinking' eh?

dedalus

So Gumby raises relevant and important questions. How indeed does any Christian understand these passages? I struggle with them myself, though I don't come across as a "believer" or a Christian in the full sense, I do try to read and apply the scriptures.

I understand the "read" part, but I don't understand why "apply" must necessarily follow. Reading and applying those scriptures (the ones about violence, punishment, vengeance, etc.) is just as sensible as reading and applying Thucydides' account of the Peloponnesian War, or the ancient Greek myths surrounding it. There are "lessons" in everything, if you want to invent them. Why people fixate so doggedly on the Bible is bewildering to me -- I guess it's just because everyone else always has. There are other historical and mythological texts that are rich, literary, and complicated, and yet go unregarded by believers who have latched onto this particular collection of historical and mythological texts instead.

I think we're off topic.

Dedalus

142

Do you believe in God now?

by Ron1968 in

.

this question has probably been asked before, but since i am a newbie, i wouldn't know.. anyway, i would like to ask if you believe in god or a higher power since becoming an ex-jw?.

ron

dedalus

A dyslexic atheist is a person who doesn't believe in dogs.

Dedalus

15

"Young People Ask- How Can I Make Real Friends" Video

by Nosferatu in

jw
friends

have any of you watched this piece of shit?

a little while ago, i saw it in my mom's video collection, and i popped it in just to see what it said.

it was incredibly sad to see so many brainwashed youths.. the real life drama at the end was the worst perception of "the world" that i've ever seen.

dedalus

Yeah, the YPA video! I had totally forgotten. To be honest, the girl who played the main "sister" turned me on a little.

But the part that drove me nuts was the end. I'm fetching this from way back, but as I recall, the previously-misguided-but-newly-reformed Witness sister is confronted by one of her slutty worldly associates at the end, in the school parking lot or something. And, when the sister breaks off the friendship, the slutty worldly associate says something like, "Are you saying that God doesn't approve of me?" Or something like that. Watching the video, palms sweating as they gripped the remote control in breathless anticipation, I waited for the sister to answer, to tell the worldly slutty girl the truth -- that God doesn't approve of worldly slutty girls like her (and, of course, all worldly girls are slutty), and that the only way to escape certain death was put as much space between herself and whatever worldly slutty girl associates she may once have had, so the birds of prey don't accidentally clip her haloed Witness head as they swoop in for destruction.

But, of course, that wasn't the answer. Nothing even close Instead, with a facade of sincerity nearly unfathomable, she sweetly smiled and said (something like), "Oh, NOOOOO, it's just that we don't have a lot in common." It was the "oh nooooo" (my mnemonic equivalent of whatever was actually said) that got me. The sickly sweet, gooey untruth of it. The whirling sidestepping of doctrine. My vague feelings of arousal and anger. It was strange.

Dedalus