in the wake of richard dawkins bestseller 'the god delusion' (which i and many others here have read) there has been a good deal of rebuttal from the 'faith' community.
now a new book is out published by alister mcgrath, professor of theology at oxford university.
it is entitled 'the dawkins delusion'.. has anyone read it or ordered it yet?
No, but it seems an interesting take on the subject. Although an atheist in the true sense myself, I agree that Dawkins is about as dogmatic about religion in "The God Delusion", as the worst religionists. Although there was some very sound reasoning in his book, the underlying dogmatism did indeed take away from his argument.
j
just want to take a poll.
no need for explinations, just for or against.. me- against..
For the most part, against. Keep in mind, I never knew anyone who was home schooled before the jws, so I'm somewhat biased in my opinon against it. That said, there are some public school systems that are just plain dangerous, and many of the families in those areas can't neccesarily afford private school. In that case, it's a good thing.
j
what one thing would i see that would tell me the most about you?.
the center of my home is my computer and my books.
standing at the door that is the first thing you will see.
Lots of pictures of the wife's, (not mine, wonder why?), family throughout the house. Upstairs, in the office, lots of books, mostly of either an IT or history nature. The office also shares space with my other passion, music. About 1000 LPs on the shelves there, along with my "old school" McIntosh stereo.
j
page 28, paragraph 11 says in part:.
"it seems that resurrected ones of the 24-elders group may be involved in the communicating of divine truths today.
" (the 24 elders = "anointed christians in their heavenly positions".).
It never ceases to amaze me how I never really picked up on this verbiage while I was in.
j
i guess that's how it will always be for me,,i've moved on,,all my family is "out' thankfully,,but i spent too many years there, and i won't ever become a member of a religion,,in jest, you are my "church" i guess.
:)
It's part of my history, whether I like it, or not. When I participate on JWD, or do some research of sorts on the organization, I am an ex-jw. In my married life, I'm my wife's husband, a non-jw, in fact, my former jw life rarely comes up in discussions with her. At work, a systems engineer. Again, my former jw life is a non issue there, either. But, in a limited sense, I will always be an ex-jw.
j
i ran into a jw lady i have known most of my life a couple of weeks ago.. she told me that she had left her non jw abusive husband and that she was still very upset about all that had happened.. the elders had been 'visiting' her.
infact visiting is probably the wrong word and should be replaced with harrassing.. they kept telling her that 'jehovah hates a divorcing!
' she said that they wanted her to go back to her abusive husband as she should not have married a non jw in the first place.
Yep...shows very nicely where the influence comes from that prompted my oldest son to tell me, "Nothing short of dad being a SERIAL KILLER could justify you divorcing him."
Way to go, Watchtower...woo hoo! You've got the next generation of abusive JW husbands locked in already....
Yep, and it applies to JW wives also. Although in my case it was mental abuse, not physical.
j
this link is directly from the "official" watchtower website.
it's a short reading.
now, imagine somebody trying to apply this very same advice to their own jehovah's witness faith.
The WTS is delusional. They don't even realize they are propagandists.
j
"published by jehovah's witnesses".
what the hell is up with this statement?
i've seen it occur a lot since i've been out of the org.
Terms such as "publisher", "pioneer", etc were Rutherford era terms. His contrarian nature kept him from applying mainstream Christianity's terms, such as "preacher". He also had a very legalistic nature, (as a wannabe lawyer, I'm not sure he ever passed the BAR anywhere), and preferred to use terms that had rather ambigous meanings outside of the jw organization.
j
follow up to previous threads..... http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=exjpcnk3zjczn2y3dnflzuvfexkzntcmzmdizww3zjd2cwvlruv5etcwnjg3mtimexjpcnk3zjcxn2y3dnflzuvfexkz.
paterson -- the masons built their paterson headquarters to last.
in justifying why the former masonic temple should be considered a local historic landmark, gianfranco archimede, executive director of the paterson historic preservation commission, pointed to the building's mass.
I worked on that building back in '93 or so when I did the RBC thing. There was rumor that an electric chair was found in the basement, but that could be just another jw urban legend. My sister went to one of the Paterson congs there, and was also married there in '99. It seems the jws didn't keep it long, but supposedly they sold it for $5 million.
j
so says the "what does the bible really teach" book.
"like that candy, holidays may seem sweet, but they have been picked up from unclean places.....we need to have a viewpoint like that of the prophet isaiah, who told true worshiper:touch nothing unclean".---------so origins really matter!
---------isn't it funny how the society can pick and choose which pagan origins aren't as bad as another??
I thought that was the 5 second rule...damn.
j
