Posts by OnTheWayOut

130

Atheist Miracles

by Perry in

jw
friends

i reworded a variation of a common critique of atheists to my own liking.

no, i do not hate atheists, i love them!

they keep me from getting bored.

It is much easier for Perry to believe he understands who he is and that he has a purpose, to feel stable because his core belief system is stable. For liberals and progressives this is not really possible because our core beliefs are less rigid and more willing to adapt as new information and understanding presents itself. Which means that we are reshaping our understanding of who we are and how we relate to society, even if in small ways.

The protective walls around Perry's core beliefs are tall and rigid. They are his identity. He believes that salvation is dependent upon being correct on issues of faith. When confronted on a particular belief, he is not only confronted on an idea held to rigidly but he is feeling an attack on the very core of who he understands himself to be. Our questioning him causes him to be jolted about his beliefs just as questioning a Jehovah's Witness does. (I know, I know- I had to go there. Because, Perry, you may have left the dangerous mind-control cult but your thinking process is the same as it ever was.)

13

Will they jump of the building?

by John Aquila in

during the depression people committed suicide because everything they had invested in was gone overnight in an instant.

many people are very fragile creatures.

if by some freaking chance, (like enron, tiger woods, or the morning of august 1945 in hiroshima) the wts gets caught in a humongous scandal, say like links to human sex trafficking, (i can fantasize right) and the government steps in to investigate and finds them guilty and legally shuts them down permanently, will there be tons of suicides?

OnTheWayOut

It will burn out slowly, not suddenly be discovered in the midst of a crime like Enron. If something comes to shut it down suddenly, it will get a loyal underground following.

If I am wrong, and it is suddenly "not there" due to scandal or government, there will possibly be many suicides.

I think with the instant communications network, we can help them. Df'ed/DA'ed/Faded ones will be ready to help those that need to face reality.

130

Atheist Miracles

by Perry in

jw
friends

i reworded a variation of a common critique of atheists to my own liking.

no, i do not hate atheists, i love them!

they keep me from getting bored.

OnTheWayOut

The answer is always "God did it." And he accuses us of escaping one prison to get into another.

Perry, you can find quacks who will say anything as an expert in a courtroom trial and you can find those same types if you search the internet to bolster your absolute refusal to even consider rejecting the young earth (or the life upon it) and the Bible.

Your thoughts, boiled down to the basics, are nothing new. In your mind, you cannot fathom that life got the way it is without a god, and you cannot fathom the universe itself being this way without a god. But the limitations are yours. Science is willing to ask the questions you are afraid to ask, like "Does it need a god? If it does, then who or what made the god? If it doesn't, let's see how that happened." Just because science cannot answer all the questions right now, you default to "God did it" and stop asking.

I know you want us to snap you out of this thinking and that is why you continue to offer junk science to this forum. You know it's junk science, but you just don't have the guts to admit it. You were wrong once and got out of that, and you are just afraid to find out you are wrong again. So many started down that road you are on. I dabbled in "Christianity just might be right" and "Maybe all religion is wrong, but God must be there." But the god of the Bible says to test him, and that is what I did. And he isn't there.

4

Luxury Apartments

by freemindfade in

this article is basically about how watchtower is going to put the kibosh on some taxes for this rural area of upstate new york, but to me that is not what i find most interesting.

thinking of it from the psychology standpoint of north american witnesses far removed from ny, first, they hear lett "not" begging for money, then they see an article like this that calls them "luxury" apartments.

now... i know they are probably not really the height of luxury in fishkill ny, however most witnesses in the country don't know that, they just hear "we need money" & "witnesses obtain luxury apartments".. http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2015/05/12/jehovahs-witnesses-fishkill-tax-exemption/27206609/.

OnTheWayOut

Despite the assessment, the Watchtower apparently paid $57 million for it, based on calculations from the transfer tax on the deed.

We must obey any orders that come from "mother" no matter how insane they may be. That must be why they paid $56,000,000 for a property assessed at $31,000,000.

Here is an article that explains the difference between assessed, appraised, and market values:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/realestate/your-home-market-vs-appraisal-what-s-the-real-value.html

Assessed values are not always the same as market values or appraised values.
Assessors may have their own reasons for valuing something lower than the buyer would pay in order to equalize the taxes for an area. Knowing that the property will lose it's tax-paying status, he may even have gone lower for political reasons. Or that's simply the way it's valued in that area in order to fit the tax structure enforced upon all home-owners.
Yes, Watchtower is selling in one area and buying in another. They will get volunteers to resurface the parking, tuck point, clean up, repair, redecorate, garden, yadda yadda yadda at these apartments and increase the value. They will one day sell them for a greater price than they paid.

62

Hello, just introducing myself

by Miss Behaving in

jw
friends

i've just signed up two days ago, but i've been lurking for about a year and a half.

here's my story if you're interested:.

my parents converted when they were in their first semester of college.

OnTheWayOut

Oh, and I'm from California...

Take a look, see if you can make it.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/73460001/8th-annual-south-lake-tahoe-apostafest-make-your-plans-soon-july-10th-12th

62

Hello, just introducing myself

by Miss Behaving in

jw
friends

i've just signed up two days ago, but i've been lurking for about a year and a half.

here's my story if you're interested:.

my parents converted when they were in their first semester of college.

OnTheWayOut

I assume from your chosen name that you are a "Miss." But it matters not.

You helped us much to be reminded how we are only good to Watchtower for what we are doing today and tomorrow. They used you up and spit you out.

Well, I guess that's all. Hope it was helpful for someone.

I hope that's not all. I look forward to reading more from you.

130

Atheist Miracles

by Perry in

jw
friends

i reworded a variation of a common critique of atheists to my own liking.

no, i do not hate atheists, i love them!

they keep me from getting bored.

OnTheWayOut

Are we to understand that this professor took the words from Watchtower and morphed them into a disagreement with science?

Your using your own description which is obviously sensationalize and presumptuously biased.

No, I am not. These are his words, not mine.

Okay then. What you did was backwards morph this professor's words to your version of what Watchtower's position is. You are not quoting Watchtower, you are speaking for them in a version of the quote from that professor.

Perry, be careful. It's bad enough that you handpick quotes and misapply them, but then when you speak for Watchtower as if it's their words, you confuse the issues.

Professor Lewontin uses the language of bondage to an ideology that could easily have come off the pages of the Watchtower. Words like "forced" and acceptance of "patent absurdity" are part of his doctrinal statement, not mine.

I tend to believe that the professor gives fodder to controversy with his quote. Controversy is free advertising. But of course, you find one smart creationist online and run with everything he posts, and I am sure you have found one radical evolutionist who many others can disagree with but you will run with everything he says as if it represents all thoughts by all evolutionists.

36

Something tells me 1914...

by Monsieur in

after todays watchtower lesson, and the lessons coming, something tells me bigger and bigger new understandings are coming.

and that it will culminate with 1914. notice how jesus is now coming, and no longer already here.

the current understanding is both, he is here and hes also coming.

OnTheWayOut

When Jesus didn't arrive in 1914, Watchtower could have changed the year or admitted they were wrong and don't know when Jesus would arrive.
Instead, they said "But he did show up, INVISIBLY."

They are changing/reinventing what they said ever since they started saying things.
History suggests they will not abandon 1914, but will suggest that "the light is getting brighter" and isolate individual statements throughout their various claims to convolute their thoughts on what it means.

130

Atheist Miracles

by Perry in

jw
friends

i reworded a variation of a common critique of atheists to my own liking.

no, i do not hate atheists, i love them!

they keep me from getting bored.

OnTheWayOut

Are there any atheists here that would like to disagree with Professor Lewontins' position?

Are we to understand that this professor took the words from Watchtower and morphed them into a disagreement with science?

I would like to disagree with him then.

If scientific claims are against someone's common sense or seem absurd, it is because that person's common sense cannot fathom physics and science properly. Common sense in the dark ages and before told men that the earth is the center of the universe and that stars were tiny.
People would love for science to deliver health and better life, and despite the fact that "science" does not promise such, it has delivered better than "faith" has in that area.

If a "Divine Foot" would actually show up in the door, we will gladly take a look. And before you insist that it has shown up, remember that for every unproven anecdote of your God's foot, I can find another anecdote of a God that is completely unlike your God.

13

My "Leaving" Letter

by lambsbottom in

jw
friends

through what i have learned from reading bro.

russell's writings about the ransom for all, coupled with the blood issue, i feel the need to let my friends know that i am making a stand for truth.

i could have lost my wife to the blood issue during pregnancy.

OnTheWayOut

I tend to agree with Driving Force. Say what you need to your friends, but hesitate to put it in writing.

I don't want to be the ultimate downer, but most who fade or leave any other way still wind up losing their JW friends.