Oh, and I'm from California...
Take a look, see if you can make it.
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.
Oh, and I'm from California...
Take a look, see if you can make it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
did you watch the story about the jw who was working as a burger boy at some diner and his boss wanted him to work on sunday during the time of his meeting?
this faithful jw decided he could not attend a later meeting (6 pm sunday meeting) and soon quit his job(or got fired to attend his sunday meeting) so he could attend the sunday meeting he was assigned to.
i think he was on welfare because this story states he won't work on sunday morning because that's when his meeting is!
i have been out of the org for several years.
i faded.
my husband became inactive but still believes that the jws have the truth.
when i see people on here saying they've looked on several sites before this one, jwfacts, jwstruggle, youtube, etc., and then they make friends here, sometimes meeting up with ex-jws, it seems incredibly easy compared to leaving in 1989. .
no internet, no amazon to find ex-jw books, no facebook to link up with ex-jw groups.
still people find it so hard to leave.
I do believe we are at a point where most born-in's will leave and very few converts will join. While 7 or 8 million is a drop in the bucket with 7.3 billion people, it is massive enough to be self-sustaining for several decades.
Plus, we don't really know how many are leaving and certainly how many are leaving mentally, but staying officially "in" for family.
Personally, I think the money grabs of late are from an organization that sees a decline of membership and contributions in the future and wants to take the holdings now. People are already becoming secondary to money.
There must be some power behind the powers that wants to maintain WTS for a long time, so they must be using the money to buy goods or services from their own companies or those of their families. I suspect that these same powers have moved their people over to construction and building materials now. They have to build build build while the people are still there. Then they can sell sell sell when the people are gone.
It's almost wide open to view now. So I tend to agree with you. Most of what will be done now will piss off members and they will leave. But people in for a long time will only slowly cause a decline unless a huge event (scandal) gets them out.
steven hassen is a well known name for many, if you do not know him google can help.
this information is certainly not new, but as almost every exjw has deep affection and concern for active jws it is certainly my wish and i hope the wish of other exjws that any active jw considers this information.
this information cannot be deemed as apostate, it is just stating the opinion of someone who has spent much of his adult life in helping people to realize what a cult is.
"Cult" is a loaded 4-letter word. Various people give various definitions. Basically, a cult is a group that deviates from the majority. JW's would be proud of the label if it ended there.
I use the word too. In modern usage, it has taken on a different meaning that applies well to JW's or Heaven's Gate. Steve Hassan uses "dangerous mind-control cult" as the complete term. If in serious discussion, I always add that part. That's the part that leads to discussing the dangerous aspects of their practices.