Dave,
I have not read this book, either, but thanks for the suggestion. I will read it soon. I am currently reading "Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction", which details similar ideas.
Shepherd Book
JoinedPosts by Shepherd Book
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6
An answer to Intelligent Design?
by PrimateDave ini'm about to purchase the book the tinkerer's accomplice: how design emerges from life itself by j. scott turner.. .
the description says that the author takes on the challenge of explaining how design in living organisms occurs in nature without resorting to the unfalsifiable concept of "god.
" i thought it might be a good read and an answer, as it were, to the august 15 watchtower feature article "what does design in nature reveal?
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An answer to Intelligent Design?
by PrimateDave ini'm about to purchase the book the tinkerer's accomplice: how design emerges from life itself by j. scott turner.. .
the description says that the author takes on the challenge of explaining how design in living organisms occurs in nature without resorting to the unfalsifiable concept of "god.
" i thought it might be a good read and an answer, as it were, to the august 15 watchtower feature article "what does design in nature reveal?
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JW Trivial Persuit -- The Game
by V ini am collecting good trivia questions for a jehovah's witness version of trivial persuit.
i am particularly interested in trivia that pertains to the "unknown" history and practices of the organisation.. examples: .
what image is printed on the cover of the studies in the scriptures series?who was the only member of the governing body to be disfellowshipped?what year was the "faithful prophets of old" confidently expected to return to beth sarim?
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Shepherd Book
TD- Thanks for the answers. I'll still buy the game.
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JW Trivial Persuit -- The Game
by V ini am collecting good trivia questions for a jehovah's witness version of trivial persuit.
i am particularly interested in trivia that pertains to the "unknown" history and practices of the organisation.. examples: .
what image is printed on the cover of the studies in the scriptures series?who was the only member of the governing body to be disfellowshipped?what year was the "faithful prophets of old" confidently expected to return to beth sarim?
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Shepherd Book
Changling-
Good point. Rest assured though, if such a game did become available, I would still purchase it, even if I already knew the answer to every question (this would help assure my winning the game)!
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Ahhhh yes ... those wonderful "quick-builds"
by Frequent_Fader_Miles injust reminiscing a little on all the "quick-build" assignments i supported in the past.
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what was your "quick-build" experience?.
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Shepherd Book
I enjoyed the few times I helped out at quick-builds because, as a pioneer, it was an opportunity to "count time" without having to actually go out in service or wear a suit.
One hall remodeling in our area needed brothers to stay the night in an on-site camper and guard the supplies. So I would show up at around eight in the evening, play cards with other guys or order pizza, then go to sleep and wake up the next morning having logged ~12 hours of service time.
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JW Trivial Persuit -- The Game
by V ini am collecting good trivia questions for a jehovah's witness version of trivial persuit.
i am particularly interested in trivia that pertains to the "unknown" history and practices of the organisation.. examples: .
what image is printed on the cover of the studies in the scriptures series?who was the only member of the governing body to be disfellowshipped?what year was the "faithful prophets of old" confidently expected to return to beth sarim?
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Shepherd Book
Okay, TD and others: can you please provide us with the answers? Many of your questions piqued my interest and I would like to know the answers.
Here are some more questions:
-Which of the following is condemned by the Watchtower Society: Weddings, Wedding Anniversaries, Birhtdays, Birthday Anniversaries?
-With what group of people do the gospels indicate that Jesus spent the most time conversing: Tax collectors, Harlots, Kings, Apostate Samarians?
-God is love and he therefore has done which of the following: Routinely healed babies born with severe birth defects or authorized the killing of a group of children for making fun of a bald man?
(The answer in each case is the final option.)
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Need advice on whether to print a book, and how
by jwfacts ini wrote an 800 page book when i left, basically for my own sanity, and that is what is contained at jwfacts.com.
i have just finished re-writing it as a 300 page book.
i am not sure yet about printing it, as i dont know how many people would want to buy it.
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Shepherd Book
If you make it available in printed, bound book format, I'll buy a copy (I much prefer reading a 'real' book as opposed to a computer file).
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Counting Time?
by sweet pea inreading through the posts it seems to be that many of you put in field service reports that are/were inaccurate for one reason or the other.
what were/are your reasons?
what ways did/do you count your time?
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Shepherd Book
No, I never threw any in the trash or recycle bin. I wouldn't have felt right counting them.
When an elder stopped by and handed me about 50 magazines (the result of not showing up at a meeting for months), I put about half of them in a plastic bag and put them in between the walls of sheetrock I was putting up in my basement. Who knows, someone might tear down the wall one day and find some life-saving information. The other half I 'place' with my pet lovebirds. The tear them to shreds - I call them nature's paper shredders. (My two lovebirds are lesbians, so they are particularly angered at the Society's stance on alternative life-styles.)
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For the men:
by changeling inhow many of you grew a beard when you left the wt, just because you could?
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Shepherd Book
Becca- You asked what women could do to shake things up a bit. How about wearing pants instead of a skirt/dress? Or do what my wife did: refuse to nurse your kid in a room filled with gossip and diarrhea and just breast-feed at your seat.
On the subject of facial hair, I would only shave for the meetings and therefore often had a "shadow". While on vacation to visit some relatives, I let my facial hair grow. Before going to my uncle's wedding, my other uncle said to me: "You're gonna shave that thing off, aren't you?"
I said: "Yeah".
He said: "Good, 'cause we don't let people into our Kingdom Hall looking like that".
To which my granmother replied: "Oh, he's a good boy, he'll shave it off for Jehovah".
To which I replied: "No, Jehovah doesn't care. He put it there. I'm shaving it off for the elders".
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Counting Time?
by sweet pea inreading through the posts it seems to be that many of you put in field service reports that are/were inaccurate for one reason or the other.
what were/are your reasons?
what ways did/do you count your time?
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Shepherd Book
I think 10% sounds very conservative. I think the real amount of 'fudged' time is over 25%. Even when I was pioneering, I always felt like I and the other pioneers were cheating a bit. We would stop to get gas, or run in to a convenience store to buy beverages and, to my knowledge, no one stopped their time for those things. After a while I realized that since it was acceptable to count time while sitting in a car for a half hour while someone in the car group was at a door, then it would also be okay to keep my time going in other non-preaching ways. When we'd stop for break, I'd bring in a notepad and continue writing a letter. During the half hour we'd spend on break, I'd maybe write one sentence (one word every few minutes), but my conscience told me this was okay.
Another of my favorite maneuvers was to drop a letter in my mailbox when leaving for the meeting for service to start my time, then keeping it going by conducting the meeting for service (since their were always non-baptized people in the audience). By the time I knocked on my frist door, I already had 45+ minutes logged.
One cold morning, one pioneer and I took turns writing letters while the other person slept on the couch. I felt this was okay since it was no different than sleeping in a car while someone was at the door.
Later, when I was just a publisher, I was very liberal with my time. If a co-worker asked what I did over the weekend, I would say: "I went to a meeting and learned about the bible", and then I would count 15 minutes for that (and a return visit). To keep my magazine placements up, I would often bring two or more magazines to the bus stop and surreptitiously leave them on the bench right before I boarded the bus. Antoher time, some Mormons visited our Kingdom Hall and since I was the literature servant, an elder asked me to grab some brochures to give them. I gave each of them two brochures (there were 8 of them) and subsequently counted 16 brochure placements, which I spread out over the following six months. Another favorite of mine was to drop two or three dozen magazines in the public library's book drop on the way home from service, thereby "keeping my time going" and placing enough magazine to look respectable for the month.
I never felt guilty for any of this as I felt I had reasonable explanations ('excuses') for all of it. The thing I felt bad about was when I started to slip below the congregation average. The first time this happened, I had only 8 hours for the month, so I 'borrowed' 2 hours from the following month. I reasoned with myself that this was okay since it was not much different than when we were told to carry over any 1/2 hour increments (as time was to be reported only in whole numbers). But then the next month I didn't make the average again, so I had to borrow even more, and so on and so on... After five years or so of that, I probably got 'in debt' by 50 hours. But I didn't feel guilty about that, either, becuase, by that time, I felt time counting was against scriptural guidelines.