I gotta say that the link you provided about PBS stations not showing Knocking makes it sound like a pretty "pro WT" production to me. They seem to be addressing JWs specifically, though not everyone may agree with me on that.
IsaacJ
IsaacJS2
JoinedPosts by IsaacJS2
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15
"Knocking" Documentary on JWs?
by Gayle inmaybe this isn't a new topic.
http:www.knocking.org/on_the_big_screen.html.
the clips i saw only gives a very "positive" biased message for jws, not the through & through facts.. pbs will be showing this in may.
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Faith in angelic help waning? WT March 1 and March 15, 2007
by truthseeker inin the march 1st and march 15th issues of the watchtower, there is a paragraph in the study article about.
the help that angels give in the preaching work.. however, i have noticed something not mentioned before - watchtower uses the phrase "too numerous to be dismissed as coincidence" twice.. quotes are below:.
march 1, 2007 - watchtower.
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IsaacJS2
I'm an atheist and skeptic, so I'm more inclined to shake my head at these stories than some. I remember one of the brothers I studied with telling me about an experience he had in field service I thought I'd share.
He said that he went to someone's door, and the guy inside brought his dog to the door with him. Before the Brother could start his presentation, the householder turned to his dog and said:
"Jehovah! Sick'em, boy!"
Then the dog turned on its owner instead.
Note that the guy had actually named his dog Jehovah.
This is exactly the sort of story that gets the WT masses going. I have no idea if it was true. I've often suspected that the Elder wasn't as big a believer as he let on, or that he was at least capable of making such a story up. In any case, who knows what really happened.
There are a couple of articles at Austin Cline's Atheism & Agnosticism web site about events which are statistically impossible, yet happen every day to a few people across the world. I could hunt them down if anyone's curious.
IsaacJ
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Faith in angelic help waning? WT March 1 and March 15, 2007
by truthseeker inin the march 1st and march 15th issues of the watchtower, there is a paragraph in the study article about.
the help that angels give in the preaching work.. however, i have noticed something not mentioned before - watchtower uses the phrase "too numerous to be dismissed as coincidence" twice.. quotes are below:.
march 1, 2007 - watchtower.
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IsaacJS2
::Sigh:: Typical cult logic. Everything is used to reinforce the faith, whether it should be taken that way or not. They cherry pick from events going on around them and try to make them prove whatever they want. Like when some said that 9-11 only happened because of gay rights and women's lib! Give me a break.
If you keep going out in field service, you will obviously find people at a critical point in their lives whether you have supernatural aid or not sooner or later. You won't know about that guy you only missed by one minute because you had to stop at a red light or whatever--an event which would suggest that the angels are actually working against you. (Must be the demons...darn them!) So, to the average Witness, it seems funny that they should always find needy ones at the proper time. Perhaps too often to be a coincidence...even though they have no way of knowing that it isn't a coincidence every time because they aren't omniscient!
To be fair, many religions and fundamentalists commit this sort of error. But it still stinks for the organization to promote this sort of anti-logic.
The Society used to vacillate over this issue. One minute we're reading personal accounts of angelic protection in the Awake!, then a month or two later we're told not to give too much credence to those kinds of stories in the WT magazine because miracles of this sort don't happen any more. Both articles will give examples of why they are right, even though they contradict themselves. Typical double-speak.
IsaacJ
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15
"Knocking" Documentary on JWs?
by Gayle inmaybe this isn't a new topic.
http:www.knocking.org/on_the_big_screen.html.
the clips i saw only gives a very "positive" biased message for jws, not the through & through facts.. pbs will be showing this in may.
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IsaacJS2
I know almost nothing about it, but would like to see it. Is it truly biased? Some of my in-laws watched it together and thought it was neutral because (they said) it isn't entirely positive. But I suspect it must lean strongly in the Society's favor. To them, that's probably neutral. :-/ What I've seen of it makes it seem pretty positive so far. According to my wife's family, the Society granted them permission to film it, so it can't be too negative. I doubt the Witnesses would have cooperated otherwise.
Back when I was a Witness, you were to treat the media with suspicion.
IsaacJ
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26
Show a Pic of Your Pet!
by Country Girl ini have lots of pets: three horses; three parrots; three cats; and lots of fish.
i love my pets because they make my life whole.
please show the pets that you love!.
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IsaacJS2
RATS RULE, BABY!!!
I have taken WAY too much video of my pet rats. Even edited some of them into little videos with music and all that (because I'm weird and mostly suck). Here is a video of a (now long dead) rat named Zippy I made for YouTube. It is called "Zippy the Wonder Rat." I've been meaning to put another one online as well. Maybe I'll get to it soon...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBApW-fg4m0
IsaacJ
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Loaded Words
by new light inthe other day a jw relative referred to two otherwise anonymous women in the back seat of a car as "two sisters", as in 2 female jws.
neither of us knows them, and they were peripherals to the main story, but the use of the word "sisters" as opposed to women implied certain superiority, as if what happened matters more because the two women were jws.
the psychological oddities of the jws become more apparent with each passing day.
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IsaacJS2
Thankfully, I only have WT in-laws to deal with. Not that I haven't had several "fun" encounters with them all. One time, my wife's extremely nice grandma just showed up where I work--which is a public place with customers and fellow employees--and she just starts preaching at me in front of everyone! I couldn't believe it. After numerous encounters like that over the years, I was finally prompted to write all my objections down. I now have a 44 page essay to show for it.
One thing that gets me is how they all seem to assume that somewhere, deep down, I just sorta "know" how right they are. "You know it's the Truth, so why don't you start doing what you Jehovah wants you to?" As if they truly "know" themselves; knowing and believing are two different things. In the end, this sort of arrogance only pushes me further and further away from their true religion.
On second thought, maybe I shouldn't complain...
IsaacJ
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16
Do You Still ............ ?
by Outaservice insince i left the jw's i never wear a neck tie!
i probably have 75 to a 100 of them, but they don't seem to wear them in any churches, do not wear them to weddings and funerals, or even to exclusive restaurants.
i'm certainly never going back to the kingdom hall!.
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IsaacJS2
Ah, the WT dress code. I started going to meetings right as I turned 18 and didn't own a suit, but some actually said they didn't believe me! The Elders always had time to pester me about the guidelines in their little books, even underlining the relevant points and stopping me out of the blue just to show them to me. But they never found the time to explain why dressing up in a full suit and tie was so important to my spirituality. (Funny that...says a lot about their priorities)
Finally, someone told me it was so we all looked alike. And if they didn't henpeck me to death about it, somebody else might try it. Can't have that.
Ah, the good old days...
Heh heh. Right. Can't believe I fell for this crap... ::grumble grumble:: ::murmur murmur::
IsaacJ
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March AWAKE
by mouthy injust had a call from a jw undercover.... says the march awake is teaching the question on sex again "what young people ask" telling them about hooking up!!!!
i am begining to think that maybe those up in the writing department must get horny while writng all this stuff -the lad that called says he gets horny reading it.
pity!!!!
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IsaacJS2
I liked the quote from the JW girl that "going to school is like being on the set of an X rated movie?"
Man, where is this school at? And why couldn't I go when I was a kid??? I was cheated! Cheated, I tell ya! Curse them all!
IsaacJ
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My dear atheist posters, what would you recommend . . .
by pennycandy infor a reliable, accurate study of the authenticity of the bible and/or the existence of god?.
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IsaacJS2
I haven't read the other books recommended yet, but I did enjoy Misquoting Jesus as already suggested. I thought the stuff about the early denominations of Christianity was really interesting and how scribes deliberately altered the texts to reflect their own theologies and to disprove the beliefs of other factions! Apparently the changes from one ancient manuscript to the next aren't nearly so insignificant as the WT and others would have us believe.
For example, there was at least one faction that believed Jesus was just a prophet who was later adopted by God as his son. In other words, no Trinity, no Michael the Archangel sent to Earth--they believed that Jesus never existed in any form before the man, Jesus, was born. They beleived that when Jesus was baptized that God literally adopted him, declaring him to be his "unique son" rather than his "only begotten son." When Jesus died, he was resurrected as a spirit/king and taken into heaven. It's almost as if Jesus was an anointed in JW doctrine. No mention is made of the "Jesus was Michael the Archangel" doctrine in the book.
You might also check out these web sites:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com
At the Skeptic's Annotated Bible site, there are links to relavent articles on other sites that explain some of the sidenotes more clearly. Here is one that I find really interesting to get you started. Check out the links on the page for papers explaining was "firmament" (or "expanse" in the NWT) really meant:
www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/topics/firmament.html
IsaacJ
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Going door to door to recruit members doesn't work
by JH inwhen you look at all the hours they do going door to door world wide and then you look at how many hours preaching it takes to bring just 1 person to their organization, it's not efficient.. my mom goes to a baptist church now, and i was surprised to know that 500 go to that meeting on sundays and they don't go door to door to go get these people.. there might be 80 witnesses at my hall and going door to door doesn't make much of a difference.
maybe it's even counter productive since people don't like being pested at home..
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IsaacJS2
I agree that the door to door work is mostly about keeping Witnesses busy and invested in the Society. Personally, I see it as part of a business model. When I started going to meetings, many Witnesses were still impressed with how the appearance of the literature had improved to make them more appealing. Now, I understand that it has gone the other way to cut costs. Instead of nicely bound books with gold lettering, they are producing more soft bound books that are cheaper to make. I understand they have also cut back on the number of Awake! magazines they produce. The Watchtower magazine is the real leader anyway, so why not? To me, this is a trend. The Society knows that the Witnesses are their real bread and butter. Every time a new book comes out, the Witnesses have to have it. There will be a meeting on it sooner or later anyway, which forces them to get one. They used to announce this at the conventions (don't know if they still do) which made them like big Tupperware parties to me. You know, invite all your friends over for a friendly get together, but it's really to draw them in to check out your new wares? That's partly why new literature is such a highlight of conventions. And then, if there's a "new light" and the old books change, you better update those as well. Don't forget to donate again! All those Witnesses will keep donating for this literature--including the literature they place without getting a donation from the householder--so making it more cheaply is just a way to increase profit margins. If outsiders were really buying it up, the quality of the literature would continue to improve. That's what I think at any rate... The Society's psychological/financial tactics continue to interest me. IsaacJ