http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=592910
mentally-ill girl who was sold for sex faces death penalty in iran by angus mcdowall in tehran.
14 december 2004 .
Religion and law when joined together are most unmerciful.
When the world as a whole(or at least the large majority) stops following religious myths, maybe then we will be able to see more clearly unclouded by religious dogma.
Amen to that. Suggest anyone interested in Ismal reads Satanic Verses - it is difficult to read and understand but you can see why it had the Muslim world up in arms. Eyeslice (aka Salman Rushdie)
maybe if there is a god, that maybe he doesn't want us to know who he is?
maybe he only wants to know us through prayer.
maybe the bible is a hoax?
Maybe he only wants to know each and every one of us intimately and privately?
I think you may be right my friend. I would like to believe this myself. It seems that this logic is more akin to to the teachings of Christ than the WTB&TS.
May God bless us all in his search for him.
Eyeslice
jehovah's witnesses learn arabic in outreach to muslims
december 12, 2004, 11:06 am
dearborn, mich. (ap) -- some jehovah's witnesses, known for their door-to-door efforts to bring people to their spiritual beliefs, have been learning arabic as part of an effort to convert muslims.
A fery hard task indeed. I have in the past 'witnessed' to Muslims. It is very hard for them to give up their religion. They face loss of family, shunning, etc. to become a JW - just like anyone trying to leave the JWs.
I am in the process of writing a new thread on Islam and just how dogmatic and intolerant it is - just like the JWs - should post in in a few days time.
Eyelsice (aka Salman Rushdie)
as 2004 winds down and my 4th year of association at this board winds down as well, my posting stats accurately reflect a transitition that been going on for me with respect to the jw religion, a process that is quite natural and healthy.
i'm sure that many members have had a similar experience.
here's a rundown of four years here for me: .
On the same track as you my friend - jusr 3 years behind.
Eueslice
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if it were possible to get a jw to actually listen to us, which three good questions do you reckon might get him/her to sit down and think?
ian
Dansk
Excellent question! Hope your are doing ok now mate.
MegaDude
Nice line of reasoning - just the sort of reasoning JWs like to use in the ministry (leading questions etc)
FreeWilly
Thought of this one myself. Could add an additional angle and say if you were God (and remember man is God's image possessing his same cardinal attributes) who would you start with at Armagedon? When you get no reply, you could push and say "well let's start with murders, terrorists, etc" and then point out that these represent less than 1% of the population. You could then move on to athesists, immoral people, etc. See when you start on innocent women and children.
AK - Jeff
Brilliant reasoning.
Thanks guys
Eyeslice
my mother doesn't speak to me although she will exchange emails with me.
we actually don't communicate much, but recently i sent her a few emails detailing things are wrong with the watchtower society.
her responses are laughable... but i am still printing out articles and mailing them to her about the un scandle, she of course doesn't believe it.. but has anyone sucessfully made any headway talking to a dyed in the wool jw and made any progress?
Not yet.
I tread carefully on this issue as I have family still in and I don't want to get disfellowshipped for apostacy! Not been to a meeting for a year now but the ties are still there. Getting myself out has been a big step.
Eyeslice
i have the scanned 2004 report pm me and i will email them to you.
grand total (235 lands) 6,513,132 2004 av pubs 6,308,341 inc over 2003 % 2.0 2004 no baptised 262,416 av pio pubs 858,461 no of congs 96,894 toal hours 1,282,234,887 av bible studies 6,085,387 memorial attendance 16,760,607 memorial partakers 8,570. note the fine increase!.
frogit.
I suppose on the upside, it seems there are less negatives than in previous years but on the other hand there seems to be more zeros.
The comments on Mexico are interesting - a lot of effort from one country.
If you really want to ponder the "and this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth and then the end will come", have a look at India. Only a 3% increase. Given the preaching work has took over a 100 years in the USA to get from a relative few to a million, or put another way to 1 publishers to 283 of population, at the rate they are going in India they will never get there. Their birth rate is just about that.
Another thought occurs to me. If instead of preaching, 1.2 billion hours were spent working at the rate of just 1 US dollar an hour, think of how many hospitals, schools and other beneficial projects could have been paid for.
Eyeslice
one of the things we were constantly taught as jws was that the vast majority of the world are intrinsically bad; wicked enough to warrant destruction at armageddon.. last xmas, a film "love actually" (sentimental tat really but who says we don't need sentimentality occasionally) was based on the idea that everywhere people are in love and being loved.
also, a couple of tv documentaries shown recently in uk, michael palin's 'himalaya' and ewan mcgregor's 'long way round' had these intrepid travellers visiting remote corners of the earth.
it was striking just how friendly and helpful people can be to strangers.
Sandy,
What an interesting quote. It seems to me that even the darkness of the concentration camps was the result of a relatively few individuals.
Eyeslice
i do.
once you realize how much bondage you were under....it's easy to feel good not having the weights of man made rules.
it's very liberating for me to tell people that i no longer associate with the jw religion----very liberating!!
Religiously - yes. I am now free to explore my own spirituality.
Eyeslice
well here we are on a new server and it's not too bad, is it!
apart from that, how's your weekend been?
a highlight for us was partaking of a fine cabernet merlot.
11. Other
Gives the PO something different talk about at the annual no blood pep talk. Once you have heard one you've heard the lot.!
