Posts by WTWizard

4

Why believe Hebrew mythology but not Greek, Babylonian, etc?

by gaiagirl in

if one reads myths and legends of ancient cultures, it becomes apparant that most have stories which explain the origin of the planet, of humans, why there is suffering, the relationship between gods and humans, natural phenomena, etc.

for example, the hebrews (and jws) claim that the rainbow was a sign given at the end of the deluge as a promise that god wouldn't flood the planet again.

older accounts from babylon and assyria say that the flood was caused by one of the gods, but ended by his wife (ishtar or innana), and the rainbow was her necklace which she placed in the sky.

WTWizard

Rainbows as a sign of no more global floods--no wonder the Watchtower Society doesn't want people to be educated!

I remember a fifth grade science experiment. We would shine a beam of light through a prism, and look at the different colors of the rainbow. The scientific explanation is that each droplet acts as a prism, and the different colors are refracted to different degrees. Each color needs a certain angle. The sinbeam that reaches us comes from only one angle. So this is what produces the whole range of colors: light reaching us from different angles is from a different color. It also explains why the rainbow is an arc: that proper angle depends on where the sun is relative to the viewer. You can also notice a rainbow in a sprinkler or a waterfall where there is a lot of spray.

Now, what does this have to do with never having another Flood again? Nothing! Personally, I don't even believe in the first Flood, since the water could have never pushed down the rock (which is heavier and thus would have sank under the water). If the lighter water pushed down the continent to form a basin for the water to drain, then why didn't the heavier rock where there was mountains sink even more? All explaining why the Tower doesn't want you to do well in school--so you will believe their Hebrew myths instead of science.

13

Speculating on New Rules in 2008 and Beyond

by WTWizard in

i have read on this site about some of the weird new changes ahead for the watchtower society.

the thread www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/115757/1.ashx had a resolution that effectively banned entertainment, and i doubt that any of the witnesses that were present at last summer's assembly where this was presented even realized it.. then i read that they were going to split the watchtower magazine, giving us a public (showcase) edition and a study (kool-aid) edition.

the study articles would not be open for public scrutiny, which means they are going to beat up on the witnesses without anyone on the outside realizing it (i sure hope blondie continues to get her supply of study articles so she can put up those comments you will not hear at the study).. here are some of my predictions of what might come out of this.

WTWizard

I think that would be an excellent suggestion to require men to lose their virginity by 25. In fact, it would have been so good that they will not think of that. Rather, they would force men to keep their virginity for life if there is any way they can accomplish it. Short of that (if they have to marry, oh all right then let them. But we would really rather they don't), they will restrict it so any fun will be eliminated as much as possible.

I personally think all the rules that they are actually going to pass is grounds for them to fall. Only time will tell with certainty what they are going to do. All I can tell is what they are more or less likely to, and then it is possible that they will do even worse.

As for why I think a total ban on entertainment is on its way, I have noticed the trend since the beginning. They start out with the basic doctrines about the Trinity and hellfire, which do little to limit fun. From there, Booze Rutherford starts up the service (limiting time for recreation). He also bans the holidays. Later, they ban birthdays. Then they ban association with worldlings in work and school settings that includes entertainment.

Starting about the mid 1980s, they phase out congregation parties and gatherings. The rollerskate parties are first to go. Then they have many an article about picnics and wedding parties, effectively banning them also. They took the word "party" out of our vocabulary around 2000. The Feb 2004 KM had an article about 5:30 AM street work and 3:00 PM service, cutting even further into free time. So, the resolution is no surprise. It is another step toward a project that has been going on for nearly 100 years.

However, anyone who jumps ship can have all the entertainment that they want. On the outside, they cannot make rules and expect us to obey them. Hopefully it will make people think twice before joining or staying.

13

She received NO REPLY to specific bible questions.

by rassillon in

i was looking through some of my watchtowers and i came across an article that caught my attention because the pictures were just too funny.

it was a life story of "janez rekelj" in the '05-10/1 watchtower.

i then noticed a paragraph which i thought was very interesting.

WTWizard

Yea, I really like the way they will not answer your questions. And then if you look somewhere else for the answers, they will have a cow and call you an apostate. I guess you aren't supposed to be asking any questions of any kind. So much for testing to see if you're really in the faith.

28

Spirits of the Dead - love this brochure

by moomanchu in

this is a fun brochure to read after you have been out for awhile makes you realize how crazy it all was.. i listed some good quotes, there's more.. .

spirits have no tlived and died on earth (cept those bad angels before the flood).

spirits exist!

WTWizard

Scared of demons? They are claiming that Jehovah's people do not fear the demons. And yet they are not supposed to shop at yard sales because demons are in the articles. They are afraid to watch a fire because the demons are there. They are afraid to have a Ouija board or watch a program with magic or witchcraft because of demons. They are afraid of the Smurfs because of the demons. They are afraid to displease Jehovah (and that means they have to do ever more service to Him) because of the demons.

As for me, I am not afraid of the demons. Many of the phenomena are explained by the right-brain. This is the source of all dreams (and, if you use the Ouija board, any messages it gives you come from here too). The right brain stores all the memories and then integrates them without conscious thought. If all you get are terrible things (like those pictures of billions of innocent people getting destroyed at Armageddon for not screeching around in service all the time, or programmed fear of demons), the right brain is going to produce your nightmares and make you afraid to sleep.

No, the Watchtower doesn't have the standard superstitions about the walking under the ladder or crossing the path of a black cat. They have even worse superstitions. And they program the members to think the demons are attacking them when it is in fact a right-brain flashback or even thermal expansion of something making creaking noises or causing a lid to pop off. As for me, I have never had a demon attack me, no matter how many demonic songs I play. And no, I never had a demon possess my Ouija board.

8

JW's Google Search--Is Google the answer to Bringing Down the WBTS??

by horrible life in

jw
friends

fun with google.

by sap(sap) .

the fact that i will no longer have hundreds of jehovah's witnesses checking out my blog looking for the source of this statement:.

WTWizard

I think that they are going to do a pretty good job of it next year. They are going to have that Kool-Aid edition of the Craptower, and that will allow them to put harsh, ridiculous bans and rules on the members without the public seeing it. And they will clamp down on faders, trying to drag them back into the Kingdumb Hells.

The harder they try to force people to do things that they should not be, or banning things that they need to do, the more people are going to say "Bag it!" and just walk out. If they do ban sleep, work, school, and the like, they had better have a huge supply of S-77 forms ready for all the disassociations and disfellowshippings that they are going to have to do. Plus, it will make new recruits balk at joining the organization. They don't seem to have the sense that the harsher the rules they do make, the more people are going to blow out. And each one of them will be a potential new member of JWD, complete with the latest updates of the rules that they actually do put out.

So they try to crack down on faders and drag them back to the Kingdumb Hells? What happens when some of Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the Watchtower Studies start being made by those recaptured faders right inside the Kingdumb Hells? And they are going to pick up right where Google left off in the ministry. I know for a fact that if I ever get dragged out in the ministry, I will hand-write www.sixscreensofthewatchtower.com " right in all the magazines upon placement so that the prospective study will see it and blow the study.

Hopefully the Internet, and Google, will help put a dent in new recruits. They seem to have slowed growth down in the US and Europe, and caused negative growth in Japan. If they would reach Brazil and Nigeria, it would help even more. However, they seem to be doing an excellent job at shooting themselves in the foot every time they set up for new rules and regulations. True, some are ridiculous. But they are going to get even worse, and when they do, more people are going to blow them off and come here or start new sites like Six Screens. That is what will ultimately bring them down.

And finally, there is the lawsuits that are pending. They are getting hit with a good number of pedophile suits (see www.silentlambs.org ). If they lose these, they will soon go belly-up. Hopefully this combination is going to finish them off.

73

Recommend a car

by Simon in

jw
friends

i hate cars.

they just cost money and eventually rust away.. however, given that it's pretty difficult to do anything without one in north america and that we now need another because angharad got a job (yay), does anyone have any good suggestions?.

things i want:.

WTWizard

I think Toyota or Honda is the most reliable make on the market. Among the Toyotas, the Camry is the best all-around car for a moderate budget. These are reliable and usually ample for most people. The Corolla is smaller and uses less gas, and may be adequate for your needs. Lexus is more luxury and more expensive (they also use more gas), but they are more luxurious.

Honda Civic is the basic entry level car. The Accord is bigger but uses more gas and costs more money. (A bigger car may also be safer than a smaller car; the Corolla is one of the few smaller cars that did well in safety). These are the best choices for reliability as well.

Of course, it may be possible to get a decent used car these days. Look for a Toyota or a Honda certified pre-owned car (that way, you will be less likely to be buying someone else's lemon). These can save you thousands of dollars right off the bat. Pre-leased vehicles are your best bets, since the lease usually includes extra charges for abusive use. You will probably get more car for your money, but it will not be the latest technology. Certified pre-owned vehicles are also inspected for excessive wear and tear, as well as those lemons that occasionally turn up on even the best product assembly line.

As for snow traction, you should be looking first at the tires. Nothing beats a good set of snow tires for traction in winter. Traction control does help (and is available as an option on the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord's higher trim lines). However, without good tires, traction control is not worth a crap. Aside making sure you get appropriate tires for your conditions, they should not be too worn: half worn tires are more likely to give you traction problems than new ones. If the treads are worn to less than 2 mm, they are dangerous even in wet weather (hydroplaning). Tires that are this worn should be replaced; they should be replaced even before this for optimum performance in wet or snowy conditions.

20

The Greatest lies of the Truth........do you know some ?

by Handsome Dan in

i was just reading some of the topics in the forum and i was just pondering on how many lies and devious half truths the wts.

put forth and marketed to .

the general public, it certainly is a huge pot of some of the biggest lies and deceiving statements that men have ever derived from the holiest book the bible.. .

WTWizard

What about all Scripture is inspired and beneficial? They preach James chapter 2, about the kind of works like service (a prime example of taking a scripture out of context and using it to support your own doctrine). Of course, a trip to Ephesians 2:8 and 9 will reveal that salvation is not owing to works. If it were, then salvation would be a wage, not a gift. And the Bible explicitly states that the wages of sin is death but salvation is a gift. Seems like a contradiction to me: and the Watchtower Society makes it even more blatant a contradiction!

6

New Watchtower conductor guidelines

by Frequent_Fader_Miles in

hinging on an earlier thread on this topic; here's a quotation from the text of the letter to all elders:.

"the kingdom ministry school textbook emphasizes the importance of thorough preparation on the part of the study conductor.

but this does not mean that he should introduce additional material from his own personal research and thus possible overshadow what has been published in the magazine.

WTWizard

Thoroughly prepare, my eye! All they have to do is go by what the article itself says, and that should take no more than 10 minutes above and beyond what normal preparation takes.

What it does ensure is that the Watchtower study articles are going to be as boring as crap. There is no chance that you will learn anything by being there that you wouldn't learn just reading it. Of course, the comments are censored (if you give a bad comment, you will hear about it after the meeting). So, you are only going to hear exactly what the Society wants you to hear.

I bet this is going to be even worse next year when the study articles go private. They will have absolute control. If they do implement ridiculous bans on things that will cause even worse harm (like sleep, work, medical care, insurance, school, and the like) and the conductors disagree with it, they are still going to have to go along with the exact material. Not just frown on something--BAN it! If they prepare a recapture program for faders or something to stop new faders, they will not be able to water it down so it will not be as bad: Whatever the Society says, no matter how bad it is for the people, is what they are going to have to teach and enforce. Just one more reason to not join: by not joining, you will not have to worry about what they will ban or require, and what they will do about it.

17

Children Do Not Get Enough Sleep in Watchtower

by WTWizard in

this past memorial was an exercise in waste for most people.

drive to the hall, fight for a parking space, get booted out of your seat, and then listen to a stale talk for 45 minutes.

then the big event: passing the plate of crackers and glass of spoiled grape juice.

WTWizard

I wonder how much of that "procrastination" resulted from parents (at the insistence of the ~~hounders~~elders) hauling the children out in field service when the homework comes out. Then it piles out, since there is no time between meetings, service, and not getting enough sleep for the child to attempt to work on it. After all, any children that are old enough to have homework should be spending all that time in the ministry.

24

The Kingdumb Melodies

by WTWizard in

one of the things i find distasteful is what the witnesses' taste for music is.

they have the same 225 songs that they had since 1984. and many of those were carried from the previous book.. what i noticed while i was there is that none of the songs are really music.

they are so poorly written and performed that i think whoever was in charge of it just threw it together.

WTWizard

I noticed that there are no more live performances of this s***. They have the CDs, and they are so poorly recorded that the most entertaining part is when they put the wrong disc in or push the wrong button. Then the song they are instructed to sing will not match the song that they are playing, and everyone would try to sing the correct song to the wrong accompaniment. They would get half a stanza before anyone would fix the problem. I guess they don't know when to fix these mistakes.

I would like nothing more than to switch the CDs on them. They think they have the correct CD, and they push the correct button. In fact, the CD in the player would be 50 Cent's The Massacre, and they would get the song In My Hood to come up. I wonder how long it would take them to realize that there is a problem, and how many swear words would come up while they are fixing it. Perhaps they would get far enough along to reach the gunshot in the song before fixing it! At the very least, it would be funny. (If I were the attendant, I would do it on purpose and make sure it goes all the way through even while the conductor was trying to get me to fix it.)