Posts by monophonic

9

Dishonesty - The Awake's selective quotation concerning Carbon-14 Dating

by VM44 in

here is how the awake!

reported on a news story concerning the "inaccuracies" in carbon-14 dating.

compare it with the actual new york times article from where the story was obtained.

monophonic

probably another reason why no one at the wt or awake receives bylines for their articles, b/c they'd be held accountable for appropo journalism practices....when no one is credited in the writing, then people who have been, eh uhm, educated beyond cleanings floors for safeways, they could actually go, hmm, i can see why the writers don't want to be credited.

so called 'worldly' publications have more of a conscience than the wt and awake.

if only i could write for the wt, that would be a kick b/c i'm good at fiction.

2

Why doesn't it occur...

by crazycate in

why doesn't it occur to my friends and family that.... for one hundred years (give or take) we could prove via scriptures and greek translation that the generation jesus referred to meant that no one born in 1914 would die before the end came.. then that changed (in 1995), but we were able to prove the new "understanding" via scriptures and greek translation.. now the "understanding" is changing again.

but i'm sure we can still prove it via scripture and greek translation.. what will we be able to prove next?.

cate.

monophonic

i was talking to my wife about this and i asked, what do we define as a generation?

she said the 70-80 years and i said, no, think about it.

we have the WWII generation, the baby boomers, generation x, what is it now, generation y.

when i say, i hate this generation, i'm not talking about 70 years until now, i'm talking about the last 10-15 years of media saturation and paris hiltons and boy bands who can't play instruments.

so, a generation can be defined as 10-20 years by our current usage of the term.

but yes, they'll come up with something and most will follow and some will realize they're in a load of poopoo.

24

Do the Governing body know they are being dishonest?

by strawberry cake in

i wonder if anyone has any ideas on this.

who, what is behind the wts.

is it just men genuinely making mistakes but are sincerely trying to serve god?

monophonic

you bring up such an interesting topic b/c it's really hard to fathom either way.

as COC says, governing body members never have time to study or read the bible, so giving them a hustle mentality, like they try to give publishers, helps them not think on larger issues.

i believe there are some who know it's a crock, but it takes a perons of extremely decent character to admit they've been doing something wrong for 50+ years, not only as a leader, but even as a person.

an example of this is my whole family were union workers, manual laborerers, truck drivers, etc. i was a huge threat to them b/c i pursued my art and would just die if i didn't make it my career.

they were alcoholic know-it-alls, well my grandparents, and had running commentary on how i woudl never make it and needed to just get a full time mind numbing job, which i'd rather pursue my interests 14 hours a day out of a van than havea job w/ a secure apartment, cars, etc....even though i have those things now and can pay my own bills and wanted absolutely no money from them.

i believe they were just fearful that they had made the wrong choices in their lives...all they had to show for it was a watch for 40 years of service in the union or whatever....to look at me was making them look at themselves and it scared them too much to realize my happiness was more important to me than repeating their mistakes just so they could feel better about themselves.

i can't imagine being 25 years bought into a belief system, much less 40-50 years....the percentage rate even among non-jws has to be low.

8

I think may convert to Bokononism

by inkling in

jw
friends

thank you oompa for recommending kurt vonnegut.. i am reading cat's cradle at the moment, and am enjoying it immensely.. .

around and around and around we spin,.

with feet of lead and wings of tin .... .

monophonic

"And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human."

-Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five)

22

So I called the headquarters.

by DT in

i've never done this before, but i wanted to be involved with the informal campaign to call the headquarters on or around the first day of each month.

i haven't even spoken to a witness since i da'd.

i had very modest goals for this call.

monophonic

not to endorse being deceptive...but, i suggest pretending you're a journalist...pick a name out of the new york times or a magazine and let them know you're doing fact checking for your article on ______.

it could take six months or more for certain articles to finally be published, so if they ask when, throw them a date.

and fact checkers often call to read back their quotes nearer to press time, it would be fun to slightly misquote them and have them reiterate everything they said.

also, that brings up ways to question them w/o seeming like it's from you....their guard will be up b/c you're 'the media', but they might give more time and thought to what they say.....and you can ask for other 'high ranking officials' in teh organization to give quotes on the topic.

that idea might be lame, or might work out well, who knows...but it could be interesting.

in the end, you might actually have an article to sell to a paper or magazine. :)

thanks for posting your conversation here.

23

So i ditched my book study 2 night... and felt like sharing a thought

by XOCO in

and it felt good "lowest sum of the earth" are we that evil because some of us decide to leave and choose a life that we want wheather it be with some goals and asperations or seeking another route of worship/non-worship, while still being alive on this earth today .

xoco.

monophonic

it's fear based. i think there's a deep down gut feeling of 'what if this isn't the truth', and they project that emotion outward towards those who are doing things they wish they could do.

looking back, and even engaging in such crapola when i was young, i believe the talk comes from fear and jealousy.

i only saw that escalate to an extreme degree when i did work that was public for other people to find out about through the media....that was fireworks....no compliments or congrads, just 'but what if...." and that's when i knew they were just scared for themselves.

9

3/08 Awake!: Is There One True Religion?

by Watkins in

a dear old jw couple who are like an aunt and uncle to me, sent it in the mail.

the note said, in particularly to my husband, which i thought odd since he's never feigned the slightest interest, ""we thought you'd find pages 3-9 of interest, "is there one true religion".

we both feel that the decision we made (a zillion) years ago in choosing a way of worship was the correct one.

monophonic

great analogy missinglink.

and, the nazis were mostly united in their belief system, if they weren't, action was taken against them....kind of sounds like, uh, hmm?

9

3/08 Awake!: Is There One True Religion?

by Watkins in

a dear old jw couple who are like an aunt and uncle to me, sent it in the mail.

the note said, in particularly to my husband, which i thought odd since he's never feigned the slightest interest, ""we thought you'd find pages 3-9 of interest, "is there one true religion".

we both feel that the decision we made (a zillion) years ago in choosing a way of worship was the correct one.

monophonic

a major reason why the wtbts discourages higher education and tries to get teens pioneering in high school, so they'll have no reference how to really do research and learn and experience life for themselves, but stay under the information filter of the wtbts.

40

WT Comments VIDEO (Keep Watching)

by V in

monophonic

excellent job...i hope you're able to do that for every issue.

11

Are you part of a progressive Hall?

by Not Feeling It in

with the proliferation of the vague concept (to most jws, not me!

) of a conscience matter, do you think there are more liberal (i don't mean politically) jws?

have you come across many or any halls where the boe or the membership are content to really let the conscience decide the small stuff rather than the iron-fisted approach?.

monophonic

speaking from california, every hall i was in, which was a total of about seven, each had their own agendas.

that's when i realized if it's a flip of the coin if you're going to be abused or shown respect, it can't be the truth.

one hall was very loving, were very sympathetic towards illness, depression and respected me even though i had pretty much faded out by the time we came to the hall. i have nothing but kind words to say about them, and when they offered a shepharding call and i turned them down, they didn't ask again or try to investigate me which would've happened in most of the other halls.

out of the seven congregations i went too, i would have to say they were so different in their strictness, beliefs, that it felt like i was part of three different religions that branched off from the jws.

inner city halls tended to be better in the fact that they actually have to deal with kids getting into gangs and real city problems before straining out the gnat that someone went to a concert that might not be christian.

my first resolve to completely leave was b/c of the huge inconsistencies w/ congregations, the society urging you to stay in the congregation territory you attend, and watching some friends stay under the abusive janitor's direction of washing up to their elbows, while others didn't have constant running commentary every time you farted.

a few years later i finally got the cajones to read COC and really start researching the jws, which put the nail on the coffin and i expressed to certain people in my life that there was absolutely no chance of me going back.