The only "apostates" I ever saw were attacking the religion on doctrinal grounds. They were a church group. I remember thinking "man, what a bunch of nut-jobs."
B_Deserter
JoinedPosts by B_Deserter
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45
apostates at assemblys
by looloo ini was told not to even look at them when i studied, but i did not buy the satan stuff about them and said well what have the watchtower got to worry about if they have the truth and no skeletons in the closet ?
i was quite tempted to speak to them and felt rude and judgemental , what did you used to think about them when you were dubs in the trufff ?
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B_Deserter
This was very eye-opening to read. It made me aware of another tactic the Watchtower uses: using random phrases from random verses in order to make it *look* like their ideas are backed by the Bible, when really there is no backing at all.
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Crisis of Conscience stolen from my local library
by neverendingjourney ini finished reading combating cult mind control a few days ago.
i went to the local library to try to get a copy of crisis of conscience.
i had the librarian search for it, and it's not available in any of the municipal library's branches (i live in a fairly large city).
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B_Deserter
Maybe the person that stole it will get curious and read it.
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Evolution is a religious teaching
by lrkr ini kid you not.
page 16 of 1/1/08 wt.
"although evolution is usually presented in scientific language, it is really a religious doctrine.".
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B_Deserter
It's funny how not just the Watchtower, but most creationist literature will call evolution a religion as if they are not a religion.
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If You Were Wrong About The JWs, Maybe Your Current Beliefs Aren't True
by serotonin_wraith inif you're here, it's likely you were once fooled by what the jws believe.. back then, i expect you thought you were smart.
you thought you could tell if you were being lied to.
yet, they got past your mental defenses and sucked you in.. knowing this, how can you be sure your current religious beliefs are true?.
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B_Deserter
"All you have to do is gaze at the stars, the awesomeness of the magnitude of the universe right down to its creative and intricate details and you will see God's invisible qualities. Call out to Him and He will speak to you. Maybe not as you might expect but keep listening and seeking and you will hear. "
Arguments like this are pure imagination. It basically boils down to the "God exists because I want him to exist" argument. Why does the awesomeness and magnitude of the universe require some man-made magical fairy tale to appreciate? Seriously, it's an awfully arrogant assumption to believe that in the infinitely massive universe, a very small group of men on a very small planet in a very backwards, small corner of the universe figured it all out 2,000+ years ago. What I'm saying is, the "just look around you!" argument is simply not good enough. Especially now, when we know quite a bit about how the universe works, it seems awfully silly to me to attribute it all to an invisible magic man that some ancient herdsmen made up. I interpret the verses you quoted as men imagining the magnitude of the night sky and attempting to make sense of it all. It's a natural human tendency to want to do that. People need an answer to things, and in many cases any answer will do, regardless of its plausibility. Personally, I think it's okay to look at something and say "I don't know" because saying that stimulates a lot more critical thinking and discovery than throwing up your hands, saying "God did it!" and moving on. It's the epitome of intellectual laziness. -
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"Jehovah" is the english version
by B_Deserter inhave you ever seen this argument for using jehovah instead of the now-accepted yahweh?
on the surface, it makes sense, but unfortunately it's not a sound premise.. .
if we were to believe the bible, then god's original people were hebrews.
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B_Deserter
Correct, technically, Jesus should be called Yehoshua. In fact, there is a church near me that does just that.
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JWs still do Phone 'callin' - instead of door-knockin...
by Jim_TX ini just got a phone call from my wife.
she said that the phone rang a few minutes ago (about 11am local time), and when she looked at the caller-id, it said 'jehovah's witnesses'... or somesuch.
so - she answered the phone.
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B_Deserter
It's funny to think that most of us wouldn't enjoy just sitting on our asses in a room making calls for a few hours instead of going out into the weather and confronting people face-to-face. I think though people don't respond very well to the phone. First, they're constantly getting solicitation calls on it, so they'd be less apt to listen. Second, the sound the phone makes is extremely disruptive, putting people in a bad mood. Third, people view you as lazy because you didn't bother to come to their house. Calling people you don't know is rude, plain and simple.
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"Jehovah" is the english version
by B_Deserter inhave you ever seen this argument for using jehovah instead of the now-accepted yahweh?
on the surface, it makes sense, but unfortunately it's not a sound premise.. .
if we were to believe the bible, then god's original people were hebrews.
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B_Deserter
Have you ever seen this argument for using Jehovah instead of the now-accepted Yahweh? On the surface, it makes sense, but unfortunately it's not a sound premise.
If we were to believe the Bible, then God's original people were Hebrews. They are the first to give him a name. They called him Yahweh or some variant of that. Thus, for argument's sake, Yahweh is essentially a native Jewish god.
Across languages we see different forms of other names. John (Jahn) in english is Juan (Wahn) in spanish. When someone named Juan comes to an english-speaking country, do we call him John because we speak english or do we call him Juan in respect to his native tongue? Obviously, we use the second option. Juan's name is not John, it's Juan.
The same is with Yahweh. The rules here would be to treat him as a native Hebrew, and preserve the original pronunciation as best we can. It's not a matter of Yahweh being correct and Jehovah being incorrect. It's a matter of Yahweh being MORE correct then Jehovah.
They also insist that one cannot have a close relationship with God without using his personal name. By that logic, you cannot have a close relationship with your father unless you address him by his first name. That actually signifies the opposite, that you don't respect his position as your father. Thus, if one were to believe in God, calling him by his name is not showing respect to his position. -
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Is there spyware on the Societys CD?
by isnrblog inany thoughts?.
it would be easy to do, but if found out could be very embarrasing!!.
has anyone looked into this?
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B_Deserter
Well if there is spyware, it doesn't affect me. I'm running it in Linux. :-D
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I'm writing a story
by B_Deserter init's future fiction with some elements of science fiction to it (very few elements).
the setting is post world war iii america, where the u.s. was conquered by china and then freed into a patchwork of anarchist and feudal systems when china's economy collapsed.
i'm writing in first-person from my perspective as an 67-year-old man in 2049. i live with my daughter and grandson.
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B_Deserter
I've tried writing science fiction before but I always fell out of love with the story. It may not happen with this one but you never know.