B_Deserter

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Posts by B_Deserter

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  23

  Do you think it's possible being a witness can kill a person?

  by The Finger in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  a close relative of mine just before he died claimed it was being a witness that was partially responsible for his death (leaving aside the blood issue).

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  B_Deserter

  I only have a short answer for this....

  Yes. If the organization told them to (and justified it with some creative scriptural interpretation), I dare say most of them would kill.
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  43

  Ex -JWs ASL Congragations

  by Scott77 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  anyone who was part of asl congregations?

  what was your experiences witnessing in asl/deaf territories?.

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  B_Deserter

  There's an ASL congregation that's part of my old hall. But the weird thing is that the people who actually NEED to use ASL because they're deaf are vastly, vastly outnumbered by the people who LEARNED ASL in order to speak with them. I've seen that with other foreign language congregations as well. Less than half are actually foreign while the majority are just white people who learned the language to add to their spiritual plumage. Just something else to strut your "holier than thou" stuff in the congregation. I for one dislike the idea of ASL congregations. It's one of the few languages that can be "spoken" simultaneously with an auditory language without causing confusion or disruption. Forming an ASL congregation to me only serves to sequester the deaf congregation members from the main body. Learning ASL to speak with a fellow worshiper is all well-and-good, but learning it to "help out" in the "deaf congregation" to me is disingenuous.
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  41

  Was the Circuit Oversear treated like "a god" in your Congregation!!!

  by Witness 007 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  many ass kissers would put their name down so they could have him over for dinner......"okay now, they can't eat milk products,red meat, white meat, flour, sugar, salt, water...." .

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  B_Deserter

  Ooooh yeah, and this is all right after the C.O. chastises people for working full-time. They should all be pioneering!

  Of course, if everybody pioneers, where would all those contributions and "green handshakes" come from?
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  18

  Brother, Sister

  by B_Deserter in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the witnesses refer to each other as "brother" or "sister.

  " this is supposedly because they are a "spiritual family" and this is supposed to encourage that feeling.. but how often did you refer to your biological brothers and sisters by their title?

  when i was playing in the yard with my little brother i wasn't yelling "catch the ball, brother _______!

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  B_Deserter

  I always hated it when I was out in public and some over-zealous JW would see me and call me "BROTHER _____" in front of everybody.
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  37

  Why the Memorial partaker numbers have gone up...

  by undercover in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ...well, as was explained to me anyway.. since countries that were previously under ban are now able to report, this has resulted in the partaker numbers to go up.. .

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  um, yeah... .

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  B_Deserter

  Nothing shuts down bullshit claims better than asking for details. Oh, so the countries under ban are now reporting huh? Which ones? How many? Studies have shown the New World Translation is the most accurate of all? Which studies? When were they done? How many were done? It was on Jeopardy? Which episode? When?
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  18

  Brother, Sister

  by B_Deserter in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the witnesses refer to each other as "brother" or "sister.

  " this is supposedly because they are a "spiritual family" and this is supposed to encourage that feeling.. but how often did you refer to your biological brothers and sisters by their title?

  when i was playing in the yard with my little brother i wasn't yelling "catch the ball, brother _______!

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  B_Deserter

  The Witnesses refer to each other as "brother" or "sister." This is supposedly because they are a "spiritual family" and this is supposed to encourage that feeling.

  But how often did you refer to your biological brothers and sisters by their title? When I was playing in the yard with my little brother I wasn't yelling "Catch the ball, Brother _______!" I call my siblings by their first name.
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  87

  How To Construct a Creationist/Theistic Argument

  by darkl1ght3r in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how to construct a creationist/theistic argument - by ben spencer.

  step 1. come up with a supposed self-apparent, universal, unbreakable, and yet ultimately unprovable "law".. for example:.

  all effects require a cause.

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  B_Deserter

  and I include people like Dawkins who knows next to nothing about philosophy or the philosophy of science.

  Richard Dawkins knows nothing about the philosophy of science?

  wow
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  60

  Why is it so hard for Ex-JWs to make that "final step" and give up Christianity?

  by sabastious in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm not sure if it's just denial on a lot of people's part, but the reason the jws doctrine is so wacky and controlling is because they are among the few religions that really try to follow the bible!.

  the bible is the culprit here in actuality, but even after someone has "wizened up" to the misguided teachings of jehovah's witnesses they still hold the bible as inspired word of god.. why don't you believe that the governing body was chosen as the faithful and discreet slave in 1918?

  because the only real evidence to that fact is that they say so.

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  B_Deserter

  For a while I thought the JWs were the best at interpreting the Bible after I left. I don't believe the Bible, so it really doesn't matter to me anyway. I am, however, glad I at least looked into the other point of view and found out JWs are just as...shall we say..."imaginative" in their interpretation of the Bible as any other denomination. You don't see Christians stoning people to death for minor offenses even though the Bible explicitly commands it. That's because they've creatively used their powers of interpretation to state that the Bible really doesn't mean what it says, unless they happen to like what it says, which in that case it really does mean it.

  JWs are no better at following the Bible than anyone else, so I find it perfectly understandable for someone not to reject the Bible when they reject the Watchtower. In my case, I did reject the Bible, and I left the organization because of that. I think people saying things like "why don't ex-JWs go the final step and reject the bible" is just like when former JW Christians say "It's so sad the Watchtower turned you off to God." The Bible is what turned me off to God, but I'm not going to disrespect someone just because they accepted the Bible but left the society because the two aren't compatible. They aren't. It just doesn't matter to me like it does to other people.
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  43

  Would You Picket A Kingdom Hall?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know some zealots that have carried signs and peacefully picketed kingdom halls, especially on the memorial.. what do you think about that?.

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  B_Deserter

  Sites like Dannyhaszard.com and Six screens of the Watchtower actually put a damper on my exit. They were among the first ex-Witness materials I was exposed to (but thankfully not the VERY first) and it was because of them I actually tried to go back to the organization for a few weeks at first. They confirmed every stereotype of "apostates" the organization put forth. Thankfully the first ex-JW site I was exposed to was not like that, and seeing the sensible stuff first helped me realize eventually that the stereotypes were wrong.

  For that reason, I would never picket or protest a Watchtower event. I do realize that the protests probably have more to do with educating the general public about the JWs than helping JWs out of the organization, but I just cannot bring myself to contribute to their siege mentality.
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  52

  Good books against evolution?

  by bohm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  after reading 'the greatest show on earth' by dawkins, i have been intrigued by how biblical literalists explain the many findings that seem to support evolution and contradict various parts of the bible.

  in doing to i have browsed around on aig but i have generally felt let down by the quality of evidence and interpretations they present.

  so i would like to ask all non-evolutionists: if i wanted to learn more about the physical case against evolution, what books should i read?

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  B_Deserter

  I've found that the typical conversation with a creationist goes something like this.

  Creationist uses moronic argument used thousands of times before and debunked thousands of times before, but presents it as if it's the first time it's ever been used.

  Person who accepts biology (PWAB) addresses argument, pointing out either that it's irrelevant because it's not addressing what evolution actually states, or how it is based on faulty reasoning, etc.

  Creationist switches to another argument without addressing PWAB's objections.

  Long, drawn out conversation that ultimately goes nowhere.

  Later, Creationist meets another PWAB (PWAB #2 we'll call him or her) and uses the same argument.

  Rinse and repeat.

  Perhaps the reason you're not finding satisfying logical arguments on the creationist side is because there are none. The creationists I've seen seem to be under the impression that if you repeat something enough times, it becomes true. That seems to be the main "plan of attack." Don't address the answers science has given to their objections, just find a crowd that hasn't heard the answers and repeat those objections over and over as if they haven't been addressed already. It's not science, it's preaching.

  ...evolution no more disproves the existence of God than the existence of God disproves evolution...

  ...but i'm sure most of you smart folks already knew that...

  But evolution (science in general, rather) can and does disprove specific God claims. If everybody who believed in God believed in the Deist idea of a cosmic watch-winder who has otherwise had no interaction with the physical universe, then evolution wouldn't be an issue with anyone. The problem is that most people aren't deists, they are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Bah'ais, etc. all with specific claims about what their God/Gods can do and have done. The claims of the book of Genesis are demonstrably false, from the so-called "order of creation" which claims, among other things, that fruit-bearing trees existed before the sun did to every single species of animal on earth being loaded into a single boat. If a God does exist, and if one is to accept logic, reason, and the scientific methodology as the best means to know what is true, then the God described by a literal reading of the book of Genesis cannot exist. That is the issue here. If the scientific evidence pointed to Krishna being the one true God, then fundamentalist Christians would be just as upset at that as they are over evolution. The only God science does not conflict with is the absentee God of the Deists.