Posts by Francois

3

WRITING CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE borg

by BERNARD in

jw
friends

dear friends.

we all were once part of the borg and following there belief system.

only to find out years later we have been mislead.there are many who are still part of the borg but are afraid to ask questions concerning there belief system because you don't want to be disfellowship.

Francois

Bernard, are you suggesting that a rational approach, presenting logic is going to change the Borg's mind (You DO mean the GB of the WTB&TS? Or do you mean individual JWs?). Religion, IMO, is an emotional phenomena and will not respond to logic. And if the Borg, by way of admitting actual truth, will thereby be separated from its power and its money, that can be forgotten as well.

And what are you planning on sending to them each and every month?

I know your heart's in the right place, and I hope it works for you, but I don't have a lot of optimism about it.

Francois

P.S. Um, I think you want to learn the difference between "their" and "there". It will make your posts easier to understand. Sorry.

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

3

Gobal Flood and Fresh Water Fish - a Problem!

by VM44 in

jw
friends

i was reading some material concerning the noachian global flood,.

and the simple point was made concerning fresh water fish, they.

would have quickly died in single water mass covering the entire.

Francois

Yeah, in fact I addressed it. The global flood never happened. Remember Occam?

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

12

Another island thread

by Bendrr in

jw
friends

bitter mango got me going with the cd's thread.

looks like it's one of those nights.. ok, you're stranded on an island.

which one member of this board would you be stranded with if given the choice?.

Francois

How 'bout a list? Only one is too hard.

1. Prisca. Great conversationalist and supremely good sense of humor.
2. JanH. I just know we could while away the hours playing chess.
3. Hippikon. That comment about the coconuts was too much to resist.
4. Aw Hell. I can't do this. I'd like to have everyone for one reason or another. Except for the foaming-at-the-mouth true believers.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

8

Dub-in-the-Pub Raided For Fraudulent Claims.

by Englishman in

jw
friends

i've just been told that my elder drinking pal, mr dub-in-the-pub, has been raided by the dss.

apparently he's been drawing invalidity benefit for the last 15 years (why?

) and hasn't informed social security that he's also in full time work.

Francois

So it's OK by the Witnesses to commit fraud upon not only the government, but also upon all those whose income is confiscated by the state to support that kind of freeloading?

Wasn't it Jesus who said, "Let him who will not work not eat"?

It would do for the Dubs and the socialists to take note of that sentiment.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

11

Hello and some comments

by Briand in

i would like to commend all of you for your courage for what you have shared here.

it is hard to open ones self up and seek healing through the pain.

it seems often, that which we hold the most dear, our faith, can do the most harm.

Francois

Hello and welcome.

I think you hit the nail of the problem right squarely on the head with your tag line "...when you stop and think about it." That's the problem, IMO. Very few stop and think about what they're really saying and doing. And I guess this group is made up of people who did stop and think about it. Too bad more don't engage in actual thinking.

Your post was very well done and insightful. Hope it's the first of many.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

4

Evolution or Creation or something else?

by bboyneko in

jw
friends

it's a nasty circle, if you beleive in god, how can you say evolution is impossible since the argument goes "humans and life and the universe are so complicated they could not possibly arrise by mere chance" yet god is by definition infinitly more complicated than mere carbon-based life forms.

and where did god come from?

he was always there, or has no beginning or end, mystical answers like that.

Francois

I like "something else" myself. Actually, I like the idea that God created everything, and evolution was his technique. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, and it's likely to be so in the end. Pleases everyone. At least I can't understand why the religious crowd would object, but I'm sure they will. You put forth a great argument, though. We should live in peaceful coexistence as you say. What other choice do we have? Kill each other because we differ? Well, we've certainly done enough of that over the millenia.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

41

How Many IN, OUT, etc.

by troubled in

jw
friends

i'm wondering how many here are "active jws," "inactive jws," "x-jws," or "never jws.".

i don't mean to be nosy.

i'm just wondering how many are in a situation like mine (still in, but struggling).

Francois

I've been out for twenty-five years. Before that, I had one foot in and one foot out for another ten years or so.

One of the things that got to me in the JWs was how a god of love could swoop down out of heaven and murder off 99.99999998% of the human race, who he was supposed to love, because they weren't a particular flavor of religion.

Now that I'm out, I'm still tormented frankly by how this same god of love can allow so much suffering on this planet. Suffering in terms of baffling diseases, the fact that evil seems always to prosper at the expense of loving and spiritual people, war, war, and more war, and finally by the injustice and unfairness of the creeping onset of old age - forcing his children to face the deterioration of the mind and body. It's just not FAIR!! Most of all, I think I'm bothered by the sheer volume and preponderance of injustice on this planet. And why does god allow such an organization as Jehovah's Witnesses even to exist??? And all the murder and hatred between religions all claiming to represent his loving nature. It ain't fair, it just ain't fair.

It's awfully hard to maintain a belief in God and faith in any afterlife when this one seems so poorly fostered and maintained.

Anyone share these views? Or am I the only curmudgeon here?

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

45

Staying awake during the Watchtower study

by drahcir yarrum in

jw
friends

here's a question i always wanted answered during the years i was a witness.

what's the best way to stay awake during the watchtower study?

oh, furthermore, what's the best way to stay awake during any witness "snooze-a-thon" brainwashing session?

Francois

Well, at assemblies you know what I did. I was cruising for the subsequent night's festivities. Same trick for Watchtower meetings. Just go to another KH in the area and hone up your pick up skills. I mean, where do all those women at the assemblies come from, after all? I mean, if there were ten young women at a given KH, then at ten percent !!

I also used to read random selections from the Aid book. I especially liked the arcane headings like "embalming" and "death". Great reading.

But what really pissed off the elders was that I would clean my fingernails with my pocket knife. Drove 'em nuts. They hated it. I just found it impossible to act like I was interested at the age of 25 in the same shit I'd heard when I was seven....and ever since I was seven. And those kingdom songs. My god. If that stuff was turned into food and you had to eat it, you'd spit it out with the first bite. I loved sneaking into the KH with a piano key and de-tuning one note really, really badly. It was hilarious. People were laughing their asses off. They could never figger out what was wrong with that damn piano....going out of tune like that.

Then there was this one elder, you know the type; loved to refer to himself as a "glorious one" and threw his weight around all the time. And, being a near-professional antidisestablishmentarian, I was constantly poking holes in his pomposity. Loved to carry one of those pocket-sized mini-cassette recorders into the hall and hold it up high when he was on the platform. Threatened him with starting his own religion based on his interpretation of scripture and "running ahead" of the organization. He hated me too. This guy had figured out a way to call any household who disagreed with him at the door a "bastard" - using scripture of course - to their face. Scary.

I digress.

Franc

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

22

Carbon-14 Dating

by Amazing in

jw
friends

hello all: in discussing evolution, creation, and bible chronology we will at some point pass through various dating methods that challenge religious beliefs, especially that of the watch tower religion.. some years ago the watch tower society published material (i forget the actual reference) that challenged carbob-14 dating as flawed and prone to error, especially when dating fossils.

the wts cited some sources that dealt with sample contamination that may cause errors in reading half-life of carbon-14.. i wish i could find the article again, because it was published when i was still working in nuclear engineering.

i recall feeling that the wts was stretching the claims to cover the understanding of bible chronology regarding the age of homo sapiens being about 4,026 years.

Francois

I think the article you're looking for about Carbon-14 dating was actually contained in the old version of "Did Man Get Here By Evolution or Creation?" or the predecessor book. This would have been the version used by the society somewhere before 1972. I remember that booklet like it was yesterday. It was a 64-page book about five by seven inches and I remember objecting to it because it set up a crippled straw man for itself and then knocked it over. This straw man was made up of out-dated science, especially as it related to Carbon-14 dating, and to old, out of date palentology. It was shameless, totally shameless.

Hope this helps.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.

65

The dim people

by Norm in

jw
friends

the dim people.

the new world society.

the chosen, brain dead, scared people.. the watchtower's obedient parrots.

Francois

Grand post that, Norm.

Good writing. Nice parallism in your sentence construction. Great use of action verbs. Perfect use of active voice. And you wove in the always tricky use of a speaker in the first person refering to themselves in the third person. You're good. Very good indeed. Do that some more.

Francois

Where it is a duty to worship the Sun you can be sure that a study of the laws of heat is a crime.