Posts by marmot

297

BETHELITES - Whatever Became of?

by Black Man in

jw
friends

i often times wonder what happened to certain bethelites that i ran around with during my 1990s tenure there.

while there are still a few left there, the greater majority of them aren't there for various reasons (marriage, disillusionment, left the borg, etc).

a couple of cats i wonder about - there was one brother who i believe was from kansas, who got his fingers cut off in a printing press.

The Pastafarians Strike Again -- Florida ID proponents back down!

by parakeet in

the flying spaghetti monster forced the polk county school board members to run for cover when they attempted to introduce intelligent design into the science curriculum.

here's the link (sorry, i can't create a direct link.

maybe another poster can help.

marmot

Yea and he sayeth unto thee "All shall find refuge in the shadow of MY holy meatballs".

25

Favorite Storytelling Musicians - Harry Chapin, Jim Croce - Who's yours?

by AWAKE&WATCHING in

jw
friends

i love john lennon, simon and garfunkle, harry chapin, jim croce and many more.

i love songs that make you imagine real people with real lives.. taxi - harry chapin(genius).

dedicated to noni1974 our forum cabbie .

"Mind" Blowing Article on Watchtower Indoctrination! MUST READ!

by What-A-Coincidence in

the author (from australia) makes some great points.. http://www.noelbatten.com/watchtower.pdf.

46 pages long.

some excerpts:.

The article completely lost me when he started talking about left-brain/right-brain activity. Any first-year psychology student can tell you that such theories are junk science.

True there is a form of thought control and behavior modification that takes place in the Jehovah's Witnesses cult, but the author of that article is barking up the wrong tree.

41

anyone here know about bi-polar?

by orbison11 in

jw
friends

greetings all.

i just learned that one of my children has bi-polar illness,,,i am so disheartened for him,,,,do any here know about this.

wendy.

marmot

I'm bipolar II which is bipolar disorder without the extreme highs of mania, but less intense hypomania instead.

Medication made a world of difference for me, although I still have relapses. There's a lot you can do towards regulating the disease by using regular sleep patterns coupled with TOTAL darkness during the sleep period. This means no electronic lights like clock radios or even diffuse light coming through a window blind. Proper diet and avoidance of street drugs and alcohol also plays a major role. Alcohol can tip me into a low that won't let up for weeks.

Doctors think that bipolar disorder is just the brain's inability to regulate stress hormones and neurotransmitters, so a sad or happy event that will normally trigger a temporary response in a normal brain will just keep on amplifying in a bipolar brain and lead to either depression or mania.

32

Society's latest stance on Evolution in Jan 1, 2008 WT (bonus quote mining)

by marmot in

my parents gave me the latest "public edition" watchtower and it has 4-page festival of circular logic and hypocritical quote-mining entitled "is evolution compatible with the bible?

the opening salvo is golden, because they go and shoot themselves in the foot with it later on: "is it possible that god used evolution to create men from beasts?

did god direct bacteria to develop into fish and then to continue developing through reptiles and mammals, so that finally a race of apes became humans?

marmot

Freudian, as of January 1, 2008 there is a public edition of the Watchtower to used in the field ministry and a "members only" edition (often jokingly referred to on this board as the Kool Aid edition because that's how the rank and file will find out when it's time to lace up the Nikes and drink their cyanide Kool Aid)

And thanks for that link to the NOVA report, Mavie.

32

Society's latest stance on Evolution in Jan 1, 2008 WT (bonus quote mining)

by marmot in

my parents gave me the latest "public edition" watchtower and it has 4-page festival of circular logic and hypocritical quote-mining entitled "is evolution compatible with the bible?

the opening salvo is golden, because they go and shoot themselves in the foot with it later on: "is it possible that god used evolution to create men from beasts?

did god direct bacteria to develop into fish and then to continue developing through reptiles and mammals, so that finally a race of apes became humans?

marmot

My parents gave me the latest "public edition" watchtower and it has 4-page festival of circular logic and hypocritical quote-mining entitled "Is Evolution Compatible with the Bible?"

The opening salvo is golden, because they go and shoot themselves in the foot with it later on: "Is it possible that God used evolution to create men from beasts? Did God direct bacteria to develop into fish and then to continue developing through reptiles and mammals, so that finally a race of apes became humans?"

They then go on the usual logical merry-go-round saying that humans originated from one man because the bible says so, then onto ad-hominem attacks on liberal religious types who accept both the premise of evolution AND the bible (insert scripture about ears being tickled) then out comes the gist of their whole argument: mankind must have come from one man because the concept of the fall from perfection and the ransom would be invalidated if he came from apes.

They then bring out the pick-axes and start to quote mine by bringing in "Professor of biochemistry Michael Behe" to discredit all those silly evolutionists because Behe argues against biomolecular evolution as being irreducibly complex. Ignoring for a minute the fact that Behe's arguments have been rejected by the scientific community, BEHE HIMSELF AGREES WITH THE THEORY OF COMMON DESCENT!!!!!

That's right, the entire second half of the article is constructed around Behe's attacks on biomolecular evolution AS IF he were attacking the theory of common descent.

Gah, I'm just really pissed off that this sort of crap is still being published over twenty years after that farcical Creation book. Also, you'll notice that the art department dredged up the old props from the blue book in order to make the illustrations.

33

Lakota Indian tribe is now its own nation!

by skeeter1 in

lakota indians withdraw treaties signed with u.s. 150 years agothursday, december 20, 2007. .

washington the lakota indians, who gave the world legendary warriors sitting bull and crazy horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the united states.. "we are no longer citizens of the united states of america and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time indian rights activist russell means said.. a delegation of lakota leaders has delivered a message to the state department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the u.s., some of them more than 150 years old.. the group also visited the bolivian, chilean, south african and venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.. lakota country includes parts of the states of nebraska, south dakota, north dakota, montana and wyoming.. the new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free - provided residents renounce their u.s. citizenship, mr means said.. the treaties signed with the u.s. were merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the lakota freedom activists said.. withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, means said.. "this is according to the laws of the united states, specifically article six of the constitution,'' which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.. "it is also within the laws on treaties passed at the vienna convention and put into effect by the us and the rest of the international community in 1980. we are legally within our rights to be free and independent,'' said means.. the lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence an overt play on the title of the united states' declaration of independence from england.. thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row,'' means said.. one duck moved into place in september, when the united nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples despite opposition from the united states, which said it clashed with its own laws.. "we have 33 treaties with the united states that they have not lived by.

they continue to take our land, our water, our children,'' phyllis young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in geneva in 1977, told the news conference.. the u.s. "annexation'' of native american land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people,'' said means.. oppression at the hands of the u.s. government has taken its toll on the lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies - less than 44 years - in the world.. lakota teen suicides are 150 per cent above the norm for the u.s.; infant mortality is five times higher than the u.s. average; and unemployment is rife, according to the lakota freedom movement's website..

marmot

You seem to confuse evolution with betterment, this is not the case. Cultures do not "advance" and become better, they simply adapt.

I'm Mohawk, I've studied my culture and my history and some of it isn't pretty. To hear you spout ethnocentric platitudes about the motivations for war is insulting. There was brutality from every side, race has NOTHING to do with it. Elevating one culture over another is just as bad as debasing one, in that it creates harmful lines of thinking used to justify terrible actions.

War is something all humans are capable of.

33

Lakota Indian tribe is now its own nation!

by skeeter1 in

lakota indians withdraw treaties signed with u.s. 150 years agothursday, december 20, 2007. .

washington the lakota indians, who gave the world legendary warriors sitting bull and crazy horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the united states.. "we are no longer citizens of the united states of america and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time indian rights activist russell means said.. a delegation of lakota leaders has delivered a message to the state department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the u.s., some of them more than 150 years old.. the group also visited the bolivian, chilean, south african and venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.. lakota country includes parts of the states of nebraska, south dakota, north dakota, montana and wyoming.. the new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free - provided residents renounce their u.s. citizenship, mr means said.. the treaties signed with the u.s. were merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the lakota freedom activists said.. withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, means said.. "this is according to the laws of the united states, specifically article six of the constitution,'' which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.. "it is also within the laws on treaties passed at the vienna convention and put into effect by the us and the rest of the international community in 1980. we are legally within our rights to be free and independent,'' said means.. the lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence an overt play on the title of the united states' declaration of independence from england.. thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row,'' means said.. one duck moved into place in september, when the united nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples despite opposition from the united states, which said it clashed with its own laws.. "we have 33 treaties with the united states that they have not lived by.

they continue to take our land, our water, our children,'' phyllis young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in geneva in 1977, told the news conference.. the u.s. "annexation'' of native american land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people,'' said means.. oppression at the hands of the u.s. government has taken its toll on the lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies - less than 44 years - in the world.. lakota teen suicides are 150 per cent above the norm for the u.s.; infant mortality is five times higher than the u.s. average; and unemployment is rife, according to the lakota freedom movement's website..

marmot

Skeeter, be careful about seeing the "Indian Way" with rose-colored glasses. I grew up on reservation and I'm also a student of history and it's my conclusion that the Native peoples would have taken a path similar to Western culture if it had been left in isolation for longer and populations had continued to grow.

The whole "in tune with mother earth" line is a bunch of baloney. We had an impact on the environment but it was mitigated by lower population density. My own ancestors practiced slash and burn agriculture, which is perfectly fine if you're only supporting a limited population but when you have large-scale production it becomes unsustainable. The same goes for hunting and fishing. On the cultural side we also practiced war and slavery. First Nations were no different from any other culture at that particular period of development.

As for the Lakota situation, I'm curious to see how it plays out but unless they create their own self-sustaining economy I don't know how it could succeed.

18

Raised a JW from birth...

by portcontrol7 in

jw
friends

i am now 31 and after leaving the "truth" in my teenage years i was plagued with anger towards the organization as well as christianity in general.

has anyone come to read the teachings of the buddha and found them a refreshing and eye opening insight into the nature of reality?

not long ago i picked up a book entitled "awakening the buddha within", and have found spirituality in a way that i could never find in the jehovah's witnesses organization.

marmot

I think there's a lot to be said about the Buddha's teachings, they're very eloquent observations about life and human nature.

I personally don't care for the assorted mystical (read: bulls***) trappings of the numerous modern sects of Buddhism, but the core values are something that I try to adhere to.

On the flip side, I also adhere to the many practical teachings of Christ and the later writings of the apostles while dispensing with the theological crap. Christ (or his composite writers) had the right idea when they said that love, and not hide-bound obedience to ceremonies and laws, was the key to human happiness.

My own background is Mohawk and there are a lot of practical teachings to be found in the Kaianera'ko:wa (Great Law of Peace) that united the Iroquois and stopped their warring, in fact it was deemed so practical that it was cribbed for that other big law in North America: the United States Constitution.

So on a whole I believe humanity is capable of awesome humanistic achievements but their downfall comes when one group tries to tout the worthiness of one creed over another.

I'm an atheist, btw.