Posts by marmot

34

JW terminology

by punkofnice in

paradise earth after god kills all non jws.

marmot

Nice writeup. I used to attend a sign language group and non-witness deaf people told me that a bunch of their signs are WT-specific gibberish.

13

I'm okay with the "fruitage of the spirit."

by cappytan in

jw
friends

though i now consider myself a secular buddhist, i just realized today that i'm okay with trying to pursue the qualities mentioned by paul as the "fruitage of the spirit.".

the only one i take issue with is "faith" in the context of religion.

what are your thoughts on the matter?.

marmot

The fruitage of the spirit were a constant source of anguish for me as a witness because I tried to put them into practice yet rearely did I see others attempt to do the same.

In the end, though, they're just general platitudes that can apply to any moral code. The bible doesn't have exclusive domain over morality, as others have posted here.

35

My Story of Waking Up - in retrospect

by cappytan in

so, many of y'all know bits and pieces of my story of waking up, but i thought it might be nice to have it all in one place.. i was baptized at 11, auxiliary pioneered every summer, regular pioneer at 17, ministerial servant by 19, then went to bethel for a year.. i always had minor doubts from time to time, but nothing serious.

always dismissed doubts and decided to "just have faith.".

after leaving bethel, i was never really firing on all cylinders "spiritually speaking.

marmot

I totally know the feeling of guilt followed by a zeal to research everything, I went through a similar process with the Revelation book. My aunt and uncle are long time multi-generational witnesses that happened to have an amazing library of old literature that I had never seen in person before, and given the society's Orwellian erasing of its own history, I had never had access to through the WT library or my kingdom hall library.

What a revelation, pun not intended! After reading an original issue of The Finished Mystery I knew I was in a crackpot religion, what a bunch of malarkey! Book after book, I was exposed to the false teachings and old light that nobody talked about anymore. My studies at University sealed the deal, and I'm now a dyed in the wool atheist.

Congrats on your awakening, Cappytan.

23

Bible Chronology, Egyptology and the Great Flood

by cappytan in

fact: bible chronology says the flood occurred between 2348 and 2370 bce, depending on which scholar you listen to.

fact: the great pyramid of giza was constructed 200 years before, in c. 2560 bce..

so, if you believe in a literal interpretation of noah's flood, you believe that the egyptians built a great civilization, were destroyed by the flood in 2370 bce, and then somehow, they reappeared immediately after the flood, picked right back up where they left off without skipping a cultural beat.. oh, and isn't it ironic that legitimately studying the great pyramid of giza debunks jw mythology now?

marmot

Half banana, no I did not know that, very interesting.

23

Bible Chronology, Egyptology and the Great Flood

by cappytan in

fact: bible chronology says the flood occurred between 2348 and 2370 bce, depending on which scholar you listen to.

fact: the great pyramid of giza was constructed 200 years before, in c. 2560 bce..

so, if you believe in a literal interpretation of noah's flood, you believe that the egyptians built a great civilization, were destroyed by the flood in 2370 bce, and then somehow, they reappeared immediately after the flood, picked right back up where they left off without skipping a cultural beat.. oh, and isn't it ironic that legitimately studying the great pyramid of giza debunks jw mythology now?

marmot

A big part of my awakening was learning in Native History classes in university of the existence of mammoth kill sites in North America with spear points still embedded in the bone. These sites are reliably dated to almost 13,000 years ago. I'm Native American and I couldn't wrap my head around the idea that the flood supposedly wiped out the mammoths (as the watchtower says) yet there were clearly people hunting them. Would Jehovah(tm) be such an unloving bastard as to wipe out an entire people who never even knew what was coming? Unless Noah magically "preached" in North America, too.

Of course, subsequent classes in geology, atmospheric science and anthropology wiped out any remaining shred of belief in a global flood.

10

With all the WT's eschatology and prophetic interpretation, why is there no mention of Islam?

by marmot in

you'd think that the third major abrahamic religion would be of interest to the witnesses and their fanciful interpretation of just about anything written in the bible, especially with the white-hot relevance islam has in current affairs and the middle east.

not only that, islam had a huge influence on european history, with conquering armies and direct control over jehovah's supposed holy city of jerusalem.. american christian fundamentalists trip over themselves trying to connect all the dots in scripture so why hasn't the watchtower society?

laziness?

marmot

Just read an article on vice.com talking about how ISIS and their Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq is here to stay.

Still not a peep from the WT on this. In the old days they'd be falling over themselves to assign prophetic significance to this. Today they're a bunch of wusses more interested in little Sophia's ice cream money and how tight your trousers are.

4

Ehud stabs the crap out of some Dude, literally.

by James Mixon in

judges 3:20-22 (new american standard bible).

"ehud came to him while he was sitting in his cool roof chamber (toilet), and.

ehud said, "i have a message from god for you...ehud.. took the sword.

marmot

I used to love trotting this scripture out when told that "Jehovah hates violence", especially when I was confronted for playing shoot 'em up video games.

76

By “evolution,” we mean “macroevolution”—apes turning into humans, for example.

by FadingTruth in

august 2015 awake .

quote in title taken from article footnote.. anyone have information on who gene hwang and yan-der hsuuw in the article are?.

why do they repeatedly state that apes turned to humans when that's not what evolutionists teach at all?.

marmot

If you accept evolution, then how can you accept the Bible's chronology that states the first man appeared on earth roughly 6,000 years ago?

It IS an either/or situation. Either the bible is true (it isn't) or evolution is.

76

By “evolution,” we mean “macroevolution”—apes turning into humans, for example.

by FadingTruth in

august 2015 awake .

quote in title taken from article footnote.. anyone have information on who gene hwang and yan-der hsuuw in the article are?.

why do they repeatedly state that apes turned to humans when that's not what evolutionists teach at all?.

marmot

SimonSays - "Whereas the assertion of Christian brothers only applies to people that have not become complacent in their beliefs which reflects worlds apart from true understanding by which I associate with."

Can someone translate this into English?

76

By “evolution,” we mean “macroevolution”—apes turning into humans, for example.

by FadingTruth in

august 2015 awake .

quote in title taken from article footnote.. anyone have information on who gene hwang and yan-der hsuuw in the article are?.

why do they repeatedly state that apes turned to humans when that's not what evolutionists teach at all?.

marmot

SimonSays, your skin is thinner than a salamander's, DataDog never called you ignorant.

...although if the shoe fits.