Posts by marmot

55

View of the military

by ninja in

jw
friends

military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy

marmot

Whoops, thanks MT, I had a brain fart.

55

View of the military

by ninja in

jw
friends

military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy

Ush, your description is precisely what I meant.

You've got to rationalize away the very act of taking another human's life unless you've got a pschopathic mind. That's not an insult BTW, it's a personality trait where emotional response and the way emotions are processed in the brain is different. They say that most successful CEOs are psychopaths because emotion doesn't hinder them. We deal with psychopaths every day without knowing it. The word carries a negative connotation now because of pop culture.

In an average person, though, the act of taking a life has to be compartmentalized to avoid mental distress. Sometimes this can't be done and you get PTSD.

I've spoken with enough friends and family who were in the military to recognize it.

34

Jehovah invented the sword, according to Genesis.

by marmot in

so much for a loving god if you're a bible apologist and take genesis literally.

"after he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the garden of eden cherubim and a *flaming sword* flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

" genesis 3:24 niv .

marmot

So much for a loving God if you're a Bible apologist and take Genesis literally.

"After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a *flaming sword* flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." Genesis 3:24 NIV

Adam hadn't even invented boxer shorts yet, and there weren't any other people around to want to hack at with bladed weapons (I'm surprised Adam even knew what metal was at that time) yet here we have God placing a flaming SWORD in the path to the tree of life.

http://www.gametab.com/images/ss/ps2/2681/box-l.jpg (can somebody embed this? I'm using firefox and can't figure out how)

55

View of the military

by ninja in

jw
friends

military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy

marmot

Or they could be very smart people who crave structure in their lives and hope that the decision-makers above them make good decisions. Some also see it as a rewarding career. Unfortunately, you have to make a part of you die inside to be able to reconcile with taking another person's life, either through direct or indirect action.

I know lots of people in the military and your blanket statement is quite off the mark.

21

Ever joined a Quick build and got injured?

by kifoy in

jw
friends

from the age of ca.

7 to the age of ca.

21, i joined about 10-12 quick builds in norway.

marmot

Just sunstroke and a bad migraine from operating a jackhammer in the heat all day.

10

Sinning Against the Holy Spirit

by spiritboi in

jw is banned here.

a few years back, one guy (xjw) informed the police of their meeting place.

it was raided,the bros were fined and a few jailed.

marmot

There was a Watchtower study on this topic a month or so ago.

Supposedly, sinning against the Holy Spirit is just knowingly sinning and not repenting for it. Once you repent, it's forgiven.

I guess if you die it's unforgivable, but there's another scripture that says "the wages sin pays is death" so logically your debt would be paid and it would be up to whoever's in charge to resurrect you.

Oy, my head hurts. I'm glad I don't believe in the Bible anymore.

17

How many marriages are just "Theocratic"? Here's a story.....

by WingCommander in

jw
friends

here's my story......better have a barf bag nearby.

a while back i had stopped in to see an old elder friend of the family whom only lives a few miles away.

a stout, kind hearted gentleman with two sons.

marmot

My (former) best friend has a theocratic marriage to the extreme. His Dad is an apostate (happened long before I lost my faith) so to compensate my friend poured every single ounce of his energy into being a model Jehovah's Witness. Not a model Christian, but a perfectionist, anal-retentive compulsive-obsessive JW to the nth degree.

He married a wife who is just as bad as he is and I don't even want to imagine what their relationship is like.

I tried recently getting together with him for coffee, 'cause I found some old duplicates of pictures we took on a camping trip back in high school and he actually told me that his schedule of bible studies and talk/meeting preparation (he's in a foreign language congregation) had him completely booked FOR THE NEXT TWO AND A HALF WEEKS!

Can you believe that? Not even fifteen minutes to spare for a coffee at Tim Horton's or something. I can't imagine he has much time for his wife either, 'cause he works nights doing cleaning and he pioneers during the day.

By the way, the "courtship" he had with his wife was one of the most condensed I've ever seen. He met the girl in late July and they were married by the second week of January. Bastard didn't even invite me to the wedding. I have a feeling he was already considering me "bad association" even though I was still active at that time.

10

Spoken Like A True Jehovah's Witness?

by lovelylil in

there is another thread discussing the bible student groups and i mentioned many similarities there between jw's and bible students, since i've had contact with both groups.

now, bible students will strongly disagree that they are just like their sisters the jw's.

so without saying another word, i present this statement made by a bible student on a bible student forum.

marmot

Gopher - Maybe they're spiritually fair-skinned and don't want to get spiritually sunburned?

That could lead to spiritual skin cancer, requiring spiritual chemotherapy.

37

News Release: Special Awake! Campaign

by betterdaze in

jehovah's witnesses office of public information .

for immediate release .

november 1, 2007 .

marmot

There is one fundamental "stumbling block" that I have with the Bible that is only cursorily addressed in a single paragraph of wonderful circular reasoning. I've got the hard copy sitting next to me, this is what it says:

AWAKE! November 2007
Page 22

"Myth of Fact?

MYTH: Much of the book of Genesis, including the account about Adam and Eve, is allegory.
FACT: Jesus' genealogy right back to Adam was recorded by the Gospel writer Luke. (Luke 3:23-28) If Genesis were myth, then where in the genealogy would the real names end and the so-called legendary ones begin? Jesus, who existed in heaven before coming to earth, believed what was written in Genesis, including the account of Adam and Eve. (Matthew 19:4-6) Thus, to question Genesis is to undermine the credibility of Jesus himself, as well as that of many Bible writers. -- 1Chronicles 1:1; 1Corinthians 15:22; Jude 14."

Translation: If Genesis were myth it would cast doubt on the trustworthiness of the scriptures and the story of Jesus. The scriptures are trustworthy because Jesus believed Genesis is not a myth.

Couldn't you just scream?

Genesis says that a single man was created in 4026 BC, shortly afterwards he had one of his ribs removed and grown into a woman who listened to a talking snake and ate a piece of fruit that angered god so much he kicked them out of paradise and put a giant spinning flaming sword (he had to explain to Adam what a sword was, since they hadn't been invented yet) in front of the entrance to the garden. Around 2300 BC there was a massive flood that covered the entire earth and wiped out every living thing except for 8 people and two of every animal (except for when there were seven of every animal) and the receding floodwaters created all the existing geographical features of our planet, not to mention all our existing plant and animal diversity is the product of those flood survivors. Marsupials are the work of Satan to sow doubt in your heart.

If you have even a passing interest in biology, geology, archeology, history or anthropology you would have just one comment:

BULLSH*T!

52

A desperate time for JW as realisation inevitable dawns .....

by Gill in

in time, slowly and inevitably, a lot of jws will realise that they have been conned.

they may deny it at first but eventually a substantial amount will discover that they have lost their lives, their talents and their potential to of all things, a book publishing company!.

so, what will their reactions be?

marmot

Truth is, not many.

People are just comfortable with their routines and anytime there's doubt they'll just say "where else would we go?" You could make an announcement from the platform that armageddon won't be around for at least another 600 years and they'd all swallow it down without nary a peep with reasoning like "It's been almost 2000 years that "the end" has been nigh so what's a few hundred more?"

You can make them believe and do anything because they're captive.