Billy the Ex-Bethelite

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Posts by Billy the Ex-Bethelite

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  48

  THE CURRENT FADING OF BRAND NAME "THE WATCHTOWER"

  by steve2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the current fading of brand name "the watchtower" & the rise, rise, rise of jw.org.

  the watchtower as brand name is in the process of being imperceptibly faded from visibility in the organization.

  who'd have thought you could make a watchtower fade and disappear?

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  JW.ORG

  I think it's an acronym for JerkWad Organization.
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  54

  Tower of Babel built by Babies!

  by Billy the Ex-Bethelite in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the weekly tms bible reading assignment is not read, or not carefully read, by most of the sheeples.

  it doesn't really matter, because the consideration of the bible reading material is one of the shortest parts on the meeting with a limited number of comments, and those comments are restricted to less than 30 seconds or you will get counselled.

  over and over, the dubs are told to read the bible, yet the organization gives no real encouragement to read the bible by keeping everyone busy in the recruiting work and using relatively few scriptures in their "talks".. why?

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Genuine bible-thumpers will ignore any and all evidence to the contrary.

  And discrediting the Noachian flood is more straightforward than this thread about the Tower of Babel. But in either case, the bible doesn't talk about the magic where the magic would need to be. Genesis talks more about the details of the size of the ark, the fact that god closed the door, the boring details of sending out the birds, and then finishing off with the account with promptly slaughtering some of the surviving animals and burning them to make god happy. Hmmm, that's a lot of fuss about rather odd details when the story could be talking about the amazing journey of the kangaroos to and from the ark, or where the fresh water came from, or how they fit all the required food and got rid of the poop... or was there a miraculous pooping of manna by all the ark-dwellers.

  If there was magic population growth, why didn't the bible enumerate that anybody had a lot of kids. It doesn't. Rather, the bible talks about the magic ages, that these people lived to 600 years, 430 years, 209 years. Later in Chap 11, it uses the "meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters". If the numbers of kids was a miracle, why didn't it boast about that instead of their ages? ... Well, that's kinda how legends turn out.

  As far as population growth, the numbers can be crunched to come up with rapid increases. But really look at the account, in context, in Gen. 11:1-9. The chapter before, names all the sons in the geneology, only about a page worth, and concludes with stating to the effect, "these were the ones that spread about to make the nations" (omitting nations like China that have a recorded history predating the flood). The account of the tower reads like a complete insertion between two sections of geneology. Besides giving no numbers, it names no human names, just naming the city Babel... however, the previous chapter already said that Nimrod established 3 other cities as well. That would mean the tower account would have been earlier in the life of Nimrod... which would be a very small population. The tower account suggests a very early timing, setting it when all mankind was one nomadic group wandering west, then settling at the Shinar valley. They start building a tower. Jehovah freaks out and sends them travelling in all directions when there's only about 100 families. Don't forget, God loves incest. So split up this population so brothers and sisters have to marry each other again.

  For Genesis to supposedly be the inspired word of god, people have to fabricate a lot more stories outside the text to try to fill the huge gaps left by these disjointed legends.
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  43

  The INTJ Personality Type, (and those close to it)

  by done4good in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am compelled to write a bit about this at this late hour here in the us, because it is keeping me up.. the recent four year old thread on the briggs myers personality type test that was dug up, produced an interesting finding.

  many here, (at least tested informally for), the intj personality type.

  intjs also do not understand irrational behavior particularly well at all.. why does this matter?

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Interesting observations by all. When I was "in", there were plenty around me that were JWs and heard the same talks but they weren't "all in" like I was. They had no real spiritual goals and lived rather "normal" lives despite believing we were living in "the last days of the last days." It seemed irrational to me. If you're "in", you should be "all in" like I was. Being a single weird bethelite was rational based on my JW training.

  As time passed with me "all in", there was more and more evidence of TTATT that were driving me crazy deep inside. Once I finally grabbed TTATT by the balls, I was all about figuring out how to change my course. Getting out, getting a degree, and getting a lot of other nonJW stuff was rational based on getting rid of that JW training. Meanwhile, those kids I grew up with are still "in", living "normal" lives with mortgages, second marriages, some kids 'in', some 'out'. Still no spiritual goals, just coasting along with a JW.org pin on the surface... like they were 40 years ago.

  Coming here and typing like a nutjob could be based on my INTJness, or maybe it's just because I'm a smarta$s.
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  11

  Pleading with my Captors

  by not bitter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have always had bonkers dreams and i remember a lot of them, even some from my childhood.

  i have the common dreams of flying and being chased all the time.

  and i used to dream about demons but not for a very long time.. but heres the thing, i often dream that i've been captured and about to be tortured or murdered and the rest of my dream is about me negotiating my freedom and promising all sorts of things if they will only let me go free.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  I have a recurring dream where I'm a muffler.

  I always wake up exhausted.

  Sorry. Didn't really happen.

  I've had many dreams, even very recently, where I'm back in bethel or a very bethel-like setting. Some are rather scary, like, "wait, what happened to my freedom, and the work toward a degree?" Other times it was more like, "snap, now I have a degree and can get whatever I want out of this strange company!"

  Another time, I dreamed that I ate a giant marshmallow.

  I woke up and couldn't find my pillow ANYWHERE!

  Sorry. Didn't really happen.
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  8

  Catching up after putting life on hold while a JW.....

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it's only been a couple of years since i fully woke up to ttatt.

  although it's....almost never too late to turn your life around, definitely the older you are, the harder it will be.

  i had put marriage, school, traveling, and 'worldly goals' aside because the end was 'just around the corner' and those things shouldn't be pursued.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  I wish I would have gotten out sooner. But, better late than never!
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  20

  Why Do Certain "Inactive Ones" Get Bothered By The Elders While Others Don't?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it seems some inactive ones and active jws are hardly ever bothered by the elders while others are constantly called, checked up on, etc...... what gives?.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  I moved away, so it was "out of sight, out of mind."

  But since my cards are still there, I'm sure those idiots will harass my elderly dad when the subject comes up.
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  91

  one reason for the dumbing down of the org

  by Magnum in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a lot of us have said that theres been a dumbing down in jw land.

  its just not like it used to be especially a few decades ago.

  it seems to me that if jw are right and the end of the world is near, the spiritual food should get tastier and more nourishing as time goes on, but it's getting more and more bland and less nourishing.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  LHG: "...they ended up attracting seriously dysfunctional people."

  They also made a lot of us JW kids seriously dysfunctional--Weird Single Bethelites like me. Which caused a lot of dysfunctional families. I heard of many congregations where the brothers had to cobble together some pioneer couple with a single sister's kids in order to make a fake family for a Serve-us Meeting part. Either there were no exemplary families, or just one family that happened to be on vacation that week.

  Perhaps that's why they're putting so much pressure on the family worship night crap. Sure, preaching is still important, but having a few more "normal" families is better. And perhaps that's part of the thing with litteratrash carts. They may be hoping to get some sociable people that can read, rather than going out and rounding up the anti-social hoarders like they've already got.
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  27

  Tech49: Mini RC 2014 Review

  by Tech49 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i attended the regional convention (district convention) over the last weekend, and thought i would spend a few minutes putting down some thoughts, for your amusement.

  i will bounce around a bit, as my notes and thoughts were a little craaaaazy.. we met at one of the smaller venues on the west coast, with attendance around 7,000.

  (28 baptized.... <.04%) we were tied in to the international convention in arlington, tx.. my first thought, only about 2 hours in, was how much this sounded like a plain old sales meeting!

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  "There was the part about not associating with DF relatives. His wording was that we could associate with them and show them respect, as long as we were discreet. (open-ended and non-commital language).... And why must we harp on PORNOGRAPHY and HOMOSEXUALS in every part?"

  You need to understand how all these truthz tie together. What they meant was you could look at porn and engage in homosexuality as long as you're discreet about it.
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  10

  God come to you in a dream "go out and marry a prostitute".

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  and by the way, she will be unfaithful.

  believe it was god or satan???.

  the book of hosea.

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  Well, Ezekial was commanded to lie on his left side for 390 days. Then lie on his right side for 40 days. During this time he was told that all his meals would be the strange "Ezekial bread" "using dried human excrement as fuel". After complaining about this terrible assignment, Jehovah allowed him to use cow crap instead for preparing his bread.

  Prophet of Jehovah is just not a good career choice.
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  27

  Tech49: Mini RC 2014 Review

  by Tech49 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i attended the regional convention (district convention) over the last weekend, and thought i would spend a few minutes putting down some thoughts, for your amusement.

  i will bounce around a bit, as my notes and thoughts were a little craaaaazy.. we met at one of the smaller venues on the west coast, with attendance around 7,000.

  (28 baptized.... <.04%) we were tied in to the international convention in arlington, tx.. my first thought, only about 2 hours in, was how much this sounded like a plain old sales meeting!

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  Billy the Ex-Bethelite

  "One of his parts he mentioned that we are SUPPOSED to go over the Daily Text every day with our family."

  Losch didn't really mean that. What he meant was that families in the future are supposed to go over the Daily Text every day.