after venting's recent thread on the article on jw.org about the expirimental physicist who became a jw, i figured i'd post up my analysis/rebuttal of another similar article.
when i was going through the process of cleaning out the last bits of doubt from myself, i read a few of these and wrote down my thoughts just because it felt good to actually express it all somehow.
maybe some here (maybe even a lurker or two going through early doubts) will find some value in it.. link to origonal article: http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/g201310/davey-loos-science-researcher-explains-faith .
"Our faith is not blind faith that ignores the facts of science."
Based on the reasoning that something complex needs an intelligent designer, where did that designer come from? Nowhere? Nothing? A fish needs a designer, but god doesn't? It's the equivalent of someone reasoning that a watch requires a designer, but a watch factory with a trained and experienced staff did not require design, training, or experience. It becomes infinite regression. And they're breaking their own rule requiring intelligent design when they dismissingly say, "Oh, gawd is different because he's always existed, like time and space." Really? This super-intelligent, all-powerful creator just "always existed"? So really, complexity can indeed come from absolutely nothing based on their explanation.
By contrast, evolution becomes much less complex and evidence of evolution can be easily found. I need to look up the exact statistic... As a dude, I have 99.5% the same DNA as a male chimp. However, I have only 97.5% the same DNA as a woman. Explains why men act like apes sometimes, eh ladies?
I would hesitate to call someone a hypocrite if they're stuck in. I consider WT to be the hypocrite.
If someone knows TTATT but have to lay low in the organization, I'd call them "a victim caught in a trap that has to choose whether to stay where they are or chew their leg off in order to get free."
jul 22, 2014, 2:09pm hstlongs drugs to open new store in east honolulu near aina haina shopping center enlarge photopbn filelongs drugs, which opened this store in the davies pacific center in downtown honolulu last summer, plans to open another location in east honolulu near the aina haina shopping center.. duane shimogawareporter-pacific business newsemail | google+ | twitter | linkedinlongs drugs has purchased property for $7.6 million from the jehovahs witnesses for a new store and pharmacy in east honolulu near the aina haina shopping center, the broker who represented the seller told pbn.. rhode island-based cvs caremark corp.(nyse: cvs), which owns the longs drugs chain in hawaii, and kz devco, the california-based company that serves as the drugstore chain's exclusive developer in the state of hawaii, recently pulled building permits for the 1.4-acre property at 5156 kalanianaole highway, which was at one time was home to the popular ranch house restaurant.. a cvs/longs spokesman did not immediately return a message left by pbn.. the fee-simple property, which includes a two-story, 24,200-square-foot building, the former current home to the jehovahs witnesses, and a 2,279-square-foot building, the former home to a veterinarian clinic, had been on the market since the summer of 2012.. mark bratton, vice president of investment properties for colliers international hawaii, who represented the seller, told pbn that the jehovahs witnesses sold the property because they need a smaller location closer to where their members live.. the property was one of the few fee-simple commercially-zoned properties located within the aina haina and hawaii kai neighborhoods, which has about 150,000 square feet of office space and approximately 783,000 square feet of retail space in the trade area, colliers said.. with this limited inventory of commercial-zoned properties in the area, property sales are few and far between, according to colliers, which noted that the nearby aina haina shopping center was sold in 2007, making it the last commercial property sale within that area.. cvs opened its newest hawaii longs drugs store in may in makiki, which was its first new full-service store in urban honolulu in years.. longs drugs, which has operated in hawaii since 1954, currently has 54 locations in the state.
the aina haina neighborhood has longed for a drugstore chain to open in the area.
both walgreens and longs have stores in hawaii kai about four miles away.. duane shimogawa covers energy, real estate and economic development for pacific business news.
For people who profess to believe that everyone will be throwing their money into the streets very soon now, it sure seems to be their priority to trade tangible assets for as much of that "soon to be worthless cash" as they can!
Maybe they're pooling this mountain of cash in order to have a lavish anniversary celebration for the centenial of Jesus' invisible rule?
jw.org for the past year or so seems to have exploded onto the scene and going foward, to be the new name and face of the old tired and exposed jehovahs wittnesses, bible students, etc... and to the wbats for good reason!!!.
the .org in jw.org is just as important as the jw in this age of internet and information.
if you were to type jw.org or even jw alone into a search engine or directly into your internet browser (most people will type in jw.org into the internet browser, and be taken directly to the website) the first site to come up is of course the intended site, jw.org, and the websites following the initial jw.org site are uneventful, a law firm, media player, etc.
"So to the unsuspecting 18-35 year old (the WBATS target the young) they will totally by pass websites like this and others that expose TTATT."
It's true that they can go directly to the website using the specific address. However, even the over-35 crowd like myself don't just click straight to a company page and make a big purchase based on the company's pictures and promotion. For cell service, job hunting, even smaller purchases like a printer, I look around online for information besides what the company features--at other reviews, other customer experiences, where the best deals are, etc. I don't expect all the reviews to be 5 star, but I want to hear what others have to say so I can really compare and decide.
Any religions/churches can come up with slick websites. I think a person would have to have lived their lives under a rock to go straight to jw.org and decide to join the cult based on that website. The mormons have a slick website and a huge network of people and businesses promoting their religion. Yet I doubt that anyone is going to go straight to their website and decide to join. They'd sooner go to wikipedia and other websites to get information.
It's easy to conclude that the 'social networking' generation are shallow non-thinkers. But, in reality, more people than ever can educate and inform themselves against propaganda. A hundred years ago when WT was selling books, people couldn't sit in their living rooms and search the Internet for more info about the corporation like people today can... and in just minutes find jwfacts or this website.
here's a thought: we're told over and over how employers sing the praises of their jw employees, sometimes with a vague quote about how 'if we could only hire jws, we would as they are so honest'.
however, while some jw employers themselves may hire jw employees (usually cheap entry level positions), most don't.
in fact, many jw's in general who have businesses have a rule not to do work with jws, even those in their congregation.
I've seen some JWs do okay working for other JWs, and I've seen some JWs become awful employees.
The typical excuse for the terrible JW employees is, "they're still just imperfect humans."
That completely crushes the idea of there being any "spiritual paradise" or "da troof changes lives". Fact is, the good JWs would still be good people even if they weren't JWs, and the bad JWs are completely unaffected by "holy spirit" or magical "new personalities."
