hi folks.
that's right, the new june 15th 2013 study edition is out now on this link.... http://download.jw.org/files/media_magazines/28/w_e_20130615.pdf.
the following quote caught my eye, from the final study article on page 28.... .
AnnoMaly--excellent catch. Really, laying the "official" public stance re disfellowshipping as set out on their website side-by-side with this current manipulative claptrap is ample evidence of the fundamental dishonesty characterizing this relgion.
Blech.
remember, you read it here first!.
dear brothers: .
we are pleased to announce that arrangements are being made for all baptized and unbaptized publishers who read and write english, along with their minor children, to be invited to locations where they can hear the 2013 annual meeting program that will be presented on saturday, .
Interesting announcement. I think this could backfire. There's a big difference between listening to live speaker (even a mediocre one) and listening to a video of one. I teach at a state university and right now, there's a big push for more of us to teach on-line. In the workshops I've attended, we're learning how to make videos of our lectures; however, individual vids should be no more than 15 minutes, max! That's because (we're told) that people find it hard to concentrate on a speaker for any longer, regardless of how fascinating she might be. A 45-60 min. lecture that's successful face-to-face doesn't migrate so well into vid form.
And it looks like this Ann Meet program is 2 1/2 hours??? Yikes!
my friends usually walked me home after dark.
but one evening i was so tired that i decided to call a taxi.
the driver didnt take me home.
Here's one (more) thing that really annoys me about JW doctrine: They are quick to point out that we are not under Mosaic Law, so literal Sabbath-keeping is no longer needed, along with all of the animal sacrifice, etc. And yet, anytime they need a law or even a "principal," where do they turn? The Mosaic Law!
This was recently seen in the WT article that discussed aspect of IVF and frozen embryos. To be artifically inseminated with sperm from a man who is not the husband is to render the woman guilty of fornication, according to Mosaic law ("You should not give your seed to another woman," or something like that--from Exodus or Leviticus or Deut.)
So the Mosaic Law is defunct except when the WT wants to use it to maintain control over the reproductive powers of its adherents. The mandate for women to scream when threatened with rape is just one more example...
i got an unexpectedvisit from an elder an a new guy i never met before.
he said jehovah hasnt forgotten me.
they said all jws are filling out an emergency contact information form.
I think it's funny that the WT links them to reptiles, relying on the literality of the term dinosaur, which I think means "great/terrible lizard." Yet increasing evidence points to dinosaurs' closest living relatives as birds, at least for one main branch of the dinosaurs. Researchers in China keep finding rather amazingly well-preserved fossils of lovely feathered dinosaurs. So much for lumping them into one "kind" --as if snagging a pair of geckos for the ark would do the trick. A hen and rooster would be closer!
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/15/how-californias-new-online-education-pilot-will-end-college-as-we-know-it/.
-while faculty worry about the quality of online courses, the truth is that our education system, primarily designed to test rote memorization, is built to scale and be independent of teacher interaction.
a review of research by the department of education in 2009 found that "students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.".
As someone who's both taken online college classes and who currently teaches at a large four-year university, I think it's a stretch to claim that computers will completely replace traditional face-to-face classroom instruction. Online courses run a very wide gamut from little more than a glorified correspondence course to truly top-notch classes with educational quality to rival the best bricks and mortar.
However, online classes have a much higher attrition rate than traditional classes. It takes a heightened level of motivation to keep going, simply because you don't have the physical presence of classmates and a professor who will hold you to account as she gazes in your eyes. When I did (an admittedly unscientific) survey of my students, I found that a high percentage of them had taken online classes but preferred face to face because it was easier. They told me that when you're on your own, you have to figure everything out yourself. Sure, you can email your teacher a question, but you've got to wait to get a response and then maybe it's not clear and you have to ask again, etc. Conversely, most questions can be explained/handled in person in a fraction of the time.
As well, in my classes, I spend a lot of time working with students step by step as they brainstorm, draft, revise and so on. We do mini-lessons on the fly as they need them--I respond in real "real time" based on what they're currently doing and need. That said, I think MOOCs and similar venues definitely have their place, especially for higher level college courses and non-traditional students who are typically more focused and motivated. There's no question the education landscape is changing.
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/16/religion_may_not_survive_the_internet/.
congrats to our very on jwfacts for getting a shout out from salon.
the part where the mention jehovah's witnesses links to jwfacts.com.. .
Thank you for posting this. It was one of the best written, well-thought-out reads I've had in a while. All I can say is--TRUE!!!
i am posting to ask this group of wonderful people to help my friend who is with me now.
we are discussing her serious doubts and the barriers she is facing as the wife of an elder with small children.
she is desperately looking for help to pull away without causing dissention in her otherwise very good marriage.
Hi: I was in the exact situation when I began to wake up. I had a wonderful elder husband, many years in ft service and a small child. I would be happy to help her in any way, since I totally understand what she is - and will be --going through.
She needs to know that there is no easy road in her situation, especially if all of their mutual fams are JW and if she wants to be keep her marriage together. That said, difficult doesn't mean impossible. Cagefighter said there's no easy way to leave a cult and that's quite true. However, I would add that there's no wrong way to leave, either. Leaving is leaving, no matter how slowly one needs to structure her fade.
there's a study article "make sure of the more important things", and in no uncertain terms the article makes clear that "jehovah's organization" is the most important thing.
the term "organization" or "jehovah's organization" is used a whopping 24 times in the article, including a subheading titled: "follow the example of jehovah's organization".
i thought organizations were entities, but that sort of subheading makes it seem like the organization is one giant person whose example we can follow.
Many years ago, I worked as a corporate paralegal. My job was to create corporations for clients and maintain them through their life cycle. Yes, life cycle. As I filed Articles of Incorporation, maintained annual minutes, revised Bylaws and mission statements and, sometimes, file Articles of Dissolution (corporate death), I often felt like I was caring for actual persons who had a name, assets, family members and a mission in life. And, legally, I was.
Corporations become imbued with a life that extends beyond their immediate utilitarian purpose and take on an essence or meaning of their own. I think Kant differentiated between animals and humans by noting that humans are aware that their lives are an end in themselves and not merely a means to an end. That's exactly what eventually happens with the "personhood" of a corporate entity. It becomes larger than a mere means to an end and becomes an end in itself--it takes on a weird and creepy kind of personhood. The humans begin to serve the interests of the corporation instead of the other way around. This is exactly what has happened with the WTBS.
i went to see it today - by myself (mr bee is on a golf junket).
i was glad that that i was by myself because i cried so much at the end, i wouldn't have wanted to be with anyone who wasn't crying - and that would not have been mr bee!.
les miserables the current film is adapted from what is considered one of the half-dozen greatest novels of the past 150 years and one of the longest novels ever written.
I went with my teenager and we loved it. Mind you, I think the live production was better and they could've cut at least half-hour from the film w/o hurting it. I thought Russell Crowe's singing was excellent and though Hugh Jackman did a good job of Jean Valjean, he couldn't sing to save his soul. The orgiastic melange of sentimental Catholicism and libertine ideology with which the movie ended was a bit much, but I still enjoyed it.
safest time to be alive?
matthew chance takes a look at whether or not we live in a safer world today than any other time in history.. http://www.rr.com/video/2322994712.
of course this contradicts jw perennial gloom-and-doom prognostications and wt end times eschatology, but if you even could get one of them to sit down and consider the real facts, they'd probably just say, "see, we're getting closer to the cry of 'peace and security!'".
I've read Pinker's book and found it fascinating. Your chances of dying a violent death were many times higher in the past than they are today and Pinker does an admirable job of analyzing the convergence of a range of contributing factors, including the influence of the Englightenment and diminishment of religious thinking.
One question to get someone thinking is--if you could be transported to some other time period to spend the rest of your life, what would you choose? Oh, and by the way, there's a caveat: You'll also be transformed into a woman, a person with a physical disability, someone of a minority ethnicity or someone who's gay. NOW--when would you like to live??? It's easy to forget that for someone in one of those categories, the vast majority of time periods have been horrible. For example, to get a glimpse of what life was like for women, you only have to check mortality rates in medically unserved countries like Afghanistan and Yemen (and probably others) and find that as many as 20% of women die from childbirth-related causes and as many as 50% of children under the age of five die. Up until relatively recently, that was the norm everywhere.
