Cadellin

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Posts by Cadellin

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  34

  Hey fellas, would you cheat on this woman? Beautiful, but deadly.

  by miseryloveselders in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it might be kind of risky........ .

  i never heard of her until today.

  leryn franco.

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  Cadellin

  ESTE, with the voice of reality!!! ROFLMTO!!!
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  35

  New watchtower

  by bohm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the new watchtower is out (woooo) http://www.jw.org/ , and there is an article about "prophecies which has come true".

  the most funny one is the one about earthquakes since, well, there just isnt an increase in earthquakes:.

  what do the facts show?

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  Cadellin

  Boy, the mermaid got ranting! Let me just add that I was in no way dissing Indians and Chinese b/c they want to live like Americans. Who can blame them? But we'll need to find a few extra planets to get the resources...
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  35

  New watchtower

  by bohm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the new watchtower is out (woooo) http://www.jw.org/ , and there is an article about "prophecies which has come true".

  the most funny one is the one about earthquakes since, well, there just isnt an increase in earthquakes:.

  what do the facts show?

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  Cadellin

  " However, it does say that "great earthquakes" would occur..."

  Notice the addition of italics for the word "great," the insinuation being that it's not the actual number of quakes that marks the sign but the magnitude of them. Notice, too, that they give not one drop of evidence that the earthquakes have, in fact, grown larger. Why? Because there is none-not one drop. Still, that doesn't stop the sly beggars from implying that they've become bigger.

  This article, which is available at www.jw.org as a .pdf, mp3, etc., is really fairly sad, supporting the truth that a weak defense is worse than none. The logic is fallacious, particularly in the section on disease, and the whole thing is a mishmash of selective facts removed from any kind of context that would lend credibility or proportion to their claims. For instance, supplying raw numbers without the backdrop of what percentage of humanity those numbers represent--particularly in comparison with other time periods-- is misleading.

  When they do supply numbers in proportion (for instance, 1 out of 7 people is malnourished), they fail to give any historical context, which is necessary to establish that things are, in fact, worsening--i.e., conditions can only be considered as "worsening" when compared to another time in history. When I was pioneering in the 1980's the percentage of people malnourished was 1 in 4. With that bit of info, the answer to "Are food shortages worsening?" becomes clear.

  Ironically, in the section on disease, they do admit that the population is much greater than at any other time, but, oddly, they use that as part of their reasoning that the aggregate effect of disease is getting worse. The objection presented is that sure, there might be more people suffering from disease than at any other time, but that's because there's more people around to get sick. The WT response is that, at the same time the population has increased, humans have made great strides in medical care--and people are still dying in great numbers. However, is any evidence provided to prove this claim? Nope. The only way that this claim would support the idea that the Last Days are here is if it could be shown that mortality rates from communicable disease have climbed over the last century and are now higher than at other times in human history. Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of history knows that is untrue.

  In fact, as I said in another thread, the fact that human population has exploded over the last century is evidence that famine, disease, earthquakes and warfare are NOT having the dire effects that they have historically had.

  It's funny (I mean funny in a pathetic way, not in a humorous way. Okay, kind of in a humorous way) that they include the "ruining the earth" canard as part of the evidence of the Last Days. The only scrip to mention that is in Rev. and it's clearly echoing the sentiment from Genesis pre-Noachian flood where the earth was being ruined by violence. Any implication of ecological ruination is pure eisigesis, to use a cool word I picked up from the amazing Leo. Moreover, if any JW would reflect on the nature of the environmental devestation being wrought on our planet, it's virtually all linked to increased industrialization which what has caused the great elevation in human standards of living across the planet. Its BECAUSE Indians and Chinese and other groups are now able and desiring to live like Americans that the planet is being degraded, NOT because everyone's starving and dying of malaria. Widespread disease and starvation suppresses innovation and technological advancements, not enhances it!!!
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  81

  Here i am....

  by makersmark in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  here i am - born in truth, hard-core spiritual everything all my life, early reg.pioneer, ms, elder, assembly parts, tour at bethel, etc, married now...... i'm trying to examine jw teachings a little closer...... i've spent the last two weeks reading many many posts, info , references on where ex-jw's are coming from.

  i'm kind of concerned about a few things lately..... honestly - some points make sense to me - some don't - here are my general thoughts:.

  -wt getting un membership for access to library - doesnt bother me - some passports and other governement documents have similar forms and requirements..... -blood issue - some counterpoints to the jw 'rules' makes sense (original intent of scripture is unbled animals, white blood cells similar in mothers milk) etc -however a lot of 'apostate' reasonings and proof are inaccurate.

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  Cadellin

  Makers Mark, welcome. Yes, it's tough. For me, it was the intellectual dishonesty. You might find it enlightening to research how the WT uses secular quotes to lend a veil of authority to their teachings, when in fact the original context nullified their use. Crisis of Conscience is a must-read.

  You might also want to investigate the history of the Bible from an authoritative, non JW source. So many of their teachings regarding the Bible's canon and authorship of individual books is based on...Jewish tradition! The SI book acknowledges this for many books of the Hebrew scrips. And yet a close examination of recent, scholarly historical analysis shows that there is literally no way that, for example, Moses could have penned the Pentateuch and other similar things. For this, Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Friedman is excellent.

  And keep reading posts, and let us know how it goes.
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  16

  Help w/ Bible Teach ch 9 section "Major Developments of the Last Days"

  by InterestedOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm in ch 9 in my study, and we will go over the section "major developments of the last days" (pars 6-9) next week.

  although i don't see anything special in pars 7-9, i think par 6 allows the jw's to strike a chord with people, and i was wondering if anyone could help me with how to respond to it.

  they are able to quote real figures in that paragraph such as "three times as many people fell victim to war in [the 20th] century as in all the wars from the first century ad to 1899.".

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  Cadellin

  The main point to keep in mind is that there were many, many times MORE people alive during the 20th century than during any other time in history. Therefore, there were more people around to be killed during war. If the comparison is simply raw numbers, without putting those numbers in context, then, yeah, it will seem like the Society has a point. Ditto for famines, disease, etc. What you need to do is look at what percentage of the total global population those numbers represent. When you make that the basis for comparison, suddenly the 20th century numbers aren't so impressive.

  And the explosion in population is really staggering--For most of human history, deaths roughly equalled births, which meant the population stayed static. It wasn't until the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th to 19th century that the population started to really grow. By the early 20th century (pre-1914), it was soaring and continued to soar all through the 20th century until the late 1960's.

  But this leads to another point you might want to raise with your conductor. It is a well-established demographic fact that when populations (whether fish, birds, or people) are under stress (ie famine, disease, upheaval, violence, etc.), they do not grow, or grow extremely slowly. In fact, the combination of factors (ie famine PLUS disease, or disease PLUS war, etc.) has a depressive effect on populations--they shrink. That's one reason why so many animal species are endangered right now. Yet when you look at the 20th century, you find that human population exploded--exactly the OPPOSITE of what you might expect if we really had been living in the worst of times. Why is that? Because even with 2 world wars and all the social and political unrest, things were getting better. Medical advances meant people WERENT DYING of disease. Agricultural and technological advances meant people WERENT DYING of famine (okay, obviously many did--I mean its relative when looked at globally. For instance, when famine strikes today, often the UN or other nations step in with food supplies, which simply didn't happen 200 or 300 years ago).

  The point is (and this is what got me thinking seriously on my way to the fade), what should population demographics look like if things really were as terrible as the Society makes them out to be, especially given that these "terrible times" have been going on for a century now? For one, populations should be nose-diving. And they're not.

  This is too long a post, but as final thought, you may find it intersting to check out the UN's Millennium Goals Update . While the picture is not all rosy by any means, it's amazing what has been accomplished. You won't find info like that in the Bible Teach book.
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  30

  Facial Hair – a Perfect Fading Strategy

  by zarco in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  startfragment.

  so a brother wants to fade, but would rather not explain his reasons.

  lets say he grows a nice beard or goatee.

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  Cadellin

  I gave this a try but my husband wasn't crazy about it...
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  19

  Women can't face the audience from platform? Is this in writing?

  by InterestedOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just read the thread about women & men waking up etc.

  and saw a post saying women can't face the audience from the platform.

  i thought, hmm yeah, now that i think about it, they're always looking sideways, like toward the other woman in the role-playing, or if they're being interviewed, they look toward the guy at the podium.

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  Cadellin

  So much for not making rules like the Talmud. If there was ever any doubt that the head covering rule was designed to make sure everyone knew where women's place was, it's this stupid and insulting QFR...
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  80

  What is it with all the men waking up but the wives stay in? Why is it the opposite for me?

  by Cadellin in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this is something i've thought about for a while now.

  it seems like the same story on this board over and over--the husband, who also might be an elder, ms, etc.--starts having doubts and researching, aka miseryloveselders and franklin massey and others.

  he starts to smell the coffee and realizes that this organization isn't what it claims to be.

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  Cadellin

  Wow--what a great response and what good observations. This has really been helpful to me. I don't buy into the "men think/women feel" thing because I don't think thoughts and emotions operate on such a strict binary and I think men and women are more alike than that old stereotype implies. Still, as much as I hate generalizing, I have to say that the social aspect must be a factor. Not for me, but I can see how it is for other women.

  And, it seems to be true that the revelation of the behind-the-scenes operations of elder bodies and other organizational instruments must work as an eye-opener for men, something women never get to see. I think because women are barred from so much of the organizational workings, they have more trouble moving past the "warm, fuzzy" facade.

  Still, there's more women here that took the first move than I originally thought. Hey--now THAT'S good news!
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  80

  What is it with all the men waking up but the wives stay in? Why is it the opposite for me?

  by Cadellin in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this is something i've thought about for a while now.

  it seems like the same story on this board over and over--the husband, who also might be an elder, ms, etc.--starts having doubts and researching, aka miseryloveselders and franklin massey and others.

  he starts to smell the coffee and realizes that this organization isn't what it claims to be.

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  Cadellin

  This is something I've thought about for a while now. It seems like the same story on this board over and over--the husband, who also might be an elder, ms, etc.--starts having doubts and researching, aka miseryloveselders and Franklin Massey and others. He starts to smell the coffee and realizes that this organization isn't what it claims to be. And the wife stays resolutely unwilling to consider his "new light"! Why isn't it the other way around, or at least as often the wife waking up as the husband?

  Maybe I've just not paid attention to the wives on board here who have husbands who stay JW. I know there's at least a few, like me--but doesn't it seem like the men leave or wake up and the wife resists? Or is it just me?? Any thoughts?
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  67

  last day at the kingdom hall

  by ex-Special Pioneer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  prologue.

  get out shouted the audience you must be ashamed of yourself.

  the crowd was in a hysterical state, every time that we tried to say something we were silenced by the clapping and screams which got louder and louder of the majority of the two hundred people in attendance.

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  Cadellin

  Stonewall, both of those YB examples are of one particular man/brother taking matters into his own hands. It's not exactly the same as almost an entire congregation, as ESP asserts.

  Of course, I can't comment on the two incidents that happened to you personally. And, admittedly, odd things do happen from time to time...Still, as I said before, ESP's story seems hard to believe. Not impossible.