Posts by JWoods

23

I think a current trend is for people to make do with less central AC use than before. We have three zones in the house - one for the downstairs, one for the master bedroom, and one for all the upstairs.

I have been leaving the main downstairs at 88 during the day, the master bedroom at 78 (only at night on the timer-thermostat), and using fans. The upstairs is left off all the time.

This is in Dallas (it gets HOT here) and has literally cut my highest August electric bill from around $500 before (when the kids were living at home and we ran everything in the low 70s) down to around $200 or less.

For sure, when I was a young kid in the 1950s, we managed without any AC for years and then later with only an evaporative cooler.

25

Captives of a Concept

by dgp in

i'm reading "captives of a concept", by don cameron.

cameron holds that the one thing that keeps jehovah's witnesses prisoners in the watchtower is the idea that they are in "god's organization", and, therefore, the right thing to do, in spite of what one sees, is to stay within it.

cameron also says that those jehovah's witnesses who become convinced that the watchtower is not god's organization eventually leave.

JWoods

The GB is the WBTS version of the pope. With the new generation hooplah, they are basically setting themselves up to follow the Catholic model of passing the torch on to the next "generation" of GB.

That is true organizationally, Soldier77: actually IMHO both pope and council of cardinals. However, I think it really goes further than that - I think that the GB has become the "Christ figure" for the ordinary rank and file JW. I made some comments on dgp's other thread, but basically:

GB (annointed) are direct participants in the new covenant. Ordinary earth-bound witnesses have to come through them as intermediates to Christ. Ordinary JWs are not in the new covenant - a literally blasphemous anti-christian teaching.

The GB is grandly supported in the magazines as directly getting instruction and inspiration from Jehovah - hardly ever is it said they take direction from Christ, who is supposed to be ruling as king. Witness theology - starting in fact with the name - largely bypasses Jesus Christ. It is more a direct "Jehovah Worship" going through the GB - which has positioned themselves as the Christ figure.

1

The invisible presence of Christ is made by proxy?

by dgp in

i'm reading don cameron's "captives of a concept", and i find that jesus invisible second coming is not supposed to be a physical presence itself, but a presence through actions.

as in "by proxy".

is that the current belief, or has it changed?.

JWoods

While it may be a little embarrassing for the WT to actually state it clearly, in effect the WTBTS and the Governing Body are the presence of the Christ to the JW world since his "arrival in 1914".

It is also amusing to note that they (although strictly non-Trinitarian) refer much more commonly to the Governing Body directly getting communications from Jehovah rather than Jesus - even though Jesus is supposed to be ruling as king.

Reality is that when nothing from heaven happened or appeared on their 1914 prophetic date, they had to substitute themselves for Christ. They also maintain this by denial that the vast majority of the Great Crowd membership are even in the new covenant. These low rank members have to come to the annointed (governing body) for indirect mediation.

The "governing body" have become the effective Christ for the 6 or 7 million misled witnesses.

31

Imagine a WT Paradise Earth with over 100 Billion People- Not!

by moshe in

for years the wt has claimed that only 20 billion people have ever lived on the earth- in 1988 they claimed that there would be 1/3 hectare of every person who ever lived, which they said was enough to grow all the food that was needed.

a more realistic number by the population reference bureau is over 100 billion.

life in the wt utopia would resemble living in third world slums with just one bowl of food a day.

JWoods

I have always wondered about those low estimates about how many people ever lived on earth.

Did the link explain how they came up with the 100 billion number, Moshe? (I cannot access it here at work)

One other point - there has to be a carbon cycle balance on earth. It requires a large amount of green plants - if you just covered every square foot with an oxygen-breathing species and killed back about 75% of the trees, you would quickly run out of not only food, but also oxygen to breath.

And of course, evaporating the oceans and living in the Marianas trench is so ludicrous as to be even beyond what the Watchtower loons could dream up. Maybe BANE should ask the writing department for an apprenticeship.

21

Another JW encounter

by AuntBee in

i thought i might have been placed on the do not call list, but apparently, it was just one pesron that chose not to stop at my house her last time down our street.

i was surprised more came this close to the last visit!

(they need to work on their territories/organization, lest people really become annoyed and feel harrassed with 2 visits in a row.).

JWoods

You would have been ... stupidified.

Yes, I am sure you would have that effect on people.

15

WOW!!

by beksbks in

JWoods

Here is video - looks as if it may actually be real?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38379217#38358352

40

If The Watchtower Ruled the World...

by brotherdan in

jw
friends

during my "intervention" the other night, an interesting thing was brought up that i remember hearing all through my life.

i think even the wt has commented on it a time or two.. the girl i was talking to said, "can you just imagine what this world would be like if it was run by jehovah's witnesses?!?

" she was saying this so as to prove her point that jehovah's witnesses have love and would never go to war nor break the law.

JWoods

It'd be a bit like Nazism, right? The elders being the SS? Everyone expected to report the other for any type of violation. The difference is that even the Nazis got to vote...

Yes, except that the Nazis had some excellent scientists and engineers (at least the ones they didn't run out of the country like Einstein). The watchtower janitors would not even be able to keep the electricity on or the water running.

60

Who was Your Fav Witch?

by Darth plaugeis in

lots of witch talk don't know why hahaaha.

some were good.

some were bad.

JWoods

Kim Novak in "Bell, Book, and Candle" with Jimmie Stewart.

15

WOW!!

by beksbks in

JWoods

The morning TV news says that there may be a question this could have been faked up for the internet...

41

Sometimes Race does matter...

by mrsjones5 in

jw
friends

or to be more specific genetics matter.

i just heard a story on npr about blood marrow donations among the black community, why it's so low and why it's desperately needed.

here's a few points that i thought were interesting about this issue:.

JWoods

My understanding is that stem cell research shows promise for a cure, JWoods.

There was a young preteen boy back in the congregations when I was a JW who was very sick with this disease. It affected him in every way - physically, mentally, everything. Black family, but no one else showed any symptoms. He ended up practically institutionalized.

I hope stem cell helps with it - although, to tell the truth - I sometimes suspect that a lot of hype surrounds the future benefits of stem cell research. (I have nothing against it religiously, of course - just have been a little dissappointed at the lack of progress so far)