Perhaps you can talk about Harold Camping and how his prediction of May 21st, 2012 was originally predicted to happen visibly but was later revised so that it actually happened invisibly. Point out that an Awake article labeled him a false prophet for it.
garyneal
JoinedPosts by garyneal
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13
Help with a part in the ministry school... teaches TTATT subtly
by ILoveTTATT inmy gf has the part "why are there so many religions".... i need to place some ttatt seeds very subtly... i don't care if they go right above most jw's heads... .
any ideas?.
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When did Theology Last add something to Human Knowledge?
by cofty into illustrate my question.... i am watching an episode of the australian tv program "q & a" on youtube.
the panel includes the brilliant laurence krauss, gay bishop gene robinson, the woefully ignorant and bigoted rev fred nile and a few others.. the early questions put gene robinson under the spotlight and to be fair he comes across as a loving, compassionate, intelligent and - in his own words - "fabulous" person.
by contrast the reverend nile is a caricature of everything that is dispicable and hateful about theism.. a self-righteous young man in the audience asks gene how he deals with the bible's condemnation of homosexuality.
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garyneal
Matt Walsh would disagree with you.
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I told my wife that she was in a cult...
by garyneal in...it is not the first time i did this but from time to time when i get frustrated i tend to say things i later regret, like this.. she went to the meeting this past sunday and apparently she heard a talk about watching her associations.
she told me that she was glad to have that talk because the message was timely for her.
you see, the saturday night prior she and my kids were at her sisters house and her sister and friends suggested that she hang out with them sometime.
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garyneal
...it is not the first time I did this but from time to time when I get frustrated I tend to say things I later regret, like this.
She went to the meeting this past Sunday and apparently she heard a talk about watching her associations. She told me that she was glad to have that talk because the message was timely for her. You see, the Saturday night prior she and my kids were at her sisters house and her sister and friends suggested that she hang out with them sometime. Now my sister in law mostly hangs out at other people's house drinking and partying and my wife said she did not want to be a part of that. Okay, I thought, whatever she wants to do as long as it is not too over the top or causes her to forget she's married, etc..
The next point she made was concerning me and my posting here. Evidently, I am an apostate which I have to remind her that an apostate is a person who has left his or her religion. Since I was never a Jehovah's Witness nor have I formally renounced my faith in Christianity, I am not an apostate by the biblical or even dictionary definition of the word. I am an apostate by association with you all who are apostates of the Jehovah's Witnesses. It is so hard to get her to see the reason on this when she is stuck on the whole guilt by association fallacy and the loading of the language redefining the word apostate to apply it to me.
But I did finally come up with an example that I thought would help her understand. If I am an apostate, she is a cultist. I asked her does it matter that I can redefine the word cultist or cult and apply it to her? If correct definitions matter, right? I proceeded to tell her that she has been saying lately that she wants to be more herself and less like the person she hangs out with, less a social chameleon. As long as she participates in this religion she will told what to think, what to do, and how to act. She recently threw a party for our little 3 year old and I cannot tell the world on facebook what a wonderful job she did (and I noticed she gets questions about the event from her mom). She responded with, "So I guess my job is a cult then." "Perhaps," I said, "the difference is what would happen if you leave your job aside from the obvious loss of pay. Would your mom still accept you if you left your religion? If you can say yes, you're not in a cult."
I think it got to her for she went silent. You see, when she says she does not want to be a social chameleon, I sometimes think she refers to her putting on masks at the hall.
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The worst thing to have pride in
by Rattigan350 ini really hate it when kids on interviews on meetings or assemblies and they state with pride that they turned down the piece of cake or brownie or other birthday treat at school.
is that something to really be proud of?
it is not as if the teacher is tempting them.
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garyneal
ITS A CULT.
That's really the best explanation I can offer for such foolishness.
"I fed my child cianide poisoning and resisted the temptation not to, won't God be so proud of me?" says the Jonestown follower.
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25 million YouTube views: "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus"
by Fernando inthe popularity of the video has led to a book being written and published: "jesus > religion".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iahdgylpqy.
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garyneal
Hmmm... Christianity is not a religion?
That was the main issue I had with his video. It is good for those who want some banner to proclaim, "I'm not religious, I just love the Lord," but they would know little to nothing about Him without religion.
Alternative viewpoint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbsadOQK_6A
Can't say I am impressed with him either. Republican trying to defend his viewpoint and his way in a cheesy fake kind of white trash free styling, but to each his own.
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People, it really is this simple
by Trevor Scott inwhat will guide us in choosing the right religion?
the encyclopdia universalis is correct when it highlights the importance of truth.
a religion that teaches lies cannot be true.
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garyneal
marked
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I'am in the Penalty Box! I asked the Circuit Overseer "Who Donates Blood For Jehovah's Witnesses Blood Fragments".
by AuntConnie intold my husband to put a muzzle on my mouth over the blood dogma.
we all were driving around in field service when the topic of "which fragments would you take if you were in a car accident or cut yourself badly".
said his choice is a personal one, another sister with chronic health problems said she had no problem with the governing body's new light on taking various fragments.
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garyneal
The highlights from my study with Brother Hero:
Hero: “Well, how can I explain this, say you we’re not allowed to have milk, but you could eat the cream that is in the milk.”
“So I can have some of the blood then?”
Hero: “Well, hang on, let me see. Well, just because you take a shot that has blood in it, there is not much there. It is not like taking a lot of blood in a blood transfusion.”
I then told him that “my wife was RH- and needed a shot during her both her pregnancies. I read up on that and learned that it takes 38 to 40 pints of blood to make one dose.” I agreed that obviously that dose did not contain THAT much blood so it must have been taken apart. “However, don’t blood fractions come from blood?”
Hero: “I don’t know.”
“Well, I thought it did, where else can it come from and if it did, are we not taking in blood?”
Hero: “Well, you see, you know if you take poison it can kill you but if you take just a drop… um, wait a minute. Well, you don’t think a drop of poison is deadly, right?”
“Maybe, but if not could it not make you sick?”
Hero: “Um, well, well all I know is that the blood fractions in those needles are not enough, not whole blood.”
“Just a part of blood?”
Hero: “Well, we aren’t allowed to take whole blood, but we can take what can amount to just a drop,” he said as he was holding up his pinky to illustrate how much is enough.
“Who determines how much blood is too much blood?” I asked.
Hero: “Um, well, um… The doctors! They are the ones who give you the fractions, they’ve already measured it out.”
“I see, the doctors determine what it too much and what is okay,” I responded and he responded, “Right!” I tell you, the sheer lunacy of his comments knows no bounds. The doctor’s cannot be trusted and are lying but those same doctors can be trusted to determine how much blood is acceptable. He obviously knows NOTHING about the blood doctrine. I held back, he did well to hang in there this long so I decided not to plaster him on the walls too much. But I had to ask this, “Okay, if I were to become a Jehovah’s Witness, would I be allowed to donate blood so that its fractions could be used?”
Hero: “No.”
“Why not?”
Hero: “Because, blood has to be…” he wanted me to fill in the rest so I said.
“Um, poured out onto the ground?”
Hero: “Well, uh, yes, but it must be SACRIFICED!” Okay, I am like dumbfounded, does he realize what he is saying?
“So, any blood that comes out of my body must be sacrificed?”
Hero: “Well, not entirely, doctor’s can draw blood samples but we cannot donate blood because that blood must be…” leading off again and then he finishes it with, “SACRIFICED!”
“I see, well I guess it does not make sense to me because if I were a witness and I needed blood fractions who else can I get it from? Worldly people?”
Hero: “I don’t know,” he said.
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I'am in the Penalty Box! I asked the Circuit Overseer "Who Donates Blood For Jehovah's Witnesses Blood Fragments".
by AuntConnie intold my husband to put a muzzle on my mouth over the blood dogma.
we all were driving around in field service when the topic of "which fragments would you take if you were in a car accident or cut yourself badly".
said his choice is a personal one, another sister with chronic health problems said she had no problem with the governing body's new light on taking various fragments.
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garyneal
I had one brother try to tell me that the blood for the fractions came from animals and that fractions are not the same as blood.
Look at post 2731 from me on this page for a breakdown of his explanations.
He never could answer the question...
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My Walmart encounter with the dubs today
by poppers inyup, there were 3 of them camped out in front of the store with their display of materials - first time i've seen them there.
he said he converted 5 years ago from the presbyterians, and that he had learned more in 1 year with the jws than all his time with the presbyterians (the usual stuff, jesus died on a stake, paradise earth, etc).
he claimed he didn't know about the invisible return of jesus, he was dismissive of the impact of disfellowshipping and that people can leave with little consequence, he claimed that the romans didn't use a cross until 200 years after jesus died on the stake.
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garyneal
It is amazing the sheer level of ignorance you would find in many Jehovah's Witnesses when you press them about their teachings.
Sometime back, I had a pioneer brother, who I refer to here as "Brother Hero," approach me to offer to study the Bible with him (using their publications of course). I was amazed at the sheer level of ignorance this man had concerning their doctrines. Here was a man who had been 'in the truth' for forty years. My wife always feigned, "I am just studying the milk of the truth," whenever I questioned her concerning their doctrines and she could not explain them. I guess this gentleman you spoke with was still nursing on the 'milk' and was not ready for the 'meat.'
Same language used by the IFB's back when I use to be one.
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garyneal
I mean, there were no printing presses! Scrolls were as valuable and as rare as a genuine Rolex! Not to mention that most people were illiterate!
Precisely, jgnat, can you imagine given how laborious it would've been to write all those scrolls depicted in the photograph that Neomadman posted? Again, no printing presses.