I'm hosting one (well, simultaneously that, a housewarming, and cat's birthday party.) We're cooking this:
TheClarinetist
JoinedPosts by TheClarinetist
-
49
Will you be attending a "Rapture" party?
by Snoozy inmany others will apparently:.
http://raptureparty.org/.
why are atheists celebrating the rapture?
-
-
-
8
Evolution Produced GOD?
by foolsparadise inif you believe in a god who made everything then that has to mean that you believe in evolution.....because god evolved from nothing.
prehaps evolution is the real creator...
-
-
TheClarinetist
You can always be a part time troll... I've been known to dabble (though not on this site). LoL.
-
8
Evolution Produced GOD?
by foolsparadise inif you believe in a god who made everything then that has to mean that you believe in evolution.....because god evolved from nothing.
prehaps evolution is the real creator...
-
-
TheClarinetist
Are you trolling? I can't tell for sure. LoL.
God, if he existed, is by most definitions eternal. To evolve from nothing would require having a beginning.
-
20
Is flirting just harmless fun ?
by caliber inon some base level, flirting is not destructive.
in fact, it may be a perfectly natural and healthy way for two people to interact.
yet, as the level of involvement in flirting increases, the emotional stakes rise for the two involved parties and the uninvolved member of the relationship.
-
-
-
-
-
TheClarinetist
It's what some science is about. Other science is about presenting your ideas as fact until you are proved wrong. Then coming up with a new theory that you can tell people they are stupid about if they don't agree. Evolution theorists do this constantly.
No... Not really. LoL.
-
9
Jehovah's Witnesses, Voluntary Response Bias, and Other Questions
by TheClarinetist in[please forgive my math in this post.
it is very inexact and used mainly as examples.].
as many of you should know, i have a rather large axe to grind with regards to jehovah's witnesses.
-
-
TheClarinetist
I am freely stating that I have a bias. Will the GB acknowledge their biases?
Of course they won't admit any bias. They're God's own chosen infallible messengers to mankind? Didn't you know? LoL.
Read Barbara Anderson's site watchtowerdocuments.com . There are court documents that go back to 1964, (I think that date is correct), that spells out the cover ups for and shuffeling of child molesters.
Thanks... Will definitely check it out.
-
9
Jehovah's Witnesses, Voluntary Response Bias, and Other Questions
by TheClarinetist in[please forgive my math in this post.
it is very inexact and used mainly as examples.].
as many of you should know, i have a rather large axe to grind with regards to jehovah's witnesses.
-
-
TheClarinetist
Please clarify what you mean by normal?
By normal I mean what the average Jehovah's Witness would find when they have a JC for fornication. The official guidelines, as was stated in the other thread, say that there should be no questions with regards to specific details. Are the reports we hear the average JW experience, or are they the outliers? If they're the outliers, are there outliers in the other direction? That sort of thing. Sorry if it was worded badly... I was half asleep.
It is not necessarily a question of if there are fewer or more. It is the coverups by an organisation who critisises others ( Catholics for example) for doing the same.
Thanks for that clarification. That makes a lot of sense to me and is far less biased than a lot of the rhetoric by [very well-meaning and knowledgeable] members of this board.
You are asking your questions to the wrong people. Why not ask the governing body? If the Watchtower wasn't so deceptive and secretive, there wouldn't be people claiming all of the terrible things that they do about being a jw.
The GB is a lot more biased than this board is. But seriously, part of the problem is I'm trying to figure out just how deceptive and secretive they are. You can't exactly go up to them and ask "hey! are you secretive and deceptive to your members?", and I have a LOT of bias against them myself. I want them to be an evil organization out to get me because it would make me feel better that way... Which means that unless I have good hard facts to go together with it, my opinion is completely worthless. I'm trying to move past the blind hatred and move towards more intellectually honest hatred.
-
9
Jehovah's Witnesses, Voluntary Response Bias, and Other Questions
by TheClarinetist in[please forgive my math in this post.
it is very inexact and used mainly as examples.].
as many of you should know, i have a rather large axe to grind with regards to jehovah's witnesses.
-
-
TheClarinetist
[Please forgive my math in this post. It is very inexact and used mainly as examples.]
As many of you should know, I have a rather large axe to grind with regards to Jehovah's Witnesses. Okay, to be fair it is smaller than many of your axes, but I say that as a background for my next couple of thoughts. I was reading the thread on why elders ask so many personal questions regarding private details of peoples sex lives, and many people came forward with terrible stories of how they were mistreated. The question I've been wondering is how "normal" are the people who come forward?
In an organization with seven million members, if 1 member in 1000 were mistreated that way, and of those 1 in 10 left the Truth™, then that would leave around 700 people with similar stories, and it wouldn't be unfair to guess that a dozen or so would end up on this site or one like it. I'm not going to lose sight of the fact that every single one of those instances was a terrible tragedy, but the question that bothers me is how do I know that the stories I hear on this site and other places reflect the true situation in the Watchtower Organization?
Another item I see often damning the Watchtower Society is the large number of known child molestation cases. The number I keep seeing thrown around is 27,000. That is obviously a terrible number. That is at least 27,000 lives ruined or forever blackened. I also hear that the average molester has 10 victims, which means this number of 27,000 molesters could be as much as 270,000 victims! At the same time, however, according to the statistics I've read (I forget what the exact proportion and source... I've been sitting on this question for a couple of weeks now), there should be around 360,000 child molestation victims in the Organization, which would suggest it is possible that the Jehovah's Witnesses actually have FEWER child molesters/victims than should normally be found in an organization of such size. (That's a REALLY depressing thought. ) [As far as the handling of situations is concerned, see above paragraph]
So I present a very simple question (though I would like to hear responses also the points I brought up): How do I figure out what is true of the JWs as a whole? Is it possible?
By the way, this is completely separate from any doctrinal issues, such as disfellowshipping, the stance on blood, and rampant homophobia that I am sure exist in the organization because of their very own literature.
-
9
I don't want to go !
by hubert ini haven't posted in a long, long time, so many of you don't know me.
one of my daughters is involved with them, and will be baptized soon.. anyway, it's my anniversary, 43 years today, (may 11), and my j.w.
daughter calls me and wishes me a "happy anniversary", then invites my wife and i out on sunday to "celebrate" it.
-
-
TheClarinetist
My heart goes out to the both of you. I for the most part agree with DoC, but you'll have to do what is best for you. The situation can't be easy... But she's still your daughter and loves you very much. The holidays don't make sense, especially to an outsider, but she still loves you even when she doesn't call on Mother's Day. It may just be you'll have to take whatever the crazy cult allows, which just happens to be Anniversaries.
-
18
why does the watchtower call them marriage mates and not spouse?
by hoser ini have never read the term spouse in a watchtower.
why do they use the expression marriage mate?.
-
-
