Nothing comes to mind, but it was as if someone had switched on really bright lights once I was granted the free gift of faith and began to reject religion as antithetical to faith and spirituality.
Fernando
JoinedPosts by Fernando
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22
What was your mild superpower?
by sparrowdown ini am in awe of the level of intelligence, wit and funnybones that alot of you posess.. which made me wonder, did you have a mild superpower while you were in?
for instance was it giving talks, commenting, research?
maybe it was pissing people off (a much underated skill).
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Are you as critical of higher education and science as you are of religion?
by EndofMysteries ini am beginning to see a complete unbalanced shift from one end of the spectrum to the other.
i'll use jw's as the example but this would apply to any religion and any person.
if you just accepted the jw teachings unquestionably from the governing body because you felt they were the highest authority on the matter and 'trusted' them before waking up to ttatt you may shift to the other end of the spectrum.
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Fernando
On page 255 of Carl Sagan's book, The Demon-Haunted World, he discusses "the advance of science" and how "a few saintly personalities stand out amidst a roiling sea of jealousies, ambition, backbiting, suppression of dissent, and absurd conceits"
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66
hello
by fakefading inhello my fellow "apostates".
just wanted to say hi.
i'm still in the borg but mentally out.
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Fernando
Welcome fakefading!
As often observed on JWN you could one day be very pleasantly surprised by the outcome patient and simple questions and basic shared exploratory research can have.
As long as you never dump on your wife you should be fine.
There is no point in beating a blind person with a stick because they cannot (yet) see what you can...
In the mean time may you have blast and make many good friends here on JWN.
Fernando
SE QLD, Australia
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20
Are you as critical of higher education and science as you are of religion?
by EndofMysteries ini am beginning to see a complete unbalanced shift from one end of the spectrum to the other.
i'll use jw's as the example but this would apply to any religion and any person.
if you just accepted the jw teachings unquestionably from the governing body because you felt they were the highest authority on the matter and 'trusted' them before waking up to ttatt you may shift to the other end of the spectrum.
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Fernando
Personally I don't believe education and science belong in the same category as religion.
I find them opposite.
Except if one is talking about propaganda masquerading as education, and vested self-interest masquerading as science.
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13
Milking the convention cash cow for all it's worth - some questions
by Fernando inif memory serves there have been discussions about:.
pressure to donate to cover convention expenses far beyond actual expenses.
obtaining venue subsidies and or sponsorships but not passing on the savings to the flock.
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Fernando
If memory serves there have been discussions about:
pressure to donate to cover convention expenses far beyond actual expenses
obtaining venue subsidies and or sponsorships but not passing on the savings to the flock
parking fees to generate more revenue
- EFTPOS and credit card facilities
Tonight I suddenly wondered if anyone has any information on what undisclosed kick-backs the Watchtower might be collecting from hotels on the approved list? If so what percentage? Would they be as bold as 50%?
Is there any proof of coercion to stick to the approved list?
Did arranging accommodation in private homes stop in favour of hotels that could and would pay "commissions"?
Surely our favourite council of octo-popes wouldn't go to all the trouble of drawing up a list of approved or recommended hotels if there wasn't anything in it for them?
(Apologies if this has been asked and answered elsewhere.)
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41
Hell or no hell
by never a jw inabout a year ago i had an exchange of emails with an elder of a congregation where all my jw relatives attend.
i asked him all kinds of questions regarding blood, 607, shunning, evolution, higher education.
as anticipated, he either had no answer or provided an evasive one.
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Fernando
I have come to conclude that the Watchtower may possibly be largely right in the way they interpret Hades versus Gehenna.
However in staking out a definitive and supremacist sectarian position on peripheral doctrine they are simply promoting apostate Nicaean ethnocentrism.
It is no accident that those who call themselves "publishers of the Good News" are ignorant of the "Good News" according to Paul, Moses, Isaiah and Psalms.
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9
12 potentially habitable planets found
by prologos innasa.apod.gov.
(astronomy picture of the day) shows the sizes of 12 exo planets (compared to earth), that have been found to be in the habitable, liquid water 'goldilocks ' zone of their sun-like stars.. may be it is more than a 'world-wide brotherhood' and sad that we have to be the lucky ones with satan confined here.
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15
District Assemblies, Were they a Financial Burden to you? They Cost $1200 to $2000 in some lands!
by RottenRiley inwhy does the watchtower place a harsh burden on it's low-paid and low-skilled army of witnesses?
the district conventions don't really add much value, you have witnesses making minimum wage with both husband and wife working while the elite witnesses can afford to burn a ton of cash making the poor witnesses feel worse about themselves.
i remember, some of the really poor witnesses would bring their own "cooker" to the motel to make "top ramen" and mac&cheese" while the company men had the elites take them out for "surf and turf" and other great feasts, the poor witnesses get the shaft was they are told how lucky they are to financially struggle to afford to pay for their hotels.. .
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Fernando
The poor versus the company men and the elites...
Yup, saw more than enough of that...
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17
Enter the Power Couple, assume the position .
by sparrowdown ini think there has always been your average garden variety pioneer couples and mr and mrs cobe and back in the day these tended to be a little bit dorky the wife -homely, the husband -fatherly, they shopped at thrift stores and lived in someone elses garage.
but as competition for a slice of the power pie has ramped up over the years what we have now seems to be a whole new ball game.
does ultimate power lie with the men, the "family heads"?
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Fernando
Just bumping this very apt description of the power mongering clergy that the Watchtower breeds so well and so routinely.
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Why JW assemblies NEED to change
by kneehighmiah inthe assemblies would be get better results and get more people to come and be inspired if they were more encouraging.
instead the assemblies are a giant guilt trip.
don't go to college, don't get a good job, dont buy things even if you can afford them, don't play violent games, don't flirt.
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Fernando
People who fully embrace the free gift of faith cannot be controlled anymore by an illegitimate, authoritarian and apostate ruling religious clergy class.
The Watchtower's strategy to keep people from knowing about the free gift of faith, and receiving it, is relatively simple:
Redefine faith to mean religious belief.
Truncate and obfuscate the liberating, explicit, naked and unabridged gospel, until it is impotent.
