Posts by Palimpsest

5

He was asked if he votes or not, he said I do not talk about politics or religion.

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

do you think he is a witness?

read the whole article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110116/ap_on_re_us/us_congresswoman_shot.

Palimpsest

People seem to vote for lifestyle choices more than ideology.

It's actually way more depressing than that. If you look at the mountains of research sociologists have done on this over the years, the average American actually votes on things like:

- Personal appearance

- Height and weight

- Hairstyle -- yes, hairstyle

- Humor displayed in debates

- Accent and dialect

Basically, people vote based on whether they want to hang out and drink a beer with someone, not whether they agree with their policies. I especially liked the study in 2004 that showed that a plurality of unaffiliated, uncommitted women questioned leaned towards Bush because they found him to be more the visually-appealing candidate.

20

Discovering Mortality

by pirata in

jw
friends

most of my life i never gave thought to my mortality because i'd be petting a lion forever in the new system.

my hobby could wait because i would have time to pursue it as a perfect being in a paradise.

dying was not a huge deal because i'd wake up in a paradise earth.. then i woke up.

Palimpsest

Finding out I would die someday was one of the biggest reliefs of my life. I never wanted to live forever. Even as a child, it was my biggest fear.

Finding out I would never see loved ones again was, on the other hand, traumatizing. But now I'm okay with it, and I treasure my time with them more than a JW does as a result.

9

What does Atheists, Agonostics and 99.97% of religion have in common?

by jam in

what is the one true religion?

whichever religion is selected,.

all the other religions believe that your religion is wrong.. therfore, the the universal agreement among all religion.

Palimpsest

That's a false dichotomy. Though religions do not agree 100% with each other, that does not mean they all disagree 100% either.

Agree. Also, you have plenty of faiths -- Society of Friends (Quakers), the Bahá'í Faith, any of the Universalists, etc. -- who actually build their entire theology around the concept that all paths have merit and no one has the exact answers. Most Buddhists and many Native American belief systems are open to plural truth as well. So the idea that all religions say the others are wrong is incorrect, because some go so far as to say that they themselves might be wrong and that you need to look to others for answers as well.

32

References for "Did Jesus Really Die on a Cross?", Watchtower 2010, Mar pp.18-20

by pirata in

i thought i'd dig up some of the references made in the.

"did jesus really die on a cross?

", watchtower 2010, mar pp.18-20interestingly 2 references are honestly quoted, but the other 2 are misquoted.. what are your thoughts on the credibility of each reference source used and why?

Palimpsest

While this may have some kind of interest to a historian, I have never understood why the Watchtower makes such a big deal out of it.

What possible religious difference could it make?

I just posted something about this the other day on JWR:

It's important to them because it's an easy way to call all other Christians "pagan." It's a quick, all-encompassing way to immediately eliminate the possibility of going to any other branch of Christianity.

5

He was asked if he votes or not, he said I do not talk about politics or religion.

by Iamallcool in

jw
friends

do you think he is a witness?

read the whole article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110116/ap_on_re_us/us_congresswoman_shot.

Palimpsest

No...why would I think that? The majority of Americans are apolitical. Look at voter turnout and public knowledge polling. This whole "JWs are the only nonpolitical people" myth they propogate is garbage.

47

This is perhaps the funniest thing you will ever see on this forum

by Hobo Ken in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phvc_jv6vte.

Palimpsest

Were JWs really prosecuted by Nazi Germany or is it another make-believe creation by the Watchtower?

Yes, they really were. Any historian can tell you that. There's one bitter ex-Dub who wrote a book about how it's not really true, and I know a lot of ex-Dubs take that as gospel because they're looking for one more thing to blame on the JWs, but he's flat-out wrong.

I encourage anyone who wants to know about what happened with/to the JWs under Nazi occupation to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. They do a wonderful job of explaining the persecution of JWs and have even done special mini-exhibits focusing on them from time to time. If you identify as a JW or someone with an interest in them when you first arrive, they'll also give you a little "passport" of a JW whose story you can follow on your way through the museum. I believe they also used to give out purple triangle pins if you wanted to wear one; they did the same with the symbols for other groups.

Also, a trivia bit for anyone who has gone or is planning a trip: The huge wall-sized photograph of a man in his concentration camp uniform that you see when you step off the elevators on the 4th floor (to start the tour) is a JW. I can't remember his name, but he used to speak to JW tour groups frequently. I saw him speak when I was maybe 10 or so. Incredibly moving.

31

Find your old Assembly Hall...

by Hecklerboy in

jw
friends

i was doing some investigation on google maps for a trip i'm making to pittsburgh, pa next week.. come to find out the the place i'm going is only a few mile from the assembly hall i spent allot of time at as a kid.

looking at this pictures bring back allot of memories.

some good, some bad.. anybody else attend this assembly hall in coraopolis, pa?.

Palimpsest

I was assigned to (and was baptized at) Monroe, New York, but I also periodically attended in Natick, Massachusetts (where my mother was baptized) if I had to miss my own assemblies due to illness or something like that. The Monroe AH was torn down by the time Google Maps was archiving images. :( My last assemblies were at Newburgh, New York, to which I have/had no emotional attachment at all...

39

Question for Board/Current JWs re Holy Spirit/holy spirit...

by AGuest in

jw
friends

may you all have peace!.

in another post, a dear one mentioned that a jw relative ceased being... ummmm... contentious, when the dear one told her that, after praying about it, they were allowing themselves "to be guided by holy spirit and not doctrine from a man-made organization.

" that the latter felt "wrong.

Palimpsest

I feel like it's a familiarity issue. JWs don't fear the Holy Spirit, but it's something that's discussed so infrequently in their meetings that it doesn't immediately register. Also, depending on your region, "Holy Spirit" or "Holy Ghost" can draw an automatic mental association with Pentecostals or born-agains, even if you believe in the Holy Spirit (as JWs do). I can remember immediately thinking, "Oh, they must be Pentecostal" whenever someone at a door mentioned the Holy Spirit. So perhaps that's it?

22

Kingdom Hall Interiors

by TheMan in

jw
friends

so i drove by my old kingdom hall the other day and noticed that it had a for sale sign in front of it.

this came as no surprise to me, as i knew that they recently won approval to build a new kingdom hall in a neighboring town.

(caused a bit of a stir in town - but that's a different story).

Palimpsest

! TheMan, if you're still around, we might very well know each other -- I was in that Hall as a child! And we're also around the same age, so I bet we know each other or at least know of each other. I have some juicy updates on it if you're interested...

And I actually always thought the building was really pretty as a child. I loved the huge chandelier and the rich wood paneling all over. It looked much nicer than most other Halls from the outside, too. And I loved the favorite game of all the children, where we would sneak away from our parents and dare each other to go "down into the elders' room." (Our version of the "backroom" for JCs was an office in the basement. How delightfully spooky to young ones!)

Oh, and treadnh2o, the merger news isn't quite as good as you think it is, sorry to say. Yes, there were several mergers in the area, including making North and South Manchester all one congregation, but all they really did beyond that was add additional meeting times at the South Windsor "mega-Hall." So it's still the same number of people, just more concentrated in one spot, with meetings running concurrently in different spaces within the Hall. And also, they actually built a new Hall in Hartford for more Spanish-language congregations, so there's definitely still growth going on.

10

Christmas Flash Mobs in Shopping Malls Must See, Very Amazing

by Yizuman in

and he shall reign for ever and ever.

and lord of lords forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah.

Palimpsest

One of these massive ones happened near me. Singers bussed in from a few surrounding states to participate. It was planned on-line.

According to the local newspaper, which did interviews with participants, the singers are affiliated with a group called "Public Acts of Christianity" (or something like that) and are doing this across the country as a proselytizing effort. So this isn't entirely about "Christmas spirit," and more about preaching their viewpoint by targeting it at places with the largest number of people around. Due to that, it makes the JWs seem almost shy!

(Note that I'm not saying it's "wrong" or "bad" or anything like that. I just find it funny that so many people around the U.S. think this is a great idea, yet claim to hate proselytizing.)