if you identify as a christian but you have accepted that the diversity of life - including humans - resulted from a process of biological evolution could you add your name please?.
just to be clear i am referring to the fact that our physical lineage could literally be traced back all the way to non-human species.. if you like maybe you could comment on why you see not conflict between evolution and your christian faith.. there is a tendency to conflate evolution with atheism.
it would be good to show that this is not the case..
How can a Christian believe in evolution? What about the ransome sacrifice?They *have* to believe in a literal garden of Eden, original sin, to make that sacrifice worth anything at all.
Not forgetting Jesus also spoke as if the flood were true.
If they believe Genesis is purely allegorical, then why was Jesus sacrificed? Why was it required?
I fully understand one can believe in God and evolution, but the sacrifice of a Jewish carpenter ? I believe this is why Islam is gaining popularity.
we are asked to not love money, work ot (i was never asked because the company had money to give away, rather had a job that needed done), no extra schooling.. then when we read the literature they make a big deal of the ones who are rich.
so proud of abraham, david, and on.
remember lydia?
Still in I like helping people. How can I do that if I don't have anything to help them with?
Nail meet head.
i don't mean overly obvious, or otherwise meaning to cause harm, but taught to lie for the purpose of avoidance.
this type of lying can be pervasive in areas of life that are not just to avoid discussions with people who have questions about the jw, etc.
my husband will lie/be deceitful about the silliest, simple things.
I agree with this 1000%. Once lying is normalised it becomes pervasive in other areas of life, and hard to shake. Even the jw "story telling" that you mentioned often leads other types of more concrete lies - since these " stories" like jw urban legends, they know are not really true yet they continue to peddle them.
As to lying to the General public it's endemic. Even Antony Morris 3rd, when cornered by a reporter asking about the ARC stated he could not talk since he was going to preach the ' good news of the kingdom' *As* he ducked inside a building. A silly lie because it was so obviously untrue. Yet he couldn't help himself. Lying to non jw's is A OK.
threads about jw urban legends are nothing new on this forum.
they are loads of fun to read.
how many of you remember the one about the teenager who skipped the meeting and decided to get into a car with his worldly friends and they worldly guys decided to rob a store and the jw didn't know they were going to do so but he was arrested simply for being with them?.
jookbeard "Dubs on meds" would be a great name for a band composed of exJW'S.
PAGING FLIPPER!!
The smurf story in various guises was all over the UK. I also heard a few cautionary Indian religion "demon" stories since we had a large Hindu population.
i remember about 5 years ago reading on another site about subliminal images in wt literature.
i honestly thought it a load of bs until i checked out one glaringly obvious image of a creepy skull in clouds within the knowledge book.
i was shocked and even showed my wife at the time who thought it was creepy.. so my question is why?
Days of future past What I find hilarious is the ubiquitous LION in the foreground. I'd like Compound Complex ( madly hard work, I know) or any other pro artist to tell us, over the years if it's the SAME lion??!! My husband and I have a bet that its CLarence the cross eyed lion ( with eyes now paradise PERFECT, obvs!!! )!
Co Complex I used to think it was all bunkum but I *do* take the advice of professional artists as to whether there is, or has been in the past, some kind of subliminal craziness going on.
Artist's own Easter eggs absolutely, yes, given that artists cannot SIGN their work that absolutely makes sense in order to identify them.
And I also say 'in the past' because I think in the days of FRANZ et al it was far more likely to happen, given their almost God-like narcissism and probably disregard for what other witnesses, before or after, thought of their behaviour. Oh, and they were SERIOUSLY NUTS.
hello just giving a quick baby update again.
we went for another growth scan yesterday which marks 26 weeks, 4 days and the genetics dr. felt that we needed to head to hospital for labor and delivery.
so as of now the wife is being monitored and the hope is she can stay until delivery which hopefully will be a few weeks.
oh my, my thoughts are totally with you ( am in UK btw). Oh I so hope you can get some more time for the baby inside mum but as you say once baby is not safe inside, or rarther not being oxygenated and/or nourished inside then they of course have to care for the child outside the womb...it happened with us because one of my boys wasn't growing, like yourselves poor placenta.
I wish you all the very best, do keep us posted. This is perhaps one of the most traumatic things anyone can go through and I hope YOU have someone to offload on...anyone...as you are having to be the strong one right now, I know it's a tough time for Dads.😥XXX
hello just giving a quick baby update again.
we went for another growth scan yesterday which marks 26 weeks, 4 days and the genetics dr. felt that we needed to head to hospital for labor and delivery.
so as of now the wife is being monitored and the hope is she can stay until delivery which hopefully will be a few weeks.
OMG dark knight I too had premature twins so I understand a little of what you are going through.
please let **nothing get between you and the safe delivery of your sweet baby and LIFE of your wife and little one**. You, of course, have totally done all the right things, and if baby needs blood so be it. Sadly relationships with parents in this situation take a back seat for now.
I hope with all my heart things go well, make SURE your wife bed rests as much as possible . Lets hope the delivery doesn't take place for another 4 weeks to be safe. I guess you know all the in's and outs by now, I'm sure the doctors have informed you.
Please please take care of YOU and your wee family and keep us informed as much as u are able, or feel like of course.Be assured our thoughts and love are with you.
XXXXXXXX💓💓💓
so in my last post i talked about how i had told my younger siblings how i didn't plan to get baptized or ever be a witness.
i thought i could trust them but i guess i was wrong, they're just kids after all.
my oldest brother (who's 11) told on me today.
I'm going to take a wild guess and say it's because he wants the attention and adoration being baptised will bring ( for about 5 minutes). As a boy he might also enjoy wielding power over his big sister - DA DA DA DA....DUBMAN !!! You could make him a cape LoL!
Srsly tho your parents don't seem too bad if they are happy for u to just pretend, and they won't force you. I would only recommend a move in with Aunt if u know her very, very well and she is totaly willing to take on all parental responsibility. You are still young. Go easy, work hard at school and aim for college.
maybe you've heard the story of a brother in the watchtower's writing department who was very smart, hard working and a good writer.
we'll call him charley.
charley was so good, in fact, that he advanced through the ranks and became a co-editor of the watchtower magazine.
Very powerful, very thought provoking and, of course, Interesting. No question that any jw would be forced to agree - he was an apostate.
Would you be able to expand on the differences the two had over the ransome issue? I'd be really interested if you would, thank you👍
anon in japan says:.
i served in the third circuit of shikoku japan.
a few years ago, a well-known theocratic family disassociated.
In fact I think I can think of a counter example. Internet access has taken longer to grow in Germany than the UK for example, despite Germany being more prosperous. Yet JW growth has been more sluggish in Germany over the past two decades than in the UK. It's weak evidence either way, yet if the Internet significantly slowed growth we might expect the opposite pattern, ceteris paribus.
Actually I believe this is probably a good example of your previous point . Until *very recently* I'd be willing to bet there is a lot more net migration into Britain than Germany and with our colonial past a good deal of these people were from 3rd world Commonwealth countries, such as the Caribbean and Africa, with a traditionally very religious culture. I believe that's were you'd find the growth, rarther than from native Britons. Unless the birth rate of the two countries is significantly different.
