JeffT

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Posts by JeffT

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  28

  What Convinced you to Leave?

  by LaurenM in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been posting here a lot, but these last few weeks have been very difficult for me.

  anyways, lately, i've been thinking about confessing everything i've done to the elders and going back, but deep down, i don't really think it's the truth...so my question is, what convinced you it wasn't the truth and that leaving wasn't a horrible decision that everyone in the truth makes it out to be?

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  JeffT

  I came in just after I graduated from college in 1973, during the run up to 1975. In 1988 I sat through a talk at a circuit assembly about the evils of college and how it was a waste of time because the world was about to end. At the time my two oldest children were entering their teenage years and doing well in school. I vividly remember thinking "the world has been about to end for fifteen years, doesn't it actually have to end some time?"

  That thought launched a year of intense research and study, that ended with my wife and I DA'ing in March 1989. Once you start looking into it, the JW religion simply does not stand up to scrutiny.
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  32

  New Watchtower Corporation Formed !!!

  by xjwsrock in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  to all congregations in the united states branch territory .

  re: jw congregation support .

  dear brothers: .

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  JeffT

  NY44M, I don't think they can shield assets this way. As long as they maintain top down control the courts can follow the money to where ever it goes. I know that in some cases (depending on state jurisdiction, or if you're in Bankruptcy court) moving assets to avoid seizure is a crime.
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  32

  New Watchtower Corporation Formed !!!

  by xjwsrock in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  to all congregations in the united states branch territory .

  re: jw congregation support .

  dear brothers: .

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  JeffT

  I just looked at the NY state corporations info. This was originally organized in 2001 as the Regional Building Committee of Jehovah's Witnesses Inc. It appears that the name change took place this year.

  I think they are going to have a hard time proving its a separate entity to dodge lawsuits. The only way they are going to accomplish that will be to give a much higher degree of autonomy to the local congregations, which I can't picture them doing.
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  15

  Pangea and Anti-Matter

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  did anyone here get to hear the talk you will be with me in paradise by ciro aulicino in 2007 at the summer convention?

  i found part of the talk in youtube.

  oh the memories!!

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  JeffT

  Whatever is big enough to move continents around is going to be unpleasant to live through. The last real earthquake we had here in Seattle was a 6.8 - that moved a GPS marker at the University of Washington (giving a rough measure of the total movement of the tectonic plate) about two tenths of an inch.
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  15

  Pangea and Anti-Matter

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  did anyone here get to hear the talk you will be with me in paradise by ciro aulicino in 2007 at the summer convention?

  i found part of the talk in youtube.

  oh the memories!!

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  JeffT

  I couldn't resist playing with the numbers. A one megaton H-bomb equals the destruction of 46 grams of matter. According to this website http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-12-439.pdf the total human biomass is 287,000,000 tons. Destroying all that with antimatter would actually release the energy of twice that much matter. Doing a little math, this all equals 12 Billion H-bombs. That's like a hundred per square mile over the entire surface of the earth.

  I wonder if any of these people every actually think about what they're saying.
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  13

  Let's get offensive...it's ridiculous

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  wow shall i start with classic books and films?

  no let's start with t.v and what was never high culture- " confederate flag gets dukes of hazard yanked" .

  ok this was just entertainment to me, that i never recall being racist.

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  JeffT

  A couple of years ago here in Seattle a Native American woman saw the word "savages" in her daughter's copy of "Brave New World" and tried to get it removed from the school reading list. Best comment following the article about it "maybe if she read the whole book she'd find out the 'savages' are the good guys."

  I agree with comments above, censorship is a bad course of action.
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  82

  Quality Thinking - Warning: Long Post Ahead

  by Viviane in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  recently, several threads have had some debate about logic, evidence, critical thinking and skepticism.

  i wanted to write a post discussing those things, hopefully to clarify what those things are, why they are important and how to use those tools.

  first, logic, at its core, is simply a method for how to reason validly, how to draw conclusions based on a premise.

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  JeffT

  Good points everybody. For many, the problem is having been raised in a belief system that totally ignores epistemology - the science of how we know stuff. In Watchtower land the answer to that question is "because the GB says so." In this system, it is perfectly acceptable to say "When Jesus said 'this generation' he evidently meant two overlapping generations" without showing any evidence whatsoever.

  Some people never get over that sort of logic, nor do they learn how to determine the truth or falsehood of information presented by others. Some parts of the internet are wonderful, others are giving the WTBS a run for its money in the production of BS.
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  7

  Questions Regarding All Those Lawyers

  by Magwitch in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  apologies if this has been addressed elsewhere.. has every elder called to the stand had his own personal attorney?

  it certainly appears this way.

  if this is the case, how are they able to afford this?

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  JeffT

  Don't the WT legal team speak for them?

  Not if they follow the same sort of rules as American lawyers. The WTBS lawyers represent the WTBS. I would assume they would happily throw some one else under the bus if doing so benefited their client. Anybody who goes into a case like this without his own lawyer is running a big risk.

  I hope elders around the world are watching this and thinking about what will happen to them if they get caught up in a legal case. I don't believe that doctrinal issues or lawsuits will bring down the WTBS. A stampede of elders trying to get out the door, might.
  
  
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  13

  What is the SIGNIFICANCE of the Astounding KORAN Manuscript discovery ?

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  bart ehrman's blog reveals some very interesting facts about the recent discovery of a manuscript of the koran.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oksxmo9moqk.

  "in case anyone is missing the significance of that, here is a comparison.

  the first time we have any two-page manuscript fragment of the new testament is from around the year 200 ce.

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  JeffT

  What's the significance? Apparently some cults are more attached to the past than others.
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  11

  New arrangement ...fines in stead of disfellowshipment.

  by fulano in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  that's wat i heard the other day.

  now you pay fines for your sins.. adultery is a 450 euro's ( for a firsttimer).

  smoking is a 300 -500 euro's sin ( depents on what the blow was).

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  JeffT

  You mean like this:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7ykYHwG5i4