jerry bergman, ph.d. .
the first american study.
the watchtower influence was often not positive, and there was no evidence that it had in the long run helped those who had emotional problems when they joined.
You mean to tell me that thinking that: any day the earth will be strewn with dead bodies of babies and children and everyone else, and that the entire world outside of the Kingdom Halls and Witness homes are all fraudulent, evil drones of Satan since your birth *might* affect your mental health?
And you call JW's crazy!
-Sab
it seems you discontinued the wrong meeting.. 1. reinstate the "book study" at private homes - (and go back to the original name, because changing the name to "congregation bible study" isn't fooling anyone).
2. add a real bible study/discussion to the in-home meetings.. 3. discontinue the other four meetings and sell the kingdom halls ... or turn them into homeless shelters, that would be a christian thing to do.
4. stop printing magazines for the ministry, tracts work just fine.
Stop commanding your members to commit suicide if they need a blood transfusion!
-Sab
pondering over this dilemma:.
lets just say, for arguments sake, the report in genesis about the first humans is not an allegory, but a true event:.
watchtower teaches, that adam sinned, because he used his free will to disobey.. god grants free will to his human creation, because he wants them to serve him out of love.. ok, good, but i give an example: i meet a girl, tell her, she is free to love me, but if not, i kill her.. would you call this free will ?.
If everything was understood right, then why did Jesus have to come and find the lost sheep that the Pharisees and scribes and teachers were abusing?
THIS can't even be verified with evidence, that Jesus even came in the manner he did in the Bible... It's hard for me to accept Jesus as an argument for any alleged contridictions in the Bible because it is essentially using one part of the Bible to prove another part.
-Sab
pondering over this dilemma:.
lets just say, for arguments sake, the report in genesis about the first humans is not an allegory, but a true event:.
watchtower teaches, that adam sinned, because he used his free will to disobey.. god grants free will to his human creation, because he wants them to serve him out of love.. ok, good, but i give an example: i meet a girl, tell her, she is free to love me, but if not, i kill her.. would you call this free will ?.
^ Terry can you imagine how many different ways people could interpret the post you just made if they could just "assign" different meanings to otherwise clear language? Just something that popped into my mind.
-Sab
last month the spanish congregations were having their distric assembly and two sisters were in my neighborhood delivering an invitation to a neighbor.
the neighbor was not home but i was outside washing my car, so they come over because the older sister, in her 70's, knows me and wanted to say hello.
i took the opportunity to mention the fact that i haven't been to a meeting since 2006. she acted as if this was news to her.
Funny how when you mention that possibility that what they are teaching might be wrong the other girl pipes up about "false prophets."
I just think that is kind of funny.
-Sab
let's see... .the sumerians existed 10000 years ago.. archaeologists have found a settlement in china with evidence of tools and agriculture that is over 1.36 million years old.
.
hmmm.. that's a big difference between 6000 and 1.36 million.... .
China is the oldest civilization on the planet.... much much much older than 6000 years....
No matter though, Bible can't be wrong, that would only leave the Bible being right <-- see how that works?
-Sab
pondering over this dilemma:.
lets just say, for arguments sake, the report in genesis about the first humans is not an allegory, but a true event:.
watchtower teaches, that adam sinned, because he used his free will to disobey.. god grants free will to his human creation, because he wants them to serve him out of love.. ok, good, but i give an example: i meet a girl, tell her, she is free to love me, but if not, i kill her.. would you call this free will ?.
pondering over this dilemma:.
lets just say, for arguments sake, the report in genesis about the first humans is not an allegory, but a true event:.
watchtower teaches, that adam sinned, because he used his free will to disobey.. god grants free will to his human creation, because he wants them to serve him out of love.. ok, good, but i give an example: i meet a girl, tell her, she is free to love me, but if not, i kill her.. would you call this free will ?.
The gnostics have an answer for that.
Is it 42?
-Sab
pondering over this dilemma:.
lets just say, for arguments sake, the report in genesis about the first humans is not an allegory, but a true event:.
watchtower teaches, that adam sinned, because he used his free will to disobey.. god grants free will to his human creation, because he wants them to serve him out of love.. ok, good, but i give an example: i meet a girl, tell her, she is free to love me, but if not, i kill her.. would you call this free will ?.
So in the end, my so to say free will decision, was only a product of my upbringing, genetic disposition, influences from envrionment etc...just afterwards I claim, it was my free decsion, when it was not.
You are correct. We are all the sum of our experience. But I think humaninty goes further than that with the Spark of Life: that intangible force that seems to permeate all that is quantifiable or perceivable.
-Sab
i thought about this in the early days of the mr's conversion, thought i'd run this by you folks and see what you think.
i think, sometimes, that the wts took it's ideas right out of "how to be an abuser 101" text book.. 1. isolation - both of them do their darnest to isolate the new convert/victim from her/his previous life, family friends, interests.
tell them they're a bad influence, tell them "they hate me" or hell, tell them they're just tools of satan to get them out of the victim's life.. 2. create a dependence upon the abuser/wts - there's no one else who will love you/have the right doctrine like i/we do.
I've been saying this for years now. But more like abusive parent because they do tend to treat Witnesses like little stupid kids
An abusive mate does the same thing, imo.
-Sab
