A.Fenderson

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Posts by A.Fenderson

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  14

  guys, when you were JW's did you feel sorry for the subjugated sisters?

  by highdose in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in my cong i could name more than half the brothers who seemed to revel in squashing the sisters back into the door mat where they belonged.

  nothing personaly irrated me more than being treated like a lower form of life simply because i didn't have a penis!.

  but i never saw any brothers make a stand, or try to treat the sisters better.

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  A.Fenderson

  I remember one night at bookstudy (don't remember the pub we were reading) the concept of the wife submitting to sex whenever the husband wanted it was presented as being good, proper, biblical, etc. I was about 16, and this slightly-younger (15?) girl then raised her hand and added that if sex was forced on the female against her will, even within the confines of marriage, it was still legally considered rape, so be careful not to cross that line, etc. I thought it was quite the valid point to make, and also very gutsy of her--I gained instant respect for her. However, the young woman's own mother then raised her hand and was called on, and took the opportunity to announce to the group that she would later be "correcting" her daughter in private (?!), and that the scenario she had brought up would not be considered rape in God's eyes or somesuch.

  I very randomly ran into that young woman half-way across the state years later, no surprise that she had gotten out of the dubs at roughly the same time I had.

  So, in answer to the question: yes, for those women who resented it; no, for those women who embraced and defended it.
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  23

  When will we have Armageddon, according to the last new light?

  by dgp in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm just curious: has the watchtower said when we will have armageddon, or they are avoiding to give any date, or are they avoiding noticing that all the signs are there to suggest that there is a specific date we should look forward to?

  any dates?.

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  A.Fenderson

  No Dates - Just supa dupa close - soooooo close you can almost taste the kiss of your great great great grandmother!

  Both histerical and utterly disgusting--kudos!
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  87

  How To Construct a Creationist/Theistic Argument

  by darkl1ght3r in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how to construct a creationist/theistic argument - by ben spencer.

  step 1. come up with a supposed self-apparent, universal, unbreakable, and yet ultimately unprovable "law".. for example:.

  all effects require a cause.

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  A.Fenderson

  Infinite regression is a logical impossibility. There had to be a beginning of the series, no matter what you want to call it.

  The prevailing form of logic is incredibly useful and yet incredibly limited and demonstrably flawed. Besides which, I've never seen a properly-formatted logical arument that concludes that an infinite regression is impossible. I think you're making the flaw of aruing from personal incredulity--you can't imagine or make sense of an infinite regress, so you dismiss it as impossible.

  There only has to be a beginning to a finite series--an infinite series has no such restriction and can be extended infinitely in both directions from any arbitrary point--in this case, "now" on the timeline.
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  34

  Golden Age Quotes--You have to see it to believe it.

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  question: will husband and wife live together after the resurrection is completed, if both are in harmony with god?.

  answer: the scriptures do not reveal what the relationship of men and women will be after the resurrection is completed.

  the most that we know is that there will be no children born during the last 100 years of the millennium (isa.

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  A.Fenderson

  Wow, this is pure gold.

  Has anyone ever heard of any ballsy secret "apostate" answering questions at the meeting by relating a previously-held JW doctrine that's very contrary to current doctrine and citing some of these older sources? That would be unbelievably sweet.
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  1

  One Big April Fool

  by lavendar in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on this april fool's day.....my thoughts are of my jw family member...who i deeply love.

  a fool for letting himself get suckered into joining this insideous cult.

  from the very beginning, we tried to warn him.

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  A.Fenderson

  I have come to the conclusion that nothing is going to shake my family member's faith in the WTS....UNTIL he starts to doubt & question the Organization ON HIS OWN.

  Unfortunately for those of us who would prefer to see our loved ones free of this controlling cult, what you said here does seem to be a fact. And maybe he's not a fool so much as in need of something that association with the JWs and the WTS can seemingly provide him--many intelligent people are taken in by cults like this because they want or even need something to believe in to make their lives meaningful and livable. So don't write him off as a fool, but stand ready to discuss his doubts and issues with the WTS-- at his own pace--when they start to surface. Meanwhile, you have the opportunity to prove to him that "worldly" people's love is not conditional, unlike the JWs'.
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  54

  For born ins- what tipped you off it was wrong

  by teela(2) in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  at a young age i remember watching tv and commenting why is the red cross always helping people and we don't.

  the second big one is if the witnesses only started up in 1890 - 1900 did jehovah not have anyone else doing the preaching work?.

  as a child i don't think we think about theological problems so what tipped you off?

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  A.Fenderson

  Philosophy and anthropology classes really got my brain open to new ideas and to really examining my existing beliefs (not the blatantly disingenuous lip-service the JWs give to the idea of testing out your faith). At the time, the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn also really made a large impact on me, especially the interpretation of the Cane & Abel story as a metaphor for a pivotal moment in human (pre)history.

  Brocephus: The Revelation book... realized it was all made up stuff.

  Yeah, but as I recall there were some pretty sweet-ass pics in there. Plus, once you realize it was all a drug trip (amanita muscaria or somesuch), it kinda makes you want to trip balls yourself, at least once--or maybe that's just me.
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  13

  DO YOU suffer from PARADIGM poisoning?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  slow death by poisoning is a bad way to go!.

  like that old story about boiling a frog.

  (gradual heating keeps the frog from jumping out of the pot).. not knowing why you are slightly ill or not at your best keeps you from seeking remedy.. .

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  A.Fenderson

  Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a true paradigm, therefore none can be said to be false, either:

  Western philosophy is traditionally concerned with contrasting one grid with another grid, and amending grids in hopes of finding a perfect one that will account for all reality and will, hence, (say unenlightened westerners) be True. This is illusory; it is what we Erisians call the ANERISTIC ILLUSION. Some grids can be more useful than others, some more beautiful than others, some more pleasant than others, etc., but none can be more True than any other.

  ...

  The point is that (little-t) truth is a matter of definition relative to the grid one is using at the moment, and that (capital-T) Truth, metaphysical reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely. Pick a grid, and through it some chaos appears ordered and some appears disordered. Pick another grid, and the same chaos will appear differently ordered and disordered.

  Reality is the original Rorschach.

  Principia Discordia, page 50.

  If, however, you go a level deeper than merely looking at paradigms/grids, to the level of looking at the ways in which we are can choose to assign meaning and gain knowledge--i.e. epistemology--then a thorough comparison among the alternatives generally leads any sane individual to rate empricism more highly than, say, divine revelation.
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  35

  I hope I'm not the ONLY one...

  by YoursChelbie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is there anyone besides me who would like to get a group together for dinner, maybe at a local tgi fridays?.

  there's some faces i would really like to meet again.. i don't think that here in the dallas/north texas area, we've had a gathering in a while.. so if you have any suggestions for a particular day?

  we could see when it would be convenient for most people.

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  A.Fenderson

  I'm about half-way between Oklahoma City and Dallas, so I have some interest--assuming newbies are invited.
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  12

  How do you cope with Type II diabetes?

  by linp24 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  question for forum members who have type ii diabetes:.

  how do you cope with this disease?

  do you have side effects from the medication?

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  A.Fenderson

  I'm not diabetic, but I am genetically-disposed towards insulin-resistant diabetes (a.k.a. Type II): this is one of the reasons I've been maintaining a low-carb diet for several years now, and plan on doing so for the rest of my life. I don't feel deprived or like people think I'm weird for being on this diet--it's far easier to do than it sounds to many people, and far less conspicuous than you might think. At first it was just about losing my beer-belly (and it does work incredibly well for me to lose and maintain weight), but the more reading I did about low-carb diets, the more it seemed a very healthy life-choice for anyone, though especially those who are prone/predisposed towards or even experiencing insulin resistance.

  The two books that I found the most helpful and interesting regarding nutrition, weight loss/maintenance, and insulin-related issues were Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins, and Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig.
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  21

  JW's say Worldly People are Better Off DEAD

  by UnDisfellowshipped in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  jehovah's witnesses and the "better off dead" doctrine.

  for decades the official jw teaching was that "worldly people" (non-jws) would be "better off dead" because "the wages sin pays is death" and once you have died, you have paid for your sins, so then jehovah is free to resurrect you (as long as you had not committed the "unforgivable sin").. whereas, if you had not died and had remained a worldly "unbeliever" when armageddon arrived, jehovah would have destroyed you and doomed you to everlasting destruction in gehenna.. this "better off dead" doctrine never did make any sense to me.

  why would jehovah resurrect you if you died the day before armageddon, but if you stayed alive until the next day you would be destroyed and doomed forever to the lake of fire?

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  A.Fenderson

  What's the JW consensus (if there is one) these days on what constitutes the "unfogivable sin?" I thought it had been speculated that it was suicide, but I'm not sure I was actually told that was a GB-approved interpretation.