Posts by Nickolas

97

Another question, if I may...

by AGuest in

jw
friends

and may you all have peace!

this is another general question for the board and i ask your indulgence because i am trying to understand how others think.

if there truly is no god/god... what is wrong with the existence of religion?

My point is... if there is NO God... why isn't religion just another "service" that some provide for those who WANT it? You may not LIKE what they provide... any more than I like, say, designer drugs, etc. But if people WANT them... and they're LEGAL... why place more blame on "them" for selling their "product"... which, admittedly, can be quite harmful... than the others?

That's a remarkably good point, Shelby. It's legal. So was cocaine 100 years ago, and having sex with minors. Why not allow, say, prostitution to go on unabated? (no skin off my nose, btw). Why not make heroine legal? Heck, the wise US gov't made alcohol illegal not that long ago and then all hell broke loose and then it made it legal again, of course taxing the hell out of it. It's a remarkably good point but it is still irrelevant. What is legal but what a certain powerful segment of human society allows?

ALLreligion, dear one? What if a religion DOESN'T do such things, but do "good" works, as some have suggested? If there is no God/god... would it be "okay" for such institutions to exist? I'm thinking that it would... so long as "GOD" is not involved. Yes? And so, I'm asking... if there IS no God/god... what is the big deal?

Yes. All religion. 99.9% good all of the time is not good enough, just like the 99.9% of the time a priest does "good" for his congregation doesn't erase the 0.1% of the time he's raping their children behind the curtain in the vestry. Is it not a big deal that religion horribly exploits people some of the time in payment for giving them something positive in their lives the rest of the time? Eventually the cost/benefit model breaks down.

97

Another question, if I may...

by AGuest in

jw
friends

and may you all have peace!

this is another general question for the board and i ask your indulgence because i am trying to understand how others think.

if there truly is no god/god... what is wrong with the existence of religion?

Nickolas

Two (or three, or four, or five ...) wrongs don't make a right, Shelby. Comparing rapacious industries is irrelevant. Religion? Consider the obscene riches of the Roman Catholic church juxtaposed against the poverty of most Cathoic countries. Consider the centuries of oppression of the ignorant by the elite priesthood. Consider the crusades, the inquisitions, the burning of New World libraries, the pedophilia, the modern-day deaths from AIDS in Africa because of religious dogma about contraception and how it offends God. Consider the billions raked in by the all time favourite religion to hate in this forum. Consider the people whose lives have been ruined because they waited for an Armageddon that would never come, because they refused vaccinations or organ transplants or blood transfusions. Consider all this and know that the time has come for religion to be cast into the scrap heap on which intelligent humans have thrown black magic and superstition.

19

What to ask a proselytizing spouse

by Nickolas in

jw
friends

if you are a non-jw married to a jw, how do you deal with those times during the week when he or she slips out for several hours with bookbag in hand, going door to door?

your spouse is out there actively recruiting for the watchtower - do you have a problem with that?

do you ask your spouse if he/she is up front with the prospective convert?

Nickolas

Well, folks, I tried this afternoon to have a rational conversation and after a couple of hours gained not a micron of ground. The only plus was keeping it calm and rational, but the wall is impenetrable. Time I stopped beating my head against it.

10

A Leaf of Absence

by SweetBabyCheezits in

jw
friends

your address.

your city, state, zip code.

your phone number.

Nickolas

Ah, if only keeping it real was as easy as that. Take care.

19

What to ask a proselytizing spouse

by Nickolas in

jw
friends

if you are a non-jw married to a jw, how do you deal with those times during the week when he or she slips out for several hours with bookbag in hand, going door to door?

your spouse is out there actively recruiting for the watchtower - do you have a problem with that?

do you ask your spouse if he/she is up front with the prospective convert?

Nickolas

The difficulty I have with your suggestion, as good as it may be ABibleStudent, is that it tacitly approves something I have difficulty with. In this case I have difficulty with the aspect of non-disclosure, because it is as OUTLAW points out a form of intellectual dishonesty, if not deliberate deception. If one proceeds with the assumption that the Watchtower destroys lives and one's spouse is actively involved in the process of bringing people in and he says nothing about it, how does he live with himself? Indeed, how does a Witness live with herself if the people she brings in are later DF'ed or who later DA themselves and are subsequently shunned? Or does it not matter because they're just going to die at Armageddon anyway?

19

What to ask a proselytizing spouse

by Nickolas in

jw
friends

if you are a non-jw married to a jw, how do you deal with those times during the week when he or she slips out for several hours with bookbag in hand, going door to door?

your spouse is out there actively recruiting for the watchtower - do you have a problem with that?

do you ask your spouse if he/she is up front with the prospective convert?

Nickolas

Good points, Scully. However, I think most people on whom the Witnesses call will not have the background of relatedness required to ask a lot of questions like that. It comes down to how up front the Witness sitting at the kitchen table is with the person or persons to whom he or she is selling the Watchtower. They're not, therefore they are not being honest. No more honest than what is explained to a 12 year old when he is convinced to be dunked.

26

QUOTATIONS ABOUT RELIGION......FOR AND AGAINST...WELCOME YOUR THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS

by Pams girl in

hello all, thought id spend an hour typing these quotations.......hope you find something you like, and welcome your thoughts and comments.

paula.. quotations about religion.

i still say a church steeple with a lightening rod shows a lack of confidence.

Nickolas

This one, Paula:

In some awful, strange, paradoxical way, atheists tend to take religion more seriously than the practitioners. Jonathan Miller.

(except, of course, when the practitioners are Jehovah's Witnesses)

One of my favourite quotes on the subject:

Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. (I'm sure I don't have to tell you who said it).

19

What to ask a proselytizing spouse

by Nickolas in

jw
friends

if you are a non-jw married to a jw, how do you deal with those times during the week when he or she slips out for several hours with bookbag in hand, going door to door?

your spouse is out there actively recruiting for the watchtower - do you have a problem with that?

do you ask your spouse if he/she is up front with the prospective convert?

Nickolas

If you are a non-JW married to a JW, how do you deal with those times during the week when he or she slips out for several hours with bookbag in hand, going door to door? Your spouse is out there actively recruiting for the Watchtower - do you have a problem with that? Do you ask your spouse if he/she is up front with the prospective convert? As in,

- if they get baptised it's for keeps and if they decide later that they want to leave they will be shunned like a leper by their families and friends?

- every aspect of their lives will be controlled by seven men in Brooklyn whose word cannot under any circumstance be questioned else they will be shunned like a leper by their families and friends?

- the times the Watchtower has incorrectly prophesized the end of the world?

- the two witness rule?

What do you ask your spouse? Do you even discuss it?

66

That C word CULT

by Lady Lee in

dear lee week 64 friday.

this is my blog today for freeminds.

thaoulgt i would post it here for you too.. .

Nickolas

Context. Use the word "spade" in a racial context and it is offensive, and always will be. Use the world "cult" in a religious context and it is offensive, and always will be.

66

That C word CULT

by Lady Lee in

dear lee week 64 friday.

this is my blog today for freeminds.

thaoulgt i would post it here for you too.. .

Nickolas

Yes, sab, they are. But say that to a Christian (of whatever flavour) and he will be offended. Look at the incendiary reaction when someone legitimately brought the parallel of the RC church into the conversation. It is a legitimate, descriptive word, but it is also inflammatory because it is not always used as a simple descriptive noun but sometimes with spite, hate and vitriol.

I loathe the WTBTS for what it has done to people, but I draw the line at hate. Hate is human acid. It eats away at the psyche, what some might call the spirit or the soul, and you won't even recognise it happening to you.