Posts by Nickolas

78

Are You For Or Against The Death Penalty?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i clearly am for it if it's proven without a doubt that a person murdered another in cold blood.

recently, in connecticut, a man was convicted of killing 2 young girls and their mother.

the animal raped them and almost killed the defenseless husband/father who could do nothing while these atrocities were being carried out in his own home!.

Nickolas

Niether for or against. Is that allowed?

Fence sitting is always allowed, dear S, but it tends to keep one stuck in the same place.

78

Are You For Or Against The Death Penalty?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i clearly am for it if it's proven without a doubt that a person murdered another in cold blood.

recently, in connecticut, a man was convicted of killing 2 young girls and their mother.

the animal raped them and almost killed the defenseless husband/father who could do nothing while these atrocities were being carried out in his own home!.

Death is the penalty for life itself, and all of us will face it (wishful beliefs in The Rapture or living through Armaggedon notwithstanding). Society's imperfect iterations decide for themselves the circumstances under which we are allowed to live or die. Here in Canada we stopped hanging people in 1962, not so much because those who commit heinous crimes don't deserve to be snuffed out but because snapping some poor slob's neck prevented only him from recidivistic activity and provided no demonstrable deterrent to others who are similarly inclined. That there were innocent people sent to the gallows didn't help, either. And who decides what warrants death? In Muslim countries gay men are executed because they are gay - right or wrong? According to whom? Should we put child rapists to death? Are we talking about my child, or yours, or anyone's child? Why not castrate him without benefit of anaesthesia, amputate his hands and gouge out his eyes for good measure? Then he wouldn't do it again, by golly. Murderers? We have more than a few behind bars here - Clifford Olsen raped and murdered ten boys and girls, Paul Bernardo raped and murdered two schoolgirls, Robert Picton raped, tortured and murdered at least 26 women and then fed their bodies to his pigs - all of them convicted on irrefutable evidence. Do I think they should get the death penalty? If there was a lottery for the task of pulling the lever on the gallows I just might buy a ticket.

23

My Husband and a JW

by mrsjones5 in

my husband has been talking to a jw about business but the jw keeps inserting jw crap (i told my husband this would happen).

i'm not worried about my husband listening to this man (my parents' negative example had taken care of that) but it is interesting and a tad disconcerting to watch how this jw man tries to rope my husband in.

[11/6/10 7:10:18 am] tom : :d. [11/6/10 7:10:22 am] hubby: that's what it's all about!.

Nickolas

I would ask why these stauch atheists didn't start believing in god after seeing a cat or puppy being born? Don't get me wrong I think birth is a wonderful thing, but it's not a miracle...it is science.

I watched my wife give birth to our three kids. It was really messy. If I believed in a god before seeing that I might wonder why he did such a lousy job designing the delivery system.

Great thread. I laughed out loud several times. Your hubby has a unique opportunity, though. If he can stop having fun for awhile he might just be able to help Tom and his family escape. Now, wouldn't that feel good?

3

Hope for prisoners. Or, why not commit suicide?

by easyreader1970 in

jw
friends

this is copied from a post on reddit.com.

while i don't (yet) have the urge to remove myself from life, i can understand the hopelessness part of this.. .

the reason i am making this submission with this title is because i find my life to be mostly similar to a prisoner.

Nickolas

I hear you. I see myself as a prisoner of sorts. The WTBTS has been the uninvited third person in my marriage for over 30 years. It happened after my wife, who I adore more than life itself, bought into the Watchtower story and became baptised against my wishes and while I wasn't looking. I am not an adherent of the practices and beliefs of this religion but my life has been inexorably and permanently altered by it. I have been sustained by a faint hope that I might one day get my wife back - I mean all of her. She's still the woman I love but she exhibits two personalities - hard to explain. When I get to feeling hopeless about it all I sometimes think about suicide, but I shake it off. I do not believe in life after death. Suicide is an escape only insofar as it blots out everything entirely. A life in which there is some happiness is better than oblivion, is it not?

The prisoner in your example has his mind to himself, and that should be enough. If you read the stories of people who were imprisoned or enslaved for much of their lives you will detect a common thread that sustained them, and that is freedom of thought. I might cite Stephen Hawking as an example. Here is a man, perhaps the greatest genius of our age, trapped inside a paralysed body but who still loves life because his mind is totally free to go wherever it wishes, and every once in awhile it finds itself in wonderful places indeed.

35

Why do we call Jehovah by his first name and not our parents?

by life is to short in

i owe this question entirely to hadit but i cannot get this thought out of my head.

all i heard growing up was that we have to call god jehovah because they are many god's, this way jehovah knows we are trying to speak to him.

that is just one of many reasons the fds and wt say to why we much call him jehovah.

Nickolas

First, the Christian term "Jehovah" is a mistranslation of the unuttered spaces between the four letters above (thank you OTWO). Not to repeat the obvious ad nauseum, but the Jews called their god Yaweh. The moniker "Jehovah" isn't legitimate. Second, there is no surname anyway, unless you consider it to be "God". I suppose you could refer to him as Mr. God. Think about Jesus of Nazareth. He didn't have a surname, either. Then again, nobody in that part of the world at that time in history used surnames. Jesus of Nazareth was differentiated from all the other Jesuses by the place of his origin, although others might have been differentiated by the first names of their fathers - Jesus ben Jacob, for example.

50

What Would Bring The Watchtower Down?

by metatron in

jw
friends

randy/dogpatch has posted some interesting material about troubles in the organization.

this info generated a lot of skepticism about the possibility of watchtower fragmentation.

frankly, it is very easy to be skeptical considering everything that ordinary witnesses are willing to believe or put up with.. i think it would be useful to realistically consider what sort of event(s) would bring the watchtower down or cause its fragmentation?

Nickolas

loss of its funds (metaspy)

The WTBTS headquarters resides in the most litigious society in the world. If the number of people whose lives have been adversely affected is considerable, if it can be demonstrated that the practices and doctrines of the Society have adversely affected the lives of these people, and if it can be demonstrated that the Society used deliberate psychological techniques to instill fear and inhibit logical thinking to enslave these people, then it may be reasonable to assume that it can be sued in a class action. There are doubtless many lawyers who would be more than willing to take this on, if only for the publicity it would bring them.

All you folks who were former Jehovah's Witnesses and who have suffered under the oppressive control of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society might have a legitimate legal claim. How sweet would it be to hit the Society where it hurts most?

20

this weeks watchtower---Please Comment

by TheLoveDoctor in

jw
friends

unity identifies true worship........ comments on these 3 paragraghs.

7 the one source of spiritual instruction first-century christians enjoyed unity because they all received encouragement from the same source.

they recognized that jesus was teaching and directing the congregation through a governing body, composed of the apostles and older men in jerusalem.

Nickolas

The more I read this stuff the more frightened I get that people actually believe this group of old men in Brooklyn are the mouthpieces of God. This is delusion, plain and simple. What's next? What's the probability this "Society" will go really toxic?

4