Topics Started by Nickolas

42
Is the World really getting worse?
by Nickolas in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
a fundamental platform of the watchtower bible and tract society, from which its fearsome prognostications are launched, is the inexorable deterioration of the world.

the world is becoming a less and less hospitable place in which to live.

it seems with news of every earthquake, every natural catastrophe, every epidemic, every atrocity, and every disaster manmade or otherwise, there is the inevitable shaking of the finger and stern proclamation, "see?
22
Faith in God and the fear of death
by Nickolas in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
in his book die zukunft einer illusion (the future of an illusion), sigmund freud described belief in god as a collective neurosis.

he wrote that the religious impulse is essentially ineradicable until or unless the human species can conquer its fear of death and its tendency toward wish-thinking.. freud was a smart guy but he postulated a great deal on some things, fear of death in particular.

he was a committed atheist but did see the benefit of belief in god for the jewish people, of which he was a member.. but did he get it right?
111
When God breaks his own laws
by Nickolas in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
if one assumes that god made the universe it follows that he made it according to a very complex set of physical laws that determine how things work.

the quest to identify and understand those physical laws is at the very forefront of science and great strides have been made over the past few centuries, in particular during the last century.

we have known for only a few centuries that the earth rotates on its axis and orbits around the sun along with a number of other planets, more recently that the solar system is located in a radial arm of a spiral galaxy swirling around some enormous black hole.
15
the guilt borne by former Jehovah's Witnesses
by Nickolas in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
i have been noticing in various threads that many former jehovah's witnesses in here feel a burden of guilt about having been a jehovah's witness.

mostly talk about how terrible they feel for having imposed wtbts beliefs and strictures on people, especially on people they love.

i am beginning to believe that this is a key trigger for people when they finally get up to the point where they feel they must leave the society.
38
JW's are not nice people
by Nickolas in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
i cut and pasted the subject line from a comment made by one of this board's longtime members.

it got me wondering if this is the prevalent thinking in here.

for a very long time i believed that jw's and all fundamentalist christian folk are a cut above the norm.
17
How many convicted Watchtower pedophiles are there?
by Nickolas in
1. watchtower
2. child-abuse
last night my wife, my wife's brother and sister-in-law (all jehovah's witnesses) and i (not a jw) settled in after dinner for an evening of tv.

i loaded the first disk of the first season of the series "lie to me" and we started with episode 1, the series pilot.

not far into the program a young jehovah's witness is accused of murder.
5
call me naiive .... posting comments to Watchtower YouTube videos
by Nickolas in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
i am feeling rather foolish.

i've watched a number of youtube videos posted by jehovah's witnesses and afterward have left what i think are thoughtful, non provocative comments, but not agreeing with the video's message.

i started reading the comments left before my own on the last one i watched:.
Abortion
by Nickolas in
1. jw
2. friends
hot topic in here, no doubt.. i've just finished watching richard dawkins' excellent bbc documentary "root of all evil" and thought i'd post a caveat on behalf of atheists like myself.

it was an excellent documentary in almost all respects, but not all atheists are pro abortion, at least not absolutely pro-abortion-no-holds-barred as mr. dawkins appears to be in the film.

mr. dawkins closing lines of the two-part documentary are as follows:.
4
Headship - question for an elder, former or otherwise
by Nickolas in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
i will preface this question by stating that i do not subscribe, nor ever have subscribed, to the misogynist beliefs in the bible.

women are not subordinate to men.

period.. scenario: a woman who is married decides that she wants to become a baptised jehovah's witness.
42
Consequences of speaking out
by Nickolas in
1. jw
2. friends
i've been married to the same wonderful woman for 37 years.

she's been a jehovah's witness for 33 of those years, i am not.

i studied with the wbts for a couple of years beginning late 1974 before deciding it wasn't for me.