Posts by Amelia Ashton

43

Animals

by unsure in

if humans have to suffer to have free will and to disprove satan's challenge to god as mentioned in the bible...then why the f*ck do animals have to suffer as well?

.

satan's challenge involved humans and not poor animals.. i'm looking for an honest explanation from believers.. at this point, the older i get, the less i believe in a god who is "love"..

Amelia Ashton

They are amazing creatures. Here are some fun facts:
There are five genera of hedgehogs:

Erinaceus

Paraechinus

Mesechinus

Atelerix

Hemiechinus

and a total of 17 species found across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia but they are absent from North and South America, Australia and South East Asia.

The most common pet hedgehog in the UK is the African Pygmy Hedgehog which is what mine are.

This blew my mind when I discovered it.

The lesser hedgehog tenrec is an example of convergent evolution, a process by which animals that are not related, independently evolve to have similar traits to one another from having to adapt to similar environments

Lesser hedgehog tenrecs come from Madagascar and as there were never any hedgehogs there so there was space for an animal that ate the same diet of insects and other invertebrates that the hedgehog does. It protects itself from predators the same way too by rolling up into a ball with it's quills sticking outward but unlike hedgehogs, lesser hedgehog tenrecs are semi-arboreal, meaning that they like to climb, and in captivity they need branches to keep properly active. Their claws are hooked to help grip and hold on, rather than straight like the hedgehogs and...they are actually more closely related to elephants than other hedgehogs!

43

Animals

by unsure in

if humans have to suffer to have free will and to disprove satan's challenge to god as mentioned in the bible...then why the f*ck do animals have to suffer as well?

.

satan's challenge involved humans and not poor animals.. i'm looking for an honest explanation from believers.. at this point, the older i get, the less i believe in a god who is "love"..

Amelia Ashton

I rescue and breed hedgehogs. Every hedgehog that I breed or rescue I view as my responsibility for the rest of their life even after they go to their new homes. In fact new owners have to sign a contract that if for any reason they are no longer able to keep their hedgehog it has to come back to me. They cannot pass it on to someone else. I will and have persued people who have tried to break that contract and I get the hedgehog back.

How can an all powerful God who created us watch while we suffer and do nothing especially innocent babies and children? No argument I had with anyone would stop me protecting my hedgehogs. I expect the very least of God and he has failed big time.

7

The origins of personified spirits and demons

by Doug Mason in

for the jews, personified spirit beings, good and evil, along with demons, originated during the 3rd and 2nd centuries bce.. https://jwstudies.com/crucible__powers_above.pdf .

this file will be available very temporarily.. doug.

Amelia Ashton

When I first started doubting Jwdom I read the books not included in our current day version of the Bible. One was a book quoted but excluded in the final selection and I never accepted the JW explanation that the book quoted is lost and the one we can read is fake....or some such reasoning. A bit like there were 2 places called Damascus which is why Paul was both coming and going there at the time of his conversion.

34

For those who are athest, or non-christian, how did you come to this decision?

by Tameria2001 in

i'm not asking this question to cause an argument or accuse, but i am honestly just wondering?

for those of you who are now atheist or non-christian, how did you come to this decision?

i hadn't given this much thought until about a year ago.

Amelia Ashton

The truth will set you free but scientific evidence and fact based truth not the JW kind.

7

The origins of personified spirits and demons

by Doug Mason in

for the jews, personified spirit beings, good and evil, along with demons, originated during the 3rd and 2nd centuries bce.. https://jwstudies.com/crucible__powers_above.pdf .

this file will be available very temporarily.. doug.

Amelia Ashton

I printed it off. Fascinating reading.

Thank you

19

Pure Worship restored only for English-speaking?

by AlexPancho in

gb recent presents new book "based ezekiel" - pure worship restored.this book also provide into jw-borg site and jw-lib too, but only english.as examle, spanish - it`s second largest language into us and america continents, but has no translated into it.do you have any idea why this could happen?

they hide something, or just did not have time to translate (but previously published in all major languages at the same time).

Amelia Ashton

One of my many aha moments came from living in Spain and seeing how English was translated into Spanish. They even refer to KHs as churches over there but we couldn't.

Being English speaking Our Kingdom Ministries were often, if we even got them, a bit irrelevent for us living in Spain. The Spanish version was aimed at Spanish people so no good for us either because our ministry was searching for English speaking people first and we were not to offer Spanish literature at all.

I felt that was being partial even tho God supposedly isn't. Why couldn't we pair up with the Spanish and all preach together.

Even the Spanish in our cong (They were all pioneers) who could speak English if finding an interested Spanish person had to pass their details to the Spanish congregation. They could not have them as a return visit. None of the rules seemed to be based on love for either the householder or the JWs

73

1975—Were You Affected By What 1975 Was Supposed to Bring?

by minimus in

jw
friends

for years , we were told to wait until 1975!.

the end was coming and we better be ready—or else!.

were you around during this “momentous “ time??

Amelia Ashton

I was in college in 1975 and the only thing I knew about Jehovah s Witnesses back then was that they were predicting the end of the world was happening that year.

27

JW marketing image

by neat blue dog in

picture from a recent watchtower:.

what diversity.

what corporate synergy.

Amelia Ashton

This is the reality

26

Brexit Rollercoaster Grinding to a Halt

by The Fall Guy in

uk prime minister could be out of her job within hours.

.

regardless, another referendum on stay/leave looks very likely - now that people can see what the real consequences of a divorce from the eu would be..

Amelia Ashton

I think both sides were clueless has to how leaving would impact us all. The mess of the borders never crossed my mind and I don't even remember them being discussed let alone solved.

There was definitely no talk of food or medicine shortages that I remember but maybe I missed them and people thought not having them a small price to pay for independence...or perhaps they are part of project fear and won't happen.

I don't think either side really knows because stay or leave the EU is still calling all the shots.

I see Nigel Farage has secured German passports for his children after fighting practically his whole political career for UK to be independent from Europe. Is he now not planning on staying here now we are leaving?

34

For those who are athest, or non-christian, how did you come to this decision?

by Tameria2001 in

i'm not asking this question to cause an argument or accuse, but i am honestly just wondering?

for those of you who are now atheist or non-christian, how did you come to this decision?

i hadn't given this much thought until about a year ago.

Amelia Ashton

Lack of evidence, pure and simple.

Whilst having one of many aha moments a well meaning Christian (non JW) told me God WAS taking care of me and answering my prayers I just wasn't recognising his blessings.

I was trying to escape a cult and realised their viewpoint was just as delusional as the Watchtower and once again I was the one at fault not God. Why couldn't an all powerful omnipotent being just be be a little bit clearer? It was a hard journey but with lots of reading and YouTube videos starting with Richard Dawkins and Derren Brown there was no other conclusion.

The laryngial nerve in the giraffe and Dawkins explaining irreducible complexity of the eye proved there was no God for me.