growing up in the south everyone i knew believed in god, even the.
town drunk.
i remember watching some special tv program around xmas .
My experiences are more like those of GoodGuyGreg, in that atheisim was more the norm where I grew up. When the subject of religion came up, the typical response from most men would have been "What ...... believe that rubbish?" Less so the women, though. The typical scenario would have been the women going to church at the church on Sunday morning - while all the guys had already been to "church" on Saturday night, but at the pub!
Bill.
that's the message in my inbox today, from (an aussie publication) transport and logistics news.
( http://www.tandlnews.com.au/2013/10/10/article/skill-up-or-lose-your-job/ ).
note: i should edit this down a bit - but feeling mentally lazy.. but the message is simple - if you want to keep your job, find a way to develop your skills and make yourself more useful to your boss.. my xjw friend's son-in-law spent 6 long years doing an engineering degree part time, and was rewarded not long ago when two large mining companies competed for his services.. and, interestingly, i was talking last week to a singaporean businessman, who sells equipment that he buys from both italy and china.
Absolutely so true!
In my field, I am more and more seeing skills that now have to be licensed , which 30 years ago were hardly even classed as a skill:
- the two that immediately come to mind are driving a forklift and operating a truck-mounted crane (Hiab or similar).
( not to mention no setting foot on a construction site without a generic construction industry induction - the Queensland "Blue Card" or similar. Like so many things, this course can only be completed on line, making computer literacy essential even for a builder's labourer).
Those skills used to be learned (typically) while working on a farm, after which you obtained a generic drivers licence that allowed you to drive anything on wheels that wasn't in the category of a motor bike, car, truck or bus. This licence only permitted you to drive such a machine along a public road - it said nothing about your ability to operate it. In fact, back in 1978, when I obtained my Heavy Special type licence, the traffic policeman who conducted the driving test specifically said that they were not concerned or not you could operate the machine.
Certainly, the days when you could operate a specific piece of mobile plant without first being fully trained and licensed to do so are long gone - and never to return!
Bill.
did jehovah's witnesses plagiarize hwa's false prophecy of 1975?.
http://livingarmstrongism.blogspot.com/2013/10/did-jehovahs-witnesses-plagiarize-hwas.html.
bangalore.
David17,
You have talk about the "stress" that the WTS put on Jesus' words in Matt 24:36.
The Watchtower of August 15 1968 had this cautionary statement to make about that particular bible verse:
"This is not the time to be toying with the words of Jesus that "concerning that day and hour nobody knows" (Matt 24:36)
So, yes, you are correct in that the WTS did cite those remarks of Jesus:
- however, these weren't always cited in the same manner as you and other JW apologists would have us believe!
Bill.
(PS: Being an avid reader of everything printed by the WTS during those years, I can remember all that like it was yesterday)
i just thought about them a few minutes ago.
you put how many hours you spent in service and the amount of mags.
and books you placed(sold).
During the days of the chart at the front of the Kingdom Hall, there were also strict monthly quotas each publisher had to meet if they were to remain classed as "regular".
Included in these monthly quotas were:
- 10 hrs
- 12 magazines
- 1 bible study
Look out if you failed to meet your quota - it was then " ten laps of the parade ground while holding your rifle above your head."
This went out about the same time as the elder arrangement came in
i.e. 1971 / 72
Bill.
okay i know that there are people who began careers in medicine, law, etc.
then later got into the truth.
i know that pursuing a higher education is not forbidden but a personal choice.
To use the term "personal choice" is taking matters a bit far when you are talking about Jehovahs Witnesses and higher education. I was stopped from going to university by the congregation's elders (one in particular - the same retard who 12 months later made me abandon the apprenticeship I had just started).
There was very little "personal choice" involved, more like Hobson's choice!
Bill.
looking back at it, they must of thought we were really weird!.
funny story: yesterday i had to pick up meds for my mom and when they asked her date of birth, i couldn't remember!
the cvs druggist looked at me in a strange way until i mentioned, "sorry, but i was raised a jehovah's witness and i never celebrated her birthday".. she laughed, asked for my id, then whispered what her birth date was.. you gotta wonder what they must be thinking!.
When the WT Madness took hold of me, people I knew must have thought that I had taken complete leave of my senses.
Interestingly, though, when I re-contacted these same people 40-something years later, they were still quite happy to have me as a friend:
- just like nothing had changed.
All I can say is that they could teach the JWs a thing or two about forgiveness!
Bill.
i find that whether born in or converts, most jw's give their own conscience over to the gb (and writing dept) to dictate how they will react to any moral question.. they simply lack a conscience of their own.. this is not their fault, we should not look down on them for this, their conscience, their natural feeling of what is right and wrong has been:.
stolen from them !.
we all know how the cult does this to them, it did it to us, i really am almost in tears when i think that had either of my darling children needed a blood transfusion i would have resisted, believing what i have been taught all my life, that their eternal life was more important than their life now.. how can we persuade jw's to take back their conscience ?.
The art of persuasion is certainly something else again, and nobody is likely to change their beliefs while they feel under attack (A person's defensive mechanisms cut in under those circumstances).
There is a place on this forum, though, for also venting ones own feeling and frustrations: - "getting if off your chest" as the saying goes. This forum is not necessesarily only about helping those still in the JW religion, so I would not be too hard on Phizzy!
As to whether or not it takes moral courage to kill ones own children:
- as has often been observed "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good persons to do nothing."
Moral cowardice can also be exhibited in the passive (it is perhaps even most oftenexhibited in this form).
Bill
in 2008, the outline for meetings of circuit overseers with congregational elders and ministerial servants discussed that an elder can be removed for promoting university.
there used to be a spanish scan linked on this site, but the link no longer works.
i would be happy to find a copy of either the spanish or english version.
After just reading this, I can only wonder how come I was able to tolerate such bull$h*t for as long as I did!
Bill.
it was totally vacuous.
despite the promise of "new light" in the opening talk there was nothing.. a few of the more clumsy phrases in the nwt have been improved, and it has a nice new grey cover - so what?.
i am thinking about the jws who have spent a lifetime waiting on paradise.
Cofty,
The title you have given this thread sums it up perfectly!
Bill.
the title says it all.
Bigmac,
You arenotalone:
- I, too, regard the thing as being yet one more example of "Much Ado about Mothing."
Bill.
