religion is declining in many countries around the world and hardly exists in some countries.. it would fair to say that scientifically acquired knowledge has taken a bite of religious practice over the years.
the premising suggestion that there is a god looking at everything mankind does or should do is vanishing out the human consciousness.. should we emulate the social directives written in ancient manuscripts established by those ancients for their civilization ?
is it possible that mankind can control and guide itself now with all the acquired knowledge we have attained, toward the ending betterment of humanity ?
Ethics and religion are two quite separate matters.
There are plenty of religious people around whose knowledge of ethics could be written on the back of a single postage stamp! Conversely, I know of a number of ethical people who will not have a bar of religion.
world headquarters of jehovah's witnesses - warwick, new york.
“yes, the end of this system is so very near!
is that no reason to increase our activity?… reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service.
Alfred
"There's no money for these poor Haitian brothers walking to the Kingdom Hall"
In other words, "I'm all-right Jack, ^#*k you!"
one of my jw sons seems to be putting pressure on his non-jw brother apparently to scare him into accepting the troof and start coming to meetings.
wild statements like our topic title, which i know are not supported at jw dot org, have been made to my non-jw son several times over the past year or so.
while i haven't been privy to the actual phone conversations i tend to believe that the jw son is being pressured by the local elders to cut ties with the non-jw since their conversations seem to degrade into arguments -- therefore tending to weaken the jws faith in wt teachings.. either my jw son is lying about what i would call rogue teachings (and this would disappoint me greatly) or he is in some close knit clique in his congregation which has secretly chosen to go rogue on certain wt issues.. based on many of the recent posts here about drastic money and wt organization problems this could be a sign of pending splits of certain congregation members.. what do you think?
smiddy3 and steve2,
After all, the series of International Assemblies that were held during that year (1973) weren't entitled "Divine Victory" for nothing, were they ? (Well, actually, as it turned out, they were!)
my uber elder cousin and his wife got the "privilege" of having one last "toast" of wine at the rooftop garden at the towers in nyc since the jw's are vacating to warwick.
his oldest daughter and son in law are quite high up in the inner circle so they get invited to all the "inner circle" activities.
even though they aren't supposed to toast to anything it was pretty darn close.
The term "Witness Royalty" hits the nail fairly on the head, There is such a thing all-right, or at least those that think they fit into that category!
i used to be a staunch believer in god.
maybe its technology and science advancing so much thats got me doubting idk.
do you believe in god?
Somebody else (not sure who!) coined the expression "Religioned Out", but that best describes my present situation.
Aerodynamic,
No need to apologise for being "longwinded". There are many things that cannot be explained adequately in an eight second sound bite, a 140 character Tweet or similar!
why did jesus supposedly cast the demons into a herd of pigs?.
(matt 8 / luke 8).
and, how were there so many demons inside one man, that when "released" by jesus, it took a whole pack of pigs to contain them??.
Doubtfull1799,
With you 100% on what you just wrote!
Charles Dunn
I for one will miss David's posts, and for similar reasons to those already stated by Doubtfull1799. However, if participation on this board is proving detrimental to him, then best he does refrain from further involvement.
why did jesus supposedly cast the demons into a herd of pigs?.
(matt 8 / luke 8).
and, how were there so many demons inside one man, that when "released" by jesus, it took a whole pack of pigs to contain them??.
EverApostate,
Voltaire hit the nail fairly and squarely on the head with that statement!
a man can be a father .
a man can be a son.
a man can be a husband.
Not that I could care less anymore, but when pressed back to the ropes about the trinity doctrine, clergymen of all persuasions will state words to the effect "It is a Holy Mystery that nobody can really understand".
In other words, just like the JW's "Overlapping Generation" idea!
he became co when he was 23. i was wondering is he the youngest co ever?
his name is jonathan smith.
he is from south dakota.
I knew of two brothers in Australia who would have been even younger (22 years old) when they began serving as "Circuit Servants" in the 1950s. Ones age could not have been too much of a problem back then!
meetings are boring for young kids and old but i'm going to focus on young kids 5 or 8.. i think is unfair that young kids get punished for falling asleep or zoning out.. as meetings are not as boring but i have to go to school the next day and staying up till 10pm isn't the best i can't get out of going.. but think of the young kids that dont even understand most of the teachings.. i know most on the site are adults but i heard of adults falling asleep..
When I was 9 years old, my newly-converted JW grandmother applied much pressure on my father to have us kids reared as JWs. However, my father quickly realised what others here have noted about the meetings, and would not have a bar of it.
For that, I cannot thank him enough!
When I eventually began attending the meetings, I thought that there must have been a point that I was somehow missing. After all, the way several of the pioneer brothers described attending a Kingdom Hall meeting, it sounded like it was going to be a mind-altering experience!
My biggest regret ever is the way in which I dragged my three children to all the meetings, from the time they were babies.
Bloody cruelty!
Bloody insanity!
#@$ked -up bloody religion!
