Ironic that natural selection would give rise to a species which becomes so specifically adapted to its environment that the denial of natural selection’s existence becomes a vital component to its continued survival in said environment.
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Posts by Vidiot
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16Some notes on early Christianity - its evolution and "sacred text"
by Half banana inin the scope of this site, it’s not possible to go too deeply into historical research in a single post but we can give the flavour of things formerly hidden from us when we were jws.. like most things, christianity evolved.. it has unseen roots but many visible branches, 40,000 is the often quoted number!
there never was a moment when it arrived fully formed in the middle of the first century.
its roots in folk mysteries were deliberately concealed by fourth and fifth century christian leaders.
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12
Watchtower Greek where the mumbo meets the jumbo
by Terry intake a look at this photo of a now long extinct publication!ain't she a beauty?.
around 1976 i got the wild idea i'd like to learn greek.
gosh - just look at the gorgeous purple book up there!
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Vidiot
You guys wanna hear something funny?
For a long time as a kid, I was under the mistaken impression that the originals of the Bible books actually existed in museums or libraries somewhere, that the WT folks had access to them and created the NWT from them, and that the scholars of “false religion” had dishonestly mistranslated their versions on purpose to avoid worshipping Jehovah or going door-to-door.
Seriously.
Imagine my disappointment when my elder father admitted to me that this wasn’t quite the case, and that obedient JWs simply had faith that the NWT was more correct.
On a related note, I suspect that, on some level, certain JWs have an intrinsic need to trust some kind of authority figure.
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"The Project" posted a video about the National Redress Scheme and JWs
by AndersonsInfo inhttps://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=612947649624670.
the project posted a video to playlist feature stories.. .
l10 tthrsponsmorsldlged · .
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Vidiot
Maybe the Org is reluctant to sign up because they’re scared they’ll get tapped dry.
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15
J.W's and " but that is Pagan !".
by Phizzy inthere have been a number of threads touching on this before, leolaia for one, back in the day when we had many an erudite poster, showed the pagan origins of many things, including the passover , and by extension, the jw " memorial".. what prompted my thought on this was a conversation i had the other day with a young lady, never a jw, who said the jw stance on birthday celebrations, was groundless and cruel.. i thought later that jw's do a " pick and mix " as usual, as they do with so many other things, on what they condemn as "pagan" and what they accept and practice.. the institution of marriage itself is pagan, marriages were performed long before the bible was written, and long before the nation of israel was formed.
yet jw's perform marriages, use the veil, and the ring, all pagan.
the names of the days of the week, the months of the year, all pagan.. i guess you guys can think of many more things ?
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Vidiot
Go back far enough in (actual) human history, and pretty much everything has “pagan” origins.
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12
Cults and Their Charismatic Leaders Part 1
by 1234 inpeople know of many cult leaders’ and their charismatic personalities, with their fringe beliefs and lust for power and how they have inspired hundreds to follow their unconventional philosophies — with often-tragic results.
charles manson, david koresh, jim jones, bhagwan shree rajneesh and others have gained international notoriety for exposing the dark side of humanity.. however what about the cults that went main stream.
i guess we could throw in jesus and even adolf hitler.
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Vidiot
Two big related problems the Org has...
a) ...Fred Franz never left any kind of protege before he kicked the bucket, and...
b) ...Ted Jaracz used 9-11 to purge out the majority of creative types and out-of-the-box thinkers...
...the kinds of people that, IMO, the WTS needed the most in order to effectively bring the WT narrative into the 21st century.
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Rolf Furuli Disfellowshipped Last Week
by Sea Breeze inwell known norway elder and watchtower doctrine apologist, (rolf furuli) was disfellowshipped a few days ago for the crime of expressing opinions contrary to some watchtower dictates.. like wt leadership in the past, they have no problem eating their own..
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Vidiot
re. Off-shore accounts...
...do organizations deliberately begin building up emergency nest-eggs because they’re actually expecting financial decline or collapse?
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12
Cults and Their Charismatic Leaders Part 1
by 1234 inpeople know of many cult leaders’ and their charismatic personalities, with their fringe beliefs and lust for power and how they have inspired hundreds to follow their unconventional philosophies — with often-tragic results.
charles manson, david koresh, jim jones, bhagwan shree rajneesh and others have gained international notoriety for exposing the dark side of humanity.. however what about the cults that went main stream.
i guess we could throw in jesus and even adolf hitler.
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Vidiot
@ 1234 ...
Dont kid yourself.
JWs don’t have that much sex.
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12
Cults and Their Charismatic Leaders Part 1
by 1234 inpeople know of many cult leaders’ and their charismatic personalities, with their fringe beliefs and lust for power and how they have inspired hundreds to follow their unconventional philosophies — with often-tragic results.
charles manson, david koresh, jim jones, bhagwan shree rajneesh and others have gained international notoriety for exposing the dark side of humanity.. however what about the cults that went main stream.
i guess we could throw in jesus and even adolf hitler.
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Vidiot
I could care less if there are still cults existing in the future...
...as long as the WTS isn’t one of them.
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45
P. Ms Letter to non subscibers to Redress Scheme
by jonahstourguide inspotted this article this morning.
i will try to post a link.. jtg.. australia.. institutions refusing to join the national redress scheme are "doubling down" on the crime of child sexual abuse, prime minister scott morrison says.. mr morrison and social services minister anne ruston have warned institutions they may lose funding and tax concessions if they fail to sign up by tuesday's deadline and will be named and shamed.. "all institutions are doing in not joining is doubling down on the crime and doubling down on the hurt," they said in a letter to 25 institutions.. "we consider it to be reprehensible that you have failed to sign up to the scheme.".
the jehovah's witnesses is among the organisations that has refused to sign up, arguing it does not have the institutional settings of other faith-based institutions that the redress scheme is designed to cover.. senator ruston is set to name the non-participating institutions on wednesday, when she will announce what action the federal government will take against them.. "we urge you to join the scheme not because of concerns about being identified, but because it is the right thing to do," the minister and mr morrison said.. "it is the right thing to do by survivors and their families and it is what every, decent, honest, australian demands.".
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Vidiot
On a related note, I actually hope the Aussie government doesn't seize any WT property to compensate the victims (in effect, "forcing" the WTS to join the redress scheme).
Yes, it would accomplish something in the short-term, but the Org would be too easily able to appear as martyrs to the rank-and-file.
Better to compensate the victims from federal funds in this particular instance... it would make the government (correctly) appear more ethical and empathetic...
...and then, after countless rebuffed requests for the Org to voluntarily repay the shortfall (because, let's be honest, they won't) revoke their "charity" status as a punitive measure... way harder to spin "paying back Caesar's things to Caesar" as "persecution", after all....
...and since the WTS has already moved the bulk of their funds out of the country (in order to spuriously claim that they can't afford it), raise public taxes just a teeny bit to - ostensibly - make up said shortfall, and let everybody know why.
Public opinion of the Org would be at an all-time low...
...embarrassment and disillusionment on the part of the R&F would be at an all-time high.
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P. Ms Letter to non subscibers to Redress Scheme
by jonahstourguide inspotted this article this morning.
i will try to post a link.. jtg.. australia.. institutions refusing to join the national redress scheme are "doubling down" on the crime of child sexual abuse, prime minister scott morrison says.. mr morrison and social services minister anne ruston have warned institutions they may lose funding and tax concessions if they fail to sign up by tuesday's deadline and will be named and shamed.. "all institutions are doing in not joining is doubling down on the crime and doubling down on the hurt," they said in a letter to 25 institutions.. "we consider it to be reprehensible that you have failed to sign up to the scheme.".
the jehovah's witnesses is among the organisations that has refused to sign up, arguing it does not have the institutional settings of other faith-based institutions that the redress scheme is designed to cover.. senator ruston is set to name the non-participating institutions on wednesday, when she will announce what action the federal government will take against them.. "we urge you to join the scheme not because of concerns about being identified, but because it is the right thing to do," the minister and mr morrison said.. "it is the right thing to do by survivors and their families and it is what every, decent, honest, australian demands.".
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Vidiot
joey dojo - "JWs are the only organised religion that have failed to join. They have less than 10 claimants that have registered interest in redress, according to the media, so why hold out? It seems like really bad press for all the wrong reasons."
From the Org's perspective, they simply can't.
Pride is definitely a factor, but more importantly, to willingly join the redress scheme would be - in effect - publicly admitting the problem existed in the first place, that it was indeed their fault it got so bad, and that their so-called "Biblical" methods of dealing with it internally were fundamentally flawed.
All of which too deeply undermine the internal claim that they are "God's Exclusive Earthly Organization"... a dogma which absolutely must be reinforced and maintained at all costs, because...
a) ...without it, there's virtually no incentive for the average rank-and-filer to even be a JW at this point, and technically, the Org is still arguably dependent on the membership's financial support, and...
b) ...being "God's Exclusive Earthly Organization" has become the WTS's whole raison d'etre... if they're not actually what they claim, then by their own internal 100-years-strong rhetoric and standards, they are by definition a "false religion", and therefore have no legitimacy, authority, or right to even exist.
The first loss might be survivable.
The second, though?