this topics get a great deal of discussion here.
what i find interesting is even some of my pimi family is embracing the reality that all is not well with jw.org and that many current jws are just going through the motions due to not having a good way out of the org.
wondering what could realistically lead to the collapse of jw.org in the not distant future?
hybridous - "This cult either has a death wish, or believes it's own BS (namely, that YHVH is going to intercede to perpetuate it's existence.)"
Every piece of anecdotal evidence we've heard here for the past twenty years indicates that it's the latter.
And every boneheaded decision they've made is exactly the kind of call a True Believer would make.
can you really imagine that a young teenager in a room full of stern grown-ups is going to say "i've had enough of this and i am walking out."?
i really hope it will go to trial.
utah high court weighs case of woman who says church made her listen to audio of her rape as a teenager.
under the radar - "I still say there will be no progress in this area unless and until they separate the sin and the criminal aspects of child abuse and handle them accordingly. The congregation can deal with the sin aspect, but they must let the secular authorities deal with the criminal aspect."
Which is why said progress will never happen.
this topics get a great deal of discussion here.
what i find interesting is even some of my pimi family is embracing the reality that all is not well with jw.org and that many current jws are just going through the motions due to not having a good way out of the org.
wondering what could realistically lead to the collapse of jw.org in the not distant future?
And slow, steady decline into obscurity is far more permanent than some crash-and-burn (as admittedly satisfying as that would be).
Organisms that cannot or will not adapt to a changing environment are doomed to extinction, after all; it's a fundamental aspect of natural selection.
And I have a hard time imagining how a secretive, draconian, and demonstrably wrong authoritarian high-control group can truly adapt to the modern, personal-freedom-oriented, information-saturated environment of the 21st Century.
a recent wt study was titled: “the resurrection reveals god’s love, wisdom and patience.
apparently there was a lot of speculation on how those resurrected will be needing to be taught god’s ways in last weeks wt study.
does anyone know how the watchtower tries to weasel out of the "resurrection of damnation"?.
"It's called the 'nightmare stage' of wishful thinking."
I'd like to add that all cults get there, eventually.
Jonestown had reached their "nightmare stage", for example...
...their response was mass suicide and murder.
They felt backed into a corner, and chose to burn it all down rather than accept the actual truth.
this topics get a great deal of discussion here.
what i find interesting is even some of my pimi family is embracing the reality that all is not well with jw.org and that many current jws are just going through the motions due to not having a good way out of the org.
wondering what could realistically lead to the collapse of jw.org in the not distant future?
LongHairGal - "I don’t believe it is viewed the same way it was years ago..."
Agreed; the paradigm is different, now.
Another consideration is that businesses cannot help but decline when they experience constant economic insecurity.
And I'm sorry, but in what crazy-ass, fucked-up mirror universe are constant legal troubles, steady asset and staff liquidation, and demonstrable reduction of product output (in both quality and quantity) signs of robust financial health?
or do you think the idea of a deep state is malarkey?
.
I tried to find the Deep State.
I wanted to sign up.
They wouldn't return my calls.
america was a power not to be reckoned with.
but lately it seems to be the laughing stock of the world.
what other countries are seeing on the news is riots, calls to de-fund the police, breakdown of society, and elections being over taken with fraud.
Socialism and communism technically work...
...on paper.
In practice? Not so much, obviously, for a variety of reasons.
...
I'm not an overt fan of capitalism, but I'm more than willing to acknowledge the fact that - when regulated and required to act reasonably ethically - it does actually work much better.
I'm employed in the engineering field - an inherently capitalistic vocation - after all.
It's not perfect, but (like democracy) it's simply the least imperfect system we've come up with so far.
It's the ideologues who vaunt it as the end-all and be-all of economics (to the point of actually cheating to defend and perpetuate it) who are - obviously - out of line.
after 8 months of social isolation do they continue to think its loveing?
they also said social isolation was bullying..
All moot, in my opinion.
I suspect the real reasons they budged when "Satan's World" put its foot down are...
a) ...the conversion to a predominantly internet-based religion - an "e-church" - was in the works already, and this simply facilitated it by priming the rank-and-file for the "official" transition, and...
b) ...their lawyers have advised them that their tax-exemption is already on the block, and if the WTS's business model is as dependent on it as I've come to suspect, they aren't ready to risk losing it.
Not to mention that it almost completely mitigates any accusations that "pedophiles are knocking on your doors trying to recruit your kids".
i need some advise or understanding.. my brother became jehovah witness because of his wife.
our dad is dying and over the last two months he’s done some very weird stuff.. my family knows he’s not a real witness because he sells corn liquor and pills, drinks daily, let us have our moms birthday at their house.
he’s also committed adultery, it’s rumored that he molested our cousin when he was younger, done fraud to my dying dad, lied about being our dads poa for greed only to find out he’s not, lied to the family about his estranged daughters, called his oldest daughter a b*tch because she doesn’t want anything to do with him, lied on our dads life to her to get her to talk to him, he has the name nympho tattooed on his neck, has slandered his immediate family and abandoned two of his daughters for over 20 years to start a family with his new wife.
pistolpete - "You seem to believe that a person's religion has anything to do with a person's character."
Ditto.
I'm at the point in my life where I suspect that a person's religion has absolutely fuck-all to do with their character.
For the vast majority of (seemingly) loyal JWs, it's affiliation with the group that actually matters.
this post will be for the schoolars amoung us.. in the late 19th century were many of the worlds best scientists.
darwin, faraday, testla, edison etc.
and amoung them wasa lone archeologist named william albright who screwed up biblical schoolarship for over a hundred years.. before albright schoolars in europe hit on several conclusions about the bible:.
HowTheBibleWasCreated - "It's hard to be a theist an still know modern biblical schoolarship. Bart Erhman is a classic example of a Christian that became agnostic over time due to his research..."
Which is, of course, why authoritarian religionists view actual, objective Biblical scholarship with almost comical suspicion and hostility.
...as far as they're concerned, any examination must be done with the assumption that the Bible is true and factual first; any and all information can only be considered through that window.
This is outwardly portrayed as a virtue and sign of faith, but the actual underlying reason is the inherent fear that if honest, unbiased inquiry inevitably seems to lead one to disbelief, the beliefs themselves cannot help but be untenable...
...and if one's identity and mental and emotional well-being has become dependent on the veracity of said beliefs, this is, of course, unacceptable.
Virtually every "believing" Bible scholar with an intellectual bent is guilty of this, whether they admit or not... or even realize it, for that matter.
