Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  22

  Who would vote to disband the JW organisation?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from their history, it is evident that jehovah's witnesses are just another doomsday cult.. cults are run by autocrats.

  on purpose they are ideologically fixated and they demand that their devotees hold the same absolute certainty of belief without regard for evidence.

  the suspension of critical thought is encouraged and by focussing on the objectives of the cult belief in a like minded community, it gives both a sense of direction within a sort of ‘family’ and a hope of paradise perfection.. the leaders have everything to gain by controlling their followers; all the income goes in their direction.. democracy has strictly no part in a running cult.

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  Half banana

  I was thinking that the JW org is so last century, well actually so very 19th century---and it is honour bound to continue with its primitive Bible based rhetoric.

  The time is coming however when JWs will be so at odds with real normal modern life, that they will eventually come under government scrutiny as an unhealthy force in society.

  As some have mentioned there are damaging things which they demand, shunning of family members, disapproving of education, not allowing children to develop naturally. JWs stifle the life spirit in young people. JWs grow up with a distorted view of the world etc.

  Of course this old Bible cult is very rich and even when in terminal decline for many years it will be able to appear functioning normally because of its accumulated wealth. But the time will come when being so unaccountable and mentally and emotionally hurtful to its members they will be exposed as a cult. Financial losses will continue and it will be necessary to downsize and radically modify their approach.

  It will be the GB who will have to vote as to whether they continue or disband. Or I suppose in extremis they may turn to the rank and file?

  One of my closest friends remains a JW for the sake of family but he loathes the religion. He feels powerless and says that the JW org has been the bane of his life. He must be among many long suffering non-believing JWs who given the chance would vote immediately for it to be disbanded.
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  22

  Who would vote to disband the JW organisation?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from their history, it is evident that jehovah's witnesses are just another doomsday cult.. cults are run by autocrats.

  on purpose they are ideologically fixated and they demand that their devotees hold the same absolute certainty of belief without regard for evidence.

  the suspension of critical thought is encouraged and by focussing on the objectives of the cult belief in a like minded community, it gives both a sense of direction within a sort of ‘family’ and a hope of paradise perfection.. the leaders have everything to gain by controlling their followers; all the income goes in their direction.. democracy has strictly no part in a running cult.

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  Half banana

  From their history, it is evident that Jehovah's Witnesses are just another doomsday cult.

  Cults are run by autocrats. On purpose they are ideologically fixated and they demand that their devotees hold the same absolute certainty of belief without regard for evidence.

  The suspension of critical thought is encouraged and by focussing on the objectives of the cult belief in a like minded community, it gives both a sense of direction within a sort of ‘family’ and a hope of paradise perfection.

  The leaders have everything to gain by controlling their followers; all the income goes in their direction.

  Democracy has strictly no part in a running cult. The leaders proclaim that the truth is already worked out by them since only they have 'holy spirit' directing them. (or is that pixie dust?) So democracy is out.

  How many are there who have been affected from the fallout from the JW organisation?

  Worldwide there must now be more ex-witnesses than those practicing......................

  What if democracy ruled the JWs?

  Given the chance then, would you vote to disband it?
  
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  10

  Will the GB ever humble themselves as Jesus admonished in Matt 20 20-28

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in his book crisis of conscience, raymond franz likened the governing body to the proverbial 'iron fist in a velvet glove'.

  this would seem harsh if it weren't for the fact that there is ample proof that their policies and teachings have caused much pain amongst the friends.

  for example, many families have been torn apart through their shunning policy.

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  Half banana

  By humbly admitting to being "blind guides" would destroy the fading illusion that they have any authority at all.

  It's only this aura of divine authority which gives them the keys to the bank vault.

  I suppose they could compromise and admit culpability: "All right, it's true, we were just another doomsday cult. Pay off the court fees and penalties to the molested and make sure they have appropriate psychological counselling, set up an enormous fund from selling off the property portfolio available to all who have been mentally and financially damaged by the Watchtower and JW org, disband the whole organisation and retire (in luxury lakeside appartments) and promise to never deceive people again".

  Some hope!
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  12

  Possible new light on 70 years

  by Saltheart Foamfollower in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i may be reading more into this than is there, but here is what i've spotted from today's watchtower study (oct 2016 study edition) page 14 paragraph 8. concerning daniel it says "thus, some 70 years after his arrival in babylon, he was still known by his hebrew name" referring to an event in the first year of darius ie 539/538 bce.

  however, according to the wtbts chronology daniel went to babylon in 617 bce - more like 80 years earlier.

  could this (finally) be a step towards ditching 607?.

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  Half banana

  The book called Daniel is a historical fictional novel written in the middle of the second century BCE. Being written in the first person, it convinces the gullible that Daniel was both real and contemporary to the events described. The text takes a spin on events which had already happened hundreds of years before as imagined in Babylon but referred in part to the prevailing Persian politics. The surest way to write prophecy is after the event!

  The JW organisation as 'God's only channel' has had nothing on which to claim divine attention except to predict 1914. It never did foretell WW1 but the year when paradise would arrive, so it is a dishonest boast anyway.

  To expose the faulty basis for 1914 in the Watchtower would remove the only vestige of god-magic it can muster.

  I get the impression that for very many years, among the upper echelons, belief in 1914 whether true or not, is a sort of in-house code for fidelity to the GB, it almost seems masonic.
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  21

  The Evils of Aluminum

  by NeonMadman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  aluminum was an issue that became a real “tempest in a teapot” for the watchtower.

  it influenced their teaching for almost 50 years and, frankly, created an impression among observers that their members were off-the-wall fanatics.

  for all those years, the golden age and other watchtower publications took the position that aluminum cookware and utensils were one of the great health hazards of the 20th century.

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  Half banana

  Well said Scratchme.

  Aluminium is after all the third most abundant element on our planet (by weight) after oxygen and silicon, brought to us lovingly by the same god who thought we would "also enjoy" beryllium, arsenic, mercury and plutonium.
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  7

  Revelation already fulfilled

  by stockholm_Syndrome in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  it appears to me revelation was 'fulfilled' 1st century and we are fooling ourselves to think it applies to present times .

  let's start with the opening statement:.

  a revelation by jesus christ, which god gave him,+ to show his slaves+ the things that must shortly take place.. hmm-- shortly take place ?

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  Half banana

  Any book which needs to say "These words are faithful and true" is a dead give away that the words are spurious.
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  21

  wt on a slide, " 1914's generation is not only overlapping, but also composite.

  by prologos in

  1. social
  2. humour

  doctrines projected by wt writers can be compared to the slides in the old carousel slide shows, the jw audience was kept in the dark, but the next images' bright filtered new light had their rapt attention.

  often these doctrine images came around again but modified, often totally changed, turned upside down.

  think superior authorities, resurrection ----, .

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  Half banana

  They are definitely on a slide Prologos--- but never transparent.

  I think the "Overlapping 1914 generation" should feature on the gravestone of the Watchtower organisation.
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  15

  Melbourne Victoria Circuit Assembly Figures

  by jonahstourguide in

  1. social
  2. current

  hi all, kind of news i suppose.. fyi, 10/12/2016 at melton assembly hall.

  1,266 in attendance.. two 15 yo, one male one female baptised.. costs for the day, $6,951:00 .

  before costs contribution to sydney branch office from last assembly surplus $3,000:00. jtg.

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  Half banana

  Very encouraging Jonastourguide! I loved the bit that wots wrong, is the JWs have lost their former infatuation. (It never was love). I'm sure this is apparent in the contribution boxes.

  The problems assailing the GB must play out in the congregations. Gloom is contagious! Little increase apart from born-ins in the western world just goes to show that the organisation is becoming a hollow shell. It resembles the old org but is becoming empty.
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  18

  OT - Pork was unclean... NT Now it's not?

  by pleaseresearch in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this always baffled me.

  either pork is unclean and wrong to eat forever, or it was a load of bull to begin with..

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  Half banana

  Cold steel you are watching the wrong videos!

  This man's brain is toxic, not surprising since he obviously has been fed only on the BIble.

  Lobster, crab and crispy pork--- life enhancing and utterly delicious!
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  29

  Do any of the governing body of JWs exercise their conscience?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the members of the governing body, by being at the reins of a large corporation, must be confronted with situations which force them to think about the validity of their doctrines.. the australian royal commission hearing must have highlighted for the gb, especially jackson, the rational inconsistency of using an iron age dictum of "two witnesses" in a world which has moved beyond such rough justice.

  today we have a scientific approach, we examine forensically, we have psychologists who can tell us about individual's minds and behaviour.

  today, children's voices are not ignored.. the first and last resort of jws and their leaders is the doctrine of the "inerrancy of the bible".

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  Half banana

  I had a similar thought this morning Zeb that all institutions and cults evolve, flourish and eventually die. As in Hitler's case, Nazism died in a bunker with its chief proponent committing suicide.

  Any cult only serves the interests and the egos of its leaders. . . usually they are sociopaths, narcissists and ideologically fixated.

  When their ideology becomes exposed for its fraudulence the last resort of the leadership is to demand unquestioning loyalty. The JW cult has already done it. Isn't this how cultists die with this demand ringing in their ears?

  Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult run by egoists who are able to suppress the urgings of their natural conscience.