Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  36

  Why are JWs so sensitive to criticism?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i remember a roman catholic priest acknowledging on the bbc that the outrageously anti-clerical tv comedy father ted was a humorous mocking of his church but an acceptable thing.. try mocking the jw religion to a believer and the result is so very different.. just why is it that jehovah's witnesses can never take even the faintest hint of criticism of their religion?.

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  Half banana

  Psychologists say that sensitivity to criticism is symptomatic of an unhealed ‘wound’.

  My thought is that perhaps it has to do with not making the healthy transition to adult life. Being “grown up” means making our own decisions and taking personal responsibility for things we choose to do. The opposite situation is found significantly among Jehovah’s Witnesses, JWs exhibit that raw, unthinking dependency on perceived authority which is found characteristically in children. (The NT typically endorses such foolishness to be practised as an adult).

  The JW religion supplies both the instructions and a community strictly conforming to that ethos; a whole new ‘family’ ruled by a patriarchal governing body who act as surrogate parents to all JWs both adult and children.

  To comply with this social arrangement, spurred on by the dream of an impossibly perfect life in paradise is an offer a child-like mind cannot refuse. A mature adult used to making judgements on testable evidence would instantly bridle at the absurdity of the reward of everlasting life. Just for the moment suppose paradise is possible; what is the cost? To win this prize you must relinquish your self determination, limit your thinking and also you must hand over your conscience to another party!

  @Punkofnice, I’m not so sure that Witnesses are conscious of their delusion in the first place (when I was a JW, I was deluded into thinking that I was not deluded!) but it seems that bubble bursting is absolutely at the heart of the sensitivity. The bubble is the certain belief in the over-inflated hype of the GB and reliance on the sanctity of an ancient set of fables.

  Perhaps the JW does have a nagging suspicion that membership satisfactorily covers their private psychological wounds; their inadequacy, abuse, poverty, poor education, ill health, bad parenting or even the inability to stand on one’s own feet.

  As WB Yeats said,

  “But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
  I have spread my dreams under your feet;
  Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
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  80

  Major Doctrinal Changes Must Be On The Way

  by notsurewheretogo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the statement in the article "who is leading gods people today?

  " in the feb 17th study edition of the wt is very interesting.. it states: ""the g.b.

  is neither inspired nor infallible" ..we can err .in doctrinal matters....".

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  Half banana

  "The G.B. is neither inspired nor infallible" ..we can err .in Doctrinal matters...."

  You didn't need to tell us 'cos quite frankly JW org, we had noticed that this habit of yours, flip-flopping doctrines, is the mainstay of your pathetic religion.
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  41

  What Comes After the Watchtower Collapse?

  by schnell in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i was going to put this in my thread about pyramid schemes, but i thought it's discreet enough to warrant its own.

  1) there are many faithful jws.

  2) there are many men and women who could take control and fill the void if the watchtower collapses.

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  Half banana

  Further to your though DOC, "Nobody went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people," someone said...

  The leaders of the Watchtower cult have a lifelong tradition of total prophetic failure but are equipped with with a mind bending propaganda machine to feed the minds of their unquestioning flock. JWs are willing slaves in a cult which gives them nothing in return but a worthless and spurious hope.

  The amazing survival of this failed cult is by careful manipulation of the misplaced trust in the hype given out by the governing body that they alone are the channel to God, the one and only divinely inspired religion.
  

  With the unholy internet bringing real enlightenment to the JW wobblers and the more alert public; the numbers of JWs should level off and then decline.

  Christianity is a delusion in the first place (no God-man, Jesus or otherwise, is ever going to save even one person from death---and Adamic sin is a myth!) If Christianity is a con and has lasted for over sixteen centuries, what chance is there of an abrupt end to the JW cult which is just one of the forty thousand variations cashing in on "absolute truth"?

  However, towers if built on bad foundations, can and do fall suddenly.................
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  21

  2013 NWT - Conveniently Circular

  by theunbeliever in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is my first post.

  as i am currently disfellowshipped, i have no one else to discuss these things with.

  even if i was actively associated with the dubs, i suppose i'd still have no one else to discuss this with.

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  Half banana

  Not taking my own advice, in this instance (for speed) I can recommend the words of one of those who is doing the very thing of interminably discussing the finer points of what is religious truth; Dennis Bratcher, Prof of theology. In his article in Crivoice, Bratcher gives a good and balanced review on the relevant Hebrew words to describe ‘circle’ and ‘ball’ and why they were used.

  Here http://www.crivoice.org/circle.html
  
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  21

  2013 NWT - Conveniently Circular

  by theunbeliever in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is my first post.

  as i am currently disfellowshipped, i have no one else to discuss these things with.

  even if i was actively associated with the dubs, i suppose i'd still have no one else to discuss this with.

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  Half banana

  Welcome to the fray Unbeliever and remember we are with you on your journey towards gaining your freedom and your new life. Although you are in a bit of a fix at the mo, be assured, it will not last, things will get much better!

  It is actually possible to spend a lifetime of research looking into the scriptures and not come to any conclusion. My suggestion for any thinking ex-JW is to read those academics who have spent a lifetime researching who are without a religious agenda and who are not associated with or affiliated to a religious body. These individuals often are not found in the popular books section of Amazon or bookshops.

  Such a writer is Thomas L Thompson who was denied his first PhD by his adjudicator the former Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) because his dissertation exposed the intellectual dishonesty of the Roman Church. Thompson left the church and studied all aspects of the history, archeology and texts and inscriptions contemporary to the biblical ones. He develops a clear picture of the political, religious and social milieu of the writers of the Hebrew texts (my hero).

  Such people are the bane of Bible cults.

  Anyway---a circle can be deformed into a star; get out of that vicious JW circle and be a star instead!
  
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  36

  Why are JWs so sensitive to criticism?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i remember a roman catholic priest acknowledging on the bbc that the outrageously anti-clerical tv comedy father ted was a humorous mocking of his church but an acceptable thing.. try mocking the jw religion to a believer and the result is so very different.. just why is it that jehovah's witnesses can never take even the faintest hint of criticism of their religion?.

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  Half banana

  I remember a Roman Catholic priest acknowledging on the BBC that the outrageously anti-clerical TV comedy Father Ted was a humorous mocking of his church but an acceptable thing.

  Try mocking the JW religion to a believer and the result is so very different.

  Just why is it that Jehovah's Witnesses can never take even the faintest hint of criticism of their religion?
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  3

  Large Gatherings v Jesus' First Miracle

  by Slidin Fast in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  john relates jesus' famous first miracle, water into wine.

  this was performed well into the party when the allotted supply had run out.

  what state were the wedding party in?

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  Half banana

  This story had been in circulation for hundreds if not a thousand years (in translation) before Jesus was invented. It was one of the many miraculous tales which all God-men saviours had attributed to them. It was therefore originally an identity symbol and not a moral tale.

  Interesting how the Beeb will not relent and permit a humanist "thought for the day"...or have they given in and I didn't hear about it?
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  13

  REAL Community service now allowed?

  by ab.ortega in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  at watchtowers website there is an undated article under "helping the community" relating how in 2015, jw's from russia participated in the 'springtime beautification of the city'.

  it is not stated but more than likely this had to do with preparations for some assembly or something.

  a group of witness going out to clean the community just for goodwill - i don't see it happening.

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  Half banana

  How typically bogus of the JW org to claim to have done a charitable act when it was compulsory in the first place.

  JW org: shameless masters of deception
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  5

  Another Quebec JW woman dies after childbirth

  by OrphanCrow in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  milande louis cadet, a 46 year old jehovah's witness woman, died after childbirth in a montreal hospital on october 3, 2016.. this interview and story is in french.

  i have done a poor google translate of the article...the tv story likely has more and better details.

  http://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2016/10/24/lhopital-st-marys-reagit-au-deces-de-mirlande-louis-cadet.

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  Half banana

  Such a waste of good lives. What misery is brought about by being a brain-dead JW.

  Obedience to the rules of the Watchtower even if it means dying.

  The Watchtower who have never got anything right in their 137 year history...and for the hope of a never to be realised utopian fantasy.

  Let the world know how dangerous this religion is.

  Oh! those poor people in Canada who are suffering because of this delusional cult.
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  18

  Genital Warts Because our Ancestors were Banging Neanderthals

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  researchers have found evidence that modern genital warts – otherwise known as the human papillomavirus (hpv) – were sexually transmitted to homo sapiens after our ancestors slept with neanderthals and denisovans roughly around 100,000 years ago.....

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  Half banana

  Stocky build, barrel-chest, bow-legged, big head, projecting mid-face, big eyeballs high in the face below strong eyebrow ridges, big nose, weak chin, fat fingers and possibly ginger hair (sounds like anyone you know?) AND genital warts. Ta dah! Meet the new neighbours in the cave next door; the Neanderthals.