Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  117

  2017 Yearbook released

  by bohm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i saw this on reddit:.

  https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.

  overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).

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  Half banana

  It’s mainly good news isn’t it?

  The Congo is in a shambles with the threat of another civil war. President Kabila has finished his term of office but won’t leave power. He has his own army to defend him and clearly the population live in trepidation of the dire consequences of war. It is the ideal situation for JW propaganda to proliferate and without the internet to mediate and give the other side to Watchtower coin.

  Brazil is a land where families are large and start young, hence poor education and consequent poverty on to which JW hopes are foisted but the country has a growing economy. Have the new ones got the internet yet?

  The figures indicate overall that the influence of the JW religion has peaked. They are still at the crest of membership numbers, mainly sustained by baptisms of JW children. This is tenable so long as the young ones are kept deaf and blind to information.
  

  The field service no longer works in man-hour terms the West. (Commercially it would be costing $225,000 at $15 per hour to make a new worldly convert in d2d preaching). It has been reduced to a mere obligatory ritual.

  Secular, post–religious reality is making ground in the Western ethos where middle class wealth or social welfare act as a safety net denying the need for organised religion of the paranoid JW brand.
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  201

  I am glad to have found the true religion

  by A Believer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it really is great.

  i remember browsing this forum the day after i had joined it, and their was a knock on the door.

  i thought it was one of my package from ups but instead it was two sisters.

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  Half banana

  @Believer, thanks for staying the course. Your loyalty to the Watchtower however will never be rewarded and neither has any one of the millions of JWs who have existed over time ever been rewarded with the false hope given them by the JW organisation.

  The world is much richer and warmer place than is preached by the paranoid rants of Jehovah's Witnesses. May you at least enjoy the comfort of the straight jacket they supply for you.

  @Infomouship, it just happens to be a meeting place here on the internet for extra- terrestrials.
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  10

  Since everything about the origins of the Watchtower magazine were proved wrong, what legitimacy can its inheritors claim?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the original aim of ct russell in starting the watchtower magazine in 1879 was to announce to the world his pet idea that jesus had come to rule in the heavens five years earlier back in 1874. for the young entrepreneur this new magazine looked like a commercial runner and it was!.

  most of us know how profoundly false the prophecy was but if you don't mind i'll give a brief overview for newbies:.

  1874 was the failed adventist prediction year for the return of christ in the heavenly glory, which russell was now saying was the right year after all.

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  Half banana

  The original aim of CT Russell in starting the Watchtower magazine in 1879 was to announce to the world his pet idea that Jesus had come to rule in the heavens five years earlier back in 1874. For the young entrepreneur this new magazine looked like a commercial runner and it was!

  Most of us know how profoundly false the prophecy was but if you don't mind I'll give a brief overview for newbies:

  1874 was the failed Adventist prediction year for the return of Christ in the heavenly glory, which Russell was now saying was the right year after all. He said that Jesus did arrive that year, not visibly but instead invisibly as king of the kingdom. One significant evidence which Adventists had been relying on was the scripture in Daniel based on 607 BCE as the date when Jerusalem was destroyed by Cyrus. Russell said that this date 607 BCE was the pivotal date for predicting the end of god’s enemies on Earth. Working out and projecting forward “seven times” by Biblical fancy footwork and corroboration by pyramid measurements, he taught the very latest time by which the planet would be rid of Satan's influence was to be by 1914. Given a Biblical forty years from 1874 to make 1914 the time it would take this new heavenly kingdom to destroy God's enemies and restore the world to paradise purity.

  The Watchtower magazine got every detail wrong. . . as wrong as wrong can be. Remember too that this prophecy was the very reason for its existence!

  I hardly need remind you that 1914 was anything but paradise. How can invisible heavenly events ever be proved anyway? No academic historian concludes 607 BCE to be the year of Jerusalem’s final destruction by Cyrus, this being critical in pinpointing 1914, Daniel (who could not have written Daniel) wrote his prophecies in around 165 BCE, centuries after the events foretold! Nice move ‘Daniel’ whoever you were! And what have pyramids got to do with anything here?

  Since ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING about Russell’s predictions were wrong; therefore the foundations of JW beliefs were also wrong: - what legitimacy for their very existence do the inheritors of the Watchtower have?
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  15

  A Question about Spiritistic Books

  by schnell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have a nearly academic interest in the occult, though i am not a spiritualist and remain a skeptic.

  i've come to learn that demons are based on everything from dust devils in the desert, to diseases, to actual people.

  probably most of all, demons are a tool of good ol' fashioned con artists and fear mongers.. but here's a question.

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  Half banana

  The problem of spirits as I see it is that it is inbuilt into mammalian brains.

  It is easy to be spooked--- and with good reason: there are or at least used to be predators about. For our for cave dwelling forebears, to be able to respond quickly to potential signs of danger could save our skin. The careless and carefree were foolhardy and the most likely to become the breakfast of a big hairy carnivore; no offspring for them. Only the 'spookable' would live to breed.

  Even without the predation, it is our evolutionary legacy that we can still be spooked by imaginary presences and religions and spiritualists play on this instinct for those people who have not resolved the issue by their reasoning and information level.
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  19

  What would happen to the assets of the JW organisation if the cult went into meltdown?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what if the jw org became publicly exposed as a repressive and harmful cult working to the detriment of society, the membership dropped away and the gb woke up to reality and quit .

  what would happen to the worldwide property and investments of the wtbts and allied companies?

  where would the money go then?

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  Half banana

  Thanks very much Blondie, very detailed and authoritative.

  After the failure of the WTBTS they could give away the remaining funds to a similar enterprise! Well of course that would go against the WT grain and if the other enterprise is based on faulty Biblical reckoning as well it would be improbable that the org, in a state of meltdown would want to give it to another chancer in the doomsday business.

  I can't help thinking that its money would be more likely to be found in off-shore retirement funds before any charitable consideration!

  OK they are not immediately going under, however illogical and deceitful they are, but the fact here is highlighted that those businesses which are financially successful, as a rule have no need to stop functioning, even if the ideas they promote and the wares they sell are intellectually bankrupt. The leaders are well aware that at the bottom end of the organisation their loyal customer base will want to keep subscribing since they have a total emotional investment in its paradise claims.

  Jehovah’s Witnesses have put all their eggs; their hopes and their dreams, into the WT basket. In contrast, the JW organisation at the top is a pure business, fighting its way to maintain solvency and growth in its financial empire and to hell with the truthfulness of its teachings!

  Their predictions have never proved to be true and their beliefs routinely change.

  Surely it is only its capacity for money making which keeps the JW org alive and hence in difficult times there is even greater grasping for income as we are observing now?
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  20

  Jehovahs Witnesses condemn Christian Religions .In reality Christian religions are Caring for Aged JW`s.

  by smiddy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  who are looking after the aged and infirm jehovah`s witnesses ,?

  its certainly not the organization known as the wtb&ts ./jehovahs witnesses religion .. and why is that ?

  satans system of things with jehovahs blessing , has programs to look after those who have such needs , such as the dole for unemployed ,medical assistance for those who cant afford it ,and their are many charitable institutions that look after those that fall in the cracks.

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  Half banana

  Yup, the JW principle is to deny charity to others but be ever ready to take advantage of what the state or others provide for the needy.

  Especially this includes tax exemptions for the most undeserving charity of all time; the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

  Why else did these hypocrites join the UN if not to defend their claim on tax exemption in certain lands?

  The Watchtower suck the life blood out of their flock and then throw them on the state to look after them in old age. Ruthless unprincipled hypocrites!
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  8

  Today vs Tomorrow in the JW World

  by Funchback in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i am a teacher and coordinator in brazil.

  the school (it's for adults) i work for requires that our students donate food (rice, beens, pasta) or clothes or toys every month.

  then, at the beginning of the next month, we take all of the donated goods and deliver them to places that exist on receiving donated items.. two months ago, we delivered the items to a home that cares for kids with cancer.

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  Half banana

  Very well said Funch. I remember an elder saying with contempt, "charity is to Jehovah like a red rag to a bull". Even though a committed JW myself at the time, I had to pity the man.

  The rationale is simple enough; that the "promised kingdom" will cure all human problems but the trouble with this is that it's a complete myth just like most of the Bible.

  Anything which places an ideology above the value of human life is dangerous to a happy world. Fanatical religions like JWs and extreme Islam are a source of life-anxieties not the answer to them.

  Humanism, as you say Tepid, puts humanity first, not improbable gods and stupid, unfounded religious imperatives drilled into believer's minds.
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  11

  1 bilion property revenue since august 2016 and still they have not enough

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  read in the new york business review that jw.org made 1 bilion property revenue since august 2016.. unbelievable, isn't it?

  they are one of the richest religion organizations in cash flow, for sure.. the co asked us this morning to "overthink wat we can share, to support the work and make jehovah happy".. g..

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  Half banana

  I suggest a slight modification to the scripture at Proverbs 27; 15,16 and add the JW organisation to the list of things which "never say enough". Although wealthier than kings they have an insatiable appetite for worldly riches.
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  19

  What would happen to the assets of the JW organisation if the cult went into meltdown?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what if the jw org became publicly exposed as a repressive and harmful cult working to the detriment of society, the membership dropped away and the gb woke up to reality and quit .

  what would happen to the worldwide property and investments of the wtbts and allied companies?

  where would the money go then?

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  Half banana

  What if the JW org became publicly exposed as a repressive and harmful cult working to the detriment of society, the membership dropped away and the GB woke up to reality and quit . . . What would happen to the worldwide property and investments of the WTBTS and allied companies? Where would the money go then?

  Are there precedents for dissolving giant but solvent corporations? Or is the cash flow exclusively their lifeblood ?
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  50

  No updated Watctower's articles on Evolution

  by opusdei1972 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  as far as i know, the "creation" book is out of print ?, am i right?.

  well, i was searching for new watchtower articles trying to debunk, for instance, human evolution.

  so, i did my homework, for the first time, so as to read past and updated papers and books on human evolution.

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  Half banana

  The credibility of Jehovah’s Witnesses has been shot through because of their false expectations of the end of the world.

  As hopelessly faulty interpreters of the Bible and non believers in the scientific method for determining truth, how could the Watchtower ever claim to be able to pronounce on Bible matters let alone scientific subjects such as evolution and the human pedigree?

  They are resorting to the only thing they know; quote the Bible and believe with unjustified pride and wilful ignorance, that its contents are true.