Posts by Half banana

11

You tired of me asking for help yet?

by vienne in

an early watch tower evangelist was e. c. leigh.

in 1882, he was a student in allegheny city, pennsylvania.

he traveled through the central states in the 1880s and early 1890s.

Half banana

Rachael you are doing a sterling job getting to the roots of the Watchtower. It is necessary for you to enquire at this site since a few here are fifth generation Bible Students/ JWs. However there is little sense of WT history at the family level among witnesses.

Since Armageddon has been imminent for one hundred and thirty years, perhaps mementoes and records of the earlier days are discarded as irrelevant or even undesirable, the past is often lost in the churn of doctrine. Only what the governing body is now saying has relevance to the mind of the JW.

But do keep on asking.......

What brought you to this obscure corner of research?

15

If you had to start life again what employment would you choose?

by Chook in

we might have a fully functional community from this forum.

Half banana

It's a tough choice! window cleaner/pioneer or a kamikaze pilot?

but then being a JW does mess with decision making.........

27

Apostasy endorsed in this yesterday's Watchtower Study

by doubtfull1799 in

“there may be occasions when it would be good for us to reconsider a choice or decision.

it could be when the prevailing circumstances change.

jehovah altered his decision at times when circumstances changed.

Half banana

I don't think apostasy could ever be endorsed by the GB. It sounds to me as if they are building up a portfolio of Watchtower statements as evidence to deny the accusation that they control the minds and lives of the rank and file JWs.

When accused of being dictatorial in their dealings with members they can now point out to the courts to a number of published statements which put the leadership in a relaxed and easy going light not making demands about what their abject followers should do or think.

This is because the biggest threat to the cushy number they are on is under threat from extremely expensive legal cases over their arrogant handling of paedophilia in the congregations. The point they want to make is, "Its nothing to do with us". However they do have total control over their members, if they did not their authority would decline, JWs would start to think for themselves and the org would fall apart.

Yet as the lawyers know from the ARC example, what the Org says is not what the JWs will be expected to believe.

27

Quick question can a monisterial servant conduct the watchower

by poopie in

jw
friends

hello.

Half banana

I must add Poopie that who cares whether ministerile serpents are allowed to stand on their heads or not. This religion is for zombies not for people with a life to lead.

27

I want to know what celebrations JWs don't consider pagan?

by Chook in

i could only think of weddings and wedding anniversaries .

Half banana

Chook, I think the only thing the GB wish the sheep to celebrate is their own utterly useless role in the non-outworking of Big J's divine plan. Or do you think I am a trifle jaundiced in my viewpoint?

1

Quote of the day

by joe134cd in

i heard a quote today that just blew my mind.. "the english bible to catholicisim is what the internet is to jwisim.

the question is the extent of reformation that will take place.

" (end quote).

Half banana

The internet to JWism is like Dutch elm disease is to elm trees.

Or better still

The internet to JWism is like the European settlers in Mauritius were to the dodo.

27

I want to know what celebrations JWs don't consider pagan?

by Chook in

i could only think of weddings and wedding anniversaries .

Half banana

JWs don't consider the memorial of Jesus death pagan, they think it is "scriptural".

But they never for one moment stop to think that sacrificing a human for the sake of others followed by communal eating the flesh of the sacrificed body and drinking its blood has chilling echoes of full blown pagan ritual.

The Bible is drawn from paganism.

29

The Ultimate Conversion

by Etude in

one thing that surprised me shortly after joining this site was the number of individuals who, after experiencing the deception of being a jw and the hypocrisy of the “truth”, switched to being catholic or “born-again” evangelists.

it seemed to me like jumping from the hot pan into the fire.. i don’t want to piss anyone off for his or her choices.

i feel everyone is free to believe what they may.

Half banana

There are those on this site who pm each new ex JW God-believer to get them onto the Jesus-as-saviour delusion as an alternative to the Watchtower delusion.

Religious and spiritual "belief" have a very long pedigree as the earliest examples of writing bear evidence. (Have you read Gilgamesh?). Not only have reverence for God or gods been instilled into the young of every preceding generation back to the Stone Age but vast and revered organisational colossi such as the RC Church exist, bearing testimony to the need and success of sustaining existential comfort by idealized yet foundationless belief in a spirit world.

The RC Church had long ago reached the point where its dogma is believed not because it was true or even found in the Bible but because of its own magisterial authority, cemented by time, tradition and the vast number of followers. Can billions of followers be wrong? Can millions? It is the very route the WT society would love to take but need a lot more money to achieve! Plus the fact that doomsday cults are limited by their necessarily impermanent nature.Yet religious belief still works as a makeshift patch to cover deep psychological problems and insecurities and ironically for JWs, many of them of the WT's own making.

However Etude, you speak of the ultimate conversion. My response is to suggest that it happens when we grow up (at any age) and start to use reason and testable evidence as the basis on which we make our important decisions.

28

2017 Convention Releases

by Edison Trent in

on http://avoidjw.org/2017-regional-convention/ you can find the talk outlines of the regional convention this year.. i looked into the final talks each day and found these releases to be announced:.

on saturday:.

new magazine-size book entitled "lessons you can learn from the bible".

Half banana

The main theme of the last couple of annual assemblies is, “Please, please don’t leave the org!” Times are hard in Watchtower Land. The GB this year is resorting to scare tactics to stop the dim members from escaping the compound.

The wonderful internet and improved education everywhere else is overtaking the mental complacency found among Jehovah’s Witnesses who are pressured into avoiding worldly learning.

Taking the Bible literally, no longer sits well with most people and yet JWs are taught to believe without question or reasoning-- which means that they are being taught to be gullible and to trust only the words of the governing body.

I think the Bible account of Lot and Co is in the "ripping yarns" category. It is also so awful that by highlighting fire and brimstone from the heavens, immoral dealings and magic happenings as an assembly (video) drama, it will only awaken more doubters and firm up the resolve of those thousands who are already on the cusp to leave the organisation.

Get out while you still have some functioning brain left!

13

Someone Tell Satan to Stop Tampering With Evidence Please!

by notsurewheretogo in

fantastic find on ancient human remains.

wish satan would stop doing this as clearly humans have only been on this planet 6,000 years!.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39842975.

Half banana

Thanks for posting this nswtg. Only the other day a JW at my door told me that there is only a small bagful of bones of "early humans" in existence. This might have been true in 1840 but by the end of the 20th century scientists are studying the skeletal remains of 6,000 individuals who lived before modern Homo sapiens.

It would only take the skeleton of one or two pre-humans to prove the case for human evolution.

To think that JWs are still being told to believe what was true a century ago is fraudulent and a feeble attempt to stave off reality.

I think early humans were probably less gullible than JWs are today!