Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  36

  What could be other alternative names for the Jehovah's Witnesses ?

  by Finkelstein in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how about .... the international brotherhood of stupidity.. the righteous zombies club .

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  Half banana

  God's codpiece (as opposed to mouthpiece)
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  4

  "We are confident Jehovah will bless this new arrangement and provision!"

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so let me get this straight, emphasis on cart witnessing and jw.org website with their flashy videos and such has brought in about 680 new publishers in the united states?

  out of which 600 are probably children?!

  well that certainly speaks for itself!

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  Half banana

  Big J has never helped them get their prophecies right, why should he make TV evangelising and cart witnessing work. Hang on a mo JW TV is not for the public anyway, so you cannot call it evangelising, it's good old Watchtower style indoctrination for believers who are already committed to the cult.

  JWs In USA are clearly waking up to the fantasy beliefs of their religion. The governing body have used this expression (Confident Jah will bless this provision) on previous occasions--they are fantasists
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  13

  Would you sacrifice yourself?

  by Half banana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  under roman rule, which covered a large part of the civilized world around the mediterranean, to be a trouble maker or a magician or an insurrectionist was a capital offence.. to live back then in a civilised society was a boon.

  naturally for the sake of law and order certain compliances had to be met to as part of the social bargain to be a roman citizen.

  among them were included the requirement to respect the “genius” or spirit of the emperor, not to be an atheist and to respect the roman gods.

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  Half banana

  Under Roman rule, which covered a large part of the civilized world around The Mediterranean, to be a trouble maker or a magician or an insurrectionist was a capital offence.

  To live back then in a civilised society was a boon. Naturally for the sake of law and order certain compliances had to be met to as part of the social bargain to be a Roman citizen. Among them were included the requirement to respect the “genius” or spirit of the emperor, not to be an atheist and to respect the Roman gods. It was deemed that those who were not for the Emperor were against him.

  There is a price to pay for every benefit. When Christianity started to grow in the second century, because of its subversive nature as far as the state was concerned, a number of successive Emperors proscribed membership under penalty of death. According to the Christian belief, Jesus had been crucified because of scripture and could redeem mankind from death, to the Romans such a man would have appeared a magician, saboteur and insurrectionist.

  Those who became infused with this idea could easily be executed for holding the belief as exemplified by Justin later called Justin Martyr. He told the authorities that it was likely he would be betrayed by his opponents and he would be executed for it, and indeed he was around 165 CE along with many of his students. The elderly Polycarp was executed the same year by being burned alive burning in the arena.

  What was noticeable and looking back still remains a conspicuous detail of Christian martyrdom is the unthinking commitment with which church members apparently approached their deaths. Sometimes they used their execution to cheerfully celebrate the opportunity to “be with Christ”.

  Incidentally Christianity was not a coherent or monopolistic cult at this time, there were many strands of belief from the Gnostic or spiritual ‘left’ and the bishop driven ‘right’ with many variants. Believers from all parties looked forward to glorying in death but others also reasoned that their saviour (whichever one it was ) came to give his life for them and they were not going to throw their life away on a whim.

  The early Church made the greatest capital out of martyrdom along with miracles-- (read up on the martyr Blandina if you have the stomach for it) but looking back do you really believe any of them personally actually benefited from their loss of life?

  JWs are sometimes compelled by “belief” to literally sacrifice themselves by rejecting blood transfusions (in Greek martyr means simply "witness") and in a less dramatic way, all JWs are willing to throw away their logical reasoning and their right to self determination and live a life of obligation to the JW governing body.

  So I wonder what is it in the human psyche by which without good evidence, people will find pleasure in defying reason and common sense and happily forfeit their lives? Would you?
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  5

  borrowed ideas from christendom?

  by road to nowhere in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  once i heard from a gb, "keep on keepin on".

  a church phrase.

  when they came out with the idea of the "way" i was dumbfounded to find churches using the same, remember the bible called the way?.

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  Half banana

  The JW cult is part of Christendom, albeit that this term is virtually obsolete. JW religion shares the same modern myths of what the primitive church looked like and it bases its whole reasoning on a literal take of a modified version of the original Roman Catholic selection of 'sacred' texts.

  In all aspects they are under the umbrella of Christendom however much want do deny it. Religion deals with fantasy not concrete reality therefore words, especially the words of religious propaganda, as Humpty Dumpty said to Alice, words can mean anything you want them to:

  When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that's all.”

  Lewis Carrol
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  21

  "This Assembly Hall in Denmark was designed and built by the Watchtower Bible and Track Society" by NoOneSpecial JW Published on 30 Sep 2017

  by oppostate in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  this assembly hall in denmark was designed and built by the watchtower bible and track society before drones and google earth were around.

  the governing body did not count on this being exposed from the arial view.

  according to the 1993 year book on denmark assembly hall.

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  Half banana

  Dropoff, as a landscape designer myself such a conspicuous feature as the "eye" in the Danish assembly hall is never made by accident. The issue here is whether it was foisted on an unsuspecting Watchtower Society, as it was then called, by a cheeky architect or did they approve of or even give instructions for the design aware that the "eye" looks like the masonic symbol.

  Remember they were still condemning the UN organisation at this time and yet had joined them as an NGO member.

  My experience with the JW hierarchy is that they would not entertain anything which could be misinterpreted but at the same time they are likely to leave aesthetic judgements up to the designer or architect.

  Oppostate, humans have been able to get off the ground since the days of the Montgolfier brothers.
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  13

  April 2018 Watchtower

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  here's a few little gems from the latest watchtower.. 5 many today think that to be truly free, they must be able to do anything and everything they want to do, regardless of the consequences.. this statement is just ridiculous, any normal functioning individual understands the necessity for restrictions, for their own protection and justice as well as for others.

  it's a very childish statement with no substantiation and written only to create a perception in jw minds of how worldly people are selfish to the point of being reckless and unrestrained.

  they liken adam and eve's sinning which resulted in disaster as being like a pilot not following their designated flight path and make this commenthowever, if the pilot chose to disregard that guidance and fly any route he desired, the result could be disastrous.. this is a very bad analogy because when adam and eve sinned, they had already been forewarned of their disaster to follow.

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  Half banana

  Regarding the inappropriate illustrations, is it simply that the standards have dropped, or perhaps it is part of an anti elitist drive to encompass the least educated or as I suspect, that the GB and their appointees have just stopped trying to be careful in what they say? Which ever way it spells decline for the org.

  But youths who today keep focused on theocratic goals will well into adulthood be deeply satisfied with the choices they made.

  What utter tripe! The more likely outcome would be cognitive dissonance and a mental breakdown.
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  21

  "This Assembly Hall in Denmark was designed and built by the Watchtower Bible and Track Society" by NoOneSpecial JW Published on 30 Sep 2017

  by oppostate in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  this assembly hall in denmark was designed and built by the watchtower bible and track society before drones and google earth were around.

  the governing body did not count on this being exposed from the arial view.

  according to the 1993 year book on denmark assembly hall.

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  Half banana

  Oppostate said:

  The Governing Body did not count on this being EXPOSED from the Arial view. According to the 1993 Year book on Denmark Assembly Hall.

  Could you please clarify; the 1993 Yearbook would never say that the GB did not count on this being exposed from the aerial view (Arial is a type font) as if they were complicit in some deception!

  The aerial view is available to all aircraft passing over-- this does not make sense.
  
  
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  5

  Oh the creepy-ness of WT buildings

  by oppostate in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ycdi4qqhoo.

  aerial view video of jehovah's witness property in denmark.

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  Half banana

  It's a great design but totally wasted on a self righteous, prissy, crackpot cult. I wonder if the JW org were taken for a ride by the architects? If it was executed with the awareness of the origins of the all seeing eye, it has very interesting ramifications.
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  11

  Meat Eating

  by Fisherman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  most hard to swallow meat and fish (that i was aware of) that i have ever eaten is rabbit, but also deer, octopus and eel sushi.. how about your meat eatings?

  what have you eaten that is interesting?.

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  Half banana

  I was taken to a Japanese restaurant where all the seafood was raw. We ate prawns, squid and octopus which was ok but I prefer them cooked. The common meat in central Africa is game from the bush so if you visit the rural areas you will likely eat all and any hoofed animals, wildebeest, gazelle, gemsbok, springbok, dik dik, oryx, eland and a host more--I found them all very tasty and lean. In Lithuania I had delicious wild boar burgers and also beaver sausage--I've tasted better. Ostrich is very good.
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  121

  Did man really go to the moon?

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  l have researched this subject and come to the conclusion that no we didn't.what do others think?.

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  Half banana

  If you are a recently escaped ex-JW its hardly surprising to find such individuals trying to get some clarity on things. It's only by asking questions and by using non-JW research avenues that can clear the mental fog.

  I reckon we should be patient with newbies and tolerate a bit of oddness--we were duped once remember.