Posts by Knowsnothing

21

Letter of DA from attorney to Elders becomes gossip fodder -- Society, Elders culpable?

by FatFreek 2005 in

on a recent thread, i posted a question there but was too late.

it had fallen off the radar.

that thread was about someone who had an attorney mail notice to their local congregation that they had terminated membership.

Knowsnothing

@fearless,

To post a new thread, you can go on top to a box that says [New Topic].

I suggest, however, you first look for an appropriate section to post your topic. If you want it to be private, i.e. not visible to those not registerd at JWN, you can go to the members section and post on any of the given subsections, such as Private Discussion & Support.

You would have to click on the section first, then you can click [New Topic].

Oh and welcome to the forum.

Glad to have you, I hope you share your experience more on your own topic.

165

evolution question

by outsmartthesystem in

it has taken me almost 2 years to get to the bottom of the watchtower society rabbit hole.

being fully convinced that i was duped....i am still a little ashamed of myself for being so narrow minded.

i have vowed never to close off my mind like that again.

Knowsnothing

Qcmbr, I never meant to make it as simplistic as that. The only thing I meant(again sorry if I wasn't that specific, intially) to ask/argue is,

1.) if we know it happened in the past (true, under very specific circumstances we have yet to identify), do we have evidence it happened more than once, in more than one place?

2.) given the info we have now on early earth's atmosphere's and terrestial's chemical make-up, can we really conclude life came about by abiogenesis? Do we have a sound theory such a favorable environment/events actually existed, as opposed to our merely wanting to believe such an environment existed?

Don't clump me in with the peanut butter fallacy. Such a thing didn't not cross my mind. I meant, for example in a certain region where could potentially exist the necessary elements to spontaneously at least generate self-replicating RNA, which isn't even considered life. If we can't even get that out of nature...... do you understand the implications?

22

A Smurfy Tale: Papa Smurf Meets the Jehovah's Witnesses

by Sic Semper Tyrannis in

jw
friends

brother and sister bishop had to be the most annoying witnesses in our congregation.

sister bishop was a shrill overweight busybody who had nothing else better to do than spread rumors about both people and inanimate objects.

on the other hand, brother bishop was a rail thin cuckold of a man nearly 20 years younger than his wife.

Knowsnothing

F-ing hilarious.

I really had to laugh out loud.

21

Letter of DA from attorney to Elders becomes gossip fodder -- Society, Elders culpable?

by FatFreek 2005 in

on a recent thread, i posted a question there but was too late.

it had fallen off the radar.

that thread was about someone who had an attorney mail notice to their local congregation that they had terminated membership.

Knowsnothing

I'm no legal expert (hahaha) but I'll just give you my regular joe-schmoe opinion on it.

If I were upset by this chain of events, should I get a lawyer, tell him about these unpleasant experiences, and expect him to file a suit subpoenaing the various folks that shunned me, having them state exactly why they shunned me?

I think this goes beyond legal jurisdiction. Any person has the right(?) to cease association with any other person. Religious beliefs/differences is no different.

Then, if the shunner(s) say they heard that I was no longer proper Christian association - demand to know who told them?

Say it weren't an elder, what then?

Would this approximate a logical trail of events that could make the elders and Watchtower culpable?

I don't think it would get that far (see reasons above). In anycase, if the objective is to still be allowed to hold association, the real question to ask is, would those that associated with me (being a DA or DF individual) have the ability to remain JW's without sanctions?

If you aren't "officially" DA or DF, there can be no punishment for hanging out with you, thus no reason to shun you.

21

Journal of Philosophical Psychology cites JWs as an example of a self-validating belief system

by slimboyfat in

a recent article in the journal of philosophical psychology titled: 'how convenient!

the epistemic rationale of self-validating belief systems' by maarten boudry says that one of the defense mechanisms of self-validating belief systems is "multiple endpoints and moving targets" and cites jws to illustrate the point.

here are the sections that discuss jws:.

Knowsnothing

(marking)

165

evolution question

by outsmartthesystem in

it has taken me almost 2 years to get to the bottom of the watchtower society rabbit hole.

being fully convinced that i was duped....i am still a little ashamed of myself for being so narrow minded.

i have vowed never to close off my mind like that again.

Knowsnothing

@glenster and bohm, thank you for your succint and honest answers.

40

Weird JW Dreams

by MrFreeze in

i think it's a given that most of us who have left, have had dreams about still being jw's or doing jw related things, even years after we left.

i had one of those last night.

it involved getting a hotel for the next district convention and then it skipped ahead to when i was attending.

Knowsnothing

I had a recurring dream for a while that I was at an empty parking lot, and I was there with the Munster family. In the middle of the empty parking

lot, at night, there was a small maintenance building (maybe two rooms at the most), and the Munster family and I were edging our way to the corner

of the building, our backs against the wall, when all of a sudden I would find myself in the Circuit Assembly hall, and King Kong busted into the left

hand side of the hall, wreaking havoc.

I also had several Armaggedon nightmares, one of which was a Great Tribulation Armaggedon dream in which the all the buildings were burning, you could hear the screams and "gnashing" of teeth, and everything was absolute chaos.

Another where the world was overrun by zombies, a zombie Apocalypse.

These dreams have largely ceased (the nightmares), though now that I am planning on getting reinstated, I have had a couple of dreams in which brothers that have ignored me due to my DA are either talking to me, or continuing to ignore me.

I hate having grown-up in this religion.

165

evolution question

by outsmartthesystem in

it has taken me almost 2 years to get to the bottom of the watchtower society rabbit hole.

being fully convinced that i was duped....i am still a little ashamed of myself for being so narrow minded.

i have vowed never to close off my mind like that again.

Knowsnothing

I know this is going to sound stupid, but I would like to ask: why can't we see spontaneous generation of life?

Was this sort of thing common in order for life to come about? I understand you guys are discussing evolution, and that that doesn't necessarily deal with the origin of life, but ultimately it does. As one goes further back to the "basic" organisms that produced all these complex ones, one has to ask, where did they come from?

8

Christopher Hitchens: Trial of the Will

by leavingwt in

not an easy read.

reviewing familiar principles and maxims in the face of mortal illness, christopher hitchens has found one of them increasingly ridiculous: whatever doesnt kill me makes me stronger.

"i am typing this having just had an injection to try to reduce the pain in my arms, hands, and fingers.

Knowsnothing

His situation isn't as bad as this.

I'd say, he's still got a lot to live for. In view of his mortality, should he ask "what's next?"

I wonder if he'll fall into Pascal's wager.

55

Repost: My Two Week Consulting Trip to Bethel

by Hunyadi in

since half of them ended up at my house on friday and saturday nights i was given a very shining report card.

he then told me that he would knock on my door bright and early in the morning to take me to breakfast with him and his wife.

a couple of them told they enjoy the articles i write in the art magazines and they were really happy to meet me.

Knowsnothing

(marking)