One of the last assemblies I went to had a part on college education. It was directed at parents, which I found partically disgusting as it was meant to take the choice away from teenagers and tell parents to prevent their kids from going to school. It related sending your kid to college like being in a life raft and sending your kid to swim for shore. He might make it...or he might get eaten by sharks. Or you could stay in the boat and wait for rescue that you know is coming. It's up to you to decide, we won't decide for you....but really it's sharks or jesus. I was shocked that in a statement the speaker made the tacit admittal "If you send your child to college there is a good chance that after getting this education he will no longer think that we have the truth. And we don't want that do we?" I looked around thinking that surely everyone was confused that this man was admitting that ignorance is the key to their beliefs, but nope, everyone was either yawning or taking notes or walking around. It didn't phase anyone. I felt like a sane person sitting in an asylum wondering how I got there.
JonathanH
JoinedPosts by JonathanH
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College education pays
by hoser inmy first post seems to be locked.
this from cnn today.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/opinion/06/09/aoun.college.benefits/index.html?hpt=hp_c2.
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Genetics Teaser
by TD inwe discuss biology from time to time here (usually as it relates to evolution) so i thought this might be fun.. below are two mice; male and female:.
below are the offspring they consistently (90% of the time) produce:.
can anyone guess why?.
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JonathanH
One of the rats has red eyes, is it albino?
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Why can't atheist just prove from the bible that God doesn't exist?'
by Joliette inme and my dad was having a convo this morning.
we got on the subject of atheist and agnostics.
my dad said that didnt understand how a person could be atheist or agnostic.
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JonathanH
Prove from the vedas vishnu doesn't exist.
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IT IS SIZZLIN' DOWN HERE, FOLKS!!!
by snowbird inwe've had a bit too much of the above.
temperature has been in the triple digits for ten days in a row.
everybody is lethargic and irritable.
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JonathanH
High 90s here. Even with my AC on it stays a toasty 80 degrees in my house.
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Social Networks giving strength to JW protest in Canada!
by koolaid-man inthe social networks facebook , twitter, youtube, etc.
are valuable tools in creating the energy to incite apostates of the watchtower org.
to come out and protest and expose the cover-ups, the child molesters, the shunning and breaking up of families going on in the jehovah's witness religion.. the protest saturday june 25th 2011 from 7 am until 1 pm in front of the pepsi coliseum in quebec city against the watchtower is getting lots of attention on the internet.. protesters are now able to organize and and reach millions of people who have been hurt by this destructive cult.. jean-philippe cossette founder and webmaster of www.watchowerlies.com.
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JonathanH
At first I thought this Koolaid man was just misplacing his efforts, and then when he said that we are watchtower spies trying to bring him down I realized that he's just crazy. Of anybody is a watchtower spy, it would be the guy acting like the cartoon character stereotype of an apostate the society wants the witnesses to believe in.
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"Overlapping generation" explanation - TRANSCRIBED EXTRACT from Friday's talk (DC 2011-12)
by AnnOMaly ini thought this would be easier to examine if written down:.
god's kingdom will soon come.
so we know that god's kingdom will soon come.. .
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JonathanH
Did anybody read Rev 6:9-11? No surprise, but it doesn't seem to say at all what they claim it does.
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, [a] were killed just as they had been.
So....this second generation is going to be alive....but killed? They said that this group is two groups the annointed in heaven and those still on earth...so...the annointed need to wait until their brothers and sisters on earth are killed before armaggeddon comes..but they will be alive to see it on earth? What the hell are they talking about? This is a stretch even for them.
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Atheist think their so damn intelligent. God revealed himself in the old testament, the hebrews still didnt believe.
by Joliette inmy jw's mom said this to me in convo/argument two weeks...she said that atheist have no grounds for their thinking, and they basically talk out of their asses.
she also said that the government has rules that everyone follows and thats the same ways applies to god's true servants, and that we simple have rules, no if and's and but's.. she also said that jehovah can change science, and that god is one in control of the science..
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JonathanH
I'm pretty sure the hebrews weren't atheists though, they just engaged in worship of other gods. I don't remember many old testament scriptures of fire raining from the skies and booming voices and the israelites saying "That would've happened anyway, doesn't prove anything."
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At $50.00 a pop for copyright the WTS is spending a small fortune
by sinis ini was on the us copyright page for something else and happened to put jw's in the search.
they basically copyright everything!!!
km's, you name it.
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JonathanH
It is rather odd, I wonder what their reasoning is. I mean they want to give this stuff out for free to anybody and everybody, but they spend money putting protection on their intellectual property? I mean I suppose the real reason is so they can remove stuff from youtube and the internet that isn't flattering, but if you BELIEVED it was all flattering then how would you explain that?
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God: the central question
by ixthis inof all the issues affecting every person's picture of reality, nothing is more fundamental than questions about god.. is there one god, creator and sovereign of all?could there be more than one god?
or no god at all?if there is a god (or gods), then what is that god (or gods) like?nothing determines your worldview-and the course of your life-more than how you answer those questions.
yet some atheists like to make light of the god question.
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JonathanH
@ ixthis
I always encourage peaceful dialogue, please never intepret my little jabs or poor attempts at humor as ever being malice (not that I am accusing you of that of course, just saying is all). I believe in respecting people, even if I don't respect their ideas.
Now as for the content of your post. Even what you describe is the problem with theology. You can scoff at the ideas of some particular brand of theology, with a little "t", and then turn around and do the exact same thing the theologians do.
The statement for instance
"It is revelation from God in the form of Jesus Christ. The teachings of Christianity are not based upon a set of precepts taught to us by Jesus, or anyone else. The teachings of Christianity are based upon the person of Jesus Christ: His actions, His life, and His life and action within us."
Is no different from anything the gentlemen you quoted previously stated. You can spend however long you want trying to parse what it means that christianity is not a set of teachings from jesus, but christianity is the person of jesus IN US, and exactly what that is supposed to mean in reality. But it would be a moot task because the statements themselves are unfalsifiable and unverifiable and I could make just about any statement that would have an equal probability of being true/false. Shoehornism isn't about the size of the shoe, or the shape of the shoehorn, it's about the shoe horn...of your foot. Now you could spend time trying to figure out what that even means, but it would be trivial to do so, because there is no means of verifying or falsifying such a statement.
And that's the problem with theology with a big "T" or little "t". There is nothing to demonstrate that your view of christianity is more or less correct (that is to say corresponding to reality), than some other theologian who says otherwise.
Revelation is also just a synonym for imagination, and proves no more verifiable or more importantly falsifiable than any other aspect of theology. If two people claim divine revelation within in themself and say that their life and teaching is the result of said revelation, they can both point at each other and say "you didn't receive a real revelation, you don't understand god, and your life is contrary to what god wants" and neither would have a means of proving themself right or wrong beyond making more claims and debates that land squarely in the same boat as theology.
Which leaves you only with unverifiable, unfalsifiable personal "revelation", and you can only claim "I know it because I know it because I know it", and at that point reason is no longer applicable, and the conversation such as this becomes moot, because there is no "reason" to discuss. Theology, be it with a big "T" or little "t" simply do not have any methodology to demonstrate one is correct and the other is false, because none of the logical syllogisms are actually anchored by something in reality.
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I talked the first time in 20 years to a non-JW and need a divorce...
by Intel inthis is very difficult to write (forgive me for any spelling mistake, i am not a native english speaker).. i cannot tell my complete story on this board - i eventually will, once i have broken the last "link in the chain" that has kept me captive to the borg.
i can't tell my story, because.....basically i will be known.....as a more or less "famous" jw..... i have been lurking this site for many years, wrote here under another name - this eventually was found out and i had to do "damage containment".
i had to "go back" and tow the party line....all my family (extended and close) are witnesses, all my "friends" and even work & business relationships are jw.
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JonathanH
Good luck intel, glad to hear you're doing better. And don't worry, it does get better. I've only been out a few years, and I already feel worlds better. I don't have my family anymore, or my friends. Which is sad, and something I have to deal with. But the reward of freedom from their sadistic cult makes up for it 110%. I don't have the stress, the guilt, the anger that came with being on the inside, and I'm finally able to start living my life for real. It will be incredibly hard when you actually pull the trigger, but you have friends here that understand, and it sounds like you have a couple of friends there that can be there for you. Again, good luck, you can make it.
P.S., we can't wait to hear your juicy inside stories.