Posts by scotoma

66

Still Waiting For the Governing Body To Explain Their New Light

by Cameron_Don in

jw
friends

regarding the governing bodys new light relative to matthew 24:45-47, anointedjw.org recently said the following:.

this new light certainly poses a problem for the governing body.

perhaps this is another reason why they have not yet published a sober and scriptural xplanation of this new light.

scotoma

There are hundreds of problems with JW interpretations. The only ones they change are those that are at the top of their list.

The fact that they chose to address this particular problem is very interesting. They are essentially saying that the most important thing they have to make clear is that "THEY ARE THE BOSS". This means that they feel their authority is weakening.

Selling properties. Reducing magazine size. Closing and consolidating branch offices are all signs of an organization in decline. We're talking "plant closings" and "layoffs".

All the special schools are aimed at hardening their core followers by making them feel special and indispensable.

The increasing number of partakers at the memorial is also an ominous sign for them. It suggests that this is more than the usual abused housewife who wants to be a Bride of Christ. A lot of the new partakers believe they have a calling or prophetic mission. They represent a challenge to the New governing body. The old governing body didn't claim their anointed status by means of a tortured conflict of choosing life in heaven or life on earth. They weren't presented with that choice. The new governing body members all became "anointed" in connection with a sense of self importance. The new governing body had to go against the stream to claim their anointing. Their motivation was undoubtedly a desire for prominence bolstered by their belief they had some divine role to play in the future of the organization. Of course these motivations are repressed. Instead of facing up to their old thought processes they choose to de-legitimize all the upstarts that might challenge them.

In effect this new interpretation is meant to kill off their rivals for authority.

52

What is the most out of line / disturbing experience you have seen from Circuit Overseers?

by Poindexter Lionel Humperdique in

jw
friends

i once heard of a circuit overseer blaming a loyal ministerial servant, that served as the accounts servant, of steeling from the contribution boxes, simply because he deposited the congregation funds bi-weekly instead of twice a week.

due to the accusation, the ms was immediately removed without hearing his side of the story.

isn't this rather counter-intuitive and innefficient?

scotoma

I have no problem with people in authority acting like assholes. Once you get over the fact that there is no holy spirit hovering over these people you shouldn't expect their behavior to be unique. Authoritarian bullys are everywhere.

42

My questions for YOU

by Terry in

jw
friends

i'm curious about human intelligence and beliefs as a natural phenomenon.. i've long suspected that even the most "normal" and well-educated person harbors "fringe" beliefs.. the purpose of this thread is not to mock beliefs of any kind.

rather it is for all of us to toss in to a pile our own unprovables so .

we can, as a group, evaluate how natural and non-neurotic such thinking might well be.. .

scotoma

Defianttruth,

I'm not talking about a warp. I'm talking about something that we don't understand.

IF (big if ) you believe intelligent entities with unknown technology are visiting the earth you have to also believe that they accomplish this by means of some unknown technology that untilize unknown principles. Remember it was a little more than 200 years ago that Faraday and Maxwell discovered the idea of electro/magnetic fields. Look what that led to. It's not hard to imagine extraordinary things that could be accomplished by a civilization that is a thousand times older than our own.

There is no use worrying about it though. No need to build landing pads with large letters saying "Aliens Wellcome"

44

Annoying 2/15 WT - Don't Be Stumbled- your Mind Just Misunderstands !

by flipper in

jw
friends

another wt article which causes jw's to doubt their own perceptions of reality.

) in this particular article titled " for those loving jehovah, " there is no stumbling block " - the wt society stoops to new, or rather re-hashed lows to insinuate that most if not all jw's really misunderstand causes of stumbling as it's just their minds that are imperfect, messed up, or gone entirely anyway.

the first abhorrent bit of information here describes a witness man who " fought " with feelings of being homosexual and of course the elders thought they had the perfect antidote to keep him from his alleged " abnormal " desires.

scotoma

If someone is upset with the Watchtower they DO need to correct their thinking. But not in the way the Watchtower would have you do it.

Being upset is natural when someone has misled you. Continuing to upset yourself over these things is irrational.

A little rational emotive therapy might help.

Example:

"How dare those terrible witnesses predict the end coming in 1975 and then saying it was my misunderstanding."

Quite simply they did "dare" to go out on a limb. Their failure to predict accurately means that they can't be relied on to make accurate predictions.

There is no law against religious organizations making wrong estimates about the future. Don't rely on their predictions anymore.

Cut your losses. Move on.

Above all avoid doing anything they suggest will help you.

Being upset is natural when someone has misled you.

42

My questions for YOU

by Terry in

jw
friends

i'm curious about human intelligence and beliefs as a natural phenomenon.. i've long suspected that even the most "normal" and well-educated person harbors "fringe" beliefs.. the purpose of this thread is not to mock beliefs of any kind.

rather it is for all of us to toss in to a pile our own unprovables so .

we can, as a group, evaluate how natural and non-neurotic such thinking might well be.. .

scotoma

Duplicate Post Ignore

42

My questions for YOU

by Terry in

jw
friends

i'm curious about human intelligence and beliefs as a natural phenomenon.. i've long suspected that even the most "normal" and well-educated person harbors "fringe" beliefs.. the purpose of this thread is not to mock beliefs of any kind.

rather it is for all of us to toss in to a pile our own unprovables so .

we can, as a group, evaluate how natural and non-neurotic such thinking might well be.. .

scotoma

UFO's: I have always been a science nerd. Einstein is the closest thing to a hero for me. I understand the importance of witnesses to events as a means of establishing validity to claims. I paid close attention to events that involved multiple witnesses. But, because I couldn't duplicate anomalous experiences the so called personal reports never got to the level of belief for me. UNTIL... my family and neighbors actually witnessed a UFO. I combed the neighborhood for other witnesses because I didn't want to just trust my own and other family members judgement. Altogether I found 3 neighbors that witnessed the same thing. Also a friend who lived 3 miles away witnessed the same event on the same night. As it turned out that night was one of the busiest nights for UFO sightings all over the world up to that point in time (NUFOR report).

So, I have become a believer in UFO's. I don't believe in all UFO reports. I only believe the ones that are similar to what I experienced. I don't believe in the anal probing abductions reports that are retrieved through hypnosis. I also don't believe in reports that are witnessed by only one person.

Do I believe these are visitors from planets in our physical universe. It depends on what you consider our physical universe. No I don't believe it is likely that they have traveled millions of light years. Instead, I believe it is possible to jump dimensionally. The behavior of the craft we witnessed suggested some sort of coordinate linking up with a kind of beam to energize the jump.

Do I believe anyone should believe my story? No. But, judging from the total picture of half-way credible reports I believe there will one day be some kind of ongoing contact.

Conspiracy theories are conjured up by the same mentality that believes in God. People want to believe that someone is in control. God. Secret Societies. Satan. Even the concept of "free-will" is an illusion that emerges from the idea that there are agents who control. We have no soul or little man inside that's pushing the buttons. And there is no big man outside the universe who is in control.

49

Republican Party is pretty much done!

by free2beme in

jw
friends

after leaving the jehovah's witnesses, i started getting in to politics.

i naturally found myself going republican and voted a long those lines.

however, with my more pagan nature and being pretty much against christianity.

scotoma

All of this nonsense about whether Obama is left or right. He's neither. He is dead in the center - SELF centered aka narcissist.

Progressives realize that Obama didn't deliver for them. He basically did everything the Republicans wanted. Kept spending money on war.

Kept the drones flying. Kept guananamo open. Refused to prosecute Cheney for violating the constitution. Kept pushing Russia with Polish and Czech missile installations. Kept the Bush tax breaks for the rich when he could have easily ended it. Allowed insurance companies and drug companies to dictate prices for health care and didn't even allow a public option let alone national health care. Didn't do a damn thing for Mexican immigrants.

Obama doesn't like people. He likes it when people like him. Things would have been no worse if McCain had been elected. They might have even been better because the racist Republicans wouldn't be trying to obstruct everything and the democrats would have seized control of the House in 2010.

Sure he's leaning left now. That's because he wants to hob nob with the hollywood, & pop music stars when he's out of office. He knows he can be as bold as he wants now that he doesn't have to worry about reelection. He is thinking about access to the beautiful celebrities he can hang out with after he's no longer in office. I see extramarital affairs for him.

24

Brilliant Robin Williams Quote

by Amelia Ashton in

jw
friends

.

the loneliest place on the planet for me was the kingdom hall.

.

scotoma

You all keep talking about "crowds" at the KH. Do you mean like "threes a crowd".

I don't see crowds at the KH anymore.

49

Republican Party is pretty much done!

by free2beme in

jw
friends

after leaving the jehovah's witnesses, i started getting in to politics.

i naturally found myself going republican and voted a long those lines.

however, with my more pagan nature and being pretty much against christianity.

scotoma

Moshe has stated the brutal fact.

Urban areas need big government. Big cities require more rules to manage large populations. Big cities require more services to function.

The safety net for rural populations has always been the land. If crop prices are low you can always eat your own live stock, plant a larger garden and fill your root cellar. Or you can just sit on your back porch with your gun and shoot a deer or whatever varmint scampers by. People in rural areas know each other. People in cities know very few of the people in their neighborhoods.

Creative types like to be around a lot of other people. More stable conventional types prefer wilderness. It's a temperament issue more than an ideological problem and that's why it can't be resolved unless there is good faith compromise.

Libertarians are pot smoking republicans. They just want to be left alone to do what they want to do.

69

New World Translation

by MsD in

jw
friends

it may seem like a stupid question but who was responsible for translating their version of the bible?

i heard it was ray franz, several governing body members.

does anybody have any legitimate info that can prove who exactly translated it?

scotoma

There are definitely certain terms or phrases in the NWT that are suggestive of Fred Franz. Fred definitely seemed to be located somewhere in the Autistic spectrum or had obssessive compulsive disorder.

I have a friend who is a former JW and has a Masters degree that required knowledge of ancient Hebrew. He felt the NWT was an excellent translation even though he had problems with some of the language.

One thing he didn't like is the translation of the expression that indicates someone obeyed "he did just so". The Hebrew simply says a person was told to do something and they proceeded to do it. The idea that they followed instructions down to the most miniscule detail was never implied. This was evidence of Franz's OCD.