scotoma

Joined

• started 68 topics
• posted 905 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by scotoma

• 
  19

  Terry, the advantage we have being 60 and older, we are smarter.

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  how many folks knows the answer to these historical events, lol.. 1) after the long ranger saved the day and rode off into the sunset.

  the grateful citizens would ask, who was the masked man?.

  invariably, someone would answer, i don,t know, but he left this.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  Really, that's why our short term memory doesn't work any more. Our brains are filled up with old shit.
• 
  82

  My 66th birthday is today!!

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  once i was little boy in fort worth, texas living with my maw maw and paw paw and mommy.. then, i was an 18 year old 6'4'' skinny 165lb religious nut being dipped in a baptismal during a local assembly.. suddenly, i was 20 and listening to a jail cell door clang behind me as a conscientious objector.. wow!

  23 years old and put on parole until my 6 years sentence was ended!

  i got married to a nice jw girl and had 3 kids!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  Wow. 7 kids. You should have been Catholic.

  No matter what...

  you have been biologically successful.

  People of the future are going to have to deal with snips of your DNA.
• 
  40

  Another visit from the elders

  by jonno12225 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so i have another visit from the elder this week.

  this time they want to speak with my wife, still a believer and myself.

  i think they want to know my position about my children attending the meetings and some other things.. while preparing myself for it i though of a challenge for the elders and my wife.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  People are not rational beings. Don't expect them to be.

  They won't tolerate a 1 degree deviation from their course.

  A 180 degree deviation taking them in the opposite direction is impossible.

  Do this experiment.

  Fill a cup with water.

  Put your finger in the cup.

  Pull it out.

  Did you make any difference to the cup of water? You just got your finger wet.

  That's why these discussion boards are so effective. People come here. They read the arguments. They make up their mind - in time.
• 
  28

  Jehovah's Witnesses and Divorce

  by Eustace in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i really hate divorce.

  it was my parents getting divorced that helped messed up my childhood.. part of why i came to conclude the jehovah's witnesses don't have the "spiritual paradise" they claim to is how many of their marriages end up in divorce.my parents i could dismiss as an exception to a general rule, but i could never understand how often it seemed to keep happening to lots of different people when the watchtower society teaches that divorce is wrong except in case of adultery.. but what really brought things home for me was this study by the pewforum on religion survey showing that even though jehovah's witness are less likely to be married than the general population, they're more likely to be divorced or separated.. http://religions.pewforum.org/.

  they really have a nerve telling people in the jehovah's witnesses religion that they shouldn't have sex outside of marriage when they've done so little to protect jws who get married, and their children, from the extreme stress and conflict of divorce.. it's really messed up.. heck, even the catholics they're are always dumping on have a lower divorce/separation rate than the jws.. jw divorced/separated = 14%.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  Jgnat hit the nail squarely. It's not rocket science.

  I performed 3 marriages. All three are divorced. I once made a tally in the margins of my Watchtower (study on Marriage) of all the weddings I could think of attending. As a witness you go to a lot of them. Half were divorced.

  Once when Karl Klein was visiting my parents we were discussing the problems with the failed 1975 date. I mentioned how so many of my peers got married because they were afraid that if they died during the great tribulation they would never experience sexual intercourse. The result was a sunami of broken marriages. Klein said he would have to add that to the list of causalties of 1975.

  The big mistake is that the Watchtower teaches you that prayer, study, and communication will solve all your problems. They pay little attention to temperaments that just don't get along. They should at least allow couples to divorce without consequences if they are mutually agreeable to that solution.

  A lot of times the problems begin right after engagement. The mask comes off and people start showing their real personality instead of their courtship facade. So what clever rule does the society come up with? They declare you imature if you break an engagement and even take away congregational positions. Losing your responsibilities is viewed as a loss of Jehovah's confidence so you go against your intuition and marry setting the stage for a miserable life.
• 
  21

  Has disproving the "Truth" become an obsession for you at times?

  by Pyramid Scheme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was curious if anyone else has gone through a similar experience.. when i became inactive 4 years ago, i went through a period of not being able to focus on just about anything, other than doing tremendous amounts of research to prove to myself what my beliefs were, and to clearly identify my issues with the jw organization.

  i was mad - and i was on a mission to build the ultimate case against the wt.

  however, having read the fine advice on here, i backed off with my family, since it would have just gotten ugly.. i avoided posting on here for years, and had cut down my research and put it on the back burner.. however, i still felt a need to "witness" to my family and to have an open discussion with my wife.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  I love "truth". Truth is not what someone says it is. Truth is something that can be successfully defended.

  Challenging significant claims in all areas is a life time dedication.

  Enjoying the process of synthesizing contradictory claims is something you have to be born with because it can be very distracting.
• 
  17

  Law School/Medical School Reading Book on Genetics and Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Justitia Themis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the book is recommended reading in my bioethics law class.

  this is a law/medicine class that combines students from the school of medicine, the school of public health, and the school of law, so a broad cross-section of people will base their opinions of jws on this book.

  my fellow students include a working neonatologist, a japanese health department employee, a chinese gentleman who works for some chinese gov't agency, a north african lawyer, an australian international health care worker, an undergrad ethics professor from a different, but local, university, and a social worker who is a fellow at a local pediatric bioethics foundation.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  Too bad Jehovah didn't explain to Adam & Eve (by word, dream or vision) that by eating the forbidden fruit they opened the door to all sorts of genetic mutations. That certainly would have been an excellent preventive for all our sickness and could have avoided billions dying from war, pestilence and starvation.

  No special pleading will get God off that hook. He showed later on that he was pretty handy at getting his point accross with dreams, visions and sacred secrets.
• 
  2

  I dont Regret My past

  by Most Noble in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  1. 
  2. 
• 

  scotoma

  My past is how I got here.

  I want to be here.
• 
  48

  When do you think there will be a revised "Reasoning Book"

  by Amelia Ashton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  because i was abroad we had to use the original revelation book and only the reader had the new improved version so i don't know if this was the same else where but following along using the old version made the adjustments seem even more ludicrous.. why didn't they ensure everyone had the new version before studying it rather than highlight all the "adjustments" that had to be made in a km and therefore making them more obvious?.

  do you think there could be a list of amendments to be inserted into the reasoning book in the same way?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  My own personal favorite Reasoning book. It runs in price from 1.25 for a used paper back up to 150.00 for a new hard cover at amazon.

  Favorite bathroom reading. Contains 60 common fallacies. Gives examples of how to use these in overturning arguments.

  
• 
  21

  Question about this site

  by free2beme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have come to this site for almost a decade.

  even though i do not stop by much anymore, i wonder why it has not been upgraded or changed to a more modern format.

  it seems like it has basically just been left to what it was upgraded to several years ago.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  Simon,

  I thought "why in the world change it. I don't like learning how to navigate new web pages" . Then I checked out the new format and actually like it.

  Good choice.

  I also was one of those who voted down remodeling Kingdom Halls.
• 
  48

  When do you think there will be a revised "Reasoning Book"

  by Amelia Ashton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  because i was abroad we had to use the original revelation book and only the reader had the new improved version so i don't know if this was the same else where but following along using the old version made the adjustments seem even more ludicrous.. why didn't they ensure everyone had the new version before studying it rather than highlight all the "adjustments" that had to be made in a km and therefore making them more obvious?.

  do you think there could be a list of amendments to be inserted into the reasoning book in the same way?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  scotoma

  There once was a book that basically was The Governing Body Said So

  you can read it here:

  http://www.a2z.org/wtarchive/docs/1916_What_Pastor_Russell_Said.pdf