in a conversation with my son, we were going over all the young people he grew up with that were jws.
there seemed to be an inordinate proportion of felons among them, compared to the "worldly" people in his school.
and also compared to the people at work that i know whose kids are doing fine now.. our tentative theory is that raising kids as jws can be very damaging to many of them.
Ye Gods! I've been saying this over and over again!!!!!
Witness kids are schooled in PRETENSE!!!! They are taught
that boring, worthless meetings are direct info from Jehovah.
They are taught that trying to sell magazines to disinterested
people is a life saving work.
Anytime they question this nonsense (the emperor has no clothes,
dad!) they get jumped on for questioning the arrangement.
Worse? You bet your a$$ they're worse!
metatron
imagine you are locked away in solitary confinement in a prison,.
for many years.
one person brings you news of the outside.
Remember Monty Python?
Do you belong to the Looney religion?
metatron
imagine you are locked away in solitary confinement in a prison,.
for many years.
one person brings you news of the outside.
BillyGoat, when I referred to Christianity as a cult, I was only
referring to the idea of a cargo cult.
For those of you who may not know what a cargo cult is, I'll try to explain:
Around WW2, Americans and others invaded many tropical Pacific
islands that had isolated, primitive cultures. These people
had no idea what technology was, so they interpreted it as
powerful magic that whitemen controlled. After the armies
came and went, the islanders built imitation landing strips
and grass huts with sticks atop that looked like antennas.
They repeated the incantations they heard the whitemen use
to make the metal birds come and bring cargo - "Roger Wilco,
over" and so forth. Later, some of these primitive groups
got angry and violent because the whitemen would not tell them
the secret magic of how to bring cargo. When told about factories
that made all this stuff, they refused to believe it and got more
angry.
If you think I'm making all this up, read some books on "cargo
cults" in sociology.
My point is to demonstrate, in the human world, what crazy things
can happen when a highly advanced civilization encounters
primitive people. When the Conquistadors encountered Montezuma,
it was similar since the Spaniards had guns, armor, and horses.
("they're Gods! we have to give them our gold")
So, all revealed religions could be similar to the cargo cult
phenomena. ( like Genesis 6 where angels make whoopee with
hot earth babes - book of Enoch sez they brought all kinds
of advanced skills with 'em like metal working )
metatron
imagine you are locked away in solitary confinement in a prison,.
for many years.
one person brings you news of the outside.
I understand.
If you define faith as purely blind and held without the support
of confirmed facts, then yes, it is possible.
I hold to the radical thought that even if every miracle in the
Bible happened, we still can't know what the real purpose is.
For all we know Christianity, Islam, and Judaism might just
be broad gauge 'cargo cults' (!!) inspired by some technologically
advanced civilization that decided to intervene in the affairs
of primitive hominids who whacked each other with clubs.
Aztecs and South Sea islanders reacted this way to men from
'advanced' nations.
Until we reach the stars, it's all just speculation, altho
few are willing to admit it.
metatron
imagine you are locked away in solitary confinement in a prison,.
for many years.
one person brings you news of the outside.
Imagine you are locked away in solitary confinement in a prison,
for many years. One person brings you news of the outside
world.
However nice this person might be, you can never really know
anything certain about the outside world - or even what conditions
exist with regard to the terms of your imprisonment.
Welcome to the planet earth!
Scientists have already found strong evidence of many planets
orbiting distant stars (I lost count after 40 or so).
They now think the Milky Way galaxy may hold 'billions of
planets like earth'.
www.guardian.co.uk./Archive/Article/0,4273,4390825,00.html
We live in a universe that is bigger than anything we can ever
imagine. We have no way of knowing what 'theological' conditions
exist outside this tiny planet - Is there intelligent life
elsewhere? Did they create us? Was the Bible written simply to
order and pacify the human race? How 'bout the Koran? Was Jesus
sent here as the Son of God or as a creature designed to teach
the human race? Is there one God? A council of Gods? .....
I can't know
You can't know
Nobody can know
We can't know because we are limited to this tiny world.
The Bible has had a powerful effect in guiding the human race
in the general right direction. I think it was inspired by higher
intellects.
But I can't go much further than that - and neither can you!
Yet, with evidence of a 'multiplicity of worlds' (Thomas Paine-
I wasn't the first to think of this idea), it STRONGLY suggests
that our human centered ideas about God and the universe are
in for a MAJOR revision. ("Jehovah's UNIVERSAL sovereignity
was called into question in the Garden of Eden" blah, blah)
May you live in interesting times...
metatron
the appeal court backed the decision of the lower court judge.. i am not rejoicing that the girl is necessarily getting the blood, tho i certainly like her chances for survival far better this way than with the 'alternative' treatment.
i have long been of the opinion that people have the right to chose medical treatment as long as it is an informed decision .
the court in their ruling support the fact that this girl did not make an inofrmed choice and was under intense pressure from the church, not her own belief.
Wonderful!
Another defeat of the Watchtower Society and its evil
efforts to use deception and shunning to control
its thralls.
metatron
how do help jw friends and relatives to break free from.
the stranglehold of cultish thinking?.
arguing about doctrine may trigger an automatic witness mind.
How do help JW friends and relatives to break free from
the stranglehold of cultish thinking?
Arguing about doctrine may trigger an automatic Witness mind
shutdown by labeling you an apostate. Most Witnesses are too
uneducated and schooled in uncritical thinking to evaluate
much evidence. Asking questions forces them to think - but often
needs to progress in 'baby steps' to allow long disused
reasoning powers to reawaken.
Beyond that, a better weapon may be exposing Watchtower DECLINE
and DOWNSIZING. While doctrine and clear reasoning may be alien
to most Witnesses, the decay of the organization may be much more
personal and familiar.
Contributions have declined
Publishers going down in Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia
Meeting attendance is going down
Bethel is downsizing
No more subscriptions
Fewer, cheaper books
No food offered at assemblies
Witness divorce
Witness suicides
Elders quitting
Sparse baptisms
and the roundhouse punch,
Witness kids are leaving the 'truth' everywhere in the developed world.
This stuff is often safe to talk about - and can open minds.
The Society fears the Doctrinal Implications of this erosion.
Why else did they create 70 hour pioneers and 15 minute publishers?
Ask: Why do the meetings have to be so boring?
Why can't they do something to retain young people like
other churches?
Why is Jehovah letting them run out of money?
Will things get better after certain old men die?
The evidence is growing all around them.
It's time to awaken them to it.
metatron
the state of israel will meet the same fate as rhodesia/zimbabwe.
and south africa - chipped away by endless violence, beaten down.
internationally, and finally erased amidst promises of peace.
Take careful note of the difference between the German
and Japanese cultures - and the Arab/Islamic world.
The economic differences between Catholic and Protestant
cultures has already been widely noted.
These cultural differences are why democracy and prosperity
have to be almost 'forced' on these nations. Otherwise, they
decay into violent and corrupt theocracies. This is also a
big reason why they hate Israel - the contrast is too much for
them to bear.
After years in the 'truth', you might understand that people
often don't know what's most beneficial to themselves and chase
illusions.
metatron
the state of israel will meet the same fate as rhodesia/zimbabwe.
and south africa - chipped away by endless violence, beaten down.
internationally, and finally erased amidst promises of peace.
The state of Israel will meet the same fate as Rhodesia/Zimbabwe
and South Africa - chipped away by endless violence, beaten down
internationally, and finally erased amidst promises of peace
that mean nothing. The richer and wiser citizens will emigrate
as soon as they possibly can.
Why? The Arab world only needs to generate more babies, train them in
suicide bombing, and slowly overcome Israeli resistance over decades.
I understand they already have "Sesame-Street" TV programs to
train children from infancy in martyrdom in Jerusalem.
Amazing that all their nuclear weapons mean nothing in this
fight.
There is only one possible solution: to deliberately build
an international port city-state around Gaza modeled after
Singapore and Hong Kong. Democracy and economic growth would
have to be 'spoon fed' to a culture that isn't capable of
either on its own.
This solution will require a lot of enlightenment, so it
isn't likely to happen.
It's more likely that Israel will gradually fail,
and end the "End Time" nonsense of fundamentalists.
metatron
the may 15, 2002 watchtower pg 11 contains the following .
statement:.
"such funds (the worldwide work box) are not used to.
clergy gotta eat, too.
I just can't stand the hypocrisy of it all.
Didn't I read somewhere about a Catholic priest
who died ministering to WTC people on Sept. 11?
they ain't all bad
metatron
