Wow, I could have typed all day and never came close to putting things as succinctly and plainly as Cofty's post #7380, above. I may print that out and frame it.
Socrateswannabe
JoinedPosts by Socrateswannabe
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153
If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA
by scotoma intodays scientists can and do insert their trademark into dna.. why couldn't jehovah anticipate scientists learning this technique and stumbling across a strand that says "human by yhwh"?.
that would have answered a lot of questions.. he could have even included a model number human2.0.
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Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 02-17-2013 WT Study (TEMP RESIDENTS)
by blondie inunited nations http://www.randytv.com/secret/unitednations.htm.
6. in what sense can jehovahs witnesses be.
residents, and of what?.
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Socrateswannabe
Thanks Blondie, for your excellent comments, which are always of a much higher quality than the material you are commenting on. I thought it was interesting that on page 20, the left portion of the photo that is captioned, "We are not striving to save Satan's world", shows two people with Anonymous masks. I'm just wondering if this is an "in your face" to Anonymous, or maybe the photo was set up long before Anonymous made their threats to the WTS.
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The connection between dinosaurs and preaching
by Socrateswannabe ini was reading this thread from six years ago by m.j.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/118608/1/were-dinosaurs-part-of-a-pre-adamic-paradise.
it's a great topic and well worth a read.
the existence of dinosaurs has long vexed the wts, i believe.
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Socrateswannabe
I was reading this thread from six years ago by M.J.
It's a great topic and well worth a read. The existence of dinosaurs has long vexed the WTS, I believe. For an organization that believes everything can be explained by the bible, they are curiously silent on this topic.
On page 2 of the thead, Botzwana and Simon 17 both said that they have heard JWs say that dinosaurs were created so that man could have oil. This was a popular belief of JWs when I was growing up. I imagine this is an example of the kind of reasoning that would lead JW's to that conclusion:
Jehovah created everything, including dinosaurs.
There must be some reason for them, because everything has a reason or purpose.
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Dinosaurs became extinct-probably due to Noah's flood.
Dinosaurs were big and prolific, thus dinosaurs would have created a great deal of decayed matter.
Oil comes from decaying organic matter.
Oil must come from dinosaurs.
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We use automobiles to preach the good news.
Automobiles consume fossil-fuel.
Jehovah must have created the dinosaurs so that we can have gasoline to preach!
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This fallacious reasoning was unwittingly helped along, no doubt, by the Sinclair Oil Company, which had gasoline stations throughout much of the US in the mid-twentieth century. Sinclair's logo included a large, green brontosaurus. Even a cursory investigation into the history of the Sinclair logo indicates that the oil company, staffed by geologists and geophysicists, did not believe that petroleum came primarily from dead dinosaurs. They were simply drawing a connection between the formation of petroleum and the age of dinosaurs. They knew that the bulk of all hydrocarbons were formed over many millions of years mostly from decaying plankton and algae in lakes and seas. But it's a great example of how JW urban legends start, and how gullible Witnesses can be.
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New Light Minefield
by Socrateswannabe inin case any of the rest of you are "stuck in" like me and are following the tms bible-reading schedule, this week is a killer.
as i read matt.
25 i realized that almost everything in that chapter has undergone revision after revision in my lifetime, not the least of which are the "generation" understanding and the gb=fds thingy.
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Socrateswannabe
In case any of the rest of you are "stuck in" like me and are following the TMS bible-reading schedule, this week is a killer. As I read Matt. 25 I realized that almost everything in that chapter has undergone revision after revision in my lifetime, not the least of which are the "generation" understanding and the GB=FDS thingy. I used to update marginal notes in my bible with the latest info from the WT, conventions, CO talks, etc., but now it's not worth it. I can't afford to keep buying wite-out for all the changes.
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Service Dept VS Writing Dept
by Socrateswannabe ini have seen it alluded to in various posts that there is a major rift between the service and writing departments at the world hq.
for those of you in the know, please explain what is going on, who the players are, what turf are they battling over, who is winning, and the consequences of all of this.
i am intrigued but i know nothing about it.
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Socrateswannabe
I have seen it alluded to in various posts that there is a major rift between the Service and Writing departments at the World HQ. For those of you in the know, please explain what is going on, who the players are, what turf are they battling over, who is winning, and the consequences of all of this. I am intrigued but I know nothing about it. Thank you.
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Is the Truth so delicate?
by Socrateswannabe inthe gb brooks no questions or dissention.
their brand of truth seems quite delicate and incapable of standing up to scrutiny.
"the truth is incontrovertible.
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Socrateswannabe
The GB brooks no questions or dissention. Their brand of Truth seems quite delicate and incapable of standing up to scrutiny.
"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is." -- Winston Churchill
Real truth is not delicate. It can stand up to wear or challenge. Only a lie, dressed in the clothing of truth, is so fragile. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
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A word of caution
by Socrateswannabe inplease forgive me if you consider this to be presumptuous, i know i am an ultra-newbie here.
but, i see a lot of threads on jwn that read something like, "what is your dog's name" or "where's your favorite vacation spot", "what's your special name for your spouse", etc.
i give the opening posters of these threads the benefit of the doubt that they are creating them simply for entertainment purposes.
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Socrateswannabe
Please forgive me if you consider this to be presumptuous, I know I am an ultra-newbie here. But, I see a lot of threads on JWN that read something like, "What is your dog's name" or "Where's your favorite vacation spot", "What's your special name for your spouse", etc. I give the opening posters of these threads the benefit of the doubt that they are creating them simply for entertainment purposes. But if there are others with malicious intent who lurk here, couldn't they start a database of all these "fun" posts, and perhaps by a sort of trianglation of crossfire, nail someone's identity? Unlikely, I'm sure, but still a possibility?
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Cemetery of Forgotten Books
by compound complex ini wound my way to a place both dark and light .
whose aspect was deeply grave yet of cheerful .
within the heightened stalls were untold rows.
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Socrateswannabe
Two recommendations for book lovers: 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, and The Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman. Really, anything by Clifton Fadiman.
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Governing Body, Faithful slave, or who?
by Chariklo ini have a question.
to most of you, this will seem elementary, and you'd think that after twenty months or so on this forum i'd know the answer, but i don't.
in this thread.
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Socrateswannabe
I can't answer your question regarding who has the money, but I would like to suggest to you that the money isn't as important as you may think it is. I agree with Jnat that WTBS is a bureaucracy whose primary goal is self-preservation. Other large organizations are bureaucracies also. Let's say that Apple Corporation is one. The founders and leaders of Apple want to leave a legacy that will be around 100 years from now, so in that way they're no different from the leaders of the WTBS.
Apple, through its advertising, development and marketing of superior products, and manipulation of social media, labors mightily to alter my behavior. They may convince me that without Apple products, my life will be less rich and meaningful, and if I believe them, I buy their stuff. As an organization they have spent a good deal of capital to influence me to do so, and their motive is profit--so the money is quite important to them.
I don't believe the leaders of the WTBS are greedy in the traditional sense of the word, that is, for profit. They control an empire, and even if all of the perks that we've heard about are true, they still lead rather austere lives compared to the titans at Apple or any other multi-billion dollar corporation. Money is necessary to keep the wheels in motion, but it is not their primary focus. So what do WT leaders work so hard to attain? Power and control. Power and control are the keys to perpetuating their organization. They manipulate, not by the carrot of pleasure, as Apple does, but by the stick of fear and guilt. They preach that all not with them are against them, placing 99% of the world on the side of Satan. Add to that the specter of shunning, spiritual bankruptcy, the wrath of Jehovah, and finally an excruciating death at Armageddon, and they can exert a powerful influence on naïve people. It works on only one in a thousand, but it has created a juggernaut that is very hard to break up. That is what they seek. Power and control.
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Jehovah's Witnesses and Divorce
by Eustace ini 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%.
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Socrateswannabe
I just looked through a list of publishers (including elders, etc.) for our congregation and, exluding minors, here's how it shakes out for us:
Observably stable marriage: 31%
Separated/Divorced (at least once but not necessarily at present time): 21.7%
Not separated or divorced but with HUGE problems in the marriage: 33.3%
Single: 14%
Knowing some of the couples in the "huge problems" category, separation or divorce would lead to a much higher quality of life for all involved.