Posts by Socrateswannabe

Seriously, I would like to tip my hat to those of you who entertain and educate me every day on this forum. I am grateful that you are willing to share what you know, unstintingly. You know who you are. Thank you.

119

How many of you followed the WTS direction on education years ago and have been screwed by it?

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

i'm really interested in this question because i've heard for years that if you forgo further education and go pioneering, when you have a family down the track you will get a good job because jehovah will provide for you because you pioneered.

as long as i was a kool-aid drinker, even then, i thought, "how does pioneering pay your bills?

surely education should come first.

Socrateswannabe

I grew up in the 1960s and in the area I lived in, higher education wasn't discouraged by the JWs, it was absolutely forbidden and almost unheard of. With coaching from my naive parents, I treated my high school guidance counselor as the devil incarnate. I graduated public school with as little learning as was possible. The JWs in my area got a huge boost to their ridiculous anti-education thinking, when the one guy who bucked the trend and actually received a university education, promptly left the "truth" after he graduated. See, I told you so, they clucked.

153

If there is a God why didn't he sign our DNA

by scotoma in

jw
friends

todays 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.

Socrateswannabe

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.

14

Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 02-17-2013 WT Study (TEMP RESIDENTS)

by blondie in

jw
friends

united nations http://www.randytv.com/secret/unitednations.htm.

6. in what sense can jehovahs witnesses be.

residents, and of what?.

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.

1

The connection between dinosaurs and preaching

by Socrateswannabe in

jw
friends

i 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.

Socrateswannabe

I 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. 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.

-----------

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!

------------

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.

New Light Minefield

by Socrateswannabe in

jw
friends

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.

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.

14

Service Dept VS Writing Dept

by Socrateswannabe in

jw
friends

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.

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.

32

Is the Truth so delicate?

by Socrateswannabe in

jw
friends

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.

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.

19

A word of caution

by Socrateswannabe in

jw
friends

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.

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?