Posts by openminded

3

The Blame Game

by openminded in

jw
friends

notice in the story of the garden of eden that jehovah shifts the blame for the frightful condition of the cosmos he created onto adam.

this blame-shifting god tells us that it is on account of adam eating the fruit that the earth is cursed and pain-filled.

(see genesis 3:17-19)

Notice in the story of the Garden of Eden that Jehovah shifts the blame for the frightful condition of the cosmos he created onto Adam. This blame-shifting god tells us that it is on account of Adam eating the fruit that the earth is cursed and pain-filled. (See Genesis 3:17-19)

The universe is a place of suffering and pain, where life can only come forth from death! In order to feed themselves, all living things kill and eat each other, bringing terror, pain, and death to one another. Even herbivores live by killing plants. Disease-causing microbes and viruses abound by the countless trillions, killing untold millions in horrible deaths. Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, flood, famine, fire, pestilence, drought, tidal waves, gigantic meteor strikes that cause planet-wide extinction, all prove that death and violence are designed into this material universe! It didn’t become this way, it was created this way!

For those who insist on seeing the universe through rose-colored glasses, I will use the rose as a perfect example of the nature of this material universe created by the blind god, Samael/Jehovah. A rose is extremely beautiful, with an exquisite fragrance. Yet it possesses thorns that will stab you and make you bleed!

The universe is not a friendly place, and never has been, regardless of the lies to the contrary of the god Samael/Jehovah. The universe itself was born in a gigantic incomprehensibly violent explosion we call The Big Bang. Entire galaxies collide. Stars grow old and explode, destroying all the planets circling them. Our star, the sun, will one day explode and destroy all it's planets. The universe itself, and everything in it, was created to die! This is called entropy. Are we to suppose that because Adam ate a piece of fruit that the entire unfathomable universe went from being a nice friendly place where there was no pain, suffering, violence, or death, to it's current condition?

Am I to suppose that the saber-tooth tiger and T-Rex were once gentle herbivores who suddenly sprouted fangs and became ferocious carnivores when Adam ate the fruit? Am I to be so gullible as to believe that a supposedly Omnipotent God is not responsible for it's own creation, but can shift the blame for it's mistakes onto it's finite creatures? Not only are the beliefs of fundamentalists childish and silly, they are insulting to anyone with even average intelligence and education. Yet, millions of fundamentalist Christians believe those very things! There is a world of difference between childlike faith and childish beliefs.

Evangelicals and fundamentalists pride themselves on being true to the "letter" (the literal interpretation) of the Bible, yet they would be hard-pressed to find any early Christian writers who did not interpret the Genesis story of Adam and Eve as an allegory. Even the staunch biblicist Saint Augustine interpreted the Genesis tale as an allegory. Fundamentalists and evangelicals think of themselves as representing primitive, original Christianity. Yet their crude literalism would be foreign indeed to the highly diverse, often highly sophisticated early church they so revere, yet are utterly ignorant of. They do not comprehend that "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 2 Corinthians 3:6.

6

Adolf Hitler and Jehovah

by openminded in

jw
friends

let me explain.

jehovah is angry at the human race because of something our ancient ancestors supposedly did in a fabled garden of eden.

as the apostle paul argues, each human being is born with the stain of "original sin" inherited from our first parents.

openminded

One of the most outstanding examples in history of someone trying to be just like Jehovah is Adolph Hitler. Let me explain. Jehovah is angry at the human race because of something our ancient ancestors supposedly did in a fabled Garden of Eden. As the Apostle Paul argues, each human being is born with the stain of "original sin" inherited from our first parents. So, according to this reasoning, each human being is under the curse of Jehovah/Satan unless they kneel before him abjectly. Eventually (according to which church you belong to) either Jehovah will annihilate all unbelievers or he will throw them into hellfire where they will be "tormented day and night forever and ever."

In other words, the human race will supposedly be tortured or destroyed by Jehovah/Satan because of something we inherited from an ancient ancestor, something utterly outside of our control. Because of something we were born with, an accident of birth, a genetic defect. How is this like Adolph Hitler? Adolph Hitler despised the Jews because of an accident of birth. They were born Jews! So, he hated them and hunted them down and tortured them horribly, and finally killed around six million of them. Because they were born Jews. He also murdered the mentally and physically handicapped.

No sane or civilized person approves of Adolph Hitler. When we read of his dark deeds, and see the horror of the Holocaust portrayed in films such as Schindler's List, we are repulsed and aghast. Yet, Bible-believers will read of worse behavior on the part of their god Jehovah and think nothing of it! Somehow, in these people's minds, behavior that is Satanic when performed by humans such as Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin or Charles Manson, is magically transformed into the Epitome of Holiness when attributed to God!

I am constantly amazed at the blinders that Christians and even Jews wear when reading about the raging exploits of their god Satan. If we were to read in the newspaper of some "prophet" claiming that he heard God speaking to him, and commanding him to raise an army to kill all Jews, we would write him off (and rightly so) as a lunatic. Yet, when most Christians read of some self-proclaimed prophet of Jehovah in the Bible "hearing the voice of God,” and commanding the Jews to kill men, women, infants, the elderly (and even rip unborn children out of their mother's wombs as in Hosea 13:16), it all seems quite natural and normal and acceptable to them! Such people are not sane.

Who among us would torture and kill someone because they were born with a dread disease inherited from their parents? No one with even a shred of sanity! Even if that unfortunate individual displayed terrible anti-social behavior because of the inherited disease, we would seek to help that person, not torture and kill that person. Yet, Jehovah the Bible-fiend does precisely that! So you see, Adolph Hitler was indeed trying to be just like the god Jehovah. The Jehovah-fiend is the prototype for every fiend. Now and forever, world without end, amen.

5

Donald Duck and Jehovah

by openminded in

jw
friends

all of us grew up watching and enjoying the antics of donald duck.

laughing as he slowly but surely lost control of a situation, and then finally, in an impotent rage, threw a temper tantrum.

sometimes, it was his nephews huey, dooey, and looey who drove poor donald to the brink and beyond.

openminded

All of us grew up watching and enjoying the antics of Donald Duck. Laughing as he slowly but surely lost control of a situation, and then finally, in an impotent rage, threw a temper tantrum. Sometimes, it was his nephews Huey, Dooey, and Looey who drove poor Donald to the brink and beyond. We can all relate to Donald because often we too are faced with a situation that is beyond our control no matter what we do. After all, we are finite beings. However, when Donald Duck finally comes to the end of his rope and throws a destructive temper tantrum, he is displaying three important traits:

1) His impotence in the face of great difficulty.
2) His utter lack of self-control.
3) That he can be manipulated by others and by circumstance.

When Huey, Dooey, and Looey continue to disobey Donald despite all his warnings, all he can really do in the end is throw a fit and destroy things in his impotent rage. In this, Huey, Dooey, and Looey demonstrate their control over their Uncle Donald. They can push his buttons until he can no longer respond to the situation in a rational or constructive manner, and his mindless rage takes over. Donald has been successfully manipulated and shown to be impotent. For one is truly impotent when one can no longer respond to a situation in a constructive manner or maintain composure and self-control, and can only rage and destroy. As humans, we can relate to this. It reminds us of our own finiteness, and our own foibles.

However, when we read about this same behavior being displayed by the supposedly omnipotent and omniscient god Jehovah in the pages of the Bible, it should give us instant pause for thoughtful analysis of Jehovah. Jehovah is pushed by humans, over and over again, beyond his ability to respond to a situation in a constructive, rational, or self-controlled manner.

Just as Donald Duck throws impotent destructive rages because he can no longer respond constructively or rationally, so does Jehovah. In the pages of the Bible, humans disobey this supposedly omniscient and omni-competent god over and over, until he finally throws a destructive temper tantrum. He kills everyone on earth with a flood, sparing only a handful. He sends plagues upon Egypt because the Pharaoh of Egypt won't obey him. Jehovah kills all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. In his impotent wrath, Jehovah again and again destroys vast multitudes of the Israelites because he can no longer find a way (Despite his supposedly omniscient, omnipotent, and omni-competent nature) to respond in a meaningful, constructive, self-controlled manner to their disobedience. Impotent, destructive rage is always the Final Solution that Jehovah is pushed into.

We can laugh at Donald Duck's behavior because we see our human finiteness and foibles portrayed onscreen. Yet, when we find such behavior attributed to a supposedly omniscient, omnipotent, and omni-competent Jehovah we should be horrified and repulsed. Why? The real God is infinitely beyond us in intelligence, power, and wisdom. That God is not subject to our human finiteness and foibles, being superior to us, not inferior as Jehovah is. The True God is always able to find a meaningful, constructive way to respond to any situation. The True God could never be manipulated and controlled by finite creatures as Jehovah is. "Huey, Dooey, and Looey" (the human race) would never be able to exhaust the True God's mental and emotional resources and push it over the brink into impotent destructive rage.

7

My New Religion (from the Onion)

by openminded in

jw
friends

well, it's been a long, hard road, but i'm finally almost finished with cosmysticism, the new religion i've been working on for the past year or so.

and i must say, i'm pretty proud of how it's turned out.

it's a delicate blend of love and wrath, mystery and science, history and fantasy.

openminded

Well, it's been a long, hard road, but I'm finally almost finished with Cosmysticism, the new religion I've been working on for the past year or so. And I must say, I'm pretty proud of how it's turned out. It's a delicate blend of love and wrath, mystery and science, history and fantasy. I have some compelling characters, a universal creation myth, and a great ascension-of-man second act. Now all I need is some sort of snazzy post-death scenario to really put the cherry on top.

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you were starving, and you could smell something delicious nearby, but you couldn't find it? That's exactly how I feel trying to nail down this post-death thing. I know I could just crank out some temporary, half-assed afterlife and revise it later, but that seems like a lazy, shoddy way to go about creating a belief system.

Besides the afterlife thing, Cosmysticism is good to go. I spent months studying the top five major religions and some of the more successful dead ones, then I broke them down thematically and charted the elements they shared. Once I had that visual, Cosmysticism's central text, The Book Of Gunther, pretty much wrote itself. It's really great stuff, too. If I were a lost soul looking for answers in this difficult and bewildering world, I'd be eating Cosmysticism up.

In The Book Of Gunther, I hit on all the big topics. Where did man come from? "And Menda looked out over the long sea, knowing that Malthaz guided his every action, and said, 'It is here that Malthaz has placed me, and here that I shall give rise to offspring from my very flesh, plucking them from my leg bones until the Earth is filled with followers.'" (Gunther, 1:03-09) Does Malthaz command the cosmos? "Malthaz rules the cosmos, for there can be none other." (Gunther 3:14) Why do we have guns and violence? "And Malthaz presented a lightning stick, saying, 'Take and use this gift to kill the wild beasts for consumption. But thou may also use it, when necessary, to gain vengeance against thine enemies.'" (Gunther 14:26-28). Pretty good, eh?

The way I've written Cosmysticism (I mean, the way it was revealed to me), each person on Earth corresponds to a star in the universe. We are all literally people of the stars, filled with ageless matter and untold potential. It's pretty straightforward, but with just enough crazy sci-fi touches to get people hooked.

I could've simply said that when people die, they return to their star state, but that would've been so unimaginative. All the popular religions make promises of a grand existence in the afterlife. How can joining the universal consciousness compete with Islam's afterlife of countless sexually available virgins or Christianity's chance to revisit all the kitties you had during your life?

I thought about some bringing in some giant flying saucer that would take everyone to Neo-Heaven on the Eve of the Great Reckoning, but that seemed way too contrived. Talk about your deus ex machina. Besides, it's uncomfortably similar to that Heaven's Gate cult from a few years back. I'm creating a major new world religion here, not a death cult, and I certainly don't want to risk being associated with a bunch of bald, suicidal, Nike-wearing computer geeks.

Maybe I should keep a tape recorder by my bed. You never know, the perfect afterlife idea could hit me in my sleep. Just last week, I woke up in the middle of the night with this great idea about the Sixteen Stages Of Ascendency Into A Higher Plateau, but I didn't write any of it down, and I forgot it all by the morning. Drat the luck!

I can't allow myself to get hung up on this. I'll just go back to the Book and smooth out some of the rough spots about the Handing Down Of The Eternal Laws and the parable of "The Dolphin And The Fig." I'm sure the perfect post-death scenario will come to me eventually. I just need to let it gestate for a while. Once I've dreamed up that killer afterlife idea, the peoples of the world will flock to Cosmysticism like Muslims to Mecca.

53

Staying Awake Or Keeping In A Frenzy?

by AlanF in

we ex-jws know very well how much the watchtower society put us under pressure to believe that "armageddon is just around the corner".

they've been doing it in one form or another ever since charles taze russell began publishing his nonsense.

in 1877 he advocated that true christians should believe that christ would "take them home" in 1878. when that didn't happen he moved the event up to 1881. after that he focused on 1914.. the society is still doing pretty much the same thing, building up expectations and then revising them, decade after decade.

openminded

I resolutely believe that it makes perfect sense for a dub to have bipolar tendencies. Consider these polarities...then factor in the unfathomable exposure to repetition a dub is subjected to:

Jehovah-Satan

Life-Death

Abel-Cain

Righteous-Wicked

Paradise-World

Hebrews-Egyptians

New Personality-Old Personality

Truth-Lie

10 commandments-7deadly sins

Baptized-Disfellowshipment

the list goes on.

All of these have extreme differentiations as you cross the spectra...no grey area. This is why I live my life to extremes:

Laziness-Hardworking

Broke-Have Money

Ambition-listlessness.

Lofty ideals-throwing in the towel.

What a disease!--om

3

Theocratic Terrorism

by openminded in

if you think theocratic warfare is a conflict to terminology, the institute of american dialect has coined the term "theoterrorism.

" simply put, it is the killing of civilians for religious purposes.

another formidable reason why theocratic governments do not work.

openminded

If you think theocratic warfare is a conflict to terminology, the institute of american dialect has coined the term "theoterrorism." Simply put, it is the killing of civilians for religious purposes. Another formidable reason why theocratic governments DO NOT work.

What comes to my mind is incidence in the bible where a nation was, by the command of God, to be devoted to destruction. This is an extreme example, but realistically, woman and children and material goods were included in this. Animate objects were reduced to nothing...all for the sake of the side of the right, the ones with greater theocratic fortitude. On a smaller scale (or greater-depending on how you look at it), is allowing, therefore, facilitating a family members death, i.e. abstaining from life saving blood transfusions, any different? To me this embodies "theoterrorism"-the killing of civilians for a religious purpose.

Later, om

83

Who Pays The Ferryman....?

by hillary_step in

french philosopher blaise pascal once noted, "men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

" a case study for this statement can clearly be evidenced by the governing body of jehovahs witnesses.. the gb present themselves as lovers of truth and righteousness who are the only persons on this planet who speak for god.

this doctrine is at the very core of the beliefs of jehovahs witnesses and is one of the few that cannot be rationalized away by wts apologists.

openminded

As often as I check this board, I cannot beleive I missed this essay.

I was a potential everything...rendered, with much

fervor, by people who "cared" into a void and waste of

life. My parents are guilty of killing not only the

dream but the dreamer as well.

H_S THANK YOU for this.

om

Edited by - openminded on 25 November 2002 16:2:38

21

WTS and donations

by freedom96 in

jw
friends

many christian type religions, organized or not, believe in giving 10% like was done in the old days in the bible.

you even have the mormons, who must give 10%.. as money hungry as the wts is, why have they not gone for that as well?

they can always justify anything for any reason.

openminded

I understand that the society basically invoices the congregation for any difference in what they figure the literature is worth and what the cong donates.

Example: Cong. orders $1000.00 worth of literature.

The next month they only have 250.00 in donations

So the secratary automatically cuts a check for the difference of 750.00 to the worlwide work from the congregations general fund.

So the society wins 3 ways

1. they get cash regardless of whether or not housholders or pubs donate

2. rank and file/public think its all a donation arrangment

3. the society pays no tax.

Its all pretty ingenious if you ask me. I think I should start a religion myself, it a tough racket to beat.

23

Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

by Robdar in

.

any fans out there?.

robyn