Phizzy

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Posts by Phizzy

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  35

  How Come I Rarely See People In Field Service, Vs The 1980-1990s Doing House2House?

  by Bubblegum Apotheosis in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  field service hours have hit new records each year, but i am seeing less people working the territory.

  where is all the time spent, that people are putting in the field ministry?

  it's been close to ten years, since i have seen people working certain territories.

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  Phizzy

  Not in my area Lama, I live in a rural area where building is strictly controlled, so we have had few new dwellings in my old Congregation's territory, and there are more active JW's, moved in mostly, but more of the buggers.

  Not so many years ago they got round the whole area in 3 months , now it is 9 months, without doubt here there has been a slow down, quite what it is due to I don't know, they couldn't possibly have started walking any slower than they did !

  I would guess that it is a lack of enthusiasm, perhaps some have stopped pioneering, and just maybe they have been exhorted to actually engage householders in a proper conversation ? nah, probably not. Not many of 'em capable of that.
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  13

  As an ex near witness I have a voracious capacity for reading

  by Star tiger in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  since nearly being consumed by witness mentality as an almost baptised member but thankfully due to my fantastic wifes scepticism toward it, i have now embarked on a voracious capacity for reading all the books that were once excluded from my list to get a total rounded out experience of life from the communist manifesto to atlas shrugged, wealth of nations, the age of reason, robert anton wilson, the koran and dare i say it mein kamf, the vedas, but i am still a bit frightened of the golden bough due to the residue of the jw's.

  all knowledge must be good, i've read the bible and but it seem a bit meh!, all books have some interesting points, except the nazi one but it's good to read anything you can!.

  anybody else obssesed with reading!!.

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  Phizzy

  I have always been a reader, but since leaving the JW's and realising my abysmal ignorance in many areas, I have started to read a wide range of stuff that will round out my education, philosophy is a fovourite,ancient and modern, I am reading a lot about science ,evolution being the first thing I wanted to get a proper grasp of.

  I am not afraid of ghosties and ghoulies, apart from being kicked in the latter, so will read Magick or any of that stuff (mostly fanciful nonsense IMHO) but I have had to learn to use critical thinking skills with a number of things I have read, many writers are not above using dodgy argumentation or worse.

  Just as an example, I was reading a scientific paper and it had not been presented for peer review, which put up a warning flag, I checked the references and all the supporting research that was quoted was from others who supported the theory being expounded, which meant that no opposing evidence was presented, a W.T type method.

  So Good Reading ! you will find others on here willing to recommend books, look back at some not so old threads on the subject, lots of good stuff.
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  13

  As an ex near witness I have a voracious capacity for reading

  by Star tiger in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  since nearly being consumed by witness mentality as an almost baptised member but thankfully due to my fantastic wifes scepticism toward it, i have now embarked on a voracious capacity for reading all the books that were once excluded from my list to get a total rounded out experience of life from the communist manifesto to atlas shrugged, wealth of nations, the age of reason, robert anton wilson, the koran and dare i say it mein kamf, the vedas, but i am still a bit frightened of the golden bough due to the residue of the jw's.

  all knowledge must be good, i've read the bible and but it seem a bit meh!, all books have some interesting points, except the nazi one but it's good to read anything you can!.

  anybody else obssesed with reading!!.

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  Phizzy

  Sorry, double post, the next thing I must learn is to control my fat finger !
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  26

  Scum in Britain

  by varian in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...just unbelievable.

  even the lefties are having trouble to find nice words for them...hahaha!.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nhzwdjhw-ae#!.

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  Phizzy

  Dear Cantleave, I concur with your estimation of Jesus, there is no way we will get to the "historical Jesus" whether individual or composite,I do not believe we will ever be sure, what I was pointing out was that if you wish to cause a furore you could do so by using the same epithet against what is, I agree a mainly fictional character.

  "Jesus was a twat" is not likely to endear you to many. I do not think that using that insult against the certain historical person, Muhammad , actually added much to this thread.

  I agree too with your estimate of religion. All religion was invented by men. Therefore it must be stupid, now, had it been invented by women, it might be different !

  The "scum in Britain" come from many backgrounds, they are muslim,christian,atheist,communist,fascist and lots of other "ists", but share one common denominator, Ignorance.

  Ignorance causes extremism, causes violence.
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  26

  Scum in Britain

  by varian in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...just unbelievable.

  even the lefties are having trouble to find nice words for them...hahaha!.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nhzwdjhw-ae#!.

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  Phizzy

  cantleave, I will die for you to have the right to say that ! Disrespectful and inaccurate as it may be, Muhammad was far from what you said, as you know you s**tstirer !

  But as soon as this country starts stamping down on irreverent speech I am going to leave. Offensive speech is not the same as hate speech, many would be offended if you said Jesus was a twat, and you would be just as wrong as to detail, but you have the right to say it, and they have the right to be offended.

  Nobody, even Mods on here, has the right to suppress free speech.

  Ignorance is our enemy, the "scum" you rail against are ignorant, we have no need to go down to their level, we need to espouse the cause of greater education and compassion.
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  18

  Why am I so special?

  by Wayward Son in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if we are to accept that intelligence plays no part in wether or not we become duped into a cult, then the same rule must apply to those who wake up and make an exit.. so why am i so special?

  i had basically the same experiences as my family and i am the only one out.

  i don't claim to be some towering intelect, but even if i were it shouldn't matter.

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  Phizzy

  One of my children, who never took to the religion, says it is because he "never had the God gene", he thinks he would have struggled to accept any religion that he was born in to, not just JW's. Even the concept of god did not work for him, he said from an early age "Its all made up by men"

  Could he be right ? some are more genetically predisposed to accept Bulls**T ? His sibling only rejected the religion, and all others, once he went to Uni and was taught critical thinking skills.
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  8

  Readjusting Your View of "Wordly" People

  by What Now? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  [if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>normal</w:view> <w:zoom>0</w:zoom> <w:trackmoves /> <w:trackformatting /> <w:punctuationkerning /> <w:validateagainstschemas /> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:saveifxmlinvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:ignoremixedcontent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext> <w:donotpromoteqf /> <w:lidthemeother>en-us</w:lidthemeother> <w:lidthemeasian>x-none</w:lidthemeasian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>x-none</w:lidthemecomplexscript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables /> <w:snaptogridincell /> <w:wraptextwithpunct /> <w:useasianbreakrules /> <w:dontgrowautofit /> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark /> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp /> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables /> <w:dontvertalignintxbx /> <w:word11kerningpairs /> <w:cachedcolbalance /> </w:compatibility> <w:browserlevel>microsoftinternetexplorer4</w:browserlevel> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont m:val="cambria math" /> <m:brkbin m:val="before" /> <m:brkbinsub m:val="&#45;-" /> <m:smallfrac m:val="off" /> <m:dispdef /> <m:lmargin m:val="0" /> <m:rmargin m:val="0" /> <m:defjc m:val="centergroup" /> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440" /> <m:intlim m:val="subsup" /> <m:narylim m:val="undovr" /> </m:mathpr></w:worddocument> </xml><!

  [endif][if gte mso 10]> <style> /* style definitions */ table.msonormaltable {mso-style-name:"table normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"times new roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"times new roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif].

  as im sure it is with most of us that were raised in the religion, our contact with wordly people was kept to a minimum.. my parents moved away from their non witness family, to a city about half an hour away.

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  Phizzy

  Why not learn to be tolerant of different views and standards ? If you moved to a very different culture from that of your birth, you would have to get used to a lot of strange new things about the way people thought, acted and even ate.

  That is not too difficult if we are not fixated on the idea that our way is best.

  I have found people who have never been a JW , what I call "normal people", to be not that different in culture, they are for the most part honest, kind and helpful, and trustworthy, O.K you are going to get the odd exception.

  Some do not hold to exactly the same standards as me, I have a friend who has a mistress for example, I do not "approve", but he does not need to know that, his way is his way, it is not for me, but we are good friends.

  If we get rid of the old JW judgemental attitude first, it makes it easier to build friendships.
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  72

  Why Are These Islamists So Touchy?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  another thing i don't get..

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  Phizzy

  When I first realised I was living in unreality and ignorance as a JW I started to read and research on anything and everything that I realised I knew little about. This included Islam.

  I came away with an appreciation of the relgion which is totally at one with the girl in the video on the thread "Scum in Britain" who said once you engage in violence you have ceased to be Islamic. Islam is the way of peace.

  It is not helpful to quote the Quran as though it were to be taken as a literal word for word guide to life now, that is as silly as doing the same with the Bible,it is to be used in the same way as the jews used their scriptures, using Midrash, hence we have Madrassah schools which apply the Quran to modern living.

  Yes, any of this is open to abuse, extremism and fundamentalism is a problem in religion and elsewhere, but demonising a huge chunk of humanity because of a few nut jobs is unjust, and ignorant.

  The Westborough baptists , the taliban/al quaida types, the North Korean fanatic,even the extreme JW etc etc are minorities who need taming and educating, but they do not speak for the majority.
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  26

  Scum in Britain

  by varian in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...just unbelievable.

  even the lefties are having trouble to find nice words for them...hahaha!.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nhzwdjhw-ae#!.

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  Phizzy

  "Ignorance is what causes extremism" was the young lady's final statement. How true !

  If only we could educate all people on earth to realise that no book is worth murdering for, no one place is more sacred than another, and living your life in the 21st century based on writings from centuries ago makes no sense, we could eradicate extremism.

  There is no need to attack benevolent silly beliefs, but those often form a crucible for malevolent beliefs to surface and take hold.

  Education is a good idea, getting rid of ignorance, but people need to be willing to learn.
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  41

  I don't agree with that evidence, so I'll just ignore it. . .

  by Flat_Accent in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  just a little experience i had a while back.

  thought it was funny so here we go.

  (there's also a couple of links you might want to use for your own reference).

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  Phizzy

  Where I challenged the lack of proof for a Jw belief, an Elder said to me "I am satisfied there is proof, and I am satisfied with that proof"

  He would not present that proof though.

  Cog. Diss.at its best. (worst?)