Posts by philo

8

Cult of Apostates

by Victor_E in

jw
friends

the cult of jw apostates is a worldwide phenomenon that keeps growing.

unlike their counterparts it takes very little to recruit new members.

while the jws spend thousands of hours in making a new convert it only takes a moment to get someone to open their eyes and wake up from the social hypnosis the jws induced upon them.. there is no legal vow an apostate needs to take.

philo

Victor,

::All in all apostates are some of the best people anyone could meet. They are genuine in their love and compassion for each other and mankind. Their past experience as JWs is not in vain, they congregate like veterans of wars to chat about their battles and scars they wear proudly.

Hear hear! On occasions I am overwhelmed by a sense of privilege at being part of such a humane, intelligent, wide-ranging, and interesting group. Alas, a far cry from my days as a JW.

Was it you who wrote that piece about war veterans last week? I never got round to expressing my regards, you have some extremely valuable viewpoints to the WT walking-wounded and veterans. I think a critical moment for many JWs comes when they decide 'The War' just isn't worth it anymore. So many violations of conscience, injustistices, and restrictions of the human spirit are supported by the rationale that 'there's a [spiritual] war on'. As a MS I remember a time when I could only continue my existing life within a sort of martial fantasy. I would lap up war literature and war films, and I knew this was not 'right', but still it was all I had left.

Hmmm. I only started this to say "nice post", and look where I am! LOL

philo

59

Blood, The Watchtower and Deceit

by Maximus in

jw
friends

while much attention is given to doctrine in sites such as this, very little is noted about the watchtower societys intellectual dishonesty in its publications, especially when it comes to quotations.. oftentimes the societys writers will cite a scholar or author of some repute: "professor blank observes that blah, blah, blah.

" the reader assumes from the quotation that professor blank is in agreement with the organizations position, of course, and that the quotation chosen accurately depicts the authors thoughts.. heres the catch: the words between the quotation marks may be accurate, but the snippet may not at all faithfully represent someones actual thesis or position.

much like a newspaper ad for a movie that quotes a reviewer as saying "monumental!

philo

Maximus,
I don't want to discourage you posting here AT ALL, the reverse in fact, but you're work is too substantial to be posted on a message board only. If you haven't already, you ought to place it somewhere it can linger. You may know this already, I'm only saying it in case you are new to the Internet.

Tell us more about yourself if you can; I am sure I'm not just speaking for myself.

Your comment "followers of followers of followers" is brilliant. It is so accurate and pulls together a host of arguments. It also reminds one of Ray Franz' "victims of victims" from Crisis. Damn it! I can feel another bloody poem happening. Thanks for nothing

philo

P.S. People often refer to "circular reasoning" when talking about WT Society arguments. Exactly what do we mean? I suppose it is failure to establish arguments on 'outside' facts. Like building a ladder and climbing it at the same time, or an 'indian rope trick'.

5

YK - Missing you alrea.....dy!

by philo in

jw
friends

hope you're alright, dude.

you're lawyer isn't on holiday, that would be a real bummer.

on the other hand you could just eat pie and say sorry to tallyman.

philo

Yadirf, or is it <forward slash> /Yardif?

I hope you were smiling as you posted that.

If anything I am chuffed you know so much about me, when I know virtually nothing about you, except for a few secondhand opinions (which are in fact neatly summed by 'fruitcake'). But I like to form my own opinions, so I might start to keep an eye on you. LOL

Are you hoping to displace Freddie as [the i]beta[/i] apologist, just wondrin?

philo

25

Good Afternoon!

by VeniceIT in

jw
friends

well i know this isn't like my usual posts but bear with me.

i know there are blowups on this board, and i guess not everyone gets a long 100%, 100% of the time, but we all have a bond that keeps bringing us back--pain.

we here have all suffered at the hands a merciless cult, and i know many have sufferd more then the rest of us can ever comprehend.. i miss my family and friends, somedays it's almost more then i can bear, but get by.

philo

Well, I wasn't gonna see Pearl Harbor. But I might go now.

Critics here HATE it. The concensus of opinion seems to be that the film turns an important moment in the history of two nations, the world, and thousands of individuals, into a 2 hour commercial break for one's entertainment.

I AM interested that you got such a useful message from it though, Ven.

philo

10

Prophetess

by learning in

jw
friends

hi!

could you tell me about the jehovah's witness belief in a prophetess?

thanks!!

philo

Huh! You were misinformed if you heard JWs believed in modernday prophets. These people get their asses not-so-prophetically kicked out of dubdom, labelled 'apostates'. OH YEAH.

The only possibility of prophet belief is their idea that the faithful and discreet (Matt24) leads their religion today. But they quickly deny their prophet status every time they misprophecy.

As for prophetESSES, I...I...I'm sorry. LOL. No, really there's NO chance of that ANYWHERE in the JW mind, heart, soul, or most importantly, the corporation.

Seriously though, why do you ask?

philo

5

YK - Missing you alrea.....dy!

by philo in

jw
friends

hope you're alright, dude.

you're lawyer isn't on holiday, that would be a real bummer.

on the other hand you could just eat pie and say sorry to tallyman.

philo

Hope you're alright, dude. You're lawyer isn't on holiday, that would be a real bummer.

On the other hand you could just eat pie and say sorry to Tallyman. But, of course, that would be beneath your dignity as a 'wannabe priest-king' 'n all. And it might not even work anyway.

Has the smoldering candle finally stopped smoking?

philo

10

Prophetess

by learning in

jw
friends

hi!

could you tell me about the jehovah's witness belief in a prophetess?

thanks!!

philo

Learning,

Welcome to the board!

I'm not at all sure what you mean either, prhaps a little context?

philo

59

Blood, The Watchtower and Deceit

by Maximus in

jw
friends

while much attention is given to doctrine in sites such as this, very little is noted about the watchtower societys intellectual dishonesty in its publications, especially when it comes to quotations.. oftentimes the societys writers will cite a scholar or author of some repute: "professor blank observes that blah, blah, blah.

" the reader assumes from the quotation that professor blank is in agreement with the organizations position, of course, and that the quotation chosen accurately depicts the authors thoughts.. heres the catch: the words between the quotation marks may be accurate, but the snippet may not at all faithfully represent someones actual thesis or position.

much like a newspaper ad for a movie that quotes a reviewer as saying "monumental!

philo

Maximus,

Thanks for that powerful expose. I am also interested in calling the WT writers to account for their intellectual dishonesty.

Do you feel they employ these dishonest means across the board, or only carefully and in respect of a small range of difficult issues? This is interesting to me, because if a clear pattern of dishonesty existed, it might indicate that there was a deliberate policy of pious fraud in 'spiritual warfare'.

As for getting Gorman's response, or any and every other ill-used source in WT publications, what a fantastic idea for a whole site! www.never-said-that.com or somesuch name, with quotes, analyses, and reactions from the Gorman's, Hitchins, and all the rest. It could boost critical reading of WT material, not just historical stuff, but hot off the press.

I'm glad you translated:

:"Veritas Vos Liberabit"

I thought it meant:

'folks really [should] live a bit'

Ah! My days of coming 1st in Latin are gone.

philo

ps. thanks for the guilt trip, farkel.

51

Demonic sex

by philo in

i'm not being a pervert, really.

i was just wondering whether there was a psychological explanation for why people (women, i think) experience sex, when there's nobody physically there.. there's a lot made of this in dubdom, so i'm thnking there couldbe a connection with the dub 'culture'.. just curious.. philo (honestly, but still a male)

philo

Somebody,

hey...I know you were just trying to make the thread reach two pages.

Oh excuse me, so you're implying that I wanted to see more nudity, huh! Not a bit of it. I knew that you were going to add to the thread, so I merely jumped in to save you the trouble. <righteous indignation> Djeez, I was only trying to HELP!

Comf,
I have Coleridge on disc, but its an ancient interface so I'll try your link just the same, thanks.

philo

1

Rutherford: Anointed?

by philo in

jw
friends

whether or not he was buried there, rutherford wanted to be buried at beth sarim.

so was he anointed or gc?

it seems to me that he might have been hedging his bets in this.

philo

Whether or not he was buried there, Rutherford wanted to be buried at Beth Sarim.

So was he anointed or GC? It seems to me that he might have been hedging his bets in this. He might have never given up on the idea of Beth Sarim as the place for the ancients to return to. Perhaps he was not sure if he was anointed, and thought he might get resurrected back on earth - to rule with/over all his princes and patriarchs when the time came.

A theory?

philo