pistolpete

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Posts by pistolpete

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  19

  2021 Service Report

  by alanv in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have just realized that the 2021 service report figures have in fact been published.

  but they are written in such a way its harder to compare.

  so on the jw website, there is a tab called 'about us'.

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  pistolpete

  I don’t think they’d want to hide the numbers this year.

  Like they don't want to hide the number 587 BCE😂😂😂
  
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  33

  Former Elder, Pioneer and WT Writer Earns 9 Science Degrees - Jerry Bergman, Ph.D., BiologyJerry Bergman, Ph.D., Biology

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jerry bergman, ph.d., biology.

  biography.

  jerry bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology at northwest state college in archbold oh for over 25 years.

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  pistolpete

  All a degree is --is -a paper saying you studied a certain field for a number of hours. Different than experience.
  

  I have two degrees, one in business administration and the other in biology. All that means is I have a little bit more knowledge and understanding than your average person who didn't put in the hours to learn BA or biology.

  I have one friend who got a degree in Business and didn't attend any college. He is a big wig manger for a bank. How did he do that????
  

  And there are tons of others who never went to college and got degrees. To name a few;
  

  Mike Tyson, Kylie Minogue, Oprah, Ben Affleck, and Bill Gates

  Even Bill Cosby has been the recipient of nearly 60 honorary degrees — everything from fine arts, music, education, and law

  Once he was caught raping women, many of the Universities started revoking the degrees, (the piece of paper)
  

  Humans make up all these illusions like Degrees, Money, CryptoCurrency, President of the United States of America, George Floyd.💪

  But the truth is that Humans are Humans and know very little about everything but pretend to know a lot about all things.

  https://www.vulture.com/2015/10/bill-cosby-honorary-degrees.html
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  21

  NASA hiring religious leaders on extraterrestrial life....

  by mikeflood in

  1. social
  2. current

  nasa hiring religious leaders just in case they found extraterrestrial life, at priceton university's center of theological inquiry.

  .

  just of curiosity, if nasa find something, how do you think the borg is gonna spin it.

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  pistolpete

  Can you imagine how people on this planet would react---if they knew there was someone like this out there

  Superman movie quote.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkh8n49ic0A
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  33

  Former Elder, Pioneer and WT Writer Earns 9 Science Degrees - Jerry Bergman, Ph.D., BiologyJerry Bergman, Ph.D., Biology

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jerry bergman, ph.d., biology.

  biography.

  jerry bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology at northwest state college in archbold oh for over 25 years.

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  pistolpete

  I was unable to change her mind, and the divorce eventually went through

  She soon remarried ……

  I had virtually no contact with my two children for almost a decade even though they lived only a state away. This was extremely difficult, and the hope that I would continue a relationship with them motivated my staying in the Ohio area.

  My ex-wife has since stated several times since then (after living with an abusive husband and ending up in a home for battered women) that divorcing me was the worst mistake of her life. I later learned her husband, Rick, who used drugs and was an alcoholic, severely physically and emotionally abused my two children, especially my son Aeron. The abuse has left severe scars that remain to this day. In one month I lost my wife, both children,

  
  

  I feel more sorry for the wife than for him. The world that we live in shows undeniably truth that even if a god exist, it’s not the God that humans describe as a loving, caring, compassionate God.

  And his explanation of “Free Will” has already been proven to be a false hypothesis.

  Just because he has 9 degrees doesn’t mean he can’t come to the same wrong conclusions as a person with no degree.
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  16

  Do Jehovah's Witnesses shun non-believers and those who leave the faith?

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  graeme hammond writes:.

  in his 2002 book that examined the behaviour and practices of jehovah’s witnesses, english sociologist andrew holden devoted an entire chapter to the trauma and friction experienced by those who choose to leave the jehovah’s witness religion.

  “those who do eventually break free,” he concluded, “are seldom allowed a dignified exit.”.

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  pistolpete

  Why would Jehovah's Witnesses be required to shun members who disassociate themselves?

  A very simple answer is that Jehovah's Witnesses are not thinking correctly.

  Their reasoning abilities have been twisted by -----twisted religious dogma.

  The same thing happens in other groups like political, science, and social groups.

  Even culture can cause a twisting of the mind.

  WELCOME TO THE HUMAN SPECIES!
  
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  33

  Former Elder, Pioneer and WT Writer Earns 9 Science Degrees - Jerry Bergman, Ph.D., BiologyJerry Bergman, Ph.D., Biology

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jerry bergman, ph.d., biology.

  biography.

  jerry bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology at northwest state college in archbold oh for over 25 years.

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  pistolpete

  Jerry Bergman is just another human out of 8 billion who is trying to find the answers to the same questions humans have been asking for a long time, about how we got here, is there a creator, what is our purpose and so on.

  His jumping from Christianity to evolution back to Christianity and so on, is not unique among people that become self aware of our mortality.

  The truth is he will live out his short life span and die with an incomplete picture of the REAL TRUTH.

  Life will continue, humans will still struggle with the same questions they have been struggling with for hundreds of thousands of years maybe millions of years.

  And before they die, many will embrace a belief that gives them comfort and hope.

  That belief could be anything, but it will never be the complete picture.
  
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  30

  Why it takes a long time to bring a religious cult down.

  by pistolpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i think the first thing to consider is that it takes a while for humans to wake up to the truth.

  this is not just a jw thing.

  around 1600 ad, galileo challenged the catholic church's long held view that the earth was the center of our universe.

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  pistolpete

  Smiddy3 How is this possible ? With all of the flip-flops ,evident realities not realized ,false predictions ,dates , about The big "A" happening around 1975 ,then before the end of the 20th Century ,not to mention those previous predictions early in the 20th Century?

  Where is this growth coming from ?

  I think we need to look closer at what is being described as “Growth”

  In a world with almost 8 billion people, I don’t consider a 6 million spurt in “Publishers” NOT Committed BAPTIZED members, (There’s a difference) - over a span of about 40 years to be considered stupendous. .

  A publisher can be an UNBAPTIZED member in good standing who may decide not to get baptized. That happens a lot.

  Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Graph says “Average Publishers” Not Average Baptized Membership growth.

  So how many Actual Baptized Members Growth is there really????

  The graph is not about growth in baptized members is it?
  

  They are not stupid to print this data.

  From the Graph we can only extrapolate that;

  There was a 6 million growth in PUBLISHERS for the past 40 years----NOT Baptized members

  What we do know is that now with the new change, there is not a time limit to be considered a publisher. It used to be 15 minutes to be counted as a publisher, but now according to many posts on exjw reddit, the instructions from headquarters is that all you have to say now is that you published during the month without handing any amount of time.

  This really skewds the true numbers of membership of BAPTIZED MEMBERS, which in all honesty, the graph is not about baptized members, it's about "Publishers who includes those who are not baptized like children who will never get baptized and become actual members.

  Of those that do get baptized the trend is going Pimo instead of getting disfellowshipped.
  

  And still even with that, every year avg. about 43,300 BAPTIZED members who are disfellowshipped and about two thirds never come back.

  There is a reason why they don't have two day Kingdom Hall builts anymore.The "True" membership is just not there anymore.
  

  Something I learned in College is that statistics can be misleading.

  Statistics are persuasive. So much so that people, organizations, and whole countries base some of their most important decisions on organized data. But any set of statistics might have something lurking inside it that can turn the results completely upside down.

  Consider “Simpson’s Paradox in the video below

  https://www.ted.com/talks/mark_liddell_how_statistics_can_be_misleading
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  30

  Why it takes a long time to bring a religious cult down.

  by pistolpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i think the first thing to consider is that it takes a while for humans to wake up to the truth.

  this is not just a jw thing.

  around 1600 ad, galileo challenged the catholic church's long held view that the earth was the center of our universe.

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  pistolpete

  TD

  I watched my own relatives become disillusioned later in life. One of them was actually quite high in the JW hierarchy. It made no difference.

  Isn't that sad, I had this kind of "Pain" in my stomach or heart, whatever you want to call it, when I saw them wasting their life and I was literally helpless in being able to help them.

  I have always wanted to help them "SEE", but I'm was not able to penetrate their wall.

  It was so frustrating. Eventually I left them alone and the years passed by. I did my own thing and now many of them are getting old and their hopes of never dying has been dashed to pieces.

  It saddens me to see them this way. I wish I didn't care but I can't help it.
  
  
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  23

  What have you learn being on this site?

  by asp59 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i have learn a lot about the religion and congregations.

  when i was active visiting meetings, i was there for the spiritual food.

  i actually thought everyone else was there for same reason ;-) i have learn there's a great variation among jws.

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  pistolpete

  LongHairGal

  Sadly, the only way you would learn all these things is if you got involved personally

  Ain't that the truth!

  Some people say that there's better ways of learning than personal experience.

  Well I'm sure there's "Less Painful" ways of learning than personal experience.

  But the hard fact is that getting involved personally, though more painful, is actually the True way of getting all the facts----first hand.

  There's a Big difference between an exjw saying the Watchtower is a Bad religion.

  vs

  An exjw husband who says he was duped into letting his young wife die because he was told by the Watchtower that God is displeased if he allows a blood transfusion to save his wife.
  
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  30

  Why it takes a long time to bring a religious cult down.

  by pistolpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i think the first thing to consider is that it takes a while for humans to wake up to the truth.

  this is not just a jw thing.

  around 1600 ad, galileo challenged the catholic church's long held view that the earth was the center of our universe.

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  pistolpete

  slimboyfat

  So how long might it take for Jehovah’s Witnesses to disappear?

  That’s a question that’s impossible to answer. Reason being is because the disappearance of any religion will be the result of many factors.

  For one thing, in the USA, a non-profit corporation can’t just close its doors legally.

  There are complex and lengthy procedures that a non profit corporation has to go through in order to close it’s doors.

  Here is a basic outline on the steps that the Watchtower would have to take in order to shut down.

  https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-do-you-shut-down-a-nonprofit-2501889

  From a economic point of view, people like the Governing Body who don’t have to work for a living as long as the Non-Profit Watchtower stays intact, it would behoove them to do everything they can to stay legal and operating until the very last dollar. As long as there is enough monies coming in to support them individually, they will not close down the Organization.

  I mean if I owned a non-profit Corporation that was making Billions, and finally it started crashing and came to the point where it was only making ONE million a year. I would not close it down because ONE million a year is enough to keep me from going out and having to work.

  What will happen “Eventually” is that the Watchtower Organization will take its place among the 40,000 plus Christians Sects that already exist and continue to exist because they have (followers/ believers) who are willing to support them with monies.

  I am sure that for the next several decades the Watchtower will undergo ‘Ups and Downs” in membership.

  But it will never have the glory it had when it was necessary to have two day Kingdom Hall built every other weekend.