Posts by Saethydd

123

Why do some Jehovah's Witnesses choose to be atheist or agnostic?

by Cassaruby in

jw
friends

"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .

.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .

from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.

Saethydd

I too have found that the belief system which most resonates with me is that of secular humanism. After years of trying to ignore my sense of reason to accept some piece of theology or another, I do not relish the thought of going through the whole process once again with another religion.

Therefore until God communicates with me directly, I shall remain an agnostic at best. As for whether or not I would worship God after that, all I can say is that it would depend on his answers to certain questions I have about his decision-making process.

18

JW.org as a Prank Tool

by schnell in

jw
friends

the moment i saw the "request a study" form on the site, i thought, "umm, that could be a bad thing.".

but to date, i have heard of only one case where it was used for less than genuine purposes.

that was in the case of a "game developer" who was selling crappy asset-flips on steam.

Saethydd

Does it track personal data of the person that does they request for the study? Like i.p. address, etc. ?
Almost certainly, yes, but it is trivial to use a proxy or VPN to hide your IP address (just search for free web proxy, or install a VPN plugin for your browser, such as Hola).

If you want to get really hard to track, then use a TOR Browser. (only the FBI, NSA or some other government organization would be capable of tracking you, and even then it's a lot of effort for them to do it.)

35

How long did people like Methuselah really live?

by dubstepped in

i was working today and my brain was working in circles like it often does and i started wondering about what i was always told about people like methuselah in bible times, and their incredibly claims of longevity.

i've tried researching things but have a hard time getting through all of the bible thumpers to some real evidence, and figured that some here may be more informed or have done the research previously.

so, did people really live longer way back when?

Saethydd

From what I could find, there are theories that perhaps they counted years in shorter durations than the current calendar, but some point to similar lengths of months, though maybe not as many months per year. Does anyone really know?

The issue with this theory is that people are mentioned having children around 50-100, meaning by that count they would be between 4-9 years old.

It is claimed that some of these old time counters did not grasp the "0" concept, well here they added one, 96.9 years is not far fetched, what is a zero among friends anyway?,

Same problem exists for this explanation, 5-10-year-olds aren't exactly the right age to father their firstborn.

My personal theory is that it was all made based on the Mesopotamian myth that men lived longer before the global flood that is recorded the epic of Gilgamesh.

Back in the day we were taught that man's longevity was due to the canopy of water around the Earth which filtered out harmful cosmic rays, which is what eventually kills us.
This bubble of water is what fell during the flood. The protection was gone. Immediately after the flood, men's life span reduced dramatically.
I think maybe the dinosaurs died in the flood too.

That canopy of water would actually have been more hostile to life on earth, in fact, that is included in an informative video by Aron-Ra on the meteorological implications of the Noachian Flood.

26

Feb. 2017 "Who is Leading God's People Today?"

by Saethydd in

i know that i am not by any means the first person to take note of this article, but today i finally got around to reading it.

i quickly found the now infamous line "the governing body is neither inspired nor infallible.

" in the interest of fairness, however, i decided to finish the paragraph, which led me to finish the lesson.

Saethydd

This article makes me wish that the Watchtower study included a period in which the audience could ask questions instead of just parroting back the information they have only just read. Perhaps if such a session were included and honest hard questions were encouraged then their logic wouldn't be so easy to blow apart.

17

Just a dumb question. A minor was df in our cong 15 yrs old

by poopie in

jw
friends

the question is can her mother and father who are witnesses greet her in the morning only or would they be a sharer in her wicked deeds and thus also be df for saying a greeting?.

Saethydd

Well, I've never heard anything that strict. If my understanding is correct you can interact with family member living at home normally, except when it comes to spiritual discussion, in which case the disfellowshipped person is not supposed to participate. The exception to that would be if the disfellowshipped person is still young enough for their spiritual care to be the responsibility of the parent, in which case they can study the Bible with them.

3

The Cheerleader Effect

by Saethydd in

the cheerleader effect is a cognitive bias that causes people to appear more attractive in a group.

i'm no expert on psychology, but i have a theory that a similar phenomenon exists for beliefs.

by compiling a list of beliefs you make them appear more reasonable, however, if you actually break one away from the herd and really break it down you can easily discover what an illogical mess it truly is.. i first noticed this when i debated with my father on the subject of the bible, oftentimes when i would make a valid argument against the bible he would say something along the lines of, "and that is enough to make you forget about such and such" (usually the "accuracy" of bible "prophecy" or the good effect the bible has on people's lives).

Saethydd

The cheerleader effect is a cognitive bias that causes people to appear more attractive in a group. I'm no expert on psychology, but I have a theory that a similar phenomenon exists for beliefs. By compiling a list of beliefs you make them appear more reasonable, however, if you actually break one away from the herd and really break it down you can easily discover what an illogical mess it truly is.

I first noticed this when I debated with my father on the subject of the Bible, oftentimes when I would make a valid argument against the Bible he would say something along the lines of, "and that is enough to make you forget about such and such" (usually the "accuracy" of Bible "prophecy" or the good effect the Bible has on people's lives). I think that phenomenon may be part of what is responsible for allowing religious groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses to survive so long in an era where information is so readily available.

60

Now I'm Convinced There Probably Is No God

by pale.emperor in

yesterday i made a visit to the museum in my city.

the top floor is the planetarium, which has a connecting room with a huge dome ceiling where they project lessons and lectures and you have a 360 view of the night sky etc.. this particular lecture explained about our galaxy, and how it's only one of billions in the universe.

and then we learned about each planet, some of their moons and the sun.

Saethydd

Here this should help you complete your transition to self-awareness.

I would also recommend Neil Degrasse Tyson's Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey if you wish to expand on your cosmic perspective.

26

Feb. 2017 "Who is Leading God's People Today?"

by Saethydd in

i know that i am not by any means the first person to take note of this article, but today i finally got around to reading it.

i quickly found the now infamous line "the governing body is neither inspired nor infallible.

" in the interest of fairness, however, i decided to finish the paragraph, which led me to finish the lesson.

Saethydd

To me it's very simple: the WT is full of --it.

Yes, that does seem to be the case, but I like to conclusively prove things where possible. Plus I imagine that this article may actually make some people stop and think, so it might be helpful to have some reasonable arguments laid out for them to consider. We certainly know they won't get that kind of mental stimulation at the meeting after all.

15

To love Jehovah more than friends and family.

by schnell in

jw
friends

when i was a believer, i endorsed this idea too.

i commented with things like "love jehovah more than your mate" or "love jehovah more than your friends".. it didn't occur to me as i was saying it that jehovah is an idea.

this god concept is an idea that should really pass scrutiny if you're supposed to love it more than anything else.. at best, this means that jehovah is real and you have to love jehovah more than the people in your life, no matter the despicable things he is said to have done, condoned and endorsed in his holy writ.

Saethydd

This time last year I had my first girlfriend, it was long distance but we would text, call, or video chat almost every day and I felt very close to her, from what little I know on the subject I came to the conclusion that I loved her. I was always careful though to say that I loved her second only to Jehovah, but I don't think I ever truly believed that, and certain actions I took which later resulted in my disfellowshipping definitely proved that I cared more about her wants and needs than the commandments of a likely imaginary god. How I wish now that I hadn't had a fit of guilt (and I suspect a sub-conscious desire not to have those events bite me in the butt 5-10 years down the road) that lead me to confess to the elders after we broke up.

10

Disfellowshipping - Quid Pro Quo - Satan's Accusation

by doublespeak in

.

if under jw doctrine, satan's accusation is that a human serves god for the purpose of what he can get out of it, does the disfellowshipping arrangement, exercised to the degree that the governing body deem to be appropriate, support this charge?.

taking for granted the jehovah’s witnesses are god’s chosen organization; on the assumption that the angels (who apparently cannot read heart conditions) looking upon humanity who are making a stand for the issue of sovereignty , are unable to discern those who are in the religion because of their family and friends.

Saethydd

What if the god of the Bible is actually just a test given by the true creator to see whether humans actually have any moral sense of their own, or if they would be willing to follow any God no matter how cruel a depraved his actions?