Posts by Splash

12

Intelligent Disobedience

by George One Time in

did you notice the expression "intelligent disobedience" in the febuary 2017 broadcast (at 7:30)?.

it was used with the illustration of a guide dog for blind persons, that sometimes has to disobey it's owner.. what a fine example for us!

.

"You know, we can compare our training, our power of reason, to a blind person using a guide dog. Now an untrained dog would be very helpful to a blind person. It would bark when others were around, for example. However a dog trained in specific skills is amazingly helpful. The dog knows when to stop at curbs, walk around obstacles that the person right (sic) run their head into. A guide dog is also taught a skill called 'intelligent disobedience', and even if the blind person encourages the dog forward it won't obey, but it will pull the person back from danger.

Now, it can take a year or more of training for the dog to learn the amazing skills that are so helpful to a blind person. Likewise, our raw, untrained power of reason can help us to a degree. However, it can be amazing if we take the time to train it."

32

Refuting Watchtarded Reasoning - 1. "If a doctor tells you to abstain from alcohol, you wouldn't inject it..."

by Island Man in

i'm hoping to start a series of posts refuting common, fallacious jw reasoning that they repeat to support their teachings or defend their organization.

in this first installment i will be tackling the common fallacious analogy used by them to equate eating blood with receiving a transfusion.

feel free to share your own refutations on each thread.. "if a doctor tells you to abstain from alcohol you wouldn't go injecting it into your veins, would you?".

Splash

"If a doctor told you to abstain from meat, would you have an organ transplant in order to save your life?"

I've used this before and it literally just kills the discussion dead.

43

2520-607 = 1913

by schnell in

jw
friends

i love math, i love calendars, and somehow, this always gets me.. 2520 - 607 = 1913. not 1914.. 2520 - 606 = 1914. from what i understand, russell realized this.

he had previously used 606 bc, of course, but then he switched it to 607 bc.

i know there was something about no zero year, so it actually should be less one, correct?.

Splash

From 607 BCE I understand how the 2520 years can add up to 1914, but I don't understand the arguments against the WT years calculation.

The WT say there are 2520 years from 607 BCE (forget that this isn't a correct date to start with).
It doesn't mention months or gregorian or lunar or anything, just "years".

If I were to ask a Jewish person "what year will it be in 15 years time?" they would look at their calendar, do their sums, and tell us the year. They wouldn't convert to lunar, misplace the leap-months, start adding days etc, they would just add 15 Jewish years to get a result.

The 2520 years is the same.
To my mind this is a non-argument that any JW can demolish just by adding 2520 years to 607 BCE.

The Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, is always in autumn. This is in the month of Tishri and corresponds typically to some time in September but occasionally October. It was instituted as a celebration in Lev 23:24-25.
Add 2520 autumns (Jewish years) to any Gregorian date, and you get the date 2520 years later.

To conflate this with all the lunar, leap, Jewish, Gregorian stuff is exactly what WT do to prove a point.

The fatal error in WT calculations is 607 BCE, not the 2520 year calculation.

74

This site should be called Anti-Jehovahs-Witnesses Cry-babies

by the-Question in

so, you left because of a bad example(s).. why all the whining?

nothing better to do with your time?.

you at least know far more about the bible than any church-goer?.

Splash

people refusing to think call those that DO "trolls".

JW's refusing to think call those that DO "apostates".

74

This site should be called Anti-Jehovahs-Witnesses Cry-babies

by the-Question in

so, you left because of a bad example(s).. why all the whining?

nothing better to do with your time?.

you at least know far more about the bible than any church-goer?.

Splash

I left because the truths I learned at baptism are no longer the truths today, and today's truths will be changed again tomorrow. It's like chasing shadows. What I was told was vital spiritual food turned out to be junk food.

If the GB don't even know what's going on, why should I trust them?

Or as the WT itself put it:

-- g70 4/22 p. 8 Changes That Disturb People

"Yes, millions of persons have been shocked to learn that things they were taught as being vital for salvation are now considered by their church to be wrong. Have you, too, felt discouragement or even despair because of what is happening in your church? A businessman in Colombia expressed the effect the changes have had on many."Tell me," he asked, "how can I have confidence in anything? How can I believe in the Bible, in God, or have faith? Just ten years ago we Catholics had the absolute truth, we put all our faith in this. Now the pope and our priests are telling us this is not the way to believe any more, but we are to believe 'new things.' How do I know the 'new things' will be the truth in five years?"

I've faced up to it, JW's are no closer to the truth than anyone else.

You can continue to pretend if you like - good luck to you.

33

"It is the victims right to approach authorities" The weak excuse used by the society

by stuckinarut2 in

we have seen that the society falls back on the line "it is the victims right to approach the authorities" during all the abuse claims.. they use this excuse to try and defend the passive lack of action in failing to report suspected cases of abuse.. a comparison came to mind:.

if we came across a person lying in the street who says they were hit by a car, would we say "it is your absolute right to call the paramedics and police"?.

or would we take the initiative and call those authorities ourselves to help the person?.

Splash

For at least 35 years the position of the WT was:

*** g79 3/8 p. 12 Living with Law—Now and Forever ***
But for handling most differences between Christians, men well grounded in Biblical principles are available in the congregations. They are even now helping many to resolve such matters without the public notice and consequent reproach of court action. In some cases Christian love may even move one to “suffer injury” rather than harm the good name of the congregation before those outside.

But there was an adjustment in 2014:

*** lv (God's Love - 2014) p. 223 Resolving Disputes in Business Matters (footnote)***
In rare instances, one Christian might commit a serious crime against another—such as rape, assault, murder, or major theft. In such cases, it would not be unchristian to report the matter to the authorities, even though doing so might result in a court case or a criminal trial.

Plus there's the difference between what's written in the pages and what's said by the elders.
It would be very rare for an elder to condone going to the police. For a start he would need the agreement and concensus of other elders, and for the majority, contacting the police is just too shameful for the congregation.

48

Dose Wt really have that much cash.

by joe134cd in

i realize that wt has got a wind fall of cash through various means.

so my question is in the greater scheme of things is it really that much.

for example let's say with all their real estate and cash on hand they are worth about $20 billion dollars.

Splash

Selling capital assets to pay the operational expenses is not a sustainable business model.

161

ARC Analysis Summary of Case Files

by Richard Oliver in

i have been doing research on the arc as some people on here have suggested.

i find it interesting on the case file analysis some of the findings.

it looks like queensland and new south wales had the biggest problems with this.

Splash

WT like many other organisations has had many child abusers amongst it's ranks. WT is no different to any other organisation in this regard. No different.

What It does so badly, worse than other organisations, is it retraumatises the child with its woeful investigation procedures, it puts the name of God above justice for the vulnerable, it allows offenders to be in a position to reoffend, and the congregations and society in general are left unprotected.

These massive failures from an organisation that claims to have God's exclusive blessing. It is taking the superior worldly justice systems to drag the WT out of its deluded bubble, forcing them to improve their disastrous and harmful rules.

To see the GB lie and squirm in front of judges is shameful, yet they piously exhibit no shame. Thank God for the world's justices bringing them to account at last, as they would arrogantly continue in their damaging policies if it were not for lawful decent people stopping them.

40

All About The Words We Used

by dubstepped in

in the time since i've left the borg behind i've had a few things hit me as to how words were used.

i'm wondering if anyone else has some similar examples, but here are some things that have made me think:.

watchtower - my whole life i saw this as a thing of protection from outside evil forces, and then when i left someone pointed out "isn't that what they used to keep people in prison".

Splash

HEAD KNOWLEDGE

I was once interrogated by the elders as to my study habits.
I explained that I like studying and do it regularly, using both JW and non-JW sources.

Expecting commendation I was then asked "but do you do this just for head knowledge?"

Stunned.
So even when you do what you're supposed to, you are still under suspicion.

Besides, what other knowledge is there except for that which is stored in your head?

7

Video Showing Where in the World Jehovah's Witnesses Have been Active, 1926-2016

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

after many, many days of learning how to write macros in excel and cleaning up a lot of data, i finally have the desired result: a timeline of where jehovah's witnesses have been active since 1926.there are some notes:1) "korea" was assumed to be both north and south korea up until 1950.

(i chose 1950 because that is the same year russia and other communist countries went "banned").2) morocco and western sahara are considered as one.3) in the years previous to 1947, i had to read the yearbook reports and make an educated guess as to whether i should include in the report or not.

my requirements were: not banned, report was for an entire year if there was more than one witness in the land, reports were official and not second hand.

Splash

Very interesting, thanks for the hard work!

I hope you will share the excel once you're done as well, this could be the basis for many such analyses.