Posts by Anders Andersen

Just this week I saw a JW claim that Watchtower spends about 40 million USD per year on disaster relief. He tried to make JW look positive by doing so. I asked him to provide a source for his claim but so far no answer.

Assuming he's right, Watchtower spends almost nothing of the money they take in on disaster relief.

They spend more on paying of victims of abuse than they do on disaster relief.

They take in billions each year worldwide. And they spend 40M on disaster relief?

Lol.

I'd ask your wife just how much do they spend on relief works? She appears to know....

13

Caleb and Sophia with different names

by neat blue dog in

in one country they're david and sophie.

in another they're petra and olena.

i just chanced across this recently.

Anders Andersen

David and Sofie is what they're called in the Netherlands.

'Caleb' and 'Sofia' are very, very rare names around here.

To compare: Only about 200 people in the Netherlands are called Caleb or Kaleb as either their first or second name.

David is around 30.000 (alternative spellings like Dávid, Davíd etc. not even included) people.

If they would have gone with Caleb even Dutch JW would roll their eyes over the cultiness. But with 'David' it's still a Biblical name, but much more common.

11

The JW's Creationist mindset?

by Doug Mason in

i am mapping out part 3 of my critiques on the watchtower's (jws) brochure, "the origin of life".

i drafted a sketch to help me visualise the task and thus develop the structure and reasoning.

the sketch is available at:.

Anders Andersen

Half banana is right in that the complexity of DNA is not the starting point.

Hell, not even belief in God or the Bible is the starting point. Christians all believe in God and the Bible, yet the majority of denominations officially accept that evolution is a fact.

There is something else that is the 'starting point': Watchtower doctrine.

Watchtower insists that many of the tales in the Bible must be literally true, accurate accounts of real historic events. This includes the creation of Adam and Eve, and Noah's rainy days. Why? They claim because that's what the Bible says, but in reality it's because that's just Watchtower's very literal interpretation. There are plenty people who read these tales and see them and allegories or warnings in symbolic language.

Evolution must be rejected because it doesn't fit Watchtower doctrine.

Otherwise they would have no problem accepting it.

At first they claimed all life was created max 49.000 years ago (7 creation days of 7000 years each). That idea is clearly contradicted by all available evidence, and since the age of plants and animals is not critical to Watchtower doctrine they had no issue changing their doctrine on that point (although they did so very slowly and obscured to not scare away the oldtimers)

It wouldn't even surprise me that if Watchtower exists another 100 years, there'll be new lite and they manage to weave the fact of evolution into their doctrine too.

It should be noted that JW (and other creationists) either out of ignorance or on purpose mix up evolution and abiogenesis when augmenting against it.

As if an all mighty God could not have created life and given it the capability to evolve.

Another thing is that there's a fair amount of circular reasoning involved in JW (and others) rejecting reality. Any flowchart should show the circular reasoning too.

E.g.

The Bible is true because it is God's perfect word. How do we know? Because it says so in the Bible.

In fact the whole system of belief is an intricate web of interconnected assumptions that often lead back to each other.

(literal) Creationists believe what they believe because they started with 'God created the heavens and the Earth, animals after their kinds, and Adam and Eve from dust' instead of asking 'what does the evidence show about life?'

Any argument they present against evolution is not in an attempt to find evidence of what actually happened, but an attempt to justify their religious beliefs.

A flowchart should reflect that. DNA doesn't really matter, nor does any other perceived evidence against evolution.

The starting point is belief in God and a literal interpretation of the Bible, without giving any place to physical evidence.

6

"Did The Straps Hurt the Tree?"

by Solzhenitsyn in

https://tv.jw.org/#en/mediaitems/latestvideos/pub-pk_36_video.

caleb = tree.

strap = discipline .

Anders Andersen

What a fucking bad stinking ass video (yes I had wine :-)

It looks like this video is more intended for parents (go ahead, punish your children often, they'll love you more!) than for children.

Children are not trees that need to be fixed into a form.

Children are people. They are individuals. They are living, breathing, thinking humans.

They must be set free to roam and discover. They must discover the world and themselves. They must discover how to properly and politely disagree and argue. They must discover their own will and voice. They must discover how to evaluate whether to obey or not.

Sure, they need a lot of guidance, but most of that is found in the parents' example, natural consequences, and kind explanation.

And when did anyone ever learn anything from sitting in their room except to be obedient without question and keep their mouth shut?

Oh wait....that's exactly how Watchtower likes their fresh meat...

9

7 New Files Arrived!

by Atlantis in

jw
friends

2019-09-01--local design construction update.

all the descriptions for the files disappeared after i clicked (save).

there is the september announcements and reminders, 2020 convention dates, ldc newsletter, congregation analysis report, 2019 publications approved for discard, and congregation-convention assignments... https://docdro.id/bw85yom.

Anders Andersen

Thanks!

25

What to do when you're PIMO and dont want to date a jw?

by nowawake14 in

jw
friends

what are your thoughts on that?.

Anders Andersen

I'm with OTWO.

PIMO's are in a rotten situation and it's not really fair to drag someone else into that situation.

30

If You Could Live In Any Era or Decade What Would It Be?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i kind of like the 50’s and early 60’s because of the innocence and “happy days” outlook by that generation.

it seems most people were pretty innocent and real.. would you rather be living in a different era or is this century working for you?

?.

Anders Andersen

If You Could Live In Any Era or Decade What Would It Be?

I'll add on your question to raise the stakes a bit:

If You Could Live In Any Era or Decade - but you don't know yet what your race, gender, social class, sexual orientation and your parent's wealth, education and religious beliefs would be ‐ What Era or Decade would you choose?

Would the answer to the question above be different compared to if you would be living there as your current 'you'?

What if you'll also be placed in a random country instead of where you lived so far?

7

Watchtower reveals some property stats - incomplete but interesting

by Corney in

interesting screenshots of internal wt databases appear in the 2018 coordinators' committee report video (that's in fact a presentation of their hub software) at 6:34-6:50. they contain, among others, the following information:.

there are 61,349 kingdom halls and 841 assembly halls;.

4,308 properties are held for sale, including 2,925 khs;.

Anders Andersen

@corney,

It would make sense that it's English congregations only, as these numbers are related to English language literature.

Would also explain the difference of 300.000 publishers mentioned earlier. Those may be in non-English congregations in the USA.

25

Involved(ish) with a JW Man.

by BNG-713 in

i know there are several posts about witnesses and non-witnesses in regards to relationships.

i couldn’t find anything specifically that spoke to me, so i would love some third-party advice and thoughts.. i have never been someone to pursue a stranger from the internet.

earlier this year, i became friends with someone on a video game.

Anders Andersen

He felt as though pursuing this may hurt his God, or compromise his relationship down the line with his religion. He studied, sought counsel, and prayed about it… And said that it does come with a risk, but something is telling him not to just let this go.

Right this part here is going to make you hurt hard in the future. Until the day he is fully convinced JW are not the true religion and dating outside JW is disappointing his God, there is a very, very real risk of him chosing the JW religion over you. Maybe not today. Maybe not next year. Perhaps it will be 15 years into a possible relationship. Maybe it will be when you have kids and he wants them to be raised as JW and you don't want that. Or whatever situation you can think of in which suddenly he feels guilty towards his religion/god, and decides he has to choose that over you.

Also, JW men tend to be emotionally immature, more so than the average decent guy. So watch out you're not getting a man-child.

And, JW men are raised in a culture where men are the head of their wives, who ultimately have to obey their husband. So be aware for any red flags wrt to that too.

Otherwise, good luck!