Posts by Anders Andersen

28

Daughter doesn't want me to push my beliefs on her

by jws in

jw
friends

so i was talking with my daughter the other day and she tells me that she doesn't want me to push my beliefs on her.i am agnostic.

which isn't a belief.

it's a lack of belief.

Anders Andersen

This is not a fight. There are no sides. There is no contest to be won. Both of you can only lose if you push her away...

Don't teach your kid what to (not) think or believe. Help her understand how to think and research.

Let her draw her own conclusions. Yes, they may be different from your conclusions.

Ask questions. Not to shame, be to understand what she thinks and why.

Ask questions. Not to destroy and attack, but to provoke her to actually think.

Oh btw...if your daughter actually said you shouldn't be pushy (did she really say so?), you were pushy. Even if you were not. Try to figure out why she feels that way. It can help you improve your relationship with her.

82

meeting with elders about WT involvement in UN

by LevelThePlayingField in

i still go to the meetings because of my in wife and it came about that the elders knew of my pissed off attitude about the society getting involved in the un.

so the elders said they could help me get over that and wanted to meet with me.

now just to let you know, i have only told my wife and her mom so far about it, that's it.

Anders Andersen

I agree with others: there's no point in talking with elders about this. It will not wake them up, it will only get you in trouble. Don't do it.
If you do have that talk, be sure to research Watchtower involvement in the OSCE first. It's full blown political lobbying. Evidence as recent as this year. And it can't be reasoned away as 'just a library card'. This helps you to show a pattern in Watchtower behavior.

14

"Marking"

by confused in

please can anyone help me to find any information from society's literature on the subject of marking.

i wasn't aware it was still practiced.

i would like to know how it is explained as being in any way scriptural.

Anders Andersen

Marking is a quite rare phenomenon. DFing is much more common.

In my 35 years in, I knew the policy exists, but never heard of anyone being marked. An 50+ born in elder in my congo also never heard anyone being marked in a talk.

Until a sister in my congo yelled at and insulted an elder in the kh. On her way out, she did the same to an other elder. She also somewhat assaulted this elder by grabbing/pulling his tie while shouting at him. Her husband stood by and did nothing.

Since they refused to talk to elders after that, and wouldn't apologize, they were 'marked' in a talk. Without naming them, first the marking procedure was explained ('marked men are not DF, but don't socialize except at meetings. When talking to them, encourage to set things straight with Jehovah'). Then the unruly behavior (shouting at and assaulting other JWs) was explained as bad behavior. So far, it didn't help the elders much as they are still waiting for their apologies...

1

Jehovah Created Animal "Kinds" - The Numbers Don't Match Up?

by LaurenM in

1. the creation story taken literally: god created all "kinds".

from jw.org: what is a kind?

: the biblical “kinds” seem to constitute divisions of life-forms wherein each division allows for cross-fertility within its limits.

Anders Andersen

Last week I found out you and I got it all wrong. A JW educated me on the topic.

You see, there are (a handful of) fertile hybrid species. These are evidence that *all* the different species within a kind can interbreed. It also makes it completely logical that Insight claims only 43 'kinds' of species in the ark led to today's variety. It's not evidence of relatively recently diverged lineages by evolution at all....

61

Did the flood happen?

by BlackWolf in

so we were talking about noah for our family worship tonight and it ended with a little debate between me and my parents about how the flood was possible.

you know, where did the water come from, how did all the animals fit, etc.

of course it led nowhere and my parents came up with some strange theories like that there was "an expanse of water in the sky" and that's where all the water came from.

Anders Andersen

@BlackWolf,

You don't have to be stupid or gullible to be seduced by a cult. Especially not when born into it.

See this excellent video by Theramintrees that explains how even smart people can be led to believe utter nonsense:

https://youtu.be/IaUhR-tRkHY

I highly recommend you watch his other videos as well

How to persuade anyone...

by Anders Andersen in

https://youtu.be/7v3c0ovz2em.

sounds familiar?.

interestingly, religion isn't mentioned in the video at all, so it could be a good, neutral conversation starter....

Anders Andersen

https://youtu.be/7v3c0OvZ2eM

Sounds familiar?

Interestingly, religion isn't mentioned in the video at all, so it could be a good, neutral conversation starter...

22

Howto: get access to scientific papers

by Anders Andersen in

since most people are not aware on how to get (free*) access to scientific papers and journals, so here's a short list of resources.. search http://scholar.google.com for the paper.

maybe you'll get lucky and find it somewhere for free.. if you can only find a paid for version of the paper, get the title, doi (sort of like an isbn number) and link to the download page of the paper on the paysite.. if you don't know the doi, find it by searching your paper's title on http://crossref.org.

go to the libgen site (links here: https://sites.google.com/site/themetalibrary/library-genesis ) and search for the paper.

Anders Andersen

@OrphanCrow,

I'm really interested in whatever result you come up with.
Comparing the timing of JW policy changes to scientific studies related to blood...great topic!

5

Update: Images Now Served in WebP Format

by Simon in

i've pushed an update to the image handling so they are now served using the webp format if the requesting browser supports it.

currently that is chrome, opera and android mobile but safari is adding support in the next version and there's hope that firefox and edge will get on board soon.. read more about webp.

webp is a newer image format that can replace jpeg, gif and png but with much better compression rates for the same quality.

Anders Andersen

Thanks Simon!

I'm almost always in my mobile here :-)

24

Who loves bikes?

by JRK in

what was the most fun ride you've ever had?.

my personal favorite was my ducati paso 750. it may have been before a few of your times, but it was an italian rocket that totally blew away anything from japan.. .

jk.

Anders Andersen

Yamaha Diversion 900 that doesn't get the attention she needs :-/

And a man-powered bicycle for the daily 6.5 km/4 mile commute.

22

Howto: get access to scientific papers

by Anders Andersen in

since most people are not aware on how to get (free*) access to scientific papers and journals, so here's a short list of resources.. search http://scholar.google.com for the paper.

maybe you'll get lucky and find it somewhere for free.. if you can only find a paid for version of the paper, get the title, doi (sort of like an isbn number) and link to the download page of the paper on the paysite.. if you don't know the doi, find it by searching your paper's title on http://crossref.org.

go to the libgen site (links here: https://sites.google.com/site/themetalibrary/library-genesis ) and search for the paper.

Anders Andersen

@LUHE, NY44M,

Thanks for the suggestions.

@Mandrake,

Yeah, that's how it works. Unis buy access to those sites, and the sites add the unis' IP address range to their 'these guys are allowed access' list. Saves everybody from having to login all the time. And the VPN connects you to your uni network, making all those sites see you visiting with the uni's IP address. Access granted :-)