Posts by Anders Andersen

131

Why Do People Oppose Jehovah's Witnesses?

by BlackSpirit in

jesus christ, the son of the most high god, jehovah has this to say: "if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

if you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own.

now because you are no part of the world, but i have chosen you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.

Anders Andersen

Some people seem to be so fascinated about members of the governing body. They forget that only one is our leader, Christ. And only one is our God, Jehovah.

If by "some people" you mean the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, you're absolutely right. They have manoeuvred themselves between man and God, making Jesus stand in their shadow.

Don't believe me?

Then think about this: according to Watchtower teachings, is it possible to serve Jehovah and be accepted by Him without supporting and obeying the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses?

And if supporting and obeying the GB is vital for salvation and a good relationship with God, haven't they effectively placed themselves instead of Jesus? (compare Rom. 10:9; John 1:12, John 3:15, 16, 18; John 5:24; John 8:24; Acts 10:43)

18

LEAKED: HuB Project 2018 [4 parts + 3 sub-videos]

by Fay Dehr in

https://youtu.be/q5vy2teaiuo.

leaked: hub project 2018 [part 1 of 4] https://youtu.be/q5vy2teaiuo.

leaked: hub project 2018 [part 2 of 4] https://youtu.be/8mjfucowkos.

Anders Andersen

Wow. They use VoIP now. After a project of 15 years according to their own words.

Excuse me.

Decent multinationals have been using VoIP for 15 years and didn't take so long to implement it.

Surely Jehovah's blessing is a curse in disguise.

291

Evolution is a Fact #1 - Protein Functional Redundancy

by cofty in

i intend for this to be one of a series of bite-sized ops on the evidence for evolution.. introduction to dna genes are sequences of dna made up of words (codons) each of which are three letters (bases) long.

there are only four letters in the genetic alphabet (acg&t) each word or codon is the recipe for one amino acid.

there are 20 different amino acids in living organisms.

Anders Andersen

The goal of evolutionists is to “explain” everything found in nature naturalistically.

That's the goal of all scientists in any field of science. Nature is what we can perceive, measure, detect, and try to understand. Anything supernatural is beyond investigation, and thus useless as a means to try and understand nature.

Claiming "we are stuck to Earth by the power of Shiva" doesn't do anything useful towards our understanding of gravity. Claiming "Thor makes fire go" does not help us in any way to understand how or what fire works. Claiming "Jawheh created all species of life" does not do anything to help us understand how life came into existence.

Furthermore, such claims cannot be proven or disproven*. "Zeus created us from his brother's excrements" is just as (in)valid and plausible as "We came into existence in Shiva's dream", which is just as plausible and (in)valid as "The Holy Trinity created us from dust"

*) of course the more ridiculous details that contradict reality in many supernatural interpretations of nature can be disproven.

This is really the “bottom line” for them (they will even go so far as to insist that science be defined as the search for “naturalistic explanations”

Indeed. If anyone could probe or even interview their god(s) of choice reliably, scientists would be happy to use that source of knowledge too. Unfortunately any and all of the thousands of gods people believe in conveniently hide themselves in the minds of their believers only. It's almost as if they don't exist.

Such a view excludes the possibility of creation a priori

No, it does not. Scientists would be happy to conclude some things or all things were created, as soon as they find evidence that it is. But such evidence simply hasn't been found yet. There's stuff we don't understand yet. There's stuff we can't explain yet. But none of that is explained by saying "Surely we exist because Shiva or Thor created us"

8

Dreaming about Trump and Kim

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

how indoctrination works: i was dreaming tonight about the summit between trump and kim.. heard the bible text about "peace and security" and "disqusting thing at a holy place"in my head and my brains were calculating with the number 666 (=6/12, date of today).. this is no joke.

since 1995 mentally out and since 2008 realy out, educated and reading quality stuff and still my brains do this crazy stuff.

amazing!.

Anders Andersen

Lol. I'm guessing you were 110% in and quite studious back in the day?

11

Zeal vs Fanaticism. What is the difference?

by stuckinarut2 in

a good friend of ours and i were chatting the other day about the difference between a zealous person and fanatical person.. what is the difference?.

why is someone praised for being "zealous" , but another person is mocked or condemned for being a "fanatical" person?.

how would jws be classed?.

Anders Andersen

Fanaticism isn't just powered up zeal.

Fanaticism includes intolerance against those with differing viewpoints, refusal to contemplate being wrong, blind faith, absence of a sense of reality.

22

Question about JW finance

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

watched the jw finance video's.. they have sold all brooklyn landmarks.

bilions.

they are selling other property maybe up to 3000 units worldwide.. so, there is going something wrong.... there must be a giant money leak.

Anders Andersen

I think the giant leak is diminished donations since literature became free, an economic crisis, plus financial mismanagement by uneducated, inexperienced, Jehovah-will-bless-us top managers (gb).

That lead to a huge cash flow and liquidity issue. They're not poor, but most of their money is/was tied up in real estate.

So over the last decade they have tried to fix the cash flow issue by reducing costs. They tried to solve the liquidity issue by selling off real estate, but you can only eat up your assets until they are gone. I think more important is thay less real estate means less cost, and that helps their cash flow issue.

What they are doing now is trying to make their financial situation sustainable. Cost are to match the income, which apparently it didn't (for a long time even?)

They're not poor, but bleeding. They're stopping the bleeding now to prevent themselves from becoming poor.

28

NWT 1984 vs NWT 2013

by Tallon in

i recently had a discussion with a jw concerning a change in wording of a scripture - in fact this was my all time favourite scripture, namely, micah 6:8.. my view is that the wtbts have deliberately changed the wording and meaning of the said scripture.

the other person is of the opinion that that is not the case.

micah 6:8.

Anders Andersen

My view is that the WTBTS have deliberately changed the wording and meaning of the said scripture

Of course they changed this deliberately. Unless he JW wants to argue that the new NWT translation is the product of chance and accidents?

The real question is: did they change it because the new translation fits the meaning of the original text better, or did they change it to make their translation back up their efforts to retain members?

The best way to find out is to check this verse in many other translations, look up the meaning of the original words in a bible dictionary or reference, and look up other verses with the same original word and see how those are translated (e.g. use Strongs numbers and a concordance).

Happy hunting.

25

How to deal with struggling with the doctrines

by Dval in

this is my first post.

i'm still a jw but am inactive.

im struggling with the fact that i agree with some of the doctrines (i,e, the stance on the trinity, there is no hell) but i disagree with a lot of things (i,e, men can't have beards, women have to wear skirts).

Anders Andersen

Hi, and welcome!

There's only something to reconcile for those who believe everything JW say is The Truth, isn't it?

Once you accept that maybe some JW rules or doctrines aren't right at all, you can allow yourself to form and hold your own beliefs without fear.

At any given time in history, were all JW rules and doctrines correct? Surely not, as many things have been revised through 'new understanding'.

I'm quite sure JW will continue to publish 'new understanding', don't you think so too? Logically that means at least some current JW rules and policies are wrong today, which might mean your own viewpoint is the correct one.

Why be afraid of your own mind and viewpoints if they may be more correct than current JW beliefs?

Anyway, the way forward is research, research, research. And not just from JW literature either. The JW writing dept. uses a lot of sources like commentaries on the Bible, encyclopedias, and books by non-JW writers, and you are allowed to do the same. It's even the smart thing to do!

Good luck!

11

BOE letter 2018-06-01 Announcements

by Fay Dehr in

.

Anders Andersen

I think they made a typo. Fixed it.

"...to implement the ~~maintenance~~ sell-off program for Kingdom Halls"

22

Only one real point per WT study...

by JW_Rogue in

has anyone else noticed that in the wt study articles the main point they want you to remember is always somewhere around paragraph 11-14?

it's like a formula.

intro and overview paragraphs 1-4. basic wt stuff 5-8 (not controversial).

Anders Andersen

It's not like a formula, it is a formula.

Writing dept. has extensive and detailed guidelines on how to write stuff for the JW litterature.

That's why wt study articles and also the public editions have had a predictable build up for decades.

In field service I've been offering the magazines without having read them since I was twelve. Just looking at the cover plus knowledge of the standard build up told me everything I needed to know.