doubtfull1799

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Posts by doubtfull1799

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  13

  By What Authority Do you Teach?

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am in earnest.

  i will not excuse; i will not equivocate;.

  i will not retreat a single inch.

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  doubtfull1799

  Great questions but they're all too fundamentally flawed to be of any real use for anything other than arguments along the lines of "my religion is better than yours."

  2 Tim 3:16 doesn't define what constitutes "scripture" so that's useless. Paul doesn't provide a list for an accepted canon that he is referring to, but since the NT hasn't been written yet, it can only refer to Jewish scripture.

  Q2 - we don't actually really know how the apostles viewed scripture as we don't have their written comments on the subject, just hearsay by anonymous authors.

  Q3 - this question is based on a problematic premise - that the Bible teaches anything "clearly." It is too full of contradicting ideas and statements. Most Christian doctrines are based on short pithy cherry-picked quotes or a mash of conflicting arguments.

  The Bible is an extremely poor piece of communication if it is meant to convey divine doctrines, and no-one could ever claim that their interpretation is the closest match to what the author intended, so the whole idea of Bibles clear teachings vs religious leaders teachings is a misnomer.

  Q12 - short of a divinely signed document this is impossible to verify, but so is the mandate of the Bible writers themselves - there is no way to verify that they were authorized by God to write what they wrote, so again the mandate of interpreters is meaningless.

  So to sum up, no-one really has any authority to teach anything about God, assuming there even is one.
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  158

  8 Documents Arrived Today!

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  1.--authorization and release agreementfor disaster relief medical assistance.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------2.--for the attention of all elders------------------------------------------------------------------.

  3.--additional direction regarding assistance with practical needs------------------------------------------------------------------.

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  doubtfull1799

  Yes please Atlantis!
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  30

  A great new interview video! (One of our fellow forum members) A video you will love!

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this video has to be watched!

  ben is truly wonderful guy who i count as a genuine friend!

  his insights and experiences are so interesting.. enjoy:.

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  doubtfull1799

  @Wake me up - so true. You are spot on. They don't really care about truth, just the appearance of it. They care more about being in their special club and having a "hope". Last Sundays Watchtower is a classic example. It tells them to make sure they have the facts, but then discourages them from actually looking into the facts from any source other than their own. That whole Watchtower was paying lip service to the importance of "facts" when we know full well no JW would really care to find out the facts about their history, their doctrines, or child abuse etc They are indeed terrified of it. It is visibly traumatising for them even to be offered it form a source other than Watchtower.

  @steve2 - thanks Steve, I try to be. But I also find being intellectually honest requires constant vigilance with oneself.
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  10

  Trully brilliant interview with Watchtower writer

  by Diogenesister in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  exjw fifth knocks one out of the ballpark with this trully brilliant interveiw with watchtower writer and researcher ben.

  extremely thorough and informative.. https://youtu.be/vnzmnion5tk.

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  doubtfull1799

  AKA Doubtfull1799
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  30

  A great new interview video! (One of our fellow forum members) A video you will love!

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this video has to be watched!

  ben is truly wonderful guy who i count as a genuine friend!

  his insights and experiences are so interesting.. enjoy:.

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  doubtfull1799

  That would be me! Doubtfull 1799 = Ben
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  113

  EU Court Ruling Against WT on Data-Protection

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  today's london times reports on the july ruling of the eu court that forces the organisation country to comply with data protection.. the action originated in finland but the ruling will affect every eu country.

  the cult tried unsuccessfully to argue that the notes taken by jws in the door-to-door work were personal and not accessed by the congregation.

  the court ruled that they are acting under the auspices of the congregation and therefore they must comply with data-protection laws.. keeping lists of do-not-calls also falls under this ruling.. why does the cult always feel that it is above the law?.

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  doubtfull1799

  @Doubter

  Personal House to House notes are not accessed by anyone other than the individual publisher. What I mean by “accessed” is that they are not handed over to the elders.

  While this may be the most common case it is simply not true to say this is always the case. There are many times when a publisher hands on these notes to other publishers when they move or when they feel another publisher could handle the follow up better, and this is often done via the service overseer or another elder.

  On another more personal note. I have tried to get access to my personal data under the Australian data and privacy laws and have been given the run around so much so I have had to make a complaint to the privacy commissioner. They may claim to obey the law, but they are a law unto themselves the it suits them. They have given me partial information when I requested but they have also withheld a lot fo information that I know they hold on me. I know the data exists because as an elder I was involved in creating it.

  
  
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  61

  Simple introduction to the theory of evolution

  by Diogenesister in

  1. forum
  2. links

  hi new folks, lurkers and trolls.

  i thought i would post this simple but interesting video which shows how scientists bring multiple lines of evidence together to prove evolution is true; for example:.

  comparative anatomy.

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  doubtfull1799

  @perry

  Um, doesn't the Genesis account claim that God created the sun and moon in the upper atmosphere between two layers of water, the water on the earth and another layer in the upper atmosphere?

  Gen 1:6,7 - Gen 1:14
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  28

  What are they trying to hide

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  ok. we are all aware of the scandal around the non reporting of child abuse cases to the authorities by the elders and how it was part of watchtower policy.. this has probably been discussed before, which i apologize for now if it has.. the obvious view that most of us make as to why the gb are so reluctant to comply with the authorities by revealing their database around child abuse allegations, is that the leadership at watchtower hq likely were trying to safeguard the reputation of the organisation.. however, (just a theory) are they hiding something more sinister which could in effect devastate the organisation ie could it be they are hiding some things within the gb itself, whether it be some individuals within the gb of the past or even present who might have had some serious allegations made against them which the authorities are never going to know about?

  i mean why the hell are they going to such lengths to hide everything???.

  any thoughts?

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  doubtfull1799

  The society has demonstrated time and again how much they will work towards protecting their reputation and financial interests, but anything else is just speculation. We know they have a database, but until we know what is in it why feed conspiracy theories? The facts that have come out in numerous court cases are damaging enough without speculating about even worse scenarios.
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  50

  Overwhelmed

  by Freedom rocks in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  does anyone else feel overwhelmed on what to believe?.

  i've been doing lots of research on beliefs, evolution, creationism but i feel no further forward about what i truly believe.

  for example i looked at the fossil record and tiktaalic and thought great it proves a lot but then i've seen counter arguments on youtube of people basically saying its a load of rubbish and doesn't prove anything.

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  doubtfull1799

  @perry

  we can try to ground certain conclusions with things we know to be facts (premises) now. Things like:
  1. All life comes from previous life
  2. All information comes from a mind
  3. All books have authors

  Um, premises are not the same as facts! They are something basic we assume to be true for the sake of argument or the basis or a syllogism. But they are not facts just because we claim them to be true. A fact needs to be demonstrably true, though can never necessarily be proven in the same way a mathematical fact can be proven.

  Your premises are flawed for various reasons.

  1. The claim that a transcendent God exists falsifies this premises because riot is making a claim that their is an exception to the rule - God is an example of a "lifeform" that did not come from previous life.

  2. Yes, many forms of information come from a mind, but not necessarily ALL forms of information. Information structured in a certain way tends to be organised baby a mind, but there are other forms of information that are formed by natural laws. You can claim that those natural laws come from a mind but that just gets back in a circle to post one. Which brings us to the problem with point 3...

  3. I have no problem with this premise, but when you conflate the kind of information in a book with other kinds of information (like that of DNA, which is what I assume you are implying here?) we have a problem.
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  25

  Has God preserved His word today?

  by JW Answers in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  has god preserved his word today?

  many people attack, doubt and fault god's word.

  yet god has made several promises in his word.he promised to preserve his word unto every generation,he promised that every word would be truth,he promised that we can rely and depend on his every word.satan wants nothing more than to dismiss, and cast doubt on god's word... so the question today is... do we have god's preserved word today?

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  doubtfull1799

  What a lot of nonsense, you make the assertion that God's word has been preserved but offer not a scrap of evidence for that assertion. You even quote 1 John 5:7 which we know was a later addition to the text and good evidence that the Bible has been tampered with! My challenge to you is (if you even bother reading the comments on your videos?) to educate yourself about WHY every Biblical scholar thinks 1 John 5:7 is not part of the original text.