Posts by Rainbow

10

Growing up JW kid: do you recognize

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

born in 1970, 4th generation jw and parents who were loyal to but could also think on their own.. my father always said, the show goes on, so he had a respectable community job, advisor of the city counsel of the town.

and buying ald building houses for us.

we were on the move.. what i remember is the many conversations at home about the other witnesses.

Rainbow_Troll

I guess you could say I had a 'moderate' JW childhood. My dad was an atheist who was raised protestant but ended up hating religion and my mom was fairly liberal for a JW. We secretly celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthdays. Before my dad died, I even got to do a little trick-or-treating and when I was in 2nd grade I had a girlfriend. My dad had a good job, invested a lot in my education and encouraged me to study science and math until he died when I was seven.

From then on, things pretty much went to Hell. We moved to a crime-ridden rural area with unspeakably terrible schools and fundy Christians and racists for neighbors. I got into fights several times a week and was nearly raped and killed on several occasions. My mom went on welfare and encouraged me to do the same when I became an adult. I had some good JW friends, though, or so I thought at the time. We went through lots of dangerous adventures together, did some drugs and ended up forming a sort of hopeless love triangle where he was in love with me and I was in love with her, but none of it was mutual. They won't talk to me now, but I still like to annoy them from time to time by sending them unwanted letters, emails and gifts. I'd rather they hate me than just forget that I was ever alive.

Even so, sometimes I wonder if that extra bit of freedom I had as a child made it easier for me to leave the JWs later on. I thank my dad for impressing upon me a love of knowledge and liberty as well as an accompanying contempt for faith and stupidity.

147

Scientism - Nothing But a Childish Insult?

by cofty in

it is not uncommon for theists to accuse rational people on this forum of "scientism".. in my opinion it is nothing but a cheap shot from those who know they lack evidence for their beliefs.

if something like "scientism" actually does exist then i have never encountered it.. here is part of an exchange from another thread - i have brought it here as it was off-topic.... scientism = claim of scientific method being universal and the only valid method of knowledge.

followers of scientism always demand scientific evidence to anything.

Rainbow_Troll

Actually scientism is very well defined by great philosophers of science like Popper and Putnam for instance.

It is, but as far as I am aware, 'scientism' is always used polemically by those who are critical of the universal applicability of the scientific method. No one who actually believes that the scientific method is the only means to knowledge ever refers to their position as 'scientism' The suffix 'ism' is usually applied to religion or similarly dogmatic ideologies, while scientists consider themselves to be open minded and dogma-free. To tag 'ism' to the end of science, implies that science is just as dogmatic as any religion. The way the word is put together is inherently biased against the position it is applied to. It's like calling a Catholic a Papist or telling a homosexual he is a sodomite. You may not mean it to be derogatory, but that's how it feels for those who get labeled with it.

147

Scientism - Nothing But a Childish Insult?

by cofty in

it is not uncommon for theists to accuse rational people on this forum of "scientism".. in my opinion it is nothing but a cheap shot from those who know they lack evidence for their beliefs.

if something like "scientism" actually does exist then i have never encountered it.. here is part of an exchange from another thread - i have brought it here as it was off-topic.... scientism = claim of scientific method being universal and the only valid method of knowledge.

followers of scientism always demand scientific evidence to anything.

Rainbow_Troll

John_Mann, I agree that what you consider scientism does exist, but actually calling it 'scientism' is very provocative towards scientists who don't necessarily fit that label. It's kind of like calling Roman Catholics 'Mary Worshippers' even though it is not part of official Catholic dogma to worship Mary and most Catholics do not actually do it.

What you describe as scientism sounds a lot like the philosophical positions of radical empiricism and logical positivism. If you used one of those terms instead of 'scientism', I think you would get a much warmer response from scientists and might actually be able to engage in a dialogue with them.

24

Church gets own police force - are the Dubs next?

by SadElder in

just read this article in the washington times.

other sites have similar stories.. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/12/briarwood-presbyterian-alabama-megachurch-gets-sta/.

can you imagine the dubs with a sworn police force with arrest powers?.

Rainbow_Troll

I think the WT is way to cheap to undertake something like this. Even if the 'police' are all volunteers from the congregation, it would still cost money that could be better spent printing publications and silencing sexually abused children. You also have to ask yourself why? Do JWs actually feel unsafe in their kingdom halls? Is the off chance that some ex-jw basket case will enter a KH one evening with a submachine gun and shoot the place full of holes justify a police force? The cost would far outweigh the benefits.

Spoletta: On a side note, they've started locking the doors at our hall after the meeting starts.

Holy shit! That's creepy. Isn't it a fire code violation?

48

Disfellowshipping decision to go before Canadian Supreme Court

by Simon in

high court will examine whether judicial review applies to membership decisions made by religious groups.

the supreme court of canada has agreed to hear an appeal involving a calgary man who was kicked out of his jehovah's witness church.. randy wall, a real estate agent was "disfellowshipped" from the highwood congregation for being drunk on two occasions and allegedly verbally abusing his wife.. as a result, he says his clients refused to do further business with him, so he argued his property and civil rights were affected.. after losing three internal church appeals of his expulsion, wall made an application with the court of queen's bench in calgary which ordered a hearing to first determine if there was jurisdiction for the court to hear the application.. decisions and appeals.

a judge decided the superior court did have jurisdiction to hear the application.. the church then appealed wall's decision to the alberta court of appeal, which upheld the court of queen's bench, affirming the court has jurisdiction to hear the matter.. one of the three appeal court judges dissented — arguing that congregations are private organizations akin to bridge clubs, whose decisions "are not enforceable promises and have limited, if any, impact outside its small circle.".

Rainbow_Troll

He would have a much stronger case if he had been DF'd for apostasy, smoking or celebrating Christmas. Too bad the question of whether shunning is sue-worthy or not rests on an incident like this. I have heard of and personally witnessed far worse cases of DFing than this, but the victim just wasn't willing to take it to court.

24

When can I let my guard down?

by hybridous in

quick background:.

born-in, but never baptized.

remainder of family still (by all appearances) loyal dubs.

Rainbow_Troll

I don't think age is really relevant, but critical thinking skills and knowledge are. I wouldn't deny my children religious knowledge. I think the more educated someone is concerning the world's religions, the less likely they are to be taken in my any one of them. The more you know, the less you believe.

26

Disfellowshipped people are dead people?

by snugglebunny in

jw
friends

skimming though my iphone earlier today i came across a fb post - which i now can't find!.

basically it was a claim that a gb member had stated that associating with a disfellowshipped person was akin to sleeping next to a corpse.. so obviously i'm curious as to whether anyone else has come across this..

Rainbow_Troll

Snugglebunny: Basically it was a claim that a GB member had stated that associating with a disfellowshipped person was akin to sleeping next to a corpse.

We're really more undead than just plain dead, so I'd say it's more like sleeping next to a vampire; which is way sexier!

20

Does God really care about mankind?

by Sour Grapes in

i am dying of cancer.

yesterday i asked my full blown jw wife if she could snap her fingers and make me well would she do so?.

she replied, "yes.

Rainbow_Troll

My dad died of cancer. He wanted so much to live and was willing to do anything. But the chemo and radiation just made him sicker and ensured what time he had left would be wasted in agony. If I were you, I would try Gerson's therapy.

Orthodox quacks claim it's hoax, but it sounds a lot funner than chemo.

5

Does Anyone Wish Satan Were Real?

by Rainbow_Troll in

i left the memorial tonight with a renewed antagonism towards all that is good and holy.

i doubt the existence of satan, but i had to recite two "our father who wert in heaven..." prayers just to feel cleansed of the miasma of sanctity i had just endured for over an hour!.

it's times like these when i wish that there really were a devil that i could sell my soul to in exchange for his support in corrupting as many christians away from their faith as i possibly can.

Rainbow_Troll

I left the Memorial tonight with a renewed antagonism towards all that is good and holy. I doubt the existence of Satan, but I had to recite two "Our Father who wert in heaven..." prayers just to feel cleansed of the miasma of sanctity I had just endured for over an hour!

It's times like these when I wish that there really were a devil that I could sell my soul to in exchange for his support in corrupting as many Christians away from their faith as I possibly can. Also, the idea of going to Hell after I die, where there is not a single moralist or Christian and everyone is evil, would be so reassuring.

Does anyone else here wish Satan were a real being? If he were, would you worship him or at least ally yourself with him in exchange for power, sex or simply out of pure hatred for Jehovah? If you don't believe in Satan, do you still like to pretend that he's real by praying to him or conducting Satanic rituals for fun as a sort of emotional catharsis?

37

Was it just me or was something different about the memorial last night?

by kpop in

jw
friends

this was the first memorial that i declined to do any work for the memorial.

i was assigned as a parking attendant after getting downgraded from doing the sound and had no intention of doing either task but i had to attend for my family and continuation of my fade.

i sat there last night listening to the talk and couldn't help but shake my head as my brain attempted to process the bs.

Rainbow_Troll

I hate the memorial. It's the closest thing to a ritual that JWs have and yet they conduct it in a way that has no emotional power or beauty. Even the puritans had more flair than the JWs!

Rainbow_Troll

Posts by Rainbow_Troll