Posts by Rainbow

1

Shunning: The Transcendence of Emotion?

by Rainbow_Troll in

i was watching video on youtube about a man who gave up one of his kidneys to his sister who was suffering from kidney disease.

for him it was no small sacrifice, since he isn't in the best of health himself.

still, he had no hesitations over it and no regrets either.

Rainbow_Troll

I was watching video on YouTube about a man who gave up one of his kidneys to his sister who was suffering from kidney disease. For him it was no small sacrifice, since he isn't in the best of health himself. Still, he had no hesitations over it and no regrets either. My friend has two sisters and once tried to explain to me how much he loves them both, even though one of them is a total brat who was always going out of her way to get him in trouble.

Richard Dawkins attempts to explain love between siblings in purely naturalistic terms: since siblings share many of the same genes and genes are the unit of evolution (according to Dawkins' "selfish gene" theory) it makes perfect sense for one sibling to endanger themselves or even sacrifice their life to save another, even though this degree of altruism might seem very anti-Darwinian on a superficial level.

That the WT has such a hold over people, strong enough to even turn siblings against each other, is sad but also amazing in a way. I'm an only child myself and if I did have siblings, I wouldn't want to abandon them; but I often wish I had the power to just turn off my emotions like that. Even when I was a JW, I wasn't able to do it. I couldn't shun my friend when he was DF'd and now that I am being shunned, I can't stop having feelings for those who are shunning me. Like most people, I am perfectly capable of shutting down emotionally in a crises so I can do whatever needs to be done; but when the crises is over all those feelings return and I am forced to deal with them. I sometimes wonder if this ability really has anything to do with being a JW. Maybe permanently shutting down one's emotions is just a natural capacity that some people have, but which JWs simply have more opportunities to exercise. As terrible as it is, I can't help but admire it. It's like they are just born with this perfect, Buddhist detachment which actual Buddhists struggle to develop over lifetimes.

7

Another family goes down in flames.

by dogon in

my wife's mother has alzheimer.

it is progressing to the point that she is writing things like she wishes she was dead and does not want to live.

if you know my mil you would know this is not her at all.

Rainbow_Troll

Thanks for posting such an inspirational story. It just goes to show that those who seek the Kingdom first will have all their necessities provided for by Jehovah.

27

"jesus never said the spiritual food would be perfect"

by nowwhat? in

oh so it's jesus fault the spiritual food hasn't been perfect!

we your governing body are just responsible for serving it!

think about this people, they are saying it was jesus who told us the end was going to come in 1975. then before the 1914 generation passed away no later than the 1990's.

Rainbow_Troll

Jesus never said the spiritual food would be perfect.

Jesus never said a lot of things.

In fact, there is virtually no symmetry between what Jesus taught and what the GB teaches. Jesus says love your enemies; GB says hate them. Jesus says no one knows when the end will come; GB knew several times last century. Jesus says feed the hungry, house the homeless and visit the prisoner; GB says let Jehovah take care of them. Jesus went out of his way to associate with unrepentant sinners and he did this publicly, while the GB forbids JWs from even waving to such.

So basically, when Jesus says go right, the GB goes left. When he says step back, the GB steps forward. It's such a bizzarro, mirror image pantomime that it can't be due to ignorance. It's as if the GB have a perfect understanding of what Jesus taught and are deliberately going out if their way to teach the opposite.

25

Do you feel that you are really YOU?

by UnshackleTheChains in

i am interested in finding out how you view yourself.

are really you when it comes to every day interactions....ie when at work, with family or friends, or if attending meetings?.

if still attending, do you feel you are not the real you at meetings?

Rainbow_Troll

I think we are all slightly different people, depending on who we are with. It smooths social interactions to adopt, or at least accede to, the prejudices of whoever we are interacting with.

Of course, being a full time troll, I adopt the opposite approach; so, for example, I am a strict scientific empiricist when interacting with mystics or rational idealists, a fascist around anarchists, and an anti-sex puritan whenever I encounter members of NAMBLA; though privately I support all three positions.

15

Forbidden Book

by snowbird in

jw
friends

my oldest daughter once worked at a convenience store/gas station for a muslim gentleman.. he had two sons - the older one @ university, and the younger worked with my daughter.. well, my daughter said the younger was blackmailing the older because the older was in possession of a bible!.

she also said the young man confessed to her that he often times went to a soul food joint way out in the country and ordered pork chops.

she said he told her they tasted soooo good.. lol.. sylvia.

Rainbow_Troll

Well, my daughter said the younger was blackmailing the older because the older was in possession of a Bible!
She also said the young man confessed to her that he often times went to a soul food joint way out in the country and ordered pork chops. She said he told her they tasted soooo good.

Can you imagine Homer Simpson living under Sharia law: "no beer, no pork chops make Homer 'something something'..."

I never liked pork (except for Canadian bacon on Hawaiian pizza) but I do remember being a little nervous about being recognized by another witness when I was in the public library or book store; especially when I was perusing certain sections. Of course, now that I've grown up I realize how baseless and childish my fear was. JWs don't use libraries.

25

Does the Average R&F JW understand what grace is in Christianity ?

by smiddy in

i`m showing my ignorance here , not being an active member of any church before joining jw`s as a 19 yr old ,whenever i was ever confronted with the question of "grace" i was always at a loss to give an effective answer from a jw point of view.. was it just me ?

or did anybody else have a similar experience ?.

(ps , i dont think i ever heard the expression " grace" in a religious sense in all my 33 years in the borg.studying the wt.).

Rainbow_Troll

Well, there is "Jehovah's undeserved kindness", but unlike grace, this can be withdrawn at any time. In orthodox Christian theology (as I understand it) God's grace has the nature of a binding legal contract once accepted, so no matter what you do to annoy him, God cannot renegade on his word (which is kinda the point of having grace in the first place).

"Undeserved kindness" is more like a whim than a law. Jehovah doesn't really owe you anything no matter how good you are; since he created you out of nothing, he can likewise uncreate you and be perfectly justified in his decision. Every moment He allows you to continue breathing is an instance of 'undeserved kindness' on his part; so you damn well better stop your grumbling and straighten the fuck up.

26

August 2017 Watchtower - Screwing with J.W.'s minds again

by The Searcher in

in the latest issue of double-speak, i'd like to highlight these two statements:.

page 3, par.

2 - "...how encouraging it is to know that jehovah’s faithful servants in the past felt free to express the same question that may loom in our minds, and they were not condemned for asking it!

Rainbow_Troll

alanv: Rainbow troll do you know where that picture of the woman and the empty fridge is? I mean which Watchtower? It is a shocking picture

It's from the January 2017 Watchtower. You can read the associated article here.

The gist is that we shouldn't worry about things like poverty, illness and impolite householders because there is absolutely nothing we can do about these things (other, than you know, getting a better education, eating healthy and finding something more productive to do with our Sundays). Instead, we should focus on what we can do, such as giving our last, useless mite to the worldwide propaganda fund, looking forward to paradise and moving on to the next angry householder. Everything is ultimately in Jehovah's negligent hands, so we may as well resign ourselves to our life as it is and trust in Him.

What a relief, huh?

26

August 2017 Watchtower - Screwing with J.W.'s minds again

by The Searcher in

in the latest issue of double-speak, i'd like to highlight these two statements:.

page 3, par.

2 - "...how encouraging it is to know that jehovah’s faithful servants in the past felt free to express the same question that may loom in our minds, and they were not condemned for asking it!

Rainbow_Troll

I don't know where the GB is going anymore. One week they will say doubt is okay and not even they know everything; but then at the same time they are becoming stricter and more dictatorial. The tight pants thing actually made me laugh the first time I heard about it, but now that it is in the WT magazine as an official rule it's no longer funny, just weird and sad. They also seem to be really emphasizing obedience and soliciting donations far more than just a few years ago. The Watchtower illustration about the starving old woman with an empty refrigerator tossing her last few cents into a donation box was just outrageous! It's one thing to guilt rich bastards into handing over their cash; but old ladies on welfare?

2

Attack near St Catherine's Monastery

by Earnest in

jw
friends

following on from the bombings of coptic churches in egypt, there was an attack earlier this month on a checkpoint near st catherine's monastery.

this monastery dates back to the time of justinian and has a number of early bible mss including part of codex sinaiticus of the fourth century.. i am surprised this hasn't happened before because isis is active in northern sinai and it would be a major event were they to gain access and wreak havoc at st catherine's monastery.

although the isolation of the monastery has contributed to its survival over 1400 years, it is in the forefront of digitising its manuscript collection.

Rainbow_Troll

The destruction of old buildings is inexcusable, but as for human life? I console myself with the thought that if the Christians were the majority, they would treat the Muslims just as ruthlessly as the Muslims are now treating them; and everything I know about Christian history tells me this is true. Who would you pity more, the Bloods or the Crips?

49

Do religious people fear that their religion may be wrong???

by James Mixon in

because there are so many religions in the world and it is obvious that no matter what the truth is, a large population of people will be wrong about it.

we at one time believe we had the truth and 99% of the world population were in darkness, but i wonder about folks in other religions today.

speaking with a christian friend about this and he told me," that's for god to decide, i hope i'am serving god"...the sad thing about all of this if one die and still believe in his religion, he will never know he was in the wrong religion.

Rainbow_Troll

Do religious people fear that their religion may be wrong? I heard the best answer to this question from the mouth of a JW:

"If I thought my religion was wrong, I would leave it and search for the right one."

Speaking for myself, I was much more afraid my religion was right. Discovering that there is no malevolent omnipotent deity in charge of the universe who actually allowed things like the Catholic Inquisition and Nazi Holocaust to happen is something that, to this day, I take great consolation in. Some people say Atheism is a bleak and hopeless philosophy. Compared to what?

Rainbow_Troll

Posts by Rainbow_Troll