Scully

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Posts by Scully

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  33

  Nothing More To Say

  by Farkel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i really have nothing much more to say, except to say thank you to all the people who have contributed to me in my threads and all the people whom i battled over the years.

  the battles have been most entertaining and enlightening.

  i've learned a great deal from them, and i've laughed a great deal from the idiotic attempts of fools to make a coherent argument (think "dubs").. it's been a roller-coaster ride for me over a decade and it has consumed a huge amount of my time.

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  Scully
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  384

  Atheism 2.0

  by Qcmbr in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  apologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.

  in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.

  without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.

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  Scully

  Atheism, imo, can be whatever you want it to be, though I agree that getting a group of atheists together is akin to herding cats.

  You complained that there are no athiest social activities for you to join, but I wonder if you're going at it backwards perhaps?

  Why not just decide with your wife what kinds of activities you enjoy doing together - ones that don't have a belief system as their starting point - and see what you can find locally?

  For example, if you want to take cooking lessons, you wouldn't show up at a Catholic Church and expect to find cooking lessons, would you? You'd find a place nearby that offers cooking lessons and sign up for the ones that interested you. Or if you wanted to take up hiking or camping, you wouldn't go to an Anglican Church to find people interested in hiking, you'd go to an outdoors shop and check out their notice boards or find an online group and see if there are local people who are interested in hiking or camping and would be willing to share their expertise over coffee, etc. If you're looking for a few friends to take up fitness activities, join a gym that has the kinds of classes that interest you (yoga, tai chi, kick boxing, etc).

  I've made some lovely friends by going to cooking classes and crafting classes, and I have amazing friends via my place of work. Mr Scully has made some good friends through his professional background. We meet people who have a similar interest in pets and people in our neighbourhood. But I don't expect them to come looking for me... we go out with an open mind and open to meeting new people in any situation.

  One of the big disservices that has been part-and-parcel of "belonging" to a high control group like the JWs, is that the group fosters an unrealistic expectation of the social milieu, where everyone in the group is automatically your friend as soon as you walk in the door. Real friendships are not like that. Real friendships grow and develop over time, and require attention and thoughtfulness to cultivate them, in addition to having common interests. The thing is, when you start with a belief system as the "common interest", you still have to deal with the diversity of personalities beyond that. It's why there's often nothing to talk about between former JWs and the JWs that they used to be acquainted with and socialized with in the past... the only things they had in common were the JW belief system and their geographic proximity.

  You can also try to find a local Freethinkers group and go from there. http://nobeliefs.com/freethinkers.htm or http://www.infidels.org/search.html
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  28

  Preparing the Kool-aid - April 15 WT

  by LostGeneration in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  check this paragraph from the article about how jah spared noah, the israelites at the red sea, etc.... scary!.

  pg 26 para 16. as events unfold during the great.

  tribulation, christians will need to heed.

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  Scully

  What a ringing endorsement of emotional blackmail.
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  45

  How do I respond to this? from my father

  by alamb in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a daughter .

  daughters are precious, in so many ways,.

  from the day of their birth, till the end of your days.. .

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  Scully

  Doesn't sound like "he" tried anything. Sounds more like he "gave up". Don't you think?

  Parenting is supposed to be about helping a child discovering their wings and teaching them how to fly, to soar even. What the JWs have done to parenting is compelled parents to lock their children up in gilded cages, clipped their wings, and made them fearful of the outdoors and any ability they might ever have had to fly, or even sing.

  So unnatural.
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  20

  Anyone EVER had an Elder with a beard??? I can't remember even one!

  by Witness 007 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the society once even pictured jesus as clean shaven for many years in it's books.

  beards were "sort of" banned.

  i don't remember a single brother who had privledges with a beard....anyone else?.

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  Scully

  The Elder™ who Baptized™ me had a beard. Kept it for years after that... and then was coerced into choosing between being an Elder™ and keeping his beard. Guess what was more important?
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  6

  Thank you, dear Scully...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  and peace to you!

  i started a new, controversial thread because i didn't want the matter to be hashed out in others' threads... as it was starting to be.

  i thought the party and i should keep it between ourselves.

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  Scully

  What part of "Enough" do you guys not understand???

  Sheeesh.
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  28

  Continuing (for dear EP)...

  by AGuest in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ep - "you know, i never really had anything against you.".

  ep - "so, we're cool.".

  ep - "maybe none, but i've nothing better to do.

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  Scully

  Enough.

  Take this argument someplace else and sort it out there.
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  3

  Special delivery for Scully

  by SweetBabyCheezits in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  free honey badger in your inbox.. .

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  Scully

  for me?!?!?

  <~~ for you
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  22

  2/15 WT - WTS Controls by Fear, Confusion, Separating Friends & Family

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  once again in a wt study article entitled " imitate jesus' example of watchfulness " the wt society tries to control jw members through fear mongering, confusing them by inconsistent and contradictory wording, and emphasizing devotion to wt society " sacred service " over devotion to family and friends.. we all know the wt society has always said that " nobody knows the day and hour " of the alleged armageddon - yet out of the same mouth the wt society claims to know the " day " of the end close enough to have duped people with 1975 and put fear into jw's that the " end " is " imminent" .

  notice these quotes from paragraph 4 in this article.

  it states, " in brief, jesus wants us to remain watchful because of what we know and what we do not know.

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  Scully

  Sorry LoneWolf, I had to delete your post as it was showing up blank in IE (although it was visible in Chrome and Firefox) and people were not able to read further in the thread.

  Here is the text of your reply:

  Hi, Flip!

  I wholeheartedly agree too.

  You know what I'd like to see? I'd like to see a separate website set up specifically for the Watchtower publications, but done in a way that minimizes or eliminates our opinions, because our opinions are what scares the ones still in the most. They won’t listen to them.

  Instead, take each article and dissect it, quoting a certain part as you did above, then contrasting it with something else. For instance, quote their words about not knowing the day or the hour and contrast that with their “knowing” it is soon. Simply ask which it is. At most, ask why God wouldn’t want them to know the day or the hour, for if the reason is to catch people as they really are instead of the false front they put on when trying to impress someone, wouldn’t the Society’s efforts tend to counteract Jehovah’s reason for arranging things that way?

  In regard to the part about their minimizing family values to being secondary, contrast that with a scripture or two and then ask how one can accomplish both at the same time.

  About the husbands finding work, contrast that with the scripture that states that the man who doesn’t provide for his family is worse than an infidel. Ask how this is to be understood, especially in a down economy like we have now.

  Contrast things between the public and study issues, and ask why we need to keep things secret from the public.

  Don’t give any answers to these questions. Let them hang in the air.

  LoneWolf
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  86

  QFR WT MARCH 15TH - PORN - D/F

  by stillajwexelder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i assume you are all aware of this by now.

  qfr could a christians practice of viewing pornography.

  become so bad that it results in his being expelled.

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  Scully

  Mary writes:

  I'd estimate that most elders look at porn at least occasionally........

  Agreed, but I'm *sure* it's only for "research" purposes.