Posts by schnell

30

My real name (and a shameless self promotion)

by schnell in

jw
friends

my real name is benjamin heath, i live in southern oregon, usa, and you can always reach me on twitter @ben_heath_.

i have also rebooted my blog at benheathonline.com which is linked with my twitter.

i intend to write about experiences at work and in life, as well as whatever it is i'm reading about at the moment.. i'm a programmer by hobby, a truck driver by profession, an atheist by education and reasoning, and an ex-jw by choice.

schnell

@scratchme, I'm mostly a *nix guy on the programming front, so I was big on C for a long time. I actually started with C++, but since the more recent standards, I don't know if I'd recognize certain additions to the language today. I do like Python and Lua quite a bit, and in a particularly nerdy endeavor, I learned some 6502 assembly to program for C64 and NES. :P Never went anywhere with really any of this, but programming has absolutely influenced how I think, and I credit Eric S. Raymond and The Art of Unix Programming for introducing me to some more philosophical ideas in general (and not just in programming).

All that said, I have a Windows 10 laptop sitting in front of me, and I'm perfectly happy with it so far. I might look into some more C# and .Net stuff if I feel so compelled.

30

My real name (and a shameless self promotion)

by schnell in

jw
friends

my real name is benjamin heath, i live in southern oregon, usa, and you can always reach me on twitter @ben_heath_.

i have also rebooted my blog at benheathonline.com which is linked with my twitter.

i intend to write about experiences at work and in life, as well as whatever it is i'm reading about at the moment.. i'm a programmer by hobby, a truck driver by profession, an atheist by education and reasoning, and an ex-jw by choice.

schnell

My real name is Benjamin Heath, I live in southern Oregon, USA, and you can always reach me on Twitter @ben_heath_. I have also rebooted my blog at benheathonline.com which is linked with my Twitter. I intend to write about experiences at work and in life, as well as whatever it is I'm reading about at the moment.

I'm a programmer by hobby, a truck driver by profession, an atheist by education and reasoning, and an ex-JW by choice. I think I have worked out a lot of vitriol and frustration that I had for the organization through this forum. Thank you so much Simon, scratchme, Finkelstein, David_Jay, Heaven, blondie, and everyone else here on helping me feel welcome and validated but also to help me calm down.

Thank you everyone.

34

Knock knock."Who's there? Two elders!!

by Darkknight757 in

so today was a cold and snowy day in my neck of the woods and the wife and i were just chilling around the house waiting to go to the church tonight for a candle lighting service when lo and behold we get a knock on the door.

yup, 2 elders from my old hall.

i figured they were fishing for some time so i invited them in and gave them some coffee and we talked about everything that happened and why we walk away from the jw's.

schnell

Because they want to live forever! Don't you? No? Well you don't want to die, do you? Well, see! You wanna live forever! It's in you to want to keep living, therefore God.

34

Knock knock."Who's there? Two elders!!

by Darkknight757 in

so today was a cold and snowy day in my neck of the woods and the wife and i were just chilling around the house waiting to go to the church tonight for a candle lighting service when lo and behold we get a knock on the door.

yup, 2 elders from my old hall.

i figured they were fishing for some time so i invited them in and gave them some coffee and we talked about everything that happened and why we walk away from the jw's.

schnell

At that time the suns rays could not fully be on the earth because of the water canopy round the earth.

And yet this water canopy persisted for another 1656 years after the birth of Seth.

Admire the reinterpretations as we might, that's all they really are. Plainly, the earth is not older than the stars either. It's about 4.543 billion years old in a universe that is 13.772 billion years old.

34

Knock knock."Who's there? Two elders!!

by Darkknight757 in

so today was a cold and snowy day in my neck of the woods and the wife and i were just chilling around the house waiting to go to the church tonight for a candle lighting service when lo and behold we get a knock on the door.

yup, 2 elders from my old hall.

i figured they were fishing for some time so i invited them in and gave them some coffee and we talked about everything that happened and why we walk away from the jw's.

schnell

Nope. How long is a creation day? Do we really expect trees to lay dormant for thousands or millions of years? Or do we really believe the earth was made in 6 24-hour days 6000 years ago?

7

Annual Cult Exit day

by stockholm_Syndrome in

does anyone here do a " annual cult exit day" at home --- we are thinking of a christmas tree with a birthday cake on top hanging with easter eggs --- listening to punk while smoking cigars ....thoughts?.

schnell

Good to hear it. I'm fairly new on this site myself and recently faded after years of growing doubts and failing rationalizations.

17

Preaching work already done - not for now

by stockholm_Syndrome in

compare what happened during the apostolic period -col 1:23:provided, of course, that you continue in the faith, established on the foundation and steadfast, not being shifted away from the hope of that good news that you heard and that was preached in all creation under heaven.+ of this good news i, paul, became a minister.rom 16:26but has now been made manifest* and has been made known through the prophetic scriptures among all the nations according to the command of the everlasting god to promote obedience by faith;who was the preaching commission, or coming forward as a witness given to?

remembering context, audience and purpose….john 15:27;and you, in turn, are to bear witness,+ because you have been with me from the beginning.hmmm i personally wasn't with jesus from the beginning ---were you ?matt 11:1when jesus had finished giving instructions to his 12 disciples, he set out from there to teach and preach in their cities.i wasn't one of his original 12 disciples ---where you?matthew 28:16-20however, the 11 disciples went to galʹi·lee to the mountain where jesus had arranged for them to meet.

17 when they saw him, they did obeisance, but some doubted.18 jesus approached and spoke to them, saying: “all authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth.

schnell

No, we certainly care. The JW experience deserves to be talked about and expressed and dispelled. However, we're not really not talking about your experience as a JW... We're talking about an aspect of the theology which you readily smashed. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Well done.

There are plenty of topics like this one on here, so I wouldn't put too much weight on the dismissal.

7

Annual Cult Exit day

by stockholm_Syndrome in

does anyone here do a " annual cult exit day" at home --- we are thinking of a christmas tree with a birthday cake on top hanging with easter eggs --- listening to punk while smoking cigars ....thoughts?.

schnell

I don't do that, um, specifically, but I do, say, watch, and read whatever I want everyday. Like a person.

It's good to be out, isn't it?

17

Preaching work already done - not for now

by stockholm_Syndrome in

compare what happened during the apostolic period -col 1:23:provided, of course, that you continue in the faith, established on the foundation and steadfast, not being shifted away from the hope of that good news that you heard and that was preached in all creation under heaven.+ of this good news i, paul, became a minister.rom 16:26but has now been made manifest* and has been made known through the prophetic scriptures among all the nations according to the command of the everlasting god to promote obedience by faith;who was the preaching commission, or coming forward as a witness given to?

remembering context, audience and purpose….john 15:27;and you, in turn, are to bear witness,+ because you have been with me from the beginning.hmmm i personally wasn't with jesus from the beginning ---were you ?matt 11:1when jesus had finished giving instructions to his 12 disciples, he set out from there to teach and preach in their cities.i wasn't one of his original 12 disciples ---where you?matthew 28:16-20however, the 11 disciples went to galʹi·lee to the mountain where jesus had arranged for them to meet.

17 when they saw him, they did obeisance, but some doubted.18 jesus approached and spoke to them, saying: “all authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth.

schnell

so where did they get the commission to give the ‘go preach’ decree from?

For what it's worth, I do like your reasoning in the OP, and I also agree with scratchme. So do you. Seriously, who cares?

That commission comes from whomever taught whomever that this applies to them in their day. It continues as we speak, and it's nonsense. It's also made and lost millions, and the WTBTS is quite clearly in the real estate business under a nonprofit religious corporation.

Yep, preaching work's over. It was never necessary to begin with.

6

Bible supports evolution

by anointed1 in

the thread that runs through the details of bible is evolution.. .

1) a nation believes that they are god’s chosen people and rest of the world is pagan.

when the history unfolds, the so-called chosen people go under occupation by the so-called pagans.

schnell

I mean... The very idea of "the light gets brighter" implies evolution, just not in the biological sense. The root is the Latin volvere, or "to roll out or unfold".

Does the Bible support biological evolution? Ehhh, if you squint hard enough, you can see things in any picture that a passing viewer might miss, but you're probably just reinterpreting it. Global flood? Anybody? Yeah, no.