Skeptic

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Posts by Skeptic

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  46

  For Maximus: I'll ignore everyone else

  by Rex B13 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  maximus,.

  you seem like a smart fellow but you have jw rationalism imbedded in your brain.

  you asked for an explanation and here it is:.

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  Skeptic

  What's the fuss, people? You are all good people. Do you hate Rex that much?

  Rex posted a message to a specific individual. It is a fairly common practice here, and was very common on the old H2O.

  Rex was polite. OK, some might take the title as being rude, but I could debate that. But the reactions were a bit overboard.

  Rex did not insult evolution, science, etc. in his post. He simply answered a question for Maximus.

  Rex gave his answer according to his interpretation of the Bible. This is a common religious practice, and is fairly normal for this board. There was nothing overly weird about his interpretation, at least nothing that should cause offense.

  One can tell by the post that Rex did not try to offend anyone, unless one is upset by his list of religions at the end (or the title). Rex was not pushy.

  Rex did say part was speculation. And he did say most of it was "guidelines", not hard-and-fast rules.

  Do I agree with Rex's post? Some yes, some no. This would be expected as I am an atheist and do not believe in the Bible.

  I know Rex's view of atheists. However, Rex has always been polite and respectful to me both in public and private.

  Richard, who is wondering what the fuss is about.
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  20

  The Casket Under the Coat Rack........

  by soylibre in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of the craziest things i ever witnessed as a jw was a funeral for an unbaptized publisher...she attended my cong.

  and was very quiet and softspoken...the type who never caused any trouble and who would ocassionaly comment, directly from the paragraph....nice lady with a young daughter about 11. well one day she's driving down the road and gets hit by a pepsi truck....(can anyone say lawsuit???

  ) she's hospitalized and is in critical condition....to make a long story short...she's faced with the blood issue and finally gives in and accepts a transfusion and dies anyway...ok let's fastforward...no one apparently knew about this except her mother....a non-jw who had studied off and on for years and years.....so the obituary appears and it's public knowledge that her funeral will be at such and such kingdom hall at such and such time....actually published info...well, she had tons of non-jw family...typical of us black folk...anyway let me get to the point....apparently the day of the funeral, just some hours before in fact....the elders find out about the blood and don't want to have the funeral in the kingdom hall....but what are they to do????

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  Skeptic

  I am so sorry that your deceased friend was treated so badly. It shows that the elders had no compassion. The needs of the Society come first, people are unimportant. How unlike Jesus when dealing with the adulterous woman!

  Witness funerals are a real sore point for me and my family.

  In Canada, the funeral talk is like a form letter, the "insert name here" variety. It is a "witness" to a captive audience only; the deceased is of no importance.

  A good friend of mine died, a devoted JW. She was greatly loved by all in the congregation. The brother who gave the talk loved her dearly, and you could see the grief on his face and in his voice. The talk, however, was the standard funeral talk. Nothing personal (well, maybe two sentences) about her was mentioned.

  I was upset with this and decided to test it. In my head, I picked the name of a sister who was still alive and inserted her name whenever the name of the deceased was mentioned. It fit perfectly, as the talk was so generic.

  "Gina/Sue/Sally/whomever believed in the resurrection as stated in John..."

  It made me sick.

  Richard
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  41

  Is it just me?.....

  by ExmormonRobertson in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been looking at the pictures of all the women posters, and they're beautiful!

  had i known that jw women looked this good long ago i'd be a member today!.

  dana.

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  Skeptic

  Prisca,

  I thought that was the reason. I hope I did not offend you. You are wise to take the time to find the right person for you. I didn't and it cost me eighteen+ years of pain. Fortunately, Windrider makes up for all those years of trouble and more. She is a treasure!

  The reason for my question is that I used to live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I knew many single, attractive women who wanted a male partner but never seemed to find one. This puzzled me. At first I thought that this was because there seemed to be 10 women to ever man. (Something like being in the Borg!) Then a co-worked showed me that that ratio had to be impossible.

  Ottawa is known as a place where is is very hard to find a marriage mate. Most people I knew met their spouse outside of Ottawa. The few who did meet their spouse in Ottawa lived there all their lives.

  Anyway, I was just puzzled...

  Skeptic
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  41

  Is it just me?.....

  by ExmormonRobertson in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been looking at the pictures of all the women posters, and they're beautiful!

  had i known that jw women looked this good long ago i'd be a member today!.

  dana.

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  Skeptic

  Prisca,

  In the thread on ex-JW lovers, you said,
  "And that ease definitely crosses over to a possible love-life (when I eventually get one! )".

  I never noticed before, but you do look a lot like Sandra Bullock. I have always noticed that you are very beautiful.

  I am puzzled...,

  You seem like such a nice person. If you are anything like the type of person you show here, and if your pic is accurate, the men should be falling all over you. yet, you claim you do not have a love life??

  I have seen this with many women before and it puzzles me. Do you have an explaination? For example, maybe you haven't met a man that you like? Or, maybe you are not interested in a romance?

  I am looking for a lady's insight's on this.

  Skeptic, who has always been puzzled on how nice, beautiful women stay single...
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  32

  Which meeting was the hardest to attend for you ?

  by NoLongerAjw in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for me i think it was the sunday meeting.. just wanting to stay home and sleep in.. but i think the watchtower study was the hardest to sit threw... you had to have it studied before hand.. and highlighted.. then sit there and listen to it all over again..

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  Skeptic

  I did not have a problem with a specific meeting...they all have their enjoyable and painful sides.

  What bugged me the most was the amount of time a good JW had to devote. I wondered why God gave us an interest in science, art, music, etc. and then demanded we not have the time to pursue them. I wondered why God wanted me to go to meetings three times a week, just to hear information that I knew by rote. I figured one meeting a week would be enough, it could be like a refresher course.

  I first quit going to circuit assemblies. We had quite a distance to drive to them, with small children in tow. We were always late, so we would have to spend the weekend sitting in a hallway (brand new assembly hall and not enough chairs), listening to an inadequate speaker system; you could barely hear the talks. Then, the brothers and sisters that did come into the hallway to stare at us like we were the scum of the earth.

  Since I got nothing out of those assemblies, and the assemblies only contained information that I knew, I stopped going to them. The little information that I did not know, new publications or "new truths", I would learn these shortly afterwards at the KH.

  Richard, who no longer spends his weekends being bored just to please a fairy tale
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  31

  Alleged Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus

  by JanH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  most exjws are familiar with the claims that the gospel accounts about jesus "fulfills" around 300 prophecies in the old testament.

  this claim is taken verbatim from christian fundamentalists.

  checking out these so-called prophecies will reveal that they do not stand up to scrutiny.

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  Skeptic

  Francoise,

  "And to you others, it is NOT impossible to prove a negative, it is merely difficult in most cases. However, consider how easy it is to prove it is NOT raining in any given face-to-face conversation. Or that the sky is not green. Or any number of negative propositions."

  I stand corrected. My statement was dogmatic, and like most dogmatic statements I make, it ended up being proven wrong! Good work, I like it when people prove me wrong.

  YERUSALYIM
  "Not forgetting of course that the bible is a book of FAITH."

  I understand. However, your original statement was about doubters having to prove that the Bible was not inspired. That was the issue I dealt with. Faith does not necessarily deal with proof.

  Richard
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  31

  Alleged Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus

  by JanH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  most exjws are familiar with the claims that the gospel accounts about jesus "fulfills" around 300 prophecies in the old testament.

  this claim is taken verbatim from christian fundamentalists.

  checking out these so-called prophecies will reveal that they do not stand up to scrutiny.

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  Skeptic

  "Not only do those who claim the bible to be divinely inspired have a burden of proof, so do those who do NOT believe it to be so."

  The logical fallacy here is that you cannot prove a negative. Some people believe that flying saucers from other planets have visited earth in the past. I disagree with this. Do I have to prove that there has NEVER been a flying saucer visiting earth? Do I have to prove that not even ONE has done this?

  Do I have to prove that no flying saucer has EVER visited earth, including those who may have used technology unknown to us to hide themselves?

  As you can see, proving a negative quickly gets absurd, and is impossible in many cases.

  Rather, it makes more sense for the burden of proof to be on those claiming that flying saucers from other planets have visited earth.

  Since I do not believe in the divine inspiration of any book, do I have to prove that the Bible, the Koran, the books of Vishua, and ALL holy books in the world are not inspired?

  If I claimed that my personal diary was inspired by God, should you believe it? Do you have to prove me wrong? Or should you require that I prove it was written by God?

  It makes more sense to require that those making a claim, especially a fantastic claim, provide the proof.

  Richard
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  17

  The Prince Concert...(Gag)

  by NikL in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hey all!!

  i got to see prince, last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  he was totally and .

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  Skeptic

  68storm,

  "I don't recall any jws ever stating to me that Jesus was their saviour."

  In Canada, we used to tell this to "born-again" householders as a method of getting them to listen to us. Once we found that a householder was born-again, we would emphasize Jesus. I believe this was brought out in a KM, but I am not sure.

  Richard
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  19

  Why many do not hear the holy spirit...

  by kes152 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  "a man had two sons.. he went up to the first son and asked him, "son, go please and bring in my sheep from the pasture.

  for it is getting dark and it would be dangerous to leave them out at night.".

  so the son goes out and brings in the flock, because his heart was on obeying his father and he wanted to care about the same things his father cared about.

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  Skeptic

  The most likely reason that most people do not hear the Holy Spirit is that Holy Spirit does not exist.

  I see posts like yours from time to time from various individuals.
  The strange thing is, Holy Spirit tells contradictory things to these different individuals. Is Holy Spirit lying? If Holy Spirit is lying, then why should I listen to it/he/she?

  And if Holy Spirit is not lying, then why can't it make it more clear to everything that Holy Spirit is speaking and that a person is not nuts?

  If Holy Spirit exists, then why don't all of those who have Holy Spirit speak to them get together and present a unified message? While Holy Spirit is at it, why not throw in something that is testable and verifable that it is truly Holy Spirit speaking and not something else. Several brain problems give similar symptoms. Surely Holy Spirit can say something that would prove to all that we are dealing with a message from God and not a message from a fruitcake.

  Not hearing Holy Spirit has little to do with one's heart condition and more to do with one's ability to think rationally. Oddly enough, the more one keeps his/her emotions in check and evaluates things rationally, the less "Holy Spirit" speaks to them...

  Richard
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  76

  I attended the meeting tonight.....

  by silentlambs in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i went to the meeting tonight to check out things in the local congregation.

  this spiritual paradise is showing a few cracks.

  when i arrived about ten minutes before the meeting started, i felt like a ghost.

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  Skeptic

  Silentlambs,

  I just read your post, and how the brothers treated you is disgusting. I also wonder if the child molesting brother was called on "short-notice" to make a presentation - to snub you.

  I suggest you go to another meeting and bring a journalist. I'll bet you will be treated with kindness and that the child molesting brother will not present anything during the meeting.

  Richard/Skeptic