Posts by Skimmer

One of the things about _Crisis of Conscience_ that impressed me was what was NOT included, and by this I mean "dirty laundry" about persons in or near the governing body. For example, Franz could have written a chapter about the exploits of GB members Greenlees and Chitty, but kept out the material as it really wasn't pertinent to the doctrinal issues, historical re-writes, and various organizational topics.

It is possible that Franz may have kept some of this information out of the book to protect persons that were innocently involved. Also, he may have kept out the more embarrassing information about personnel and legal issues as a reserve to deter harassment by the WTBTS for what he did publish.

51

Crisis of Conscience: POLL

by Grout in

jw
friends

well, i'm finally reading coc, and i must tell you that despite already being an ex-dub i was *shocked*.

the thing that got me was the gb's apparently unselfconsciously acting above all the rules that they would apply so harshly to everyone else.

maybe i'm naive, but i didn't expect that level of hypocrisy.. so what did you find most shocking in coc?

Skimmer

The most interesting thing for me from reading Franz' books was finding out about all the missed Armageddon dates and other dropped, changed, or re-interpreted dates. (1799, 1874, 1878, 1914, 1918, 1925, early 1940s, etc.)

In the late 1960s/early 1970s, the 1975 prediction for the Big A was far and away the big motivation for converting and for field service. That's the time period in which I was exposed to the WTBTS bullshit and not once in any publication nor from any JW did I hear about any of the earlier Big A prediction failures. Yet the WTBTS elite knew of all these (as we know from Ray Franz), but deliberately hid this information from prospective converts and everyone else.

And now the WTBTS is doing its best to re-write history about their 1975 prediction. IF it weren't for the Internet, they just might get away with it.

81

Education Survey

by larc in

jw
friends

education was strongly discouraged among the witnesses.

i am curious as to how many of you went on for further education and in what fields.

i will go ahead and list the ones i already know.. larc - advanced degrees in organizational psychology.

Skimmer

B.S., M.S., Mathematics

Worked my way through; full time the last three years.

10

WTBTS Pictures of Paradise

by Skimmer in

jw
friends

as has been discussed elsewhere in this forum, the wtbts has published many images depicting life after armageddon and the elements and presentation are fairly similar from picture to picture.

the text referencing a paradise picture almost always at one point refers to the restoration of the conditions of the garden of eden prior to the fall.. but what about the things which are never included in the drawings?.

1. never any couples from different ethnic backgrounds.. 2. never any persons whose clothes obviously do not match their ethnicity.. 3. never any printed material like books, magazines, or newspapers.

Skimmer

As has been discussed elsewhere in this forum, the WTBTS has published many images depicting life after Armageddon and the elements and presentation are fairly similar from picture to picture. The text referencing a paradise picture almost always at one point refers to the restoration of the conditions of the Garden of Eden prior to the fall.

But what about the things which are never included in the drawings?

1. Never any couples from different ethnic backgrounds.

2. Never any persons whose clothes obviously do not match their ethnicity.

3. Never any printed material like books, magazines, or newspapers. (Considering that only WTBTS supplied material would ever see publication, this might be a blessing.)

4. Never any communication tools such as telephones, radios, televisions, or computers. (How are people informed? Do they become telepathic? Maybe just telepathic receivers.)

5. Never any agricultural tools such as animal powered plowing gear or motorized harvesting vehicles. (How is all that fresh produce supplied?)

6. No technological tools, including any needed to manufacture the always present patterned clothing and flower baskets.

7. No schools or places of work, except maybe farms. I doubt if more than one out of twenty JWs have anything to do with farming; how will they keep busy?

8. No nude people. Seriously, this is a big inconsistency with the WTBTS premise of restoration of Eden conditions; there have certainly been pre-Fall illustrations of Adam and Eve in the WTBTS literature. Carefully presented, of course.

9. No sports or other recreational activity.

10. No means of mechanical transportation, not even bicycles. Perhaps if one is going to live forever on Earth, walking a few thousand kilometers to friends and relatives may not be too bad. Then again, how would a person know without communication where the friends and relatives were living?

It's all just propaganda, and it's not even consistent or realistic propaganda.

23

These fundies will never suicide bomb

by Rex B13 in

jw
friends

here is a url that shows the truth of christ's command to christian's, "love they neighbor".

btw, the same denomination baptized over 950,000 (yep, almost a million) last year.

my wife, two sons and i were 4 of them.. http://www.namb.net/dr/.

Skimmer

Hello Rex B13:

Do not be discouraged if some of the replies are not exactly what you might like.

Charitable works are characteristic of every Great Belief.

Keeping a scorecard may not be necessary, but it's hard to see how it could be detrimental and could be helpful if it encourages others.

Helping to provide food for the hungry and drink for the thirsty is a clear commandment to anyone who has read the gospels. I cannot understand how any religion could claim to be Christian (let alone the claim of being the Only True Channel of God) without supporting humanitarian assistance for those in need.

7

Eternity Rightly Scares Me

by D wiltshire in

jw
friends

eternity scares me.. since time can conceivable go back eternally and goes on in the future eternally we can never know completely what happened in the past.. we can not even comprehend what the eternal future will be like.. and so i hope that the master of eternity is good in the absolute sense.

.

if someone lived a trillion x longer than you, and had a billion x more reasoning ability would he come to the same conclusions as you?.

Skimmer

Mass and energy are inside of spacetime (the four dimensional continuum) and indeed cause most if not all the properties of spacetime (gravity/curvature, the various forces).

Spacetime itself can be embedded in some containing region; if spacetime is infinite then so is the embedding region. Cosmologists do not agree that an embedding region is necessary, but none can offer a convincing disproof.

The embedding region of spacetime can be considered as eternity, just like the embedding region of a story or play can be considered to be its author and the author's environment.

1

Three Topics For Wt. Trouble

by metatron in

jw
friends

three subjects, which if sufficently explored with time,.

money - and a little inside help, could cause some.

real headaches for watchtower leaders:.

Skimmer

Regarding #3, the possibility that Boozer Rutherford is illicitly planted under a garage at Beth Sarim, is probably not a big concern for the WTBTS. Not only has any likely statute of limitations expired, but all those involved have expired as well.

16

Cough Cough, Splutter Choke, Gruuugh Bleah!

by Englishman in

jw
friends

how do you feel about people who smoke in public places such as bars and restaurants?

if i complain about smokers in my pub, they say: "it's a pub, what do you expect?".

i can't see the reasoning here.

Skimmer

I say let the market forces decide the issue, not an over-controlling government.

Let the owners and management decide if tobacco should be allowed in establishments. Have each pub and restaurant have a posting by the entrance that tells of the tobacco permission status, and then let the paying customer decide.