Posts by Skimmer

24

An honest question for women only

by Skimmer in

recently, i came across the web site.

* http://www.classmates.com.

which is a directory of high school graduates throughout north america with many millions of entries.

Skimmer

Hello Billygoat and thank you for your comments.

You write: "... totally respected the fact that I was involved". You've hit the target exactly. From time to time there are reports of a decent relationship being damaged or destroyed by Internet interference from an old acquaintance. This really does happen, as it did to a special friend of mine last year. She had only been married a couple of months when a guy from her past (the father of her three year old who had dumped her back when she was expecting) started up an e-mail correspondence with a goal in mind but (in my opinion) not an honorable one. The result was that she split up with her husband and hooked up with the interloper who in turn dumped her again a few months later. Sad news all around, as you might suppose.

So it is with extra caution that I consider contacting some of my women friends from long ago. If they are married, I will assume that they do what I would do if I were married, and that its to share everything with the spouse. I think that's the best way to handle things respectfully.

24

An honest question for women only

by Skimmer in

recently, i came across the web site.

* http://www.classmates.com.

which is a directory of high school graduates throughout north america with many millions of entries.

Skimmer

Hello SevenofNine and Pierced Angel and thank you for your posts.

It is important to me to get these viewpoints from the feminine perspective so I have better information to do the right thing.

I'm starting to think that I should try it.

In a way I'm a little afraid that I might get a reply asking why in blazes that I didn't keep in touch and I have no good answer for that. The truth is that for the most part I did not realize how very special some (a very few) women were until years later after I had more experience with relationships. I could mention this to them (if I go through with it), but would they believe it? I must admit that in the years since the college days I have often compared (silently) women I've been interested in with the few special ones of long ago and that's a big part of why I'm still single.

Hey, maybe if I am convinced to write, i could attach the URL of this thread as evidence of my deliberations along with the helpful advice posted here.

24

An honest question for women only

by Skimmer in

recently, i came across the web site.

* http://www.classmates.com.

which is a directory of high school graduates throughout north america with many millions of entries.

Skimmer

Recently, I came across the web site

* http://www.classmates.com

which is a directory of high school graduates throughout North America with many millions of entries. It is an interesting site to visit for those who grew up in the area and one can easily spend many hours searching through the listings. There are two levels of membership: Basic and Gold. Basic is free and requires the viewer to register prior to scanning the listings. Gold membership is US$29.50 per year and gives one the ability to post commentary on one's own personal page and, most interestingly to me, to be able to send e-mail notes to other members whose e-mail addresses are not otherwise posted. The site is searchable by high school and year; although it is not searchable by college, college classmates can also be located in some cases (if you know the state or city of the high school).

I am a bachelor in my early forties and it was a long walk down memory lane as I went about looking up names. The lists are different from most on the net as it allows one to search for people by their maiden names, and so I was able to locate a number of women who I dated in college, some of whom I have not seen in over two decades. Most now have their spouse's last name, but not all.

The question I have for the women readers of this board is this. Do you think that a e-mail note from a long ago male friend would be welcome? I really would like to send a few, but I am hesitant for a few reasons:

1) For the married ones, it might seem like an intrusion and that's the last thing that I would want for any of my friends from long ago.

2) Some might wonder why it took me so long to get in touch. (I wonder about this as well.)

3) Some may have only suspected that I was a fool, but a note at this stage could remove all doubt.

There is a religious angle here. The one person who I most want to contact is a rather special woman (who has since gotten a new last name) who I dated on and off for three years in college. When I first met her, I was only a few years out of the JW experience and wanted absolutely nothing to do with religion. She was a regular churchgoer in a Protestant college evangelist group. To my great regret, there were times that I ridiculed her beliefs; I myself did not become a Christian until sixteen years after I last saw her. If nothing else, I wanted to write to her and tell her that the little seed she planted in my mind eventually did flower, although it was rather slow growing. Also, I wanted to apologize for my insensitive comments to her on Christianity; she is really sweet and understanding so I think I have a good chance that she would realize I'm being sincere.

Although this question is addressed to those women on the board who are close to my age, I have a brief comment to the younger women graduating high school or who are in college: Of all the women I've dated in my early days, it is the ones who held out the longest or who I never slept with at all whom I still dream about on occasion. Think about it.

12

To JWs: My Unanswered Question

by Skimmer in

jw
friends

here is a repost of a question i asked in another topic that hasn't yet been answered.

are there any real jws reading this who can give a convincing answer?.

if you are a sincere believer of the wtbts, i would like to ask you a fairly simple question that i have not seen answered in any of the wtbts publications.

Skimmer

Let's take a look at what the WTBTS writes about the FDS and the authorship of doctrinal articles.

1) It has been repeated many times in the WTBTS literature that only the FDS/anointed are capable of providing "spiritual food in due season". Therefore, none of the non-FDS should be writing doctrinal articles. Yet not everyone in the writing department is anointed.

2) The figure of 99.8 percent of non-participation is accurate (and has been higher in the past) given that it is calculated from the partaker statistics vs. the total membership of the anointed in the writing department and the governing body.

3) There is no evidence of a single doctrinal article appearing that did not originate with the writing department or the governing body.

4) Most, perhaps over 75 percent, of the anointed are female. Yet females are not permitted to write doctrinal articles. How can the FDS as a class be said to provide "spiritual food" when more than half of them are required to stay silent?

5) News reports and general interest articles that are not doctinal in nature and so are excluded from the definition of "spiritual food"; it doesn't matter who writes these.

6) The WTBTS is now run by a non-anointed president and does not have a legal obligation to follow governing body or other anointed direction. They will print whatever they feel like printing.

In view of this and other evidence, it is clear that:

1) It is false that there is now, or ever has been, any significant contribution or direction from the great majority of the anointed class.

2) The WTBTS FDS doctrine is nothing but a fantasy used by Brooklyn to justify itself and its policies.

12

To JWs: My Unanswered Question

by Skimmer in

jw
friends

here is a repost of a question i asked in another topic that hasn't yet been answered.

are there any real jws reading this who can give a convincing answer?.

if you are a sincere believer of the wtbts, i would like to ask you a fairly simple question that i have not seen answered in any of the wtbts publications.

Skimmer

Hello humble and thank you for your posting.

I do not think that you are an idiot. Also, I do not think you are blinded either, although perhaps there are some things that might be able to see better. I do not doubt that you are sincere in your beliefs. I think that you are misled, just as thirty years ago as a young teenager I was misled.

I can see the intent of your point where you express personal faith in the FDS. Perhaps you could comment on why some 99.8 percent of the FDS has nothing to do with authoring WTBTS literature and why it appears that nowadays, much of the literature (nearly all?) is written by non-anointed JWs.

You speak of the literal fulfillment o fthe "faithful and discreet slave" scripture as today's WTBTS. Yet this is a circular argument as only the WTBTS preaches this. If you read the gospel with an open mind, you might see that the FDS parable is really just a parable and not a prophecy with a literal fulfillment. And if you do think it has any literal flfillment, what is the literal fulfillment of the very next parable of the ten virgins? Are they also a class?

I think I understand your point about attaching importatnce to having an organization. If it is as you say, how do you account the for absence of any WTBTS approved organization for nearly eighteen centuries before the WTBTS was established?

You write that it is humble to wait on the organization. Was Charles Taze Russell not humble when he started the WTBTS? Would he have been humble to wait on the Congregationalists? Would he have been better in God's eyes if he had been meek and waited on the Adventists?

12

To JWs: My Unanswered Question

by Skimmer in

jw
friends

here is a repost of a question i asked in another topic that hasn't yet been answered.

are there any real jws reading this who can give a convincing answer?.

if you are a sincere believer of the wtbts, i would like to ask you a fairly simple question that i have not seen answered in any of the wtbts publications.

Skimmer

Some possible answers:

1) Justification due to the large number of followers.

False. There is less than one JW per one thousand persons. Equally telling is any comparison of membership numbers of the WTBTS and any mainstream religion.

2) Justification due to large growth.

False. There is zero or negative growth in nearly all first and second world countries. As far as total growth goes, for every additional JW last year, there were about 150 additional Catholics and perhaps the same number of Protestants.

3) Justification due to worldwide scope of the preaching effort.

False. In every country where the WTBTS has a presence, it is usually well down on the list when ranked by number of members or new converts when compared to other religions. Also false because of the resistance of the WTBTS to actually PAY for media usage (radio, television, newspapers, etc.) and being more interested in extracting money from new territory than spending it there. A few hundred total Gilead missionaries is a small drop in a big bucket when compared to the evangelization efforts of other religions.

4) Justification due to singularly proclaiming God's name.

False, on three accounts. First, there are other religions that have no problem with discussing God's name. Second, "Jehovah" isn't even close to "Yahweh". Third, and most important, it's not God's personal name as much as it's God's LAW (Greek _nomos_), as in the expression "In the name of God" meaning "By the divine law".

5) Justification due to succession from the first century.

False. Charles Russell had no predecessor, either an individual or an organization. Various persons' names from the past two thousand years put forth by the WTBTS (Arius, Wycliffe, Luther, etc.) all had far more in common with each other than with the WTBTS.

6) Justification due to success in interpreting prophecy and making predictions.

False. Need I mention anything about 1874, 1914, 1918, 1925, and 1975?

7) Justification due to accurately discerning the "deep things" of the bible.

False. A mountain of doctrinal flip flops proves otherwise.

8) Justification due to following biblical precepts.

False. What about feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, of healing those who are sick?

9) Justification due to exemplerary good conduct of its members.

False. I'm not going to even touch this one.

I would hope that there would be at least a couple of real JWs who would try to answer the original question about the WTBTS claim of being "spirit-directed". You JWs spend many hundreds of hours a year going to meetings and banging on doors. But if you can't answer the question, then you must admit to yourselves that you're wasting your time and that it's all a big fraud.

12

To JWs: My Unanswered Question

by Skimmer in

jw
friends

here is a repost of a question i asked in another topic that hasn't yet been answered.

are there any real jws reading this who can give a convincing answer?.

if you are a sincere believer of the wtbts, i would like to ask you a fairly simple question that i have not seen answered in any of the wtbts publications.

Skimmer

Here is a repost of a question I asked in another topic that hasn't yet been answered. Are there any real JWs reading this who can give a convincing answer?

If you are a sincere believer of the WTBTS, I would like to ask you a fairly simple question that I have not seen answered in any of the WTBTS publications. I would like you to address this in specific terms, if you can. In asking this question, I assume that you personally believe that the WTBTS is acting as "God's Only True Channel".

The question is: How do the writers of the WTBTS literature support their claim that they are "spirit-directed" and that their material is "spiritual food in the proper time"?

In answering the question, feel free to comment on what you believe is the nature of the mechanism of the "spirit-direction". For example, do the WTBTS writers get visions in dreams? Do they receive angelic visitations? Is there some physical device involved? Given the rather lengthly list of failed predictions and multiple doctrinal reversals, is the "spirit-direction" of poor quality? Is it intermittent? Is it not received properly? Can it be shown to improve over time?

75

Oh May We Ever Live Up To Our Chosen Name!

by Englishman in

jw
friends

there are some really weird and interesting names on this site.

just out of interest, lets swap details of how we selected our chosen "stage name", it could be fun!.

i chose "englishman" when i first started to lurk at h20.

Skimmer

When I was seventeen (shortly after my relatively brief association with the WTBTS), I strongly considered signing up for the United States Navy Reserve Officer Training Program as a way of getting through college. I was a very close thing as the brochures from the Navy for their submarine program was very, very seductive. Alas, I declined the opportunity because at that age I was unsure about making a twenty plus year commitment.

So I never made it into a submarine or even into the military, although I have been out on a number of civilian surface vessels. So I took the name "Skimmer"; a bit of jargon used by submariners for sailors who only "skim" the surface.

13

Man Has a Soul. What do You Believe Now?

by Treborr Jones in

jw
friends

i was just wondering if the ex-jw's here now believe you have a soul, or do you still hold on to the borgs claims of man/woman not having a soul.

i for one know we do.

Skimmer

Hello hybridous:

1) A soul has no pre-existence apart from a physical body. It comes into existence at conception (or fission for less complex life forms.)

2) A human soul is immortal while others are not as a human soul has at least the potential for self consciousness and an ability to receive an understanding of God.

Catholic teaching considers evolution as an acceptable belief (it is taught in all Catholic schools) and nearly all Catholics I have known agree that humans and other primates had shared ancestors in geologically recent time.

There was some point of discontinuity in hominid evolution where consciousness appeared and that was the branching point.

Catholics generally believe the account of human creation in the first few chapters of Genesis to be nearly all figurative. But they do teach that at one point there was a literal Adam and Eve who are the parents of humanity. Whether this happened thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of years ago is more of a scientific question instead of a theological one and Catholics leave science to the scientists.

Interestingly, there have been reports in the past couple of years detailing DNA nucleotide drift (the molecular clock) in humans that lend credence to a single female ancestor for the entire human species. (She is jokingly called "Eve" in the journal articles.) Could this be the case? If so, could she have had a single mate?

13

Man Has a Soul. What do You Believe Now?

by Treborr Jones in

jw
friends

i was just wondering if the ex-jw's here now believe you have a soul, or do you still hold on to the borgs claims of man/woman not having a soul.

i for one know we do.

Skimmer

Perhaps things are clearer if you consider instead that you ARE a soul that temporarily happens to have a body.