TonusOH

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Posts by TonusOH

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  18

  Confirmation Bias

  by allelsefails in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've read a lot of crap in my life (not just wts) and i have finally found the phrase to describe almost every religious wrting i've read.

  "confirmation bias" affects how jws look at historical facts, how dems and repubs look at economic facts, or how all people look at information presented to them.

  i still go to meetings every once in a while to make my wife and my boss feel better about me, but sometimes i can't believe how idiotic some things are.

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  TonusOH

  ihadnoidea: I think to a degree we all are affected by confirmation bias.

  More than just to a degree. Confirmation bias is just one of the ways our brain works, in order to minimize the amount of time and energy devoted to anything aside from being aware of our surroundings. Those who could compartmentalize and quickly process decision-making info were less likely to be caught unawares by a predator.

  Our brains process a lot of information automatically and manage our vitals with minimal or no input. Even when we're aware of behavior like confirmation bias, we're still subject to it because it's how our brains work. A good pair of books that review research on how our brains work would be the ones by David McRaney: You Are Not So Smart and You Are Now Less Dumb. Some of the research is limited and probably out-of-date, but it's fascinating to see just how little control we have over who we are.
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  49

  Some thoughts on the message of doom

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one of the recent threads on the talk about the hailstone message got me to thinking.

  the problem with putting out a message like that is what to do when nothing happens.

  i have to think that somebody will be asking that question.

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  TonusOH

  Fisherman: When Jesus restored the ear that Peter cut off, nobody noticed.

  I wondered about that. A group of priests and soldiers witnessed this, and none of them were moved by it. Aside from possibly the most stupid or fanatical, such an action should've stopped them in their tracks and forced them to reevaluate their approach. Were they so driven that they dismissed something so incredible? Or was magic so common that reattaching a man's ear wasn't enough to prevent them from arresting, torturing, and murdering a literal miracle worker?
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  TonusOH

  slimboyfat: His livestream was the hugest own goal of his whole grifting career.

  I agree. Maybe the biggest reason the livestream has hurt him is that it made the other information unnecessary. Not irrelevant, mind you: If he has indeed made a career out of targeting young girls, that is a serious issue and I really wish we could know for sure either way. But if he'd just brushed aside all accusations and demanded that everyone respect his privacy, a lot of people would have left it at that. I agree that the cost to him would have been minimal.

  Between his book and his actions over the past ~10 years (and especially over the past twelve months), there's reason to take the uncorroborated accusations seriously. I don't like to go on evidence that cannot be confirmed (and that, in this day and age, can be easily faked), but he has made it impossible to just dismiss it. If he really does have a history of what is effectively statutory rape, then losing some patrons is not punishment enough. Not by a long shot.
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  773

  Breaking News: Anthony Morris III no longer serving on the Governing Body

  by WingCommander in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this has been announced on the jw's official website, in the "jw news" section.

  this is not a joke.

  anthony moron da turd is out as a gluttonous body member!

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  TonusOH

  I don't know if he would write a tell-all, since his sons are in and the family bonds may be too strong for that. It would be an entertaining read, as long as he's not filtered.
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  35

  New blood card

  by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  all elders just got letters about this new blood card system .

  “language-coordinating congregations will receive separate parcel(s) containing the revised durable power of attorney for health care (dpa-e) for all congregation(s) in their literature group.“.

  my questions are - why the revision and what has been revised?.

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  TonusOH

  Thank you for posting those.

  Wow, that is a lot longer than I remember! The old ones were 2x the size of a credit card. The text on one side, the space for signatures on the other. That was it. I guess it has to be that detailed now, for legal reasons. No clue what the changes are, though.
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  35

  New blood card

  by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  all elders just got letters about this new blood card system .

  “language-coordinating congregations will receive separate parcel(s) containing the revised durable power of attorney for health care (dpa-e) for all congregation(s) in their literature group.“.

  my questions are - why the revision and what has been revised?.

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  TonusOH

  If you are still in, you will get one, won't you? Scan it and show us.
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  TonusOH

  BORG OFF: I just haven’t seen anyone else with the ability to speak to newly woken up JW in the same way as Lloyd has done over the years

  I think that it helped that he would often slice up the long videos into smaller solo segments that were only 10-15 minutes long. His presentation in these is good, and the information can be useful. They can be handy for someone who has a foot out the door and wants some reassurance.

  But this topic isn't about his work helping exJWs leave the organization. It's about how he treats others and how he behaves, which matters when his brand involves making moral judgments against the WTS. There are quite a lot of exJWs working to help people to learn about the organization and get out of it, and he has treated many of them... poorly. Enough that some have stopped doing that work, embittered by the experience of being attacked by him and by his army of supporters. That's a loss that we probably cannot quantify. One can only hope that some of them will be encouraged to return by the events of the past year.

  But if the pushback against Evans stops, those returning exJW content creators may end up going through the same bitter experience from before, because he is so vindictive and destructive in his desire to get at anyone who isn't fully on his side. It helps them, and it helps the growing number of his supporters who make the mildest criticism and are savaged for it, and wonder what they did wrong. They can come here and realize that they didn't do anything wrong, aside from supporting Lloyd.
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  TonusOH

  Divided by three, it's around $2,400/month. I think that's around twice the average wage in Croatia?
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  60

  What Will JW's Do If They Find Themselves Still Conscious after Death?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  we all know that despite many scriptures to the contrary, jw's believe that when they die, their consciousness will cease.

  my question is this: what will be the likely reaction of jw's if they find themselves conscious after death?.

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  TonusOH

  Sea Breeze: Many people find these facts impossible to explain away from a purely natural point of view.

  The only one that I could see an issue with is number 11, which appears to claim that there was a "risen Jesus." All of the others could be factual, since they do not require any sort of supernatural event to be true. A man named Jesus could have been crucified. If he had followers, they could have felt despair and hopelessness. And so on.

  Aside from number 11, assuming that these are all true doesn't get us to Jesus as anything other than a popular/controversial and influential person who was put to death. Number 11 cannot be taken at face value as something that could happen from a naturalist perspective. And even people who would believe in the supernatural would not necessarily accept number 11, since they might believe in a different religion or deities.
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  12

  Is Wokeness a Religion

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is long so i'll just post a link, i think many here will agree with a lot of what the author has to say.

  it certainly resonated with my thinking of the last few years.

  https://instapundit.substack.com/p/it-should-be-safe-to-be-unpopular?sd=pf.

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  TonusOH

  As politics becomes more extreme, people will treat it as religion. They will take the position that their political views are the only correct ones and that any action they take to further them (and to prevent any other views from being adopted) is acceptable because it is a moral imperative. This is actually something of a constant in politics. There will always be people entering the political arena with the intent of rebuilding the system with a restrictive and authoritative vision in mind. The only hope is that there are enough extremists on either end of any issue to keep one side from overwhelming the other. When that happens, you get any of the great and terrible dictatorial governments that have plagued human society for thousands of years.

  Woke leftism is simply one of the current movements intended to force a takeover of government and the everyday life of citizens. One can only hope there are enough fanatics arrayed against it, to keep things from completely going to shit.