TonusOH

Joined

• started 1 topics
• posted 3,133 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by TonusOH

• 
  13

  1,500 Days since Stephen Lett said this:

  by Chevelle in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "so the events unfolding around us are making clearer than ever that we’re living in the final part of the last days.

  undoubtedly the final part of the final part of the last days.

  shortly before the last day of the last days.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  I guess at some point they will tell us that Armageddon happened invisibly. They weren't wrong, they were right and we just didn't notice!
• 
  3058

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

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  I look forward to the day when "paid members" means that he had to pay them to join.
• 
  266

  Where is Tony?

  by Athanasius in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on february 22, 2023, anthony morris iii was officially removed from the governing body of jehovah's witnesses.

  a few months later it was revealed that the watchtower bought him a house in lumberton, north carolina.. however, and correct me if i am wrong, since leaving the gb nobody has reported seeing tony attending jw meetings or participating in field service.

  in fact nobody has reported seeing him anywhere, not even at a local liquor store.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  Honestly, an old guy falling asleep in a meeting isn't necessarily narcolepsy. It's just what we do when we get old and end up sitting in a boring meeting.
• 
  4

  Latinos Leving Organized Religion- LA Times article

  by SouthCentral in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  https://www.latimes.com/delos/story/2024-04-30/generational-differences-latinos-leaving-religion.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  Oh, don't get me started*. It amazes me anytime a group that emphasizes respecting other cultures then turns around and tells one of those cultures that they need to update their entire language in order to gain their approval.

  I am not a "latine." I am not "latinx." I am latino. Your gender politics do not trump (hah) my culture and my language. Our use of a gender-based language offends you? Your politics-driven attempt to reshape our language offends an entire global culture. So get out of here with that bullshit.

  *Oops! Too late. lol
• 
  29

  Why does it matter whether or not Armageddon is near?

  by TxNVSue2023 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  why does it matter whether or not the end of the world ( (armageddon) is near?

  if it was next week, next year, next decade, next century?

  what is to be gained by knowing how close or far it is?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  TxNVSue2023: No one is going to buy their way to the new world with extra activity or donations.

  I agree with your premise. A lack of sincerity will not fool a god who knows our thoughts and intentions. For a believer, this truth should be paramount and ever-present and should guide their every living moment. But I would gather that there are very few people who live this kind of a life, even when they are devout believers in god and in their religious doctrines. It is no accident that "the end is near" messages have been almost constant in the centuries since the birth of Christianity. Perhaps we were created to lack urgency?

  By and large, most people --including many devout believers-- live their daily lives with little more than a passing recognition of this cosmic responsibility, despite knowing that a very great or very awful outcome awaits. I think fewer and fewer people are convinced that anything will happen within their lifetimes, if at all. For the believer, this should be moot-- if god will bring about a specific future, it will happen. But I can't help but feel as if more and more, people are living their lives as if nothing is going to happen. And for all of them to date, this attitude has been justified.

  An eternal god can exercise eternal patience. A very time-limited human race cannot. At some point, god has to show up, or the human race might realize that he's not something they need to concern themselves with.
• 
  48

  What's the Worst Advice You Heard of an Elder Giving Someone?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i believe an an elder told someone who's daughter (14 yo) became sexually active with a 26 year old in the neighborhood, that maybe they should get married.

  so, they did... with parental consent.

  he turned out to be a ex-convict who shot his first wife in the face with a shotgun.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  Beth Sarim: WTF is going on in their brains?????

  I think it's a sunk cost for many. My mother has been in since the late 60s/early 70s and lived through 1975, 1995, and everything else. She does not know about many of the issues, much like any other loyal JW, so the only possible reason to doubt is that the end just never comes. But she still repeats all of the old lines about how close it is, and how bad things are getting, and how the end cannot be far off, and so on. Her attitude is that, if the end hasn't come yet, it is closer than it was before. And that is good enough.

  She's in her mid-80s and in poor health. She gave up all of her dreams at a relatively young age because she wanted Jehovah to solve all of her problems. Everything she is and everything she has is invested in this. Her only option is to grit her teeth and wait for the end, whether it is hers or the world's.
• 
  29

  Why does it matter whether or not Armageddon is near?

  by TxNVSue2023 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  why does it matter whether or not the end of the world ( (armageddon) is near?

  if it was next week, next year, next decade, next century?

  what is to be gained by knowing how close or far it is?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  TxNVSue2023: What is to be gained by knowing how close or far it is?

  You are talking about the end of the old world, which would lead to the birth of the new. This would be a moment unequalled in human history, when humanity was finally freed from suffering and death. What is gained by knowing that it is close or far? Everything! People will live very different lives if they think the end is very close than if they think it is still far off.

  The WTS knows this. When people think the end is very close, they are more active. They donate more. They preach more, which leads to more people joining because they think the end is near and they want to hedge their bets. This leads to growth, which leads to more money coming to HQ. One might think that the WTS uses this as a fundraising tactic, if one were a cynic.

  TXNVSue2023: Exactly everybody dies. So what difference does it make if they have money & a retirement or not?

  This should be obvious: until you die, you are alive. And while we are alive, we like to have all the comfort and security we can gather. Planning is always a good thing, but especially so as we get older. Once I'm dead, these things stop mattering. Until then, they matter quite a lot.
• 
  48

  What's the Worst Advice You Heard of an Elder Giving Someone?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i believe an an elder told someone who's daughter (14 yo) became sexually active with a 26 year old in the neighborhood, that maybe they should get married.

  so, they did... with parental consent.

  he turned out to be a ex-convict who shot his first wife in the face with a shotgun.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  I remember that I believed that I would not graduate high school before the end came. 1986 was the year I graduated, and I think that was the year the UN promoted as "the Year of Peace and Security." The WTS made note of this, and I remember many brothers and sisters mentioning it, because it looked like a clear reference to 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

  I think that you go through these disappointments and you repeat the party line ("the GB did not specifically say this was the end, no one knows the day or hour, and so on"). But each time, you lose something. You might not think it, you might not notice it, but somewhere in your mind you wonder if these men are really getting any insight from god through the holy spirit.
• 
  85

  Disaster preparedness

  by ElderBerry in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  as your family considers its disaster preparedness plan, please ensure that the secretary has up-to-date contact information for you and your emergency contact.

  also, we have re- peatedly seen good results when brothers and sisters are prepared with go bags and are ready to obey direction when they face various kinds of disasters.

  please be sure you have a go bag, and review its contents at least once a year.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  Mikejw: JWs are actually very good at this. Perhaps the best international organisation at looking after their own.

  That is a very narrow category. Most international organizations do not limit themselves to only helping a very small and very specific group of people, or even just prioritizing them. So they are the best in a category that doesn't have many members because it doesn't make them look particularly good.
• 
  47

  Solar Eclipse - How Common is It?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  of the 213 moons in our solar system, only ours provides a total solar eclipse.. coincidence?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  TonusOH

  Sea Breeze: Is there some rule of logic that states that it is "wrong" to examine where the brain comes from to determine if it is a reliable, trustworty and accurate guide ?

  There isn't. But you are asking me to defend something I did not claim. My explanations are, as far as I can see, complete. They do not require a god, and they do not require a big bang. Either of those is an unnecessary addition to the explanation, and would require justification on their own.

  It is as if you had asked me why a rubber ball bounces, and I explained that one of the properties of rubber is elasticity, and this causes the ball to bounce. That explanation is complete, and requires no further additions. If someone wants to prove that rubber was a divine creation, they are welcome to explain themselves. If the explanation is a demand that I show how the big bang created rubber, I would point out that my explanation does not require this. Rubber balls bounce because rubber is bouncy. Humans use logic because our brains are capable of rational thought via deduction and inference. Anything beyond that must be proven by the person making the additional claim.

  As for the atheist worldview: I have mentioned before my issues with big bang cosmology, which is that the explanations do not make intuitive sense to me. I accept that scientists have a model, and that they have explanations, but those are complex and not easy to grasp. I do not claim that they are wrong; I accept that I may simply be ignorant or lack sufficient education. This is fine. The world works as it does, and while I am open to the possibility that gods exist, I have not yet found one that makes sense. Indeed, the gods that make the most sense to me are ones that we will never get to know, or even know of.

  If the atheist worldview demands that I accept things that I cannot accept, then I don't share the atheist worldview. And I can't defend something I don't believe, not very effectively, anyway.