Posts by Tiktaalik

108

Lifting the Veil on "Islamophobia"

by cofty in

the late christopher hitchens decribed the word islamophobia as "created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.. please take half an hour to read a fascinating conversation between sam harris and ayaan hirsi ali.. ayaan is an apostate from islam.

she fled to the netherlands in '92 to escape an arranged marriage and went on to become a member of the dutch government from 2003-2006.. ayaan is now a fellow with the future of diplomacy project at the belfer center for science and international affairs at the harvard kennedy school... she lives with round-the-clock security.. "some moderate muslims hate meand yes, thats a strong word, but i think what theyve said supports itbecause i make them feel uncomfortable.

the things i talk about put them in a state of dissonance that they cant live with.

Tiktaalik

That is an exceptionally good interview. Thanks for posting the link.

20

Any strategies to deal with elders who just don't like you?

by toto555 in

so any ways to deal or cope with elders who just don't like you (you didn't do anything wrong or they're just making stuff up about you) assuming that you can't leave?

especially when it comes to for example becoming appointed as an elder.

or are you pretty much "dead in the water" if the elders are determined to like you despite reasonable efforts to win them over.

Tiktaalik

Leave. And never go back.

5

Suffering can be explained without Satan

by exWTslave in

grief is experienced in different degrees by different people though the happening is same.. 1) death of a father who is a bread-winner of the family brings in acute grief to the bereaved.. 2) death of a father who is a liability to the family brings no grief to the bereaved.. 3) death of a father who is a pedophile and womanizer brings joy to the bereaved.. this shows grief is more of perception than the loss, and is usually the result of limited vision.

once moved to a larger perspective, the very thing that causes suffering may produce even its opposite.

when one of our family members moves into another house, we dont grieve over it.

Tiktaalik

It is abundantly evident from your insipid post that you haven't suffered.

What a load of crap: " the wound is where the light enters you..." - total dribble.

BTW: Satan exists only in your tiny little mind. No where else.

76

Humans have been on the earth for 6,000 years?

by make yourself in

so i just heard this today at the meeting.

honestly i've never really paid much attention too it, but i know it's out of place.

can anyone shed some factual and historical light on this subject?

Tiktaalik

James Brown you are totally wrong.

Writing is just one method of communication. And just because something was written in the past does not mean it can interpreted accurately today. Some ancient writings remain undeciphered. Whatever the writer was conveying is lost to us.

Achaeologists can work out when where and how people lived before writing was invented. Ancient peoples communited via a number of means, and art and painting was just one method that was widespread. Artworks survive that are more than 40,000 years old. Aboriginal rock art in Australia is among the earliest known painting on Earth. Among the many subjects it depicts are complex relationships between people and animals. A number of paintings depict animals that have been extinct in the areas where they were painted for thousands of years.

There are cave paintings in France and other parts of Europe that date back to more than 20,000 years. Sculpture and jewellery are also items that tell us many things about ancient peoples.

Your thesis that history only began with writing is just plainly absurd.

63

Why did God/Jehovah/Jesus create Viruses and bacteria that can kill humans and animals?

by Jon Preston in

jw
friends

i know this topic has been spoken about but i havent seen an official thead about it.

so theists why did god create these and why does he co tinue to allow them?

are they from the talking snake, satan?.

Tiktaalik

This entire thread, apart from one or two, notable exceptions is an astonishing parade of ignorance.

There are more bacteria alive in your mouth right now than there are humans that have ever lived on earth. Most are benign and have no effect on human health. Humans are simply a great place to live if you are a bacterium. But other bacteria are essential for human life. And still other bacterium are responsible for causing some of the worst diseases to plague humans.

Viruses are almost universally deleterious to human health. They are crude parasites that replicate themselves by hijacking cellular machinery, destroying the cell in the process. Viruses kill millions of people every year.

The evolutionary history of bacteria and viruses is thousands of times longer than humans. Viruses and bacteria predate god by the same margin. God didn't come into existence until ignorant humans invented him/she/them, some three and half billion years after bacteria evolved.

You can make allowances for the ignorance of our unenlightened ancestors but there is no excuse for now.

9

Helpful Scriptural References - importance of Trust in God not Man

by objectivetruth in

psalms 118:8 - it is better to take refuge in jehovah than to trust in humans.. the scriptures are clear that jesus is the truth - the way - the life : john 4:6 - jesus said to him: i am the way and the truth and the life.

no one comes to the father except through me.

1 timothy 2:4 - whose will is that all sorts of people should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth.

Tiktaalik

TL;DR

Another sermon, from another self proclaimed bible scholar.

Is there no end to your hubris?

4

"Man of Lawlessness" and the "Operation of Error"

by jjones in

moral relativism secular humanism....how these ideologies promote the man of lawlessness and an operation of error.. .

http://brotherjohnsite.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/the-operation-of-errorand-the-man-of-lawlessness/.

language translator available.

Tiktaalik

Jjones you are just as boring as the watchtower.

So you are yet another true prophet who understands stuff that no one else can.

Join the queu, fella. There's thousands of your sort getting around.

37

10 Pragmatic facts why Jehovah's Witnesses can't face reality

by Terry in

jw
friends

1.the organization itself denies access to reality and substitutes its own version, interpretations and meanings.. a.only watchtower approved publications are allowed.. b.no higher education is to be pursued.. c.no non-jw friends or associations are encouraged with their "outside" points of view.. d.no free-style questioning of doctrine or criticism permitted.

curiousity is verboten.. e.threat of being "marked" or disassociated looms over them.

2.between every real-world event and the rank and file jw's mind is a roadblock.. a.the moment of identifying is short-circuited by an interpretive moment of re-labeling in watchtower-speak.. b.all things happening are forced into a narrow storyline and propagandized as end times happenings leading to armageddon.. 3.social and personal identity is expunged and replaced by a collective persona: "jehovah's witness".. a.private thinking is red-flagged as selfish and sinful.. b.personal improvement, welfare and ambition is crushed and door-to-door ministry substituted as "worthy" endeavors.. c.self-conscious obsession permeates witness awareness as each person is transformed into a public spectacle of performance for judgement.. d.since you aren't an individual you don't really have a right to fall in love and marry or educate or earn.

Tiktaalik

Absolutely phenominal, Terry. A tour de force of critical analysis.

All of your points are spot on.

Thanks for your hard work and effort.

51

Are JEhovah's Witnesses reaching out to the Gay community ?

by Watchtower-Free in

.

apostate & ex-jehovalarious meme collection.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/jwmeme/.

Tiktaalik

Definitely Photoshopped.

It's a joke, people.

21

Suffering and Universal Sovereignty

by Trapped in JW land in

just heard the special talk about why god allows suffering.

ugh... can't believe i used to believe this crap.

what do you all think of the universal sovereignty issue?

Tiktaalik

There is no "issue of universal sovereignty". That's just something that the JWs made up.

Humans created god/gods at the dawn of civilisation in an attempt to explain all the mystery of existence.

Then along came science. Science has done what god could never do: answer all the questions of how and why life is as it is.

God is a vestige of the past, an anachronism, albeit a venal and corrupt one. Belief in god allows ordinary people to do evil and hurtful things to those who don't share their infantile beliefs, and behave in ways that society would not tolerate anywhere else. Like parents refusing blood transfusions for their children. Or families torn apart by disfellowshipping.

So, god doesn't permit or prevent evil and suffering. He/she/they are nothing but constructs of the human mind and occupy no other place in the universe, except in the minds of their believers.