Apognophos

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Posts by Apognophos

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  9

  Helping Grandma Move.

  by exwhyzee in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we helped my wife's 83 year old mother move this weekend (30year regular pioneer).

  she's having memory issues now and is moving into a nice little apartment built off the back of her (elder) son's house.

  among a lifetime of memories, kids report cards, black and white photos of long dead swans etc., i found stacks of old society publications from as far back as the 1920's including bound volumes and rutherford books.

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  Apognophos

  I wasn't aware that demons were prone to deteriorating...
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  14

  Double-life, sounds like a prison sentence....or maybe not?

  by sparrowdown in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  question: do you think the "double-lifers" have the best of both worlds?.

  just asking, because i have wondered, if i had an outlet to express my utter.

  disgust and general dissatisfaction with wt teachings and cong-life while i. was still in, ie on forums etc, maybe i would never have left.. just a thought, anyone else have any?.

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  Apognophos

  I have a problem with the way the question is phrased. The "double-lifers" I knew grewing up in the religion were kids who just wanted to do their own thing and tried not to get caught doing it. They didn't know TTATT, they just didn't like the rules. It's hard for me to say if that is a good way to live, as the little ways I broke the rules caused me stress, and you're always a hair's-breadth from getting reproved or worse. But at least you have a fairly bearable life. Knowing TTATT and still having to stay active, on the other hand, is very much a prison sentence.
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  10

  good question ( sorry about the f word )

  by bigmac in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  Apognophos

  He didn't, he found people with the Greek equivalents of those names: Petros, Ioannes, etc. Well, "Simon" could be Hebrew (Shimon). Really, the only reason we have these names today is that they are of Biblical significance and have been passed down into all different cultures in slightly different variants.
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  7

  WT application of James 1:27 - looking after widows and orphans

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  since the bible is clear on helping widows and orphans, needy, poor, etc, it's interesting to see how the wt twists these scriptures to make their followers feel they are following it when they really aren't.

  because it costs money to really help those and the wt wants the money themselves.. here are some wt quotes directly on fulfilling this obligation of james 1:27 -.

  help elderly get to the meetings -.

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  Apognophos

  Nice compilation, thanks EoM. The lack of charitable works is one of the things that started to bug me about the religion some time around my late teens.
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  15

  Sexually repressed and frustrated Jws....

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i wonder how many jws are sexually frustrated due to the repressive views of the org?.

  im sure that there are millions of messed up witnesses who have been severely damaged due to the teachings and guilt that the org places on all members.. now, i'm not encouraging a reckless lifestyle, but i'm sure so many more problems are experienced by witnesses just because of the suppressed and guilt laden attitudes the org has perpetuated!

  they can even be open in their marriages!.

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  Apognophos

  It's not surprising if women in the org. have more sexual hang-ups than the men. Our society has a lopsided attitude towards the expression of sexuality by each gender. When was the last time you heard a guy called anything like "slutty" or "loose"? The religion just piles more guilt on top of that because any young couple that wants to date feels like it has half the adults in the congregation breathing down their neck, watching their every move. It's infantilizing and it nhibits sexual development (and I think it suppresses all ego development in general, which is part of what keeps JWs drone-like).
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  41

  New Awake! Dealing With Mental Illness

  by runForever in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  contains a list of 9 practical steps except they forgot one: 10. do not become a jehovah's witness.. .

  1. follow the treatment prescribed.

  by qualified mental-health.

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  Apognophos

  There's an interesting article W 88 10/15 dealing with mental illnesses...

  That was the JW demon-mania of the '80s for ya.
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  20

  The Awake “Faithful and Discreet Slave” July 15, 1960 WT

  by berrygerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  great stuff.. .

  overwhelming credentials.

  25 does the faithful and discreet slave class have any more credentials?

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  Apognophos

  The Society was saying that these are all of the places that the F&DS is found in Scripture, so it's Okay™, you can Trust™ them as your spiritual leaders.

  Amusing side note: the preamble to the list also uses "anointed remnant" to refer to the F&DS, so I don't know which of these scriptures apply to which group now that they are separate (or one is within the other).
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  116

  Creationist Should Dismiss Genesis Quickly

  by Coded Logic in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  chris tann,.

  in your earlier post you seemed to be under the impression that genesis and science were somehow compatible .

  however, the truth is the two are not reconcilable at all.

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  Apognophos

  Complexity - The amount of information in a certain volume.

  It seems that the dictionary definition is simply "having many parts". I could have played it safe and used such a definition. The reason why I proposed this alternate definition is that I wanted to encourage you guys to think about the information conveyed by parts. In other words, a modern car engine has more parts (I assume) than a car engine from 1900. The same-sized engine block therefore contains more information in a modern car.

  You can accuse me of making up my own definitions, but I don't believe I'm actually doing that. I'm simply rephrasing the existing definition, which seemed slanted towards describing physical objects. I believe that the original definition works for my argument too, however.

  To restate my assertion one more time using the precise dictionary definition of the word, "A brain does not increase in 'the number of parts it has' when it is thinking about something complex." I find this statement to be a poor representation of what I was trying to say, but it is indisputably true nonetheless.

  On the subject of information, I have to retract my statement. I wasn't thinking clearly about what I know about information theory and noise vs. information. It's not really true that a network with random values has the same amount of information as a network that is storing something useful like a phone book. I don't know why I said that, I guess I need to get more sleep.

  That being said, I don't really think this affects my suggestion. It was my feeling from the beginning that it was not necessary to argue the definitions of these terms. My point was that a creator is not adding considerable complexity to the scenario if the universe is essentially replacing an existing, equally-complex part of the creator. This is a very simple point that shouldn't require arguments over words because the terms are self-defining in that statement. The only objection to this idea that I can think of is that it pushes back the development of our universe's complexity to a "god universe" where this god evolved naturally, then made us deliberately. See below.

  It is your problem since you are proposing it. Also, you aren't commenting on probablity, but simply arguing from incredulity.

  I'm not arguing that the "something from nothing" hypothesis is incredible (as in, "unbelievable"), but simply pointing out that it's arrogant of humans to think they really have already, at this primitive stage of science, worked out the answer to how the universe got here. We don't know nearly enough to say that such a scientific idea is probable, only that it's possible, let alone do we know enough to say that the idea of a creator is less possible.

  This forum is for discussion and not for conducting scientific research or even debating academically, so I feel totally justified in stating my personal opinions here regardless of whether they are currently testable. You are free to deride these ideas, of course. It doesn't really bother me because I know that you guys have allergic reactions to anything that smacks of mystical thinking.

  I generally agree with you on that count, but I thought I would bring up an alternative viewpoint as a basic philosophical exercise. In hindsight I wish I never spoke up, since I really didn't want to spend hours defending a viewpoint that I'm not strongly attached to.
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  20

  The Awake “Faithful and Discreet Slave” July 15, 1960 WT

  by berrygerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  great stuff.. .

  overwhelming credentials.

  25 does the faithful and discreet slave class have any more credentials?

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  Apognophos

  Some of the credentials sound like the credits for minor characters in a weird movie, like "Man clothed in linen". Anyway, this is truly the height of antitype madness. We have Fred Franz to thank for this insanity.
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  9

  Went to a non-Witness memorial service

  by CaptainSchmideo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this was a service at a southern baptist church for the father of a teacher at my son's school.

  we had developed a friendship with her over the past few years, and i had met her father, knew about his terminal illness, and i wanted to pay my respects.. i have to tell you, it was a better show than the average jw "ceremony".first, lots of personal tributes about the man they were memorializing.

  uplifting stories, funny stories, serious stories, describing a real life individual that many in that room knew and were going to dearly miss.. lots of singing!

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  Apognophos

  I only recognized the acronym because "SST: Death Flight" is one of the greatest movies ever