scratchme1010

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Posts by scratchme1010

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  14

  Vow of Obedience and Poverty? WTF??

  by NikL in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  listener on here started a cool thread about the april 2017 wt which can be found here.... https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/4881380162928640/watchtower-april-2017-overview.

  it got me to look at it closer and in the opening study they use terminology i've never heard used before namely, "vow of obedience and poverty".... 19 currently, there are some 67,000 members of the worldwide order of special full-time servants of jehovah’s witnesses.

  some perform bethel service, others engage in construction or in circuit work, serve as field instructors or special pioneers or missionaries or as assembly hall or bible school facility servants.

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  scratchme1010

  Poverty and obedience are the cornerstones of the WT, that is, for all except the GB.
  
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  22

  Is it just for social reasons you remain?

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  as someone who has tried to fade on various occasions, i always end up attending meetings!

  why is this the case you may ask?.

  if i was single, i would have kissed this high control american religion goodbye many years ago.

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  scratchme1010

  To me, it has now become nothing more than a social club. That's it!

  Is anyone else experiencing a similar situation, ie attending meetings primarily for social reasons?

  That's what the vast majority of people in any organized religion do. Religious organizations are social clubs. Do you think that people join because of what they teach? They don't know what they teach until they join, so it's not about their teachings.
  
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  39

  Shunning

  by A Believer in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  you guys do know that if you just leave and never go back you wont be disfellowshiped right?

  i know people who have done exactly this.

  you have to commit a sin and you or someone else has to tell a elder.

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  scratchme1010

  You guys do know that if you just leave and never go back you wont be disfellowshiped right? I know people who have done exactly this. You have to commit a sin and you or someone else has to tell a elder.
  

  And your point is... if you read a little of what people post, that's not exactly news.
  
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  19

  Writers (not God) are at fault

  by anointed1 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if scriptures are written by people who have no sense of justice, it is natural that god would be misrepresented—something that happened to the biblical god.

  to mention a few:.

  1) david, murderer of the innocent and faithful, wrote portions of the bible.. 2) paul who set in opposition to genuine apostles who were directly trained by jesus himself sarcastically describing them as “superfine apostles” openly declared in some places that it was not spirit, but he was writing.

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  scratchme1010

  1) The incomprehensibly vast size of the universe teaches how insignificant our earth and all its inhabitants are (which means there is no basis for anyone to feel self-important)

  So size does matter after all? What does the size of the universe has to do with our relevance? How important a given person or thing is has no correlation with its relative size in comparison to something else. Physical dimensions has nothing to do quality of life or morals.

  2) The way planets and stars act too teaches us humility! They move around keeping to their orbits just like vehicles follow lane-discipline on a busy express highway (as though submitting themselves to some unseen authority)

  Interesting that you use man-made things (a highway) to explain the vastness of "God's" creation. So let me see if I understand what you are saying: planets that are (some of them) not even part of our own galaxy, that we can't see, that we have no access to, that we need to study advanced Astronomy, mathematics and physics to begin comprehending them, along with the rest of entities that we don't even know... that's supposed to teach us humility, an arbitrarily chosen concept of morality. Not to mention that suck knowledge is available for those who choose to look into it. Sounds a little off-the-wall to me.
  

  3) Plants produce fragrant and beautiful flowers and trees produce fruits for others to enjoy (not for themselves). They too are living lessons of humility.

  Prostitutes provide services to men (or women) in dire need of having sex. Drug dealers provide a great wealth of supplies for those who really need to get a fix. Are those lessons of humility too? Besides, go ahead and look for information about these plants:

  Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata)
  Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna)
  White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)
  Castor Bean (Ricinus communis)
  Rosary Pea (Abrus precatorius)
  Oleander (Nerium oleander)
  Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)

  and see how "joyful" what they produce is.
  

  4) All the stories and histories written show that those who pursued self-importance reaped misery in the end. [shows that all the writers are somehow led by some imperceptible force to come to the same conclusion that ultimately truth wins and ego fails]

  Yeah, right. I guess that depends on which stories you read and what you want to pay attention to.

  If you don’t see any lessons in those beings—inanimate and animate, you can formulate your life in any way you like, and it is ok if it makes you happy.

  But for me, taking lessons of humility from them makes me too happy, and those around me feel comfortable with me.

  Yet, you need to come here to brag about it. Some humility. Classic passive/aggressive religious crap.
  
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  8

  Quotation in book - what are your thoughts

  by Tallon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  been away for a couple of months as i felt that i needed a break.

  during this period i completed reading a book (fiction), titled; conclave - authored by robert harris.

  there is a very interesting sentence in the book which got me thinking.

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  scratchme1010

  Interesting thought. I agree to some extent, except for the sin part, but that's because I don't believe in the concept of sin as a noun or verb.

  I think that the intent a given person has is what makes it ostentatious or really simple. The entire concept of having a given set of moral standards and values based on arbitrary interpretations of life, regardless of whether they come from the bible or some other source, promotes such ostentation.

  My lifestyle is simple in some ways and complex and sophisticated in other ways. All of it is legitimate, comes from my own set of values and morals, and it's genuine. It is for the simple reason that I choose to have simplicity in certain aspects of my life. I can't care less about pleasing other people over it, including some "god". That legitimacy in my life choices, choosing to be a good peaceful person by myself and for myself, IMO, is what keeps a more restrained life. Not doing it to please "Jehovah", nor to show or proof myself to anyone that I am more right than righteous than anyone else is what make any set of values matter.
  
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  29

  Watchtower April, 2017 Overview

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i'll start with the first study article.. this study article deals with vows made to jehovah.

  three main vows are discussed.. 1) your dedication to jehovah.

  we are told that it is not possible to claim that our baptism was not valid .

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  scratchme1010

  Who cares
  
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  23

  MERRY CHRISTMAS

  by jhine in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  l don't visit very often now , but l wanted to drop in to wish all you folks a merry christmas and happy new year .

  as l cannot find a thread already started for this l have started one !

  in the immortal words of chuck berry ( l think ) " come on everybody " join in wishing your fellow posters a merry christmas , happy holidays etc .

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  scratchme1010

  MERRY CHRISTMAS
  
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  14

  The definition of a false prophet

  by HereIgo in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  the last time i spoke to my mother, who is a devout jw, she threatened me with typical jw scare tactics telling me how oh so close the end is and how me and my 2 young daughters will be slaughtered by god himself in armageddon.

  knowing that this is just a scare tactic, i respectfully listened, then replied that the jw's have wrongfully predicted the end of the world three times and were incorrect, 1914, 1925, 1975. i asked doesn't that make them false prophets?

  her response; " no, because the brothers are imperfect and jehovah knew their heart was in a sincere place.

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  scratchme1010

  Herelgo, my impression is that for as long as the conversations continue, there's hope for some kind of awareness. I mean, she hasn't fully shunned you in spite of you taking a completely open and clear stance against what she considers super sacred. To me that's a good sign, even if all what comes from her mouth is nonsense.

  I hope there's something more past her JW nonsense.
  
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  21

  Living Vicariously Through the Sheep.

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  when i got baptized as a jehovah’s witness in the summer of 83, my honeymoon period lasted about two years before i began to wonder if the society and its adherents were all it claimed to be.

  no of the things i encountered for the first few years was really faith shattering, they simply just made me pause and think.

  after a short while, i would file those issues in the back of my brain files and move forward.. .

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  scratchme1010

  This reminds me when the elders wanted me to give them details about things I did with other people. It is disgusting the way they want all the details of everything. It is disrespectful for them to feel entitled to hear those things that way told by people alone without any counsel, surrounded by men. Just downright creepy and disgusting.

  Thank you for sharing.
  
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  2

  Making a list of the WT properties that's been sold

  by no-zombie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in harmony with gorbatchov's topic about the income derived from property sales, i have thought for a while how good it would be to have one combined listing of all the assets the gb has sold together with a "worldly reference" to their prices.

  it would be a bit of a task, but if a dump of all the links were made in one place, i could recompile it into one neat listing and repost it..

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  scratchme1010

  In USA that's just a matter of public records. Not a difficult task at all.