Posts by scratchme1010

14

If you had to choose

by dothemath in

if you had to choose to belong to 1 religion, i was curious as to what any on the forum would pick.. i realize most here are likely atheist (i would have to say i'm agnostic), but if any would like to share their opinion, and maybe why?.

scratchme1010

If you HAD to choose to belong to 1 religion, I was curious as to what any on the forum would pick.

Still none. I can't see any circumstances in my life that would force me to practice any religion.

47

Serena Williams Pregnant

by wisdomfrombelow in

jw
friends

now that she has announced that she is 20 weeks pregnant and not married, what is her status in the cult?

.

scratchme1010

Now that she has announced that she is 20 weeks pregnant and not married, what is her status in the c

Same, which is, full of it.

21

Never Thought I'd Say This, But I've Found Something to Look Forward to in the Meetings

by Sorry in

my therapist inspired me to start looking on the bright side.

even though i've pretty much given up listening to the bs and usually tune out the meeting by playing on my phone/tablet, i find the local needs talk oddly fascinating.

probably because it's the only part that doesn't seem outlined to death (at least at our hall), and you truly don't know what you get.

scratchme1010

Hopefully, this "brightside" mentality will help keep me sane.

I imagine that you have reasons that make you feel obligated to continue attending those meetings. I´m glad that if that´s the case that you can find something that gets you through them. I hope that such positive attitude lasts enough until you can make better plans, that is if you really want out.

180

Languages, Dialects, Accents

by LoveUniHateExams in

jw
friends

just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

red, arrow, break.

scratchme1010

Yes, I'm a language geek.

Me too. I am preparing a speech where I am talking about learning culture through language. I am giving two examples. One is on a gig that I had in the early 2000s doing work for the US State Attorney´s office in NYC. I was in charge of transcribing body wire recorded conversations in Spanish and prepare those transcribed documents for translation into English. I specialized in translating from Puerto Rican and Dominican slang, mispronounciations and idioms into actual understandable Spanish.

23

UC Berkeley Reverses order cancellation of Ann Coulter speech

by blondie in

jw
friends

uc berkeley orders cancellation of ann coulter speech.

officials at the university of california at berkeley on thursday reversed their decision to cancel a speech by conservative firebrand ann coulter.. the university had announced wednesday that it was canceling coulter’s appearance following several political protests in berkeley that turned violent.. but on thursday, the university said it had found a venue where it could hold the speech on may 2, instead of the original april 27 date.

however, a leader of the college republican group that originally invited coulter said the university was placing strict conditions on the event, and he said his group intended to reject the new terms.. before the reversal was announced, coulter had vowed to go ahead with an appearance anyway.. that probably would have put security officials on high alert and might have sparked another showdown in struggles over campus safety, student views and ideological openness.. “what are they going to do?

scratchme1010

All these bans, violent protests to shut down discourse and debate, just shows the fragile reasons that the opposers stand on. can not stand to hear an opposing view expressed.

Does that include the violence when people open fire in theaters, or when a white policeman kills an unarmed black man?

28

What will happen if someone partake the wine and bread at memorial? Should we all do that?

by UBM101 in

.

scratchme1010

Should we all do that?

If you ask me, no. I'm not fond of the WT and many, many JWs, but I see no point in disrespecting them that way. Also, my personal stance is that it's not my job to show them or teach them anything.

31

22,000 years of arctic ice cores melt, and wash the YHWH/JESUS concept down the sewer

by fulltimestudent in

the full story, as told in the uk guardian can be found at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/16/arctic-ice-cores-melt-university-alberta-canada.

and briefly it tells of an equipment failure at a storage facility for ice cores that had been extracted from the polar ice cap in various locations.. but note, that the layers of ice evident in the cores covered a period of 22,000 years.

and from the christian/jw perspective, that's impossible, for the bible story of the flood (verified by jesus and sundry other biblical writers) maintains that 4000+ years ago, the ice caps would have melted during the period when the earth was covered by the divinely caused deluge.

scratchme1010

Yet jws and many other others including muslims, jews, and sundry christians believe that their fanciful religious fantasy is true in the face of factual evidence to the contrary

There are plenty of indicators of those ages existing. Something I find interesting is that the Bible itself doesn't establish any timelines in terms of the stages in which things on Earth came to be. It is based on interpretations of writings that are considered sacred.

As per Jesus of Nazareth, he did exist. That he is what the Bible and religion claims he is, that's a different story.

38

Even if it's not the truth, it's still the best way to live

by Simon in

how many times did you hear that gem?

it often went along with "the truth is a protection" which is their way of saying "living a moral life is good for you ... and you can't do that without us".. but think about what people are really saying.

i think the real message is "i know it's not the truth, but i chose to follow it anyway".. it seems like a pre-emptive argument because they know they can't defend it as "the truth" so instead they switch to defending it as a lifestyle.. of course any kind of lifestyle that has a decent moral ingredient to it, respect for law and order, discipline etc... probably increases people's chances of doing better in life, but they don't have a monopoly on it.. so just remember, next time you hear someone saying "even if it's not the truth" what they are really admitting is that they already know it isn't..

scratchme1010

The resoning is the same logica:
"Hitler was not that good but he protected Europe prevented it for taking over by communist."
G.

"I know it's not the truth, but I chose to follow it anyway"

5

If you could see the future would you use it?

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

if you had the ability to know what the future held would you use this ability?.

jws say that jehovah can see the future but he just choses not to.

which never made sense to me, as if he did use that ability then a lot of the stuff that went wrong could have been avoided.. it never made sense.

scratchme1010

What do you think?

Never makes sense. Seeing the future is the least of senseless things that the WT says.

If I could see the future, I couldn't see the future, because it becomes different every time I change something based on it.

38

Even if it's not the truth, it's still the best way to live

by Simon in

how many times did you hear that gem?

it often went along with "the truth is a protection" which is their way of saying "living a moral life is good for you ... and you can't do that without us".. but think about what people are really saying.

i think the real message is "i know it's not the truth, but i chose to follow it anyway".. it seems like a pre-emptive argument because they know they can't defend it as "the truth" so instead they switch to defending it as a lifestyle.. of course any kind of lifestyle that has a decent moral ingredient to it, respect for law and order, discipline etc... probably increases people's chances of doing better in life, but they don't have a monopoly on it.. so just remember, next time you hear someone saying "even if it's not the truth" what they are really admitting is that they already know it isn't..

scratchme1010

Interesting post.

Of course any kind of lifestyle that has a decent moral ingredient to it, respect for law and order, discipline etc... probably increases people's chances of doing better in life, but they don't have a monopoly on it.

Actually, what I hate the most about that "ostrich-like" attitude is that they still attack other healthy moral ways of living. They do attempt to have a monopoly on their righteousness.