Posts by The_Bad

8

Wedding ceremonies outside the kingdom hall

by Stealth in

jw
friends

i was talking with my sister jw this past week and she told me that in her congregation they now have a new rule that for a ms or elder to perform a marriage outside of the kingdom hall, like in someones private home or in a park it now requires the approval of the entire elder body.

i can remember many marriages that were not allowed in the kh, yet you could always find an elder or ms who was related or easy going enough that would agree to perform the marriage out side of the kh.

this was the case in my marriage since my soon to be spouse was not yet baptized they would not do it at the kh, so my bil ms performed the wedding at a local hotel.

The_Bad_Seed

I've never heard of this -- sounds like a local ruling. I never wanted to get married in a hall, I always thought it was so banal and tacky...

51

About privacy on the forum

by Simon in

jw
friends

kent and his merry followers seem to have made privacy their latest crusade and unfortunately they have decided to act in a completely irresponsible manner imho.. the forum software uses cookies to remember a users login details and can also be useful for identifying duplicate accounts.

it is not used for anything sinister and cannot be used to identify someone - all it gives is an indication that a computer is being used by more than one username and has been invaluable in identifying trouble makers like mario kempes / yo yo mama / sexy teen / help others (asking for money) and many others.

i believe that this is a good thing to do as i do not believe it compromises anyones privacy and does help prevent everyone wasting their time responding to people who are just "yanking our chain".. apart from the accounts that you have seen and know there are many more that you may not be aware of.

The_Bad_Seed

I just have cable -- does anyone know if Panorama UK will be aired on TV here in NA, or do I need a friend with satellite?

5

In the beginning...

by The_Bad_Seed in

jw
friends

there are far less jw posters on this site than i had originally thought there would be, and was happy to find far more xjw's than i thought existed on the internet, and am curious if it was simons intention to create a board solely for jehovahs witnesses thoughts or interpretations in the beginning, or if he had intended this site to become a 'meet and greet' for those who left (or got booted from) the borg, or both?

the reason i ask, is that the wts teaches that surfing the internet 'while being an educational tool' is roughly the equivalent of camping out in satans colon, and i can only imagine a site not (just an educated guess) sponsored by the wts with the slogan "discussion forum for anything jw related...everyone is welcome!

" could only seen as a roadmap into the devils gaping piehole.. i'm pretty green around here, and was just wondering..

The_Bad_Seed

So, my original question remains to be answered...

25

notes from the underground

by Incense_and_Peppermints in

jw
friends

the secret private jw message board, that is .

so, how do they determine this, exactly?

(whether or not someone is in "good standing".

The_Bad_Seed

Just sent this off...Neuphoto is my email address...

Hi Loperts!
While being happy for your planning a cruise for only Jehovahs Witnesses in good standing, I must however express my distaste at your excluding rif-raf from the festivities! I did want to join you, but for the sake of threatening the fun of all, took an inventory of my past transgressions with my Presiding Overseer, and found that I have sinned far too many times this year to gain Jehovahs favor, and hence, won't be able to join you. I kick myself for not fighting the urge to transgress, your group rate really IS amazing! On the QC, if you are short on replies, and maybe are still interested in having me come as a 'rif-raf guest' (I could hide in the boiler rooms, or the galley) to retain your group rate, please let me know before the end of August so I can just bypass this whole good standing poo, so I don't have to work on it for cruise 6 next year. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Regards,
Neuphoto

44

My surreal district convention

by RunningMan in

jw
friends

well, i just got back from yet another summer ass-marathon.

seventeen hours of sitting in hockey arena seats that were made for three hour games, trying to stay awake, while not losing contact with my extremities.. needless to say, the program was dull and boring.

in fact, i'm not completely sure that they didnt just re-run last year's.

The_Bad_Seed

Farkel, you should add that to the aposates glossary of JW terms...I liked it

I heard the phrase Jehomo tossed around the other day, laughed my ass off

16

SOMETHING THAT IRRITATES ME

by bay64me in

jw
friends

ok, so it's maby to be viewed as a minor irritation but annoying all the same.

i can't help getting peed off when i see tv programmes showing music clips and videos that were out when i was in!.

it makes me sad to think that i missed out on so much good stuff, when all the while i thought i was keeping myself "unspotted" by not having any part of the world!.

The_Bad_Seed

You can feel happy knowing that Aha has just released a new album after a 12 year hiatus -- so you're still cool if you born in the late. Get on your trenchcoat and mope like it's 1982!

2

Reason vs. Faith, Good article

by The_Bad_Seed in

jw
friends

this is an article i dug up on the ayn rand institute website, written by peter schwartz that i found to be logical and timely, and felt some could benefit upon reading it.

enjoy!

reason vs. faith by peter schwartz.

The_Bad_Seed

This is an article I dug up on the Ayn Rand Institute website, written by Peter Schwartz that I found to be logical and timely, and felt some could benefit upon reading it. Enjoy!

Reason vs. Faith by Peter Schwartz

In todays industrial civilization, people recognize the difference between the secular and the religious. Even those who believe in the Bible, for example, would generally not proclaim Scripture to be science any more than those who faithfully read their horoscopes would declare astrology to be part of astronomy.

Pope John Paul IIs recent encyclical, however, seeks to erase that distinction. Titled "Faith and Reason," it seeks to "unite" the religious and the secular in order to establish dominion by the former over the latter. How does the Pope try to do this? By presenting the Church an arch-enemy of reason as reasons friend.

Faith and reason represent antithetical philosophies. The advocates of faith declare that we must accept as true that which is unknowable to the rational mind that we must believe the pronouncements of some "higher" authority in the absence of any objective evidence, or in outright contradiction to the evidence.

The advocates of reason, on the other hand, maintain that man grasps the truth solely by a process of reason, which is based on the data provided by the senses.

What, then, does the Pope mean when he calls for a "unity between the knowledge of reason and the knowledge of faith"? Does he mean that reason is to be used to reach conclusions contrary to Church tenets? That is obviously intolerable to the Pope as he makes clear throughout the encyclical:

"The Christian faithful not only have no right to defend as legitimate scientific conclusions opinions which are contrary to the doctrine of the faith,...but they are strictly obliged to regard them as errors which have no more than a fraudulent semblance of truth."

"Unity" thus means that reason is to be used whenever faith allows it. This amounts to the repudiation of reason, as it is relegated to the role of religions handmaiden.

At any moment, and across any lifetime, the choice is always either/or: either follow your reasoning mind, or abandon it and place something above it. There is no "middle-of-the-road."

The entire encyclical is an insidious attack on reason, and on the human capacity and the human right to live by means of ones rational thinking.

The Pope ascribes such modern evils as moral relativism and totalitarianism to what he calls "the crisis of rationalism" i.e., the replacement of faith by reason. But the reverse is true: these evils are the product of the same anti-reason philosophy endorsed by the Pope.

Moral relativism holds that there are no rational, universal principles of ethics, but only arbitrary preferences. It holds that since reason is an inadequate guide, we should blindly follow our emotions. The religionist too says that reason is unreliable and that we should blindly accept the dictates of the Church. One says, "It is so because I feel it"; the other, "It is so because I believe it." Neither says: "It is so because it can be proved."

Totalitarianism, too, is a product not of reason but of its opposite. For it is faith that requires force to implement its beliefs. If two rational people disagree, they use logic to try to persuade one another. And if they fail to agree, they understand that each individual ought to follow the convictions of his own mind, free from the threat of force.

But if mystical faith is the basis of knowledge, logic and persuasion are irrelevant. There is only the brute assertion: "Well, thats what I feel like believing and I believe that you better believe it too." There is no recourse but force.

Throughout history, wherever religion has dominated, freedom has disappeared. From the Catholic Inquisitions persecution of Galileo for accepting the evidence of his mind, to the Iranian Ayatollahs sentencing of Salman Rushdie to death for expressing his views about Islam, to the current attacks on abortion clinics in the name of religion the only way mysticism has been implemented is by force.

The Pope wants man to be governed by faith. But he does not want the faithful simply to renounce the modern world of reason the world of science, of technology, of productive thought; he wants to rule that world too. So he "unites" the two realms in order that the Church can eventually reign over everything.

At root, the Pope wants to return to the Medieval era, when philosophy was theology, when "science" was just an examination of revelations and miracles, when the reigning "thinkers" the Scholasticists taught the Bible as the source of all truth. The Pope wants todays intellectuals also to nominally use "reason" but only as directed and circumscribed by the edicts of faith.

There is indeed an urgent need to defend reason. But let the battle lines be clear. The war is between those who subordinate reason to other considerations whether subjective whims or supernatural dogmas and those who intransigently uphold it.

Edited by - The_Bad_Seed on 8 July 2002 13:29:24

25

notes from the underground

by Incense_and_Peppermints in

jw
friends

the secret private jw message board, that is .

so, how do they determine this, exactly?

(whether or not someone is in "good standing".

The_Bad_Seed

I think, seeing as this person so foolishly posted their email address, that I am going to request a spot on the cruise. I'll post the reply when I get it, even rif-raf need vacations you know.

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