Posts by TheOldHippie

13

A Country where no-one under 25 believes the biblical creation story.

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

no icelanders under the age of 25 believe the creation story that god was responsible for creating the universe, a new poll claims.the poll, commissioned by the icelandic ethical humanist association, claims that 93.9 per cent in the under 25 category responded that the universe was created by the big bang.

just over 6 per cent responded with ‘don’t know’ or ‘other’.

none of the respondents, however, believed that the universe had been created by god.

TheOldHippie

Since it was the Humanist organization that asked the question, they probably got the answers they wanted. It should have been interesting to see the questions, as Big Bang and God need not be mutually excluding.

Iceland in other connections is told to be the country having the largest percentage of people on Earth believeing in ghosts, fairies, ghouls etc. It puzzles me, and I so would like to have someone trying to explain how one can believe in an afterlife of souls but not believe in a creator god? Do people believe that an immerial soul somehow evolved? I am not trying to make fun of any idea or perception, so it is in fact a serious question - how can one (given that one believes in ghosts etc.) account for an immaterial afterlife without there being a god?

12

A 17 Year Old's Journey To Freedom

by DLou278 in

hey guys!

i have written an article on my exit from the watchtower.

i am 17 years old and leaving has been the best decision that i have ever made.

TheOldHippie

Welcome back when you are 67 and know A BIT more ..................................

26

United States baptism stats 1969-2015

by the comet in

whenever the new yearbooks come out, we all look at the figures and see the publisher increase never really matches up with the baptism figures.

it never should match up as all newly baptized ones are already publishers, and may have been for many years.

i, as an example, became an unbaptized publisher at age 11. i didn't get baptized until i was 17. .

TheOldHippie

There is no reason why you should try to make the death rate so complicated. 1 % is a common rule when it comes to larger population groups. To make it simple and not having to look at the age groups and different "racial" groups, just stick to the 1 % rule. Each year, deduct 1 %. Some years ago, it was stated 1 % was df'ed each year and 2 % left. The problem with these two latter groups, of course is that up to half of them return. So using them in the calculations is tricky - but then, these are the ones you want to find the size of, so just use the 1 % death rate and you will get there.

7

What's up with the HEBREWS translation?

by TTWSYF in

this book states in verse 8 chapter 1 that the father calls jesus god.

the nwt is very different.

i wonder which one is the most accurate?.

TheOldHippie

"What there isn't is any accolades from Professor so and so from Harvard or Princeton or Yale or any other scholarly source."

Who, regretfully, can be quite as biased as Bill and Tim and Dan. Being a professor from Harvard and at the same time chairman of the board of the XXX Bible translation committee at times makes it plain where the mental attachment is.

74

Living Through the Brief Liberalization of Jehovah's Witnesses, Never Recovering

by TMS in

jw
friends

with the book crisis of conscience detailing the turbulence at bethel during the early to mid 70's, the transformation from autocratic rule to governance by committee or a body of men, many of us can speak to how that felt among the rank and file of the local congregations during those years.

we learned new concepts based in large part to research done for the aid to bible understanding volume, then we were asked or coerced into unlearning those principles, going back to the old ways.

some of us never readjusted, finding ourselves very different from our more hardline compadres.. the inertia for the changes that eventually were initiated in the congregations came from the discovery that the greek words episkopos and presbyteros were used biblically to refer to all qualified men in a congregation, not just one.

TheOldHippie

I remember the kind of people who joined during that period – in the congregations in my area we welcomed a couple of medical doctors, a couple of pharmacists, quite a few artists – painters, singer/songwriters – many educated people, a couple of lawyers – one of them well-known – one scientist, political interested people, some from the hippie movement.

Now the majority seems to come from among the poorer and vulnerable layers of society.

35

Dear Jehovah's witnesses, a question....

by punkofnice in

dear jehovah's witnesses and on-the-fencers.. isn't it even a little bit obvious that the watchtower organisation doesn't have jehovah's blessing?.

if it did, why are your leaders, the governing body, asking you for your money and assets?

surely, jehovah would provide for the organisation without having to use your hard earned money and assets?.

TheOldHippie

Surely, Jehovah would provide for the organisation without having to use your hard earned money and assets?

How? By miraculously printing money or making the staff never feeling hungry, by letting their clothes and shoes never be worn like in Sinai? By making companies suddenly feel the urge to give materials away for free? What is the alternative to letting the JW community come with their assests?

32

Are the 2015 Belgium Concert for Delegates and Kingdom Hall Cowboy Footloose Videos on Youtube for real?

by Maryo in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0fxyk4iba.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qxdgtaskfm.

i find these shocking.

TheOldHippie

Funny to see how some are "more Catholic than the Pope"

6

Larry

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

in the congregation where i grew up, the witnesses converted this 20-something young man.

he was very strange, lived in a very shady apartment, and he couldn't afford a car, so he rode his bike around the whole area, which was very strange for our rural part of the country.

according to larry, he came from quite a wealthy family in the country he was from.

TheOldHippie

Like a modern version of Hesse's "Steppenwolf".

I truly enjoyed the story, and like you wonder where he is now, wonder along which roads or paths he is riding his bike, what stories he is telling .................

35

S.A.D. Observations from the assembly.

by Darkknight757 in

so we had brother losch visiting our special assembly day which was weird in itself.

he's not a very good speaker and seemed like he was in dire need of a nap or something.. anyways just a few observations from the assembly program.

theme: imitate their faith.

TheOldHippie

Barrold Bonds 9 hours ago

I don't know why they send him around to give talks in the US. You can barely understand his English.

::::::::::::::::::

Yeah. Send all the foreigners home. Let us get that good, old racist society back.

44

Fishing and JW's???

by lurkernomore in

so i was just reading a thread and came across a completely new jw 'rule', that of not being allowed to go fishing!..

at least it's new to me as i always enjoyed fishing as did others in my old congregation.

anyone else heard of this or had this imposed on them in they're jw lives?.

TheOldHippie

Please do not believe everything you are told. This is just plain old-fashioned stupidity.