(PDF of Los Angeles News Dispatch article: http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/K%20Disk/Kennedy%20Robert%20F%20Assassination%20Clips/Item%20062.pdf)
TerryWalstrom
JoinedPosts by TerryWalstrom
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13
Jehovah's Terrorist?
by TerryWalstrom injehovah’s terrorist?.
(a personal memoir).
john f. kennedy's brother, robert (bobby) was assassinated in 1968 shortly after he won the california democratic presidential primary.
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TerryWalstrom
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DOOM and LUXURY : the Watchtower Elite prepares for the GREAT TRIBULATION
by TerryWalstrom inboondoggles and preppers watchtower style!
a religion of doom and luxury!.
in 1866, the times of london wrote:.
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TerryWalstrom
What a luxury to ride a bike and write.
I hope you use a helmet to protect your brain ....not for the great tribulation for that certainly not
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No. No helmet. I actually did research on bike helmets, including the leading bicycle magazines and the consensus is, I'll still be badly injured--it will just take longer to die with a helmet. I have a really bad problem with claustrophobia. I can't even wear sunglasses or a baseball cap.
Crazy? Sure!
I prefer a quick exit -
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TWO MEN who changed Watchtower History but YOU NEVER HEARD of them!
by TerryWalstrom intwo men who changed watchtower history but you never heard of them!
cults are famous for control--especially controlling information about people, places and events which are embarrassing to their self-myths.. especially is this true for two important figures in watchtower history.. .
the first man is william f. hudgings.
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TerryWalstrom
steve24 days ago
Thanks Terry - indeed I had heard of neither man but had heard of Ironside. Absolutely fascinating. Looks like Sykes's group was "truer" than the Bible Students during WW1.
Where did you first hear of Sykes - and what promoted you to look?
_______________________________________________I was looking at vintage reference pages, documents, off the beaten path websites and such and I came across the self-styled :THE INTERNET'S BEST WATCHTOWER SOCIETY HISTORY.
I began reading and Boom!
There it all was right in front of me.________________
From that, I did Google searches and read whatever could be found. -
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DOOM and LUXURY : the Watchtower Elite prepares for the GREAT TRIBULATION
by TerryWalstrom inboondoggles and preppers watchtower style!
a religion of doom and luxury!.
in 1866, the times of london wrote:.
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TerryWalstrom
The people I run into who are of my vintage, (usually active J-Dubs from my stint locally) look truly deplorable and unhealthy.
It looks to me as though they completely gave up!
Gave up on what, you ask?Everything!
50 years or more in a religion which perches you at a bus stop and tells you Godot is coming, creates within you an endless idleness of mind. There is no reason to undertake (interesting choice of words) strive, opine or improve in any way the status quo.
As Freddy Franz said about his own life, (referring to the decision to either go for the Rhodes Scholarship or become a Russellite) "What's the point? What is the point?" Meaning: Armageddon was coming in one year's time! (It was 1913.) -
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Jehovah's Terrorist?
by TerryWalstrom injehovah’s terrorist?.
(a personal memoir).
john f. kennedy's brother, robert (bobby) was assassinated in 1968 shortly after he won the california democratic presidential primary.
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TerryWalstrom
slimboyfat21 hours ago
Very interesting. Can't someone ask him?
The 1946 Consolation magazine quote is very damning, While the world was in shock over reports about Auschwitz this is what JWs were saying about Jews.
___________I don't know which is more disturbing, owning such an opinion about holocaust suffering people or publishing it in order to create like-mindedness among loyal cultists!
A person whose mind is disturbed, irrational, predisposed to fanaticism really doesn't need to be pushed into a "God-approved" intervention into political affairs with a pistol. -
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A Forensic Investigation disproving Watchtower’s self-made MYTH
by TerryWalstrom ina forensic investigation disproving watchtower’s self-made myth(chosen by jehovah as the only true religion on earth).
[ it all began when joseph rutherford removed four members of the watch tower society board of directors under a legal technicality that equally applied to himself, and then authorized the writing and publication of the book "the finished mystery" contrary to pastor russell's will, the society's official charter, and without approval of the board, and then falsely advertising the book to the public as the "posthumous work of pastor russell".
] pastor-russell dot com.
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TerryWalstrom
OnTheWayOut17 hours ago
After a bit, I skipped down and found this:
.....which nobody wants to read.
Thanks for understanding.
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You are most welcome! -
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Differences Between Ex-JWs
by David_Jay inwe are not all the same--a real "duh, david!
so i figured if i didn't feel that sense of solidarity that seems missing among the debating, then i was part of the problem.
i'm responsible for making this place feel like a support and place of solidarity, just as much as anyone else.. but approaches i tried didn't work until i shut up for a while.
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TerryWalstrom
We were all passengers on the same Titanic, but each of us was on a different level of the ship. Some of us found succor in lifeboats, while others struggled in icy waters until the Carpathia arrived.
Suffering, panic, loss are profoundly subjective experiences. How we cope and adapt and what we become in the long run as a result, may well be a measure of our character more than our trauma.I kind person before the iceberg is probably a kind person still.
An a**hole may be even more so in the aftermath.
Ex-Jdubs have something in common in the sharing of delusion, the blind trust, the thrill of absolute certainty, and the confident assurance we hold the winning ticket---then, only discovering to our inestimable horror, not only was the rug pulled from under us--there was no floor!
What happens next is a strong desire to minimize the confusion.
Our rational mind--the part still functioning--wants clarity.
By sharing our experiences and sampling the consensus distilled on this discussion board, we little by little minimize vagueness.Some turn to Authority once again. "Just stick the needle in anyplace, Doc--I need relief!"
Others turn amateur sleuth or dilettanti detective. Like JFK conspiracy nuts, they seek the most fantastical solution to the crazy speculations.
In the end, there is not there there.It is only us here. Now.
The path we take is of our own making. The same brain-machine inside our skull which caused us to fall victim to the cult is STILL THERE.
Unless we replace the parts, one by one, we surely end up in the same place again, and again, an again with different labels attached to the same delusion.For my part, I simply pretend to be an activist wrenching victims from the burning building.
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A STAKE in the HEART of Watchtower TRUTH (A Thought Experiment)
by TerryWalstrom inis this the same religion?.
a whim isn’t falsifiable.. .
answer: is it testable?
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TerryWalstrom
Coming across the definition of the phenomenon of vagueness was a real eye-opener for me.
It is a tool for understanding why the Watchtower religion changes constantly, i.e. is refuted by its own certainty and specificity.
The Ego Motor (channel of God, mouthpiece, FDS) bestows way toomuch self-confidence and results in a keenness to "explain" everything.
Being amateurs, the Elite Dubs are not qualified to make such determinations. Instead of competency, science or humility, the GB use their vivid and silly imagination fictively.
The more elusive the doctrines, the more they seek to tighten up the loose ends.Case in Point: The GENERATION teaching!
Each time the falsifiability came past due on their TRUE definition, it called for a narrowing update and revision. Authority ramped up.
The blindness on the part of these so-called leaders is amazing.
You would think they'd see a trend leading toward painting themselves into an inescapable corner--but no! The Ego Motor driving the fictive delusion went into overdrive.
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Question about 1940s Watchtower history
by slimboyfat ini was studying this fascinating composite graph of jw growth.
lots of interesting things there.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/demographics_of_jehovah%27s_witnesses#/media/file%3ajwstats1931-2015.png.
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TerryWalstrom
For many decades, it was taught that selection of the 144,000 was completed and sealed--depending on who was the Big Cheese deciding these matters:
Russell
1881
Thy Kingdom Come p.362
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Rutherford
1931
"Let God be True" 1946 ed. p.298
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Knorr
1935
Watchtower 2007 May 1 p.30In 1935. After this announcement, the number of memorial partakers steadily declined. This was presented as proof that the end would be soon.
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If you stop and think about it, Confirmation Bias leads JW's to look for certain results in order to confirm their hasty certainty. What they get is only what they choose to measure.Knorr pried the conch shell (Lord of the Flies reference :) from the cold, dead, hands of Rutherford and instituted a proprietary Paradigm shift of his own.
Why?
Knorr and Franz wanted to get rid of Hayden C. Covington as the V.P. and the scheme they came up with involved the question of "anointing" and anointed. Who was and who wasn't anointed as well as what specific elite could and couldn't do.
When the Society changes attention, focus, measurement and doctrine, the result is a shift in the balance of the Force.
Internal change=external vairance.There is always a Spin or cover story!
If anyone since 1935 rightfully claimed to be anointed it was as a replacement of a sinful remnant, no longer worthy of heaven!
"For 19 centuries there was only the one calling, the heavenly one, with Jehovah being very selective as to who would serve with his Son to make up the Kingdom government. Many would be invited but only a precious few chosen. (Matthew 22:2, 14) In time, the prescribed but a limited number of 144,000 would be reached. After this no more would be anointed by holy spirit as a witness that they had the heavenly hope, unless, in a rare occurrence, the unfaithfulness of one of the remaining 'chosen ones' made a replacement necessary." Watchtower 1982 Feb 15 p.30
(JW facts)The Watchtower Droogs signal the response they are looking to measure in advance:
"Over the years some, even ones newly baptized, have suddenly begun to partake. In a number of cases, after a while they acknowledged that this was an error. Some have recognized that they partook as an emotional response to perhaps physical or mental strain. But they came to see that they really were not called to heavenly life. There is every reason to believe that the number of anointed ones will continue to decline as advanced age and unforeseen occurrences end their earthly lives." Watchtower 1996 Aug 15 p.31
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It undoubtedly annoys the hell out of these Masterminds when the throngs of the great unwashed disappoint their clear instructions! -
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A STAKE in the HEART of Watchtower TRUTH (A Thought Experiment)
by TerryWalstrom inis this the same religion?.
a whim isn’t falsifiable.. .
answer: is it testable?
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TerryWalstrom
A Stake in the Heart of Watchtower Truth
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A Thought Experiment
Imagine a world in which:
There is one religion alone which is TRUE.
This one true religion is true because it teaches true teachings.
Now watch what happens. ..
Every so often, one of the true teachings is “adjusted” so that it :
Changes
Disappears
Reverses meaning
Now, over the course of 130 years, the one religion alone which is TRUE
Is now completely different in its original teachings, doctrines, definitions, explanations.
Questions:
Is this the SAME religion?
Is it no longer true?
Is it ‘true-er’?
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What has happened?Let me explain.
This phenomenon at the heart of this paradox is recognized as the phenomenon of vagueness.
(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vagueness/)
Vagueness is characterized by a resistance to inquiry
Example: We all know what the word “short” means, right? Well then, what is the maximum height of a “short” man?
How many hairs can we remove from your head before you are “bald”?
When does a fertilized egg develop into an actual “person”?
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What happens when we face a category, word, or belief which contains vagueness?It becomes resistant to any inquiry. This leads to disagreement, argument, and divisions.
So what?
So this:
Science requires definitions which can be tested and falsified. A scientific fact isn’t a fact if there is no way for it to be proven false!
Example: What if you were told that ALL swans are white? How is that falsifiable?
Answer: Find one instance of a non-white swan.
Easy enough? That’s how science works.
That’s the difference between science and religion. One is falsifiable which means carefully defined, testable and DISPROVABLE.
The other contains assertions which contain vagueness.
____________What are the red flags for vagueness?
Shifting standards for what is excluded or allowed
Instances which resist all attempts to settle whether it is true or false.
Existence of borderline cases
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The more vagueness, the greater the need for absoluteness to control / enforce the rule.
Authoritarian enforcement replaces trueness: “Because we say so.”
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Revealed truth is really the same thing as vagueness and whim disguised as truth.
Revealed truth is some person or group’s collective whim--their opinion at this moment subject to change the next moment.
A whim isn’t guided by facts or susceptible in inquiry or proof.
A whim isn’t falsifiable.
The fact is, there are tall pygmies and short Masai warriors because terms such as tall or short, beautiful and ugly, are subjective. (Each person can decide based on private tastes, feelings, and opinion.)
Religion is a special category of the use of language because it contains arbitrary borderlines, with no testable, falsifiable instances of fact.
Example: He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Question: Is what Jesus is saying actually true?
Answer: Is it testable? Is the term ‘faith’ and ‘small’ and ‘mountain’ literal or poetic?
Is the seemingly absolute statement “Nothing will be impossible for you” vague while sounding certain?
Has anybody demonstrated Jesus’ expression to be practicable?
HOW DO WE DETERMINE TRUTH-VALUE for poetic or religious belief? Is it the warm and fuzzy feeling we get? How reliable is emotion and magic-thinking?
None of us is comfortable unless we know where we are and what are the rules.
Nobody really wants traffic signs which read: Sorta Stop. Language is essential.
___A look at language__
fic·tiveˈfiktiv/
adjective
creating or created by imagination.
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Once we shift from literal to figurative usage, we gain fictive control over our entire vocabulary—not just vague words.
___In religion, the person or group in authority has fictive control.___
It is the whim of the one in authority which determines what is true and false, real and unreal, certain and uncertain--subject to change at any time.
Authority becomes necessary where vagueness and uncertainty exist.
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Tom Lehrer's 1971 children's song “Silent E”:
Who can turn a can into a cane?
Who can turn a pan into a pane?
It's not too hard to see,
It's Silent E.
Who can turn a cub into a cube?
Who can turn a tub into a tube?
It's elementary
For Silent E.
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The presence and absence of Silent E builds or wrecks reality! It isn’t magical but it has the power to transform one thing into another.Question: Why does the English language have Silent Letters?
English has about 45 sounds and only 26 letters to represent them.
English has been written for about 1,300 years.
More than half of the letters of our alphabet are silent in at least some words:
B, D, E, G, H, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, W, X, and Z
Answer: English is an accumulation of words from across many borders where words have different meanings. English, consequently, is vague.
What happens when there is vagueness?
It is the whim of authority which determines what is true and false, real and unreal, certain and uncertain--subject to change at any time.
There you have it!
The reason we have all those silly rules in English about Silent letters and changing Y to I and adding ing, etc. is because vagueness requires Authority to step in and lay down whimsical rules which are enforced or not, changing--always changing.
______________Begin at the Beginning
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We started off by looking at True Religion and ended up with Silent E, but did we learn anything useful?
That one ‘true religion’ kept changing until it was different--completely different.
That is our red flag: VAGUENESS alert!
That signals immediately there will be an AUTHORITY involved with changing opinions in absolute control.
“Truth” is actually Authority’s fictive imagination enforced upon others.
The rule of evidence is that it must be testable and falsifiable and self-consistent.
Evidence does not change if it is true.
A man arrested for a crime whose testimony keeps changing is seen to be lying.
Why?
Because the truth is consistent with itself and is not self-contradictory.
An accused criminal cannot expect a Court to accept “It is true because I SAY SO.”
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Note: The more specific a claim, the less likely it is to be true
“Hey Fred, how long ago was Adam created in the Garden of Eden?”
Fred: “Adam was created in 4026 BCE.”
Fred has a less likely chance of being correct by being so specific because an estimate is a guess.
An honest person is aware when they are making a guess. A dishonest or stupid person tends toward too much specificity.
Liars give you too many details! They are confident because their mind is a fictive arena where they are accustomed to inventing truth. Their ego tells them others will believe what they say because they are so wonderful.
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Fred Franz is the Fred in the above paragraph. He was the oracle for the Watchtower organization from 1913 to 1992. Actually, that is too specific to be factual. When Fred first joined Pastor Russell’s merry band of true believers the year before 1914’s prophetic END, he wasn’t a person of any particular importance. This was a gradual process for him to be seen as useful and ultimately charismatic as a channel for divine truth. By the time he became the President of the Watchtower organization, it was not the same organization as the one he joined in 1913.All of which takes us back to the top of the opening paragraph, doesn’t it?
The Watchtower organization has one consistency for 137 years: it has been the TRUE religion referred to as THE truth.
That is too specific.
It is testable only by some FIXED standard of testing!
Is there a fixed standard?
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What sets the Watchtower organization apart from most other Christian denominations is where it strays into areas of testable specifics which are falsifiable.Official obsessing with the chronology of End Times has caused the authority of statements made to be highly vulnerable to disproof!
Each statement of absolute authority has variously been attributed to either “the Lord,” “Jehovah,” or the Bible.
The source of the Watchtower’s authority, however, is another matter.
Let’s distinguish the distinctions.
When the Bible is cited for specific passages, those passages can be looked up and read.
When “meaning” is extracted from specific passages it is a different matter, however, because interpretation or exegesis, is fictive.
This is demonstrated easily.
A = A is an axiom (So evident as to be non-controversial) A thing is equal to itself.
Consequently, 1=1, 2=2, 3=3, and so on . . .
2 Peter 3:8 “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” This bald statement is one of an Authority in a fictive category untestable in any manner. It can only be taken as true in a fictive sense. This is referred to as Faith.
Faith is the acceptance of the truth of something without evidence.
If the words “DAY” and “YEAR” are vague as to meaning, they can only be useful if you completely surrender to a particular Authority on whom you depend for clarity. The responsibility for logic, rationality, and truth--at that point--has transferred from you to the Authority.
This is why religion in general, falls into a different magisterium from Science.
(magisterium= authority and power to teach).
Jehovah’s Witnesses make the fatal error of slipping outside the vagueness of religion’s magisterium. Chronology exposes them to disproof!
The years 1874, 1914, 1925, 1975 are actual years on the calendar which arrive and depart. Events occur or do not occur inside the definite boundary line of those years.
Vagueness vanishes. Empirical examination becomes operative.
The specific statements published by the Watchtower organization as prophetically true predictions on Authority of the Lord, Jehovah and the Bible become testable as true events or non-events.
What is the verdict?
The one True religion has been tested against reality and has failed the test!
Going back to our opening paragraph and we now find the explanation for the changes.
Having your absolute certainty refuted by reality causes changes.
The fictive pronouncements which explain the changes are spin, excuses, and lies.
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Examine Jehovah’s Witnesses Doctrine over the years and compare the new changes with the old ‘truths’ and what do you discover?
What are the red flags for vagueness?
Shifting standards for what is excluded or allowed
Instances which resist all attempts to settle whether it is true or false.
Existence of borderline cases
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The more vagueness, the greater the need for absoluteness to control / enforce the rule.
Authoritarian enforcement replaces trueness: “Because we say so.”
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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PcGrKyAleWpCwYkhL9A6QFAIU4KJZetvLMONYyn5pd8/edit?usp=sharing
