In my time here I've seen a quite a few well-thought-out threads get little or no response, while fluffernutters get 3 or 4 pages worth of replies.
rocketman
JoinedPosts by rocketman
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Chance, Natural Selection and God
by JanH inchance, natural selection and god .
the first replicator had to originate by chance, since there was and is no natural selection present to work on a non-replicator.
dna is much too complicated to originate by chance.
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103
The "Tree" of WHAT?
by Farkel inthe account of adam and eve as a literal event is so full of logical contradictions that it is mind-boggling.
it only takes a minimum of scrutiny to discover that fact, too.. there is something god did not want adam and eve to know.
he didnt want them to know the difference between good and evil.
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rocketman
Kind of neat to see some of these Oldies But Goodies resurfacing.
Another note on the Adam and Eve story - for me, it's always felt too "neat". For example, it would have been a much more interesting and challenging story had sin not come into the human family until after Adam and Eve had some kids. Then you'd have some perfect and some imperfect humans around.
Also, how long did God expect humans to avoid eating of this tree? Even if Adam and Eve would have avoided it, could all their children, then their children, etc, etc, avoid eating of it? You'd think that if it were around for any length of time, somebody would eventually take a bite. And with Satan in circulation at the time, there's no way I can imagine A&E's descendants not taking a bite.
So God's "Purpose" to have a race of perfect humans filling the earth seems to me to have been doomed from the start, especially as long a Satan was around and tree-tests were in vogue.
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The Best of ... JanH - Blasts from the past
by Lady Lee inhttp://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/4556/1.ashx.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/4820/1.ashx.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/5460/1.ashx.
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rocketman
You can still find Jan's "terse and cutting logic" at his weblog Secular Blasphemy at http://blogs.salon.com/0001561
I posted the link both ways because the usual way seldom works here.
Check out his My Articles section too, where you'll find some of the stuff he's posted here in article form. http://blogs.salon.com/0001961/stories
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Bethel Family Manual
by Wild_Thing inhttp://www.geocities.com/paulblizard/dwelling.html
this link was posted by neon madman in another thread (http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/76073/1.ashx), but i think it is worthy of its own thread.
i read part of the manual and it really made me laugh!
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rocketman
The women should always keep their proper place and recognize Jehovah's arrangement as to their position in His organization.
Written in true Taliban style.
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Two Elders Stopped By
by rocketman intwo elders approached me yesterday afternoon while i was doing a bit of work on my car.
unsuccessful at reaching me in my home (mostly because i don't answer the doorbell when they come) they saw me outside and decided to stop to talk.
the conversation did not go especially well.
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rocketman
Hey XW, interesting thought! Too bad I don't really wanna attend even once per week. If I did, I'd ask them for a written statement. They would no doubt balk.
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Two Elders Stopped By
by rocketman intwo elders approached me yesterday afternoon while i was doing a bit of work on my car.
unsuccessful at reaching me in my home (mostly because i don't answer the doorbell when they come) they saw me outside and decided to stop to talk.
the conversation did not go especially well.
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rocketman
Where is the love of Christ in their statements?
Good question Blondie. There was no love evident in the discussion, but rather a 'we are right and everyone else is wrong' attitude. No humilty at all. That type of pride as we all know comes from the fact that they think they're so right with God.
They just had an article in Newsweek about who mostly have AIDS, women who get it from their unfaithful husbands and then the women pass it on to their children unknowingly.
Exactly. I saw the article to which you are referring and it's a big problem, especially in India and Africa because of unfaithful men. The elder's comment showed no compassion or depth of feeling at all. It also showed no intelligence.
BTW I only really attend the sunday meetings and nobody really seems to care. As long as you never put your self on the school they really forget about you.
XQ, I'm glad you weren't hounded about not attending other meetings. But in all honesty, in 30 years as a jw I had never known them to be so accomodating. True, if you play your cards right you may be able to get away with infrequent attendance, but the prevailing thinking among jws and the wts is that it's not appropriate and that you are spirtually "weak". You are also talked about among the other jws in the Hall and it's not positive, believe me.
When I was an elder, I gave a local needs talk about meeting attendance. I mentioned in the talk that at times, it might be understandable to miss meetings. Afterward, another elder told me that I should not have said that - that we instead must not give the bros and sis's the impression that it's okay to miss meetings. That's also the thought prjected from Circuit Overseers and during assembly parts - that jws must be at all meetings. I well recall the mantra used when they read Hebrews 10:24,25: "Attending meetings is not an option, it is a command".
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Two Elders Stopped By
by rocketman intwo elders approached me yesterday afternoon while i was doing a bit of work on my car.
unsuccessful at reaching me in my home (mostly because i don't answer the doorbell when they come) they saw me outside and decided to stop to talk.
the conversation did not go especially well.
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rocketman
Just one question...during their lame lectures, did they offer to roll up their shirts and turn a wrench?
Lawrence, it was actually kind of fun watching them sweat, because while I was in shorts and a light shirt, they were in suits. Despite the heat and humidity, they would not remove their suit jackets. I wonder if there was some memo to elders along those lines. It was prehaps the most humid day this summer, and they just broiled. In fact, I lengthened the discussion just to see them sweat more. Bad of me, huh?
* Asked you what you did do with your time as though you're doing nothing worthwhile now you are not JW (I got this and it is extremely annoying)
Sirona, I think that's what initially got me a bit riled up. I was calm until that remark.
It's all or nothing. They lied to you.
JH, precisely. There's no way they are going to let anyone get away with once-per-week.
My conclusions: why am I subjecting myself to this kind of treatment? I don't have to.
Yes Codeblue, they undermine their supposed desire to "help" with their stubborness. They refuse to think outside the sphere of what they are taught. Thus, their visits almost always end up counter-productive.
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Two Elders Stopped By
by rocketman intwo elders approached me yesterday afternoon while i was doing a bit of work on my car.
unsuccessful at reaching me in my home (mostly because i don't answer the doorbell when they come) they saw me outside and decided to stop to talk.
the conversation did not go especially well.
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rocketman
Two elders approached me yesterday afternoon while I was doing a bit of work on my car. Unsuccessful at reaching me in my home (mostly because I don't answer the doorbell when they come) they saw me outside and decided to stop to talk.
The conversation did not go especially well. First, I told them that my reason for inactivity in the religion was because I felt no closeness to God, and that reading the Bible did not make me feel any closer to him (if anything, it tends to put more distance between me and the Big Guy). The response of one elder was typical for JWs - "well, you need to develop a relationship with Jehovah, to pray to Him". That, after I just finished saying that it was an effort I had made repeatedly to no avail. I guess their answer was to simply try again.
I wished the conversation had ended there, but after some continued discussion, I got a bit worked up and let loose on some real concerns - their perfomance based way of worship, where it's the outward show that only seems to matter. I mentioned their heavy load of 5 meetings per week plus other activities. One of them assured me that their congregation was different, and that if I wanted, I could attend just once per week. I knew such an assurance to be inaccurate, since the jws there would soon begin to question why one would attend only once per week. In my three decades as a JW, I had never known the religion to be tolerant of missing their meetings.
One of the two elders was particularly alienating. First, he asked me "what do you do in your spare time?" seeming to imply that, since I told him that JWs have too many meetings and must canvass the neighborhood on weekends, a load too heavy for me to carry, that somehow I had become some lazy-ass bum who sits around. The way he asked the question also gave me that impression. I assured him that I was quite busy.
This same elder later came out with an odd diatribe against Muslims, stating that they "kill those who leave their religion". I can't even recall what prompted that statement, but I expressed great dissatisfaction at it, especially since my sister-in-law is a practicing Muslim and, as I was quick and adamant in pointing out, as fine a person as I'd want to meet. I added that she is extremely helpful in caring for my aged mother. Also, I responded that JWs kill those who leave their faith to join another, in a spiritual way by their practice of disfellowshipping and shunning, and that, in a past issue of the Watchtower, they even spoke of "Caesar's Law" as preventing them from doing even more to such persons. I told him that just a small precentage of Islamic radicals are responsible for terrorism (they weaved that theme in) and I strongly implied that the JW practice of shunning was of a similar mindset.
Then, the other elder said, after I objected that God was planning the death of 6 billion people at Armageddon, that there are millions who have AIDS and are dying because of their own behavior. I found that comment to be extremely ignorant.
I also voiced my concern over many of the incorrect dates for Armageddon that the religion has put forth over the years. Their counter was the usual one jws are taught to use - that the disciples of Jesus also were speculating as to when the end would come. I mentioned that Jesus quickly resolved that issue (Acts 1:6-8) and that the disciples did not make public announcement of their speculations.
Looking back on the conversation, it confimed my reason for avoiding contact with Jehovah's Witnesses elders. They become quickly adversarial even though they are supposedly there "to help". Their thinking is that they are right and you are wrong, and nothing will change that until you see things their way. Their cocksureness in their belief that only they are approved by God is amazing. They remind me of the Pharisees, who were so sure that they were the few who were pleasing God.
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rocketman
Or this??
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Back from a JW wedding, observations about JW's
by Sirius Dogma inheya all,.
i just got back from my younger sisters wedding and yes both she and her new hubbie are jw's.
so i had to spend time with pretty much all jw's.
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rocketman
Very Interesting observations -
As heavy as their indoctrination is and as wacky as their belief system is and as nonsenical their interpretation is and obviously senile as their leaders, they seem to get along just fine and act like normal humans, as long as you don't invoke what I call the 'witness reflex'.
They seem so heavily indoctrinated and pushed by guilt and the need to preach, when the opportunity presents itself, they have no choice but to spout the WTS mantras that have been pounded into their brains. As long the witness reflex remains unprovoked, they were completley fun to be around.