Island Man

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Posts by Island Man

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  29

  Are you interested in dropping your southern accent?

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  well you are in luck, oak ridge national laboratory in.

  tn offered a class for their 4000 employees from 90. different countries, get this,a class that teaches how to.

  minimice a southern accent.

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  Island Man

  "Deers nut'n wrong with dis ere ehksint"
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  69

  Said from the platform: "You are not surviving Armaggedon if you are spiritually weak"

  by Daniel1555 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  today i was at the meeting (i go there about once a month now).

  in the service meeting they had a part where they interviewed the secretary of the congregation.. so one question was: "why are the service reports so important?".

  our secretary explained that the reports are important, because the elders can see, who is spiritually weak.

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  Island Man

  "You are not surviving Armaggedon if you are spiritually weak!

  I would say to that brother after the meeting:

  "Excuse me, Bro. Scare-aggedon, you said that one can't survive armageddon if they're spiritually week - is that true?"

  Bro. Scare-aggedon: "Yes it is."

  Me: "That's just too bad . . . we would all miss you so much . . . no, wait, the scripture says the former things will not be called to mind . . ."
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  27

  The spelling fairy says: It's 'atheist', not 'athiest'

  by Apognophos in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  atheists are people who are "a-" (without) "theism" (a belief in god).

  they are not "athiests"; they are not "athier" than everyone else, nor is "athy" a word.. .

  this isn't aimed at anyone in particular, but it's a mistake i see every day on here and i thought it might be nice to have a topic we can bump just to periodically remind people of the proper spelling, especially since they are sometimes referring to their very own beliefs.

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  Island Man

  "Its a shame about our spelling. Our brain and it's failure to get things straight."

  Hey! You got your itses mixed up. The above should be "It's a shame...and its failure..."
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  27

  The spelling fairy says: It's 'atheist', not 'athiest'

  by Apognophos in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  atheists are people who are "a-" (without) "theism" (a belief in god).

  they are not "athiests"; they are not "athier" than everyone else, nor is "athy" a word.. .

  this isn't aimed at anyone in particular, but it's a mistake i see every day on here and i thought it might be nice to have a topic we can bump just to periodically remind people of the proper spelling, especially since they are sometimes referring to their very own beliefs.

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  Island Man

  In this technological age of txting, accurate spelling is highly overrated and on its way to becoming obsolete. Who reads the letters in words anyway? I only see word shapes. Just make sure your word has the right shape. That's all that counts. Athiest and Atheist have almost identical shapes. Unless you're righting () writing a resume or some other important formal document, don't sweat it.
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  13

  Wow! Are You Stumped By Anything This 'Still-in' X-JW says?

  by Island Man in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbzn9aric28.

  i think he needs help.

  i feel pity for him..

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  Island Man

  She told me that she "wasn't familiar with the account" and "if she had read it she couldn't recall what it was about, except for homosexuals"

  IKR? Isn't it funny how all the bible-believers remember the detail about homosexuality but completely forget the detail about Lot offering his daughters to be raped?
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  48

  Surreal experience last night.

  by objectivetruth in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  recently a jw friend that my wife & i knew 3 years ago added me on facebook, after i accepted the request she invited me to a dinner that her and her husband are holding next month.. i imagined that she was unaware of our apostasy, so i declined the invitation on the basis of not wanting to ruin her dinner after the rest of her guests fled at our presence.. i'm never sure how old friends will react when i tell them that i'm no longer a jw.. usually their response is "..... permanent-silence......".

  her response went something like this, " we are all out!

  everyone that is coming is out we all look forward to seeing you guys so much" it turns out that there will be 6 people at the dinner all friends of ours from a congregation that we attended a few years back.. they have all left the organization recently.. pretty crazy experience..

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  Island Man

  I'll tell you all how it goes.

  You had better do that or we'll all have to shun you.
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  14

  If I was God..

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  if i was god how would i have created man so he wouldn't sin..

  diarrhea!!.

  i may lose some of you here, but stick with me.. ok, god gave us a conscious but sometimes our conscious can.

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  Island Man

  Also if I were God all of Adam's offspring would get a second chance on the basis of Jesus ransom - whether they profess faith in Jesus or not. Why? Because all are dying because of Adam's sin - whether they believe in Adam or not. For Jesus to truly be the second Adam and undo the effects of Adam's sin, his sacrifice should be applied to all automatically just as the curse of Adam's sin was applied to all automatically.

  I would not hold any imperfect human accountable for the sins he commits in his imperfection by destroying him forever. Why? Because all imperfect humans lack perfect free will. They are all under the mitigating circumstances of imperfection. All the bad that wicked humans do, I can and will undo so all the harm caused by wicked people will be erased.

  Does this mean there will be no deterrent to wickedness? No. I would implement an eye for an eye law, naturally. What that means is that whenever someone deliberately kills or harms someone, the same pain or death brought on by that wrongdoer is naturally visited back on him without any human judges or jury being required. Thus there is no abuse of justice by imperfect humans. No humans will be required to execute murderers. No innocent persons would be wrongly condemned. The guilty would be made to suffer the very wrongs they inflict on others, soon after inflicting them. The world would be a much better place. Everyone would have empathy because if you failed to imagine the pain you'll do your fellow man before you harm him, you wouldn't fail to actually experience it after you harm him.

  There would be no need for Armageddon and there would have been no need for a flood because the eye for an eye law of quick divine justice would all but stamp out violence. The eye for an eye law will keep violence in check the same way gravity keeps everything on the ground. Only insane and suicidal people would think of deliberately harming others.

  There would be no question of my right to rule mankind - no issue of universal sovereignty to be resolved. Such a question is borne of ignorance. I would be so transparent in my dealings and my reasons for what I require that all would know that my rule is just and that I have their best interests at heart. There would be no reason for suspicion of my motives. Of course this means that Satan could not have deceived Eve into thinking that I am selfish and withholding good from her, which in turn means that the whole issue of sin never would have been introduced into the world to begin with.

  I wouldn't just give humans laws. I would also explain to them the reason behind the laws. I would explain to them exactly how following a law like "do not make clothing out of two different types of fabric" benefits them in a practical way and the harm that disobeying will cause. I will not require blind obedience based on my power.

  I would not be an egocentric maniac who requires others to worship me. I would not require others fearing me. I would welcome others questioning my reasons for doing things a certain way and would provide explanations for it. I would be 110% transparent and approachable. People would love me because they want to. People would obey me because they know what I ask is true and is in their best interests - not because they're just trusting in me or fearing me.

  This is how my world would work If I were God.
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  14

  If I was God..

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  if i was god how would i have created man so he wouldn't sin..

  diarrhea!!.

  i may lose some of you here, but stick with me.. ok, god gave us a conscious but sometimes our conscious can.

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  Island Man

  The free will excuse used to explain how perfect Adam sinned, is foolish. Think about it, why does anyone choose to do wrong? I can think of 3 main reasons (though there may be more):

  ~ Ignorance.

  ~ Lack of wisdom.

  ~ Lack of self-control.

  If Adam and Eve were made perfect, they would not have had a lack of self control. What about wisdom? Being perfect, Adam and Eve should have been perfectly wise. However the extent of their wisdom would have been limited by the extent of their knowledge or ignorance. Being new to the world we can assume that they were ignorant. It is this ignorance that caused Eve to be easily deceived by the serpent because deception works by exploiting a person's ignorance.

  But who was responsible for the ignorance of Adam and Eve? Doesn't every parent have a responsibility to educate their children in the best way possible to safeguard them against being misled by bad peers? Did God do all he can to educate Adam and Eve sufficiently so that they would be personally convinced of the wisdom of doing what is right and not disobeying?

  The bottom line is that people choose to do bad because they think they will benefit from it in some way or because they lack self control to resist doing bad even when they know it will ultimately harm them. But if God made them perfect they would have perfect self control; and if he gave them sufficient knowledge they would not think see the doing of bad as being a desirable choice. Therefore God bears responsibility for the sin of Adam and Eve.

  Free will is not absolutely free. It is governed by the environment. God created an environment that led Adam and Eve to the choice of sin.

  Do normal, healthy people choose to jump of cliffs to their deaths? No, because they know about the effects of gravity and so that choice is not desirable. God could have implanted Adam and Eve with all the knowledge required to prevent them from being deceived by the serpent. Knowing all the facts they would have chosen of their own free will, not to eat of the fruit.

  So the idea that one can't have free will without the possibilty of sin, is in my view, a fallacious one. God has free will. Does he sin? No. Why not? Because he is not ignorant. He has enough knowledge to be personally convinced of the value of righteousness and this makes the choice of sin an undesirable one. Thus one can have free will without the possibility of sin.

  So if I was God, I would have implanted in Adam and Eve all the knowledge necessary for them to fully understand the harm that doing wrong ultimately causes.
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  16

  Transfusing blood is NOT eating blood

  by Rufus T. Firefly in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  watchtowers official view:.

  you also ask why one can be disfellowshipped for taking a blood transfusion but not for taking blood fractions.

  while both may affect the life of an individual, the expression "life-sustaining" in connection with blood transfusions is synonymous with the idea of taking in food for nourishment.

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  Island Man

  Actually it is a fallacy that the cells of a transplant are replaced. I asked the surgeon in charge here about that. He asked why then did his patients have to take rejection medication the rest of their lives.

  Blondie is right. A transplanted body part retains the biologically identity of the donor throughout its existence. Cells in the transplanted body part die and are replaced by new cells. But those new cells come about by cell division within the transplanted body part. So the new cells would continue to have the same DNA and other unique biological markers of the donor. This is why anti-rejection medication has to be taken by transplant recipients throughout their lives.
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  13

  Wow! Are You Stumped By Anything This 'Still-in' X-JW says?

  by Island Man in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbzn9aric28.

  i think he needs help.

  i feel pity for him..

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  Island Man

  Great points, Pete Zahut!