Posts by Island Man

51

I'm my favorite type of JW - Double Life

by thedepressedsoul in

the borg's tactics on most jw work.

they put fear into their mind, they guilt trip them and basically make them scared to do anything when they are away from the kingdom hall.

it allows them to control every aspect of their life.

Island Man

"I'm not sure why but for some reason it makes me feel better than if I just straight up left. There is something about the feeling of hearing their crap and rules beyond the bible and then being able to go home and do as I please."

I think this is the same kind of thrill that some get from stealing and getting away with it. It's the thrill of secretly cheating and getting away with it. Some people steal, cheat on their taxes and commit other criminal cheating acts, not for the material advantage it gives them, but just for the thrill of being able to cheat and get away with it.

If it works for you as an awake JW in helping you keep your sanity, then by all means embrace it. It's one of several coping mechanisms that awake JWs who are trapped can use.

But you're not a true hypocrite. You're just deceitful - justifiably deceitful. A true hypocrite is never honest with himself in acknowledging that he's being a hypocrite. A true hypocrite is blinded by pride and/or self-righteousness from seeing his double-standards.

45

How to Choose a Wife!

by snugglebunny in

jw
friends

back in the day, when my family moved to a new congregation, i fell head over heels with a young sister who was an elder's daughter.

it wasn't long before we were talking about marriage and i was contemplating buying her an engagement ring.

my parents were not happy at all.

Island Man

Village Idiot erroneously said, "I've heard that men outnumber women 2 to 1 making it difficult for a woman to get a husband."
Correction, it's actually the reverse.

And here I thought you were being sarcastic.

94

Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option

by cofty in

it's to their credit that many modern christians prefer the jesus of the gospels to the god of the old testament.. ot god is an embarrassment.

i am not going to list his multitude of moral crimes here but my personal favourite is his brilliant idea that a girl who is raped must marry her rapist.

it's not his biggest crime but it demonstrates a disregard for human feelings that is beyond the comprehension of every moral person.

Island Man

Is the OT God kind and loving but yet commands and condones injustices like slavery, genocide and misogyny?

Then he is not perfectly just.

Is he perfectly just but his sense of morality is so superior to our own that we cannot appreciate that slavery, genocide and misogyny are perfectly moral and just under certain circumstances?

Then we are not made in his image.

Are we made in his image but cannot appreciate the morality of the slavery, genocide and misogyny of the bible because certain details that would help us to see the justness of such occurrences have been omitted from the bible accounts?

Then the OT God is not a wise author as he does a great disservice to his own reputation by omitting such critical details.

Is the OT God a wise author but deliberately omitted critical details needed to get the true appreciation of the morality of seemingly immoral acts, as a means of testing the motives of readers, sifting out which readers he wants as worshippers and which ones he wants to reject him?

Then the OT God clearly wants as his worshippers, selfish, cowardly, might-is-right opportunists who value their eternal salvation over truth and justice and who would turn a blind eye to his injustices for the sake of their own personal benefit.

47

Regional Convention 2015 - Program

by Designer Stubble in

friday morning9:20 music9:30 song no.

5 and prayer9:40 chairmans address: imitate jesuswhy and how?10:20 symposium: lessons from jesus word pictures observe the birds and the lilies have salt in yourselves build your house on the rock11:10 song no.

120 and announcements11:20 follow jesus patternkeep on asking, seeking, and knocking!11:45 keynote address: concealed in him are all the treasures of wisdom12:15 song no.

Island Man

This is not the first time that Watchtower has had a convention featuring Jesus. Have you all forgotten about the "Follow The Christ" district convention several years ago?

This convention is just part of their periodic, token focus on Jesus that they do just so they can say that they're christian. Like another poster alluded to, this convention will just use Jesus to preach Watchtower propaganda. You can bet that Jesus would often be objectified as "the ransom sacrifice" and depersonalized as "spirit creature". Watchtower has no true love for Jesus and this shows in their writing.

To Watchtower, Jesus is just an inconvenient obligation that they have to begrudgingly attend to periodically so they can claim to be christian and justify their claim of having Jehovah's favor. There is no true heartfelt love and honor for Jesus among JWs, as is evidenced by the conspicuous absence of his name on their tongues outside of the formal doctrinal teaching and learning sessions where he is mentioned from the stage.

Just look at all the JW jargon that JWs typically use in conversation: "Jehovah's Organization", "wait on Jehovah", "servants of Jehovah", "serving Jehovah", "Jehovah's people", "Jehovah's direction", "Jehovah's spirit", "Jehovah's blessing" ... you get the idea -- it's all about Jehovah. Can you think of any often used JW jargon that has "Jesus" in it? That says volumes! Even when JWs do try to focus on Jesus they go out of their way to give him measured focus as if trying to be careful not to give him too much focus for fear of being guilty of worshiping him. Contrast JWs lack of use of the name Jesus and lack of verbal praise of Jesus with the NT writers' focus on Jesus and their unabashed praising of him in writing.

19

Changing images

by maisha in

awhile ago i was mentioning how many of the images in watchtowers last year were containing addins with skulls, demon like faces and blatant illuminiti imagery.

i recently went into the download sites again to grab some of those images and blow me away they have all been changed, cropped, edited, i can say that because i have some those original digital images from the magazines of last year, however the images currently on download sites are not the same some completely removed.

one such image of jesus coming on an ass has been cropped, removing the name of the hidden name of the artist,,,, and altering a huge demon like face on the window.... has anyone else noticed this?..

Island Man

Sometimes I wonder who is more delusional - brainwashed JWs, or conspiracy-minded ex-JWs seeing subliminal images in Watchtower art.

56

Question for atheists and nonbelievers

by pressman in

i profess to teach the truth to you all and get you to all to think and believe.

believing in christ through his words and not through evil religious cults, like hoj and jw, can and will save you.

do you all realize that every time you are victorious and receive something of value through your hard work and sweat, it was our holy god who blessed you.

Island Man

The OP doesn't seem genuine. It appears to be satire. It is just one unsubstantiated assertion after another with no attempt at logically convincing arguments whatsoever. It's rather pitiful if it's genuine, but genius if it's satire.

47

Apostasy Trial on YouTube - Undercover spycam part 1

by RayPublisher in

for only the second time in internet history, a video recording of a secret jehovah's witness apostasy trial has been published online on the jwstruggle youtube channel.

follow isaac's story here:.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se9rh6qux0o&feature=youtu.be.

Island Man

This is not only the second time.
Why are you overstating the facts, Ray. Using sensationalist, yellow-journalism tactics doesn't help our cause.

Actually, I believe Ray Publisher is correct. Yes, there are multiple audio recordings of JCs online. But as far as I am aware this is only the second JC that is a video recording (Ray Publisher's JC being the first). Prove me wrong by posting a link to another video recording of a JC other than Ray Publisher's -- and I really don't mind you proving me wrong because I would love to see another video recorded JC!

233

What is BELIEF ?

by EdenOne in

stemming from the 'absentheism' thread, an old question came to my mind.

what exactly is "belief"?.

is it the same to ask: "do you believe in god?

Island Man

I would define belief as the involuntary judgment of an idea as being true based on certain thoughts or evidence that seem to point to it being true but without constituting absolute proof of its truthfulness. For when there is absolute proof it is no longer a belief but knowledge.

Belief is basically like gambling. Take professional horse-racing gamblers as an example. They judge the odds of a particular horse winning based its track record, the jockey, it's age, past injuries, etc. None of these factors (when in the favor of the horse) allow them to have absolute knowledge that the horse will win. But it does serve to sway the mind to think that the horse most probably will win and so they bet on the horse. Well it's similar with belief. How easily the mind of the believer is convinced differs from person to person depending on their critical thinking skills and gullibility.

Doubt or lack of certainty is an essential aspect of belief. The difference between belief and knowledge is lack of certainty. If there is no uncertainty then it is not belief but knowledge. If the lack of uncertainty is not due to sound absolute proof then its not knowledge but delusion.

Anyone who says they know God exists is someone I see as being either dishonest or delusional. Even the bible does not require worshipers to know that God exists. Hebrews 11:6 says that a person has to believe that God exists to be favorably heard by him.

11

February 15, 2015 Watchtower Tells Lies About Bible Jesus!

by Island Man in

page 6, paragraph 7 dishonestly makes the following 2 claims about jesus:.

"he never called undue attention to himself.

instead, he directed all glory to his father.".

Island Man

"...he warned JW's to reject "false stories ... apostate-driven lies and dishonesties"."

So the "apostate-driven" qualifier gives JWs an excuse to not reject all lies, just those put forth by apostates. Meanwhile an elder can read this qualifier as a license to promulgate some lies - those published by Watchtower - to the congregation. lol.

11

February 15, 2015 Watchtower Tells Lies About Bible Jesus!

by Island Man in

page 6, paragraph 7 dishonestly makes the following 2 claims about jesus:.

"he never called undue attention to himself.

instead, he directed all glory to his father.".

Island Man

jwleaks: In reading any sentence, statement, or phrase be careful not to miss the grammatical modifier.
The use of the grammatical modifier "undue" changes the statement and structure of the sentence. The word "undue" can mean unwarranted or inappropriate or excessive or disproportionate.

"He never called undue attention to himself."

Good catch, jwleaks. But I'm willing to bet that if a JW publisher, in his speech, started giving Jesus the attention that the NT gives him, then the elders or other JWs would start telling him that he is drawing undue attention to Jesus. This shows that even from the JW perspective, the Jesus of the bible does, indeed, draw undue attention to himself.