Posts by Island Man

46

My cat died suddenly!

by Fisherman in

jw
friends

i did not realize that they were symptoms that something was wrong with my cat -but i did notice that my cat was breathing a little differently for a period of about a few days.

i also noticed prior and after to that, that on occasion, my cat would cry at the litter box, but that was a very seldom event.. anyway, about a week ago i noticed the symptom that my very loved cat was breathing heavy.

so i called a taxi and i was going to rush him to emergency room for cats.

Island Man

Cats are such lovely creatures. They are friendly but stately unlike dogs that are friendly and dopey.

19

"You wouldn't want to bring reproach on Jehovah's name, would you?"

by Esse quam videri in

what would be your reply?.

my reply: jehovah is big enough to take care of himself.. yours?.

Island Man

It depends on the context. If the statement is being made as justification to not report allegations of pedophilia to the police then my response would be:

Which would bring greater reproach on the name of Jehovah: To report an allegation of pedophilia to the police and have the public thinking that one of Jehovah's Witnesses is a pedophile? Or to keep it secret and then years later the public finds out, not only that one of Jehovah's Witnesses is a pedophile, but also that congregation elders covered up the issue so that the pedophile was able to attack more victims?

14

Evolution is a Fact #19 - Goosebumps

by cofty in

at the base of every hair follicle in your body are tiny muscles known arectores pilorum..

when you are cold, or frightened, or otherwise aroused the muscles contract and make your skin look like a plucked turkey.

this reaction, known as the pilomotor reflex, is caused by a surge of adrenaline.

Island Man

When I was in primary school there was this girl that sometimes helped me out with my work in class. It gave me goose bumps and a pleasant feeling at the back of my neck moving up to my head.

It wasn't sexual, mind you. It was just . . . I don't know how to put it . . . weird in a positive way like a non-sexual arousal that comes from being helped or pampered by a friendly, nurturing human being.

It might be a vestigial feeling that was present in social animal ancestors that groom each other and pick out insects from each other's coats. The pleasant feeling and the goose bumps that sometimes come when a human is pampering you probably served to raise hairs so that the pampering grooming partner can more easily see ticks and other insects and pick them out.

9

How would you feel if this happened to you?

by Island Man in

imagine you're a mentally out, physically in, awake jw who still attend meetings and occasionally do a little door-to-door perfunctory service just to please the still-in spouse and keep the elders off your back while you slowly and subtly try to free your spouse of the cult.

you're also a vociferous online critic of the jw organization and its harmful policies and false teachings.

one day while out doing your occasional perfunctory door-to-door service with a still-in jw, you knock on a door and the householder comes out and says:.

Island Man

Imagine you're a mentally out, physically in, awake JW who still attend meetings and occasionally do a little door-to-door perfunctory service just to please the still-in spouse and keep the elders off your back while you slowly and subtly try to free your spouse of the cult.

You're also a vociferous online critic of the JW organization and its harmful policies and false teachings.

One day while out doing your occasional perfunctory door-to-door service with a still-in JW, you knock on a door and the householder comes out and says:

"Are you Jehovah's Witnesses? I know all about your organization and how it has covered up cases of pedophilia, refusing to report confessed pedophiles to the police! And what's this crap about Jerusalem falling in 607 BCE? There's mountains of evidence showing that it actually happened around 586/587 BCE. I know all about your twisted cult thanks to the internet. And don't even dare give me this propaganda nonsense about apostate lies. That's just a grooming tactic to get people to disbelieve the ugly truth about your cult in preference for your self-serving lies! I know all about your cult thanks to many online ex-JWs like Mike and Kim, John Cedars and..."

. . . and then he mentions your online name! He actually mentions your name! You are out in service knocking on the door of someone you educated about the evils of Watchtower . . . and he's vocally refusing to hear the message you have come to "preach" to him and he goes back inside and shuts the door in your faces, saying he wants nothing to do with your corrupt religious organization.

How would you feel? Would any JW have anything even remotely approaching the feeling you'll have?

Or how about this:

You read an experience online of an ex-JW who was disfellowshipped/disassociated for accepting a blood transfusion to save his life. In the experience he relates how a certain comment or blog posting by a Watchtower critic exposing the folly of Watchtower's blood policy, made a lasting impression on him and gave him the courage to defy Watchtower and accept a blood transfusing, likely saving his life. He relays the points in the posting and you find it sounds . . . it sounds eerily familiar . . . and then it hits you: Wait a minute! That's my posting - I posted that! My speaking out against Watchtower's fanatical anti-blood doctrine likely saved this man's life!

Has anything like these happened to you or any awake (ex-)JW that you know?

105

Does anyone think Jehovah is protecting the org. despite all the talk about THE ARC ?

by tor1500 in

jw
friends

i've been thinking this for a while.

even before the arc scandal.

it seems no matter what, the org.

Island Man

This is it Island Man.
(Luke 12:11, 12) 11 When they bring you in before public assemblies, government officials, and authorities, do not become anxious about how or what you will speak in defense or what you will say, 12 for the holy spirit will teach you in that very hour the things you should say.”

Thank you redpilltwice. Add to the above scripture Luke 21:14,15 which says:

Therefore, resolve in your hearts not to rehearse beforehand how to make your defense, 15 for I will give you words and wisdom that all your opposers together will not be able to resist or dispute.

What Geoffrey Jackson and other JWs said in their testimony at the ARC was successfully disputed and resisted by the commissioners. The JWs were on the defensive, looking like dishonest scoundrels caught lying and exposed for reprehensible policies. They did not exhibit any irresistible or indisputable words of wisdom.

70

When is a theory 'just a theory'?

by HB in

the titles of cofty's excellent recent posts are all preceeded by the words "evolution is a fact...".

richard dawkins is encouraging people to use the term 'fact' in relation to evolution, especially when debating with creationists as the word 'theory' is confusing to many, and the latter often takes the discussion off on an often unproductive tangent.

the following may be of interest, it's from the bbc website - part of a regular series of articles called 'the vocabularist', discussing the origin and meaning of words: .

Island Man

I think people are confusing the theory of evolution with evolution. Evolution is a scientifically and historically proven fact. The theory of evolution is the scientific model or explanation that describes how evolution occurred.

105

Does anyone think Jehovah is protecting the org. despite all the talk about THE ARC ?

by tor1500 in

jw
friends

i've been thinking this for a while.

even before the arc scandal.

it seems no matter what, the org.

Island Man

There is a passage in the NT (one of the gospels I believe) where Jesus said that his followers would be brought to courts to face charges and that they should not prepare their defense in advance because holy spirit will enable them, in that hour, to speak with irrefutable wisdom that their prosecutors could not counter.

Compare this with the performance of Geoffrey Jackson and all the other JWs who testified at the ARC. Did they speak with any impressive, irrefutable wisdom that suggests divine backing? So the poor performance of the JWs - and especially Geoffrey Jackson - at the ARC is actually powerful scriptural proof that the JW organization does not have Jehovah's backing.

Be sure to find and use that scripture by Jesus when mentioning the ARC to JWs.

39

Evolution is a Fact #12 - Lenski's E. coli Experiment

by cofty in

evolution works by the non-random selection of random mutation.

natural selection accumulates favourable random chance events.. the experiment that was began on 24th february 1988 on e coli bacteria by dr richard e. lenski and his team is surely one of the clearest demonstrations of the power of this process.. e.coli is one of the commonest bacterium on earth, there is around 100 billion, billion of them in the world at any given time and around 1 billion of them in your gut right now.

most of the time they cause no problem, until a new strain wreaks havoc on its host's digestive system.. if we assume the probability of a particular gene mutating to be 1 in a billion, the size of the population is so high that just about every gene in the e.coli genome will have mutated somewhere in the world every day.

Island Man

You are like the 20 year old who goes to the junior high football game in the park and pretends he is the coach. You know no one here has the education background to prove or disprove anything you post because no one here is an evolutionary biologist.
If you were really sincere in your interest you won’t be here. You would be playing with the big boys. Either in a university level classroom or at the very least a message board where the primary interest was evolutionary biologist.

That's a compliment to you cofty. You're doing such a good job explaining the scientific evidence in favor of evolution that Clambake thinks you belong with the "big boys" in university. He also thinks you're pretending to be a scientist. Your work has to be real good for him to be making those kinds of comparisons.

You my friend are completely full of shit.

Aren't we all full of shit, Clambake? If you're not also full of shit it's because you haven't eaten in days!

... and feeling morally superior to the rest of mankind.

There, there, Clambake! I know you're jealous of cofty's knowledge of the subject and you feel inferior as a result. But that's no reason to project out your insecurities by accusing him of feeling morally superior. You're the one feeling inferior. Don't project your feelings by claiming he feels superior.

24

OMG....the watchtardedness of the CLAM. ( Cult Lies and Manipulation )

by DATA-DOG in

as we all know, the clam reeks of propaganda and lunacy (sniff...sniff...mmmmm...smells like the gb's meeting room.

what did dubs glean from the clam that washed ashore this week?

according to the book of ezra, jeehoober is so fearful of competition, that he banishes wives and even small children.

Island Man

Why did they have to send away the wives and children? Why did they have to split up families? Couldn't they have instructed the men to stop the practice of taking any more foreign wives and and make Jewish proselytes out of the existing foreign wives and children? Why wasn't that option put on the table? Weren't Rahab, Ruth and others given the option of becoming Jewish proselytes? It makes no sense.

33

whats so bad about believing people go to heaven?

by sowhatnow in

it occurred to me today, that so often, my mother will make the comment that .

"those false religions teach that everyone is going to heaven when they die, oh sure, .

all you have to do is be a good person, and off you go to heaven.

Island Man

JWs literally discourage people from having the heavenly hope. That puts them on very dangerous grounds with God (from a believer perspective). It's like they're pressuring people to refuse a scriptural hope. Also the murmuring and judging that goes on at the memorial when someone partakes for the first time . . . think about it. Imagine that God anoints someone and people who claim to be christian are scoffing at it and looking upon it with suspicion! This is a very serious issue from a christian standpoint!

Even worse, christian elders will interrogate the person to try to dissuade him from being anointed or question the legitimacy of his anointing as if to imply that God's choice of who he anoints is subject to the approval and scrutiny of men! The JWs view of the heavenly hope and their treatment of those professing to be anointed is very, very blasphemous, presumptuous and wicked from a christian standpoint. I think it is one of the most glaringly atrocious things about this religion professing to be christian, and which isn't given enough spotlight.

There's a scripture where Jesus says something like: "Woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut up the kingdom of heaven before men. You do not go in nor do you permit others to go in.". That scripture perfectly describes JWs' behavior toward the heavenly hope and their treatment of those who newly profess to be anointed.