Island Man

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Posts by Island Man

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  43

  How Many Witnesses Would Really Take Blood?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  up until the very end, my mother refused blood.

  it didn't matter if it was a blurred line or not, the bible says "no blood"!

  i wonder if she was in the minority, in her thinking.

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  Island Man

  The vast majority of JWs will take blood . . . the very day Watchtower comes out with new light saying that blood transfusions are ok.
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  10

  Excellent YouTube channel

  by Are you serious in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a few days ago, thanks to someone's post on here (sorry i forgot who it was), i found an awesome youtube channel called theramintrees.

  the videos this guy has made are amazing!

  i'm sure others here have seen some of his videos.

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  Island Man

  Yes, his videos are among the best videos on the harmful psychology underpinning cults and religion in general.

  I find the voice and graphics downright creepy.

  Which I think is very fitting because religion is downright creepy.
  
  
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  22

  Will they drink the Kool Aid?

  by Hecce in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as you know the question regarding the “kool aid” is related to the tragic events at guyana and jim jones.

  blind obedience and faith in this man resulted in a massive loss of lives.. sometimes we see the same pattern of blind obedience to the watchtower from the witnesses.

  this could be on major items or small details.

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  Island Man

  JWs have been drinking the kool aid for decades - ever since they started suicidally rejecting lifesaving organ transplants and blood transfusions in fanatical, unquestioning obedience to Watchtower.
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  18

  Being Disfellowshipped + On-Going Cycle of Depression

  by Cimarrona in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i've been disfellowshipped for six years, since i was 18. i struggle with depression and self-destructive habits (minor in comparison to the suicides, substance abuse, risky sexual behavior of others i've grown up with who have left or were too afraid to leave).

  i'm fairly successful for my age - respected in my field, i have an extensive curriculum vitae of published writing, presentations, and other projects.

  yet, i often feel worthless and unloveable.

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  Island Man

  Hang in there, mountain woman, things will get better with time. Your parents telling you "this is what happens when one rejects Jehovah's organization" is an example of one of the symptoms of a cult. Cult leaders often implant in the minds of their followers the idea that they will face adverse circumstances and trials if they leave.
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  10

  Random and unsafe conditions

  by ironsnake656 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  one of the things that helped me in my awakening and fading process from jwland was something that i call "random failures".

  let me explain it.

  it happened like 4 years ago.

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  Island Man

  You forgot something critical: human imperfection. JWs teach that perfection is only fully restored at the end of the thousand years. So people will be brought back from the dead in their imperfect state with their disabilities and weaknesses and they will be restored to perfection gradually as they continue to obey the new laws revealed in the new scrolls. But the physical building and restoring work will begin immediately after armageddon even while people are still imperfect so until the end of the thousand years there would still be the risk of accidents due to human imperfection that has not yet been eradicated completely. Thus safety equipment would still be needed.

  I think the bigger problem is the teaching that human imperfection will be restored gradually after armageddon. This teaching paints Jehovah as an unfair god. The anointed, who proved faithful while enduring the same temptations and trials as those of the "other sheep", get their perfection restored immediately upon their resurrection to heaven, without having to endure a further probationary period to prove their faithfulness while in heaven. But the "other sheep" have to endure a long period of proving their faithfulness all over again in order to be restored gradually. This system is clearly not just. Why wouldn't the other sheep also be restored instantly upon resurrection? It makes no sense. Jehovah of the Jehovah's Witnesses is an unjust, irrational, pharisaic god.
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  76

  The Trinity Easily Explained in 29 Words

  by maccauk in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a man can be a father .

  a man can be a son.

  a man can be a husband.

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  Island Man

  No it doesn't actually explain the Trinity. The trinity says that the son the father and the holy spirit are all God; but the son is not the father, the son is not the holy spirit and the father is not the holy spirit. By contrast, the elements in your illustration are all mutually equivalent, meaning in addition to the father son and husband all being a man; the father is also a son and a husband. See the difference? Your illustration is a good analog for modalism - not the trinity.

  A better illustration would consist of 3 different persons that are all members of the same family: a set of triplets name Farter, Sean and Holigose, all surnamed Goad.

  Farter is Goad,

  Sean is Goad,

  Holigose is Goad.

  Farter is not Sean

  Farter is not Holigose

  Holigose is not Sean.

  The Bible does not explicitly teach a trinity, but neither is there anything in the Bible that explicitly disproves the orthodox trinity teaching. However, the Bible does indeed show Jesus being given worshipful honor - something JWs loathe. I think it's pointless arguing the Trinity with JWs. A better approach is to use the Bible to show JWs that early Christians honored Jesus in a worshipful way that JWs today aren't allowed to honor him. I think that alone is enough to show them that their version of Jesus does not line up accurately with scripture and that their organization, by discouraging - forbidding - the worshipful honor of Jesus, is revealing itself as bordering on antichrist if not outright antichrist.

  JWs distort the trinity doctrine into a modalism strawman and argue against modalism while foolishly thinking they're disproving the trinity. The trinity doctrine is as unfalsifiable as the uncreated, eternal, invisible god doctrine. Anyone who criticizes the trinity doctrine as illogical must also criticize the uncreated, eternal, invisible god doctrine as illogical, or resign to the fact that he's making himself a hypocrite by cherry-picking which illogical belief he'll accept and which he'll refuse.
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  34

  THIS Is How JWs Feel About The Cut In Magazines And Content

  by pale.emperor in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i asked the question on quora "how do jehovah's witnesses feel about the announcement that the public edition of the watchtower and awake!

  magazine is being reduced to just 3 issues a year and the number of books, tracts, and online content are being discontinued?".

  https://www.quora.com/how-do-jehovahs-witnesses-feel-about-the-announcement-that-the-public-edition-of-the-watchtower-and-awake-magazine-is-being-reduced-to-just-3-issues-a-year-and-the-number-of-books-tracts-and-online-content-are-being-discontinued.

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  Island Man

  Someone needs to create a funny JW meme depicting three different scenarios that are clear and unambiguous indicators of Watchtower decline, each more dire than the previous, and in each scenario show the JW spinning the scenario as a positive.
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  130

  2017 Annual Meeting

  by Jules Saturn in

  1. social
  2. current

  this just in from the 2017 annual meeting:.

  1. watchtowers and awakes won't be released regularly, at least three watchtower and awakes per year.

  6 magazines a year.. 2. a new book is being released: remain in god's love, more of an update like how they did for the what does the bible really teach book.

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  Island Man

  "Oh how the mighty publishing house has fallen!"
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  5

  Disaster Relief - Used to Beg For Money/Charity

  by thedepressedsoul in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  for a organization that "doesn't ask for money" they sure do ask a lot.. i've been noticing that over the last few months "disaster relief" has been brought up in almost everything jw.

  wt, congregation study, broadcast, special updated video, etc.... & i've noticed two things every time it gets brought up, which is a lot lately.. they talk about giving physically and how much money will be needed for the disaster relief work.

  that we should be generous.

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  Island Man

  It's just absolutely disgusting the way they tell JWs to donate money to the World Wide Work box, to help JW disaster victims. There's no way for any JW to know exactly how much, if any, of his money donated for disaster relief purposes, is actually used for that purpose. A very hypocritical tactic for the organization to be engaging in considering that they have in the past, cast doubt on the effectiveness of donating money to charities by saying that only a small portion of donated money actually gets to those that need it. How is the Watchtower method any better? It seems to me that the organization can now use "show Christ-like love to your JW brothers in disaster affected areas by donating to the World Wide Work" as a ruse to guilt JWs into giving them more and more money with not a shred of accountability as to how much of that money actually gets used to help victims.
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  146

  Just woke up turn TV on to hear yet another nut case with a gun.

  by Still Totally ADD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  first they said 20 dead with 100 injured.

  now i just heard 50 dead and 200 injured.

  whatever it is it just another nut case who was able to get a high power gun to kill people.

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  Island Man

  I have a hypothesis given the confusing nature of this case. The killer had 47 guns at the time of death but was not known to be a collector of guns before then. His relatives are confused about him having any grievances and mental issues prior to the shootings. The killer mounted his automatic gun on a tripod. He seems to be going overboard to buy and use as much deadly military hardware that the law allows. I think this is the key to understanding his motive. His actions don't seem to make sense if you think of it as a typical mass shooting. But his actions do seem to make sense if you think of it as the killer making a very deadly statement about laxed gun ownership laws in America. He's saying:

  "Look what I - anyone - can do because of the foolish, laxed laws about the right to bear arms! Look at how much assault weapons one citizen can buy while you idiots worship your constitutional right to bear arms! Look at how much people can be killed!! When will you people wake up?! Don't wake up, just keep sleeping and partying out in the open while your laws allow me to easily do this..."

  That's what I believe this was. This was a guy who was against the very laxed gun ownership laws and went off the deep end to make a deadly, extreme statement about it by carrying out an elaborate mass shooting with an overkill of guns that was completely unnecessary.