Island Man

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Posts by Island Man

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  7

  If the RNWT is revised again...................

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ..................then proverbs 3:5 could read thus: "trust in the governing body with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.

  " .

  's have already reached this point!.

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  Island Man

  I have already heard a JW speaker giving a public lecture where he applies that text by telling the audience to trust in the instructions and teachings of the organization and not in their own personal understanding.
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  45

  Why the need for 144000 imperfect humans to Rule with Christ Jesus for 1000 years ? Is he incapable of ruling by himself ?

  by smiddy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  does this make any sense whatsoever ?

  isnt jesus christ the king ?why the need for 144000 king priests to help him ?.

  is he not up for the job?

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  Island Man

  I don't think its a case of the 144,000 being actually needed by God and Jesus to help govern. It's a case that the 144,000 are being rewarded with such lofty positions for their faithfulness. It's kinda like how a king might decide to honor someone by making them king for a day.
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  33

  The Triune Polytheism; the 'Trinity'

  by the-Question in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the most ridiculous of all dogmas anywhere in the universe is the very foundation of churchianity.....thus, all their other claims are just blah, blah!.

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  Island Man

  Yes, the trinity doctrine is ridiculous. But you know what, as ridiculous as it is, it has more biblical support, relatively speaking, than the JWs' eisegetical, frankensteinian, 1914, seven gentile times, invisible presence, speculative rubbish.
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  37

  I will only believe in demons if...

  by deegee in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jws are known to have an obsession and preoccupation with demons.. this obsession and preoccupation is not without merit given that jesus, his disciples/apostles, and the general public of 1st century ce judea and galilee are reported as believing in the existence of demonic spirits and in the possibility of demon possession of an individual.. exorcism formed a large part of jesus' ministry on earth.

  the gospels and the book of acts describe many exorcisms where jesus and his disciples release people from demonic possession.. ___ .

  but how do demons get inside a person's brain or body?

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  Island Man

  Demon possession is the superstitious explanation people came up with centuries ago, for certain kinds of mental illnesses before they understood their real causes and how the brain works.

  Even visions of spirits and the supernatural is linked to the mind. The koine greek word for spiritism is the same root word from which we get pharmacy. "Spiritists" used mind altering drugs which cause them to hallucinate. They wrongly believed that their hallucinations were real encounters with the spirit world. Belief in demon possession and spiritism thus originated with superstition and ignorance of the brain's ability to formulate life-like hallucinations due to mental illness and mind-altering drugs. Instead of realizing that the hallucinations are caused by the intoxicated brain, the ancients wrongly thought that the mind-altering drugs opened doorway to the spirit world.
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  50

  If turned off by the GB's latest bloopers- do you still have faith in God and Christ?

  by the-Question in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some go back to churchianity!.

  and that, to me, indicates they never had real faith in god- but it was in men.....

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  Island Man

  Actually, it is the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses that culticly equates faith in men - faith themselves - with faith in God and Christ. They tell JWs to "trust the faithful and discreet slave completely because Christ trusts them completely", or words to that effect, which is actually a load of nonsense when you consider the fact that christ also warns of the possibility of the slave turning out to be an evil slave.

  Anyone who leaves the JW organization gets accused of leaving Jehovah - even though the person remains a bible-believing christian, living a decent life. Faith in the JW organization and it's leadership is regularly and implicitly equated with worship of and faith in, God. Thus the JW religion is built on faith in men, falsely packaged and labeled as faith in God.

  So I find it rather ridiculous that this OP accuses those leaving the organization of having faith in men when the fact of the matter is that the JW religion makes it a practice to indoctrinate its members to have faith in men - their clergy class which they call 'the faithful and discreet slave'.
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  44

  Thoughts on African Americans and Slavery

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  let's start by saying that slavery is of course a terrible thing, one of the worst crimes imaginable, and that "slavery" rarely implies good treatment, anything noble or defensible.

  nowadays, even god doesn't escape judgement from our enlightened views with passages about slavery in the bible usually glossed over because they are shameful.. but not all slavery was equal.. because of the media, movie industry, racial tensions in the us regularly shown on the news and our taught history, i think most people's knowledge and idea of slavery is that of the north atlantic slave trade where white people took africans to work in cotton fields.

  this idea is probably also re-enforced because the largest group of descendents of slaves we see today are african americans (usually in the us or places they subsequently migrated to).. but it's incomplete.. it's only when you look into it more that you discover that there was much more to the slave trade than that, otherwise it would have been just called "the slave trade" and not "the north atlantic slave trade".. some 12.5 million slaves were taken from africa to the us with just under 11 million surviving the trip so it obviously took a terrible toll immediately, even before any maltreatment once they landed in the americas where conditions and treatment were truly awful.

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  Island Man

  I think slavery is also one of the reasons why athletics is dominated by people of African descent in the Americas. Only the fittest slaves were able to survive the journey across the Atlantic. But even before the journey started, the kidnapped slaves were examined physically and any showing undesirable traits were rejected. Then after they came to the Americas, many slave owners engaged in selective breeding practices, having fittest men impregnate the fittest women to ensure they get good strong slaves. So the whole process of slavery served to weed out weaker genes and proliferate those that ensured greater strength and stamina. So this, I believe, is the reason why most of the successful athletes in the sprints are descendants of slaves living in the Americas.
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  39

  Why the resurrection must be true

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  okay i was thinking about it.

  and it is a transhumanist argument and nothing new, i do realise that before anyone points it out.

  but it struck me afresh today that the resurrection must happen.. firstly, to state the obvious, a rational materialist conception of reality seems to exclude resurrection.

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  Island Man

  Physical cloning is impossible.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owPC60Ue0BE
  
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  21

  God wants to remain unidentified

  by anointed1 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  1) books supposedly written by god contain errors.

  2) people supposedly appointed by god make human rights violations.

  and god does not prevent those things from happening.

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  Island Man

  "It means He wants to remain unidentified. Yet this does not mean He is not interested in providing guidance to us."

  Really? Really?! Come on! Can't you see the contradiction? Can't you see the desperate special pleading you're stooping to? A god who hides from his creation leaving them to flounder in confusion and fall victim to the wiles of charlatans who use "faith" to deceive them, is not a god worthy of worship and is worst than an absent father who never visits his children!
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  60

  Now I'm Convinced There Probably Is No God

  by pale.emperor in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  yesterday i made a visit to the museum in my city.

  the top floor is the planetarium, which has a connecting room with a huge dome ceiling where they project lessons and lectures and you have a 360 view of the night sky etc.. this particular lecture explained about our galaxy, and how it's only one of billions in the universe.

  and then we learned about each planet, some of their moons and the sun.

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  Island Man

  UFO-ists (what's the correct term here?)

  Ufologists.
  
  
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  53

  My Dad wants to study with me

  by BlackWolf in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so my parents continue to pester me about getting baptized.

  the other day my dad told me that i was old enough to make a decision, and was wondering why i wasn't ready (assembly is in a few weeks) so i told him calmly that i have many doubts and if i were to get baptized it has to be 100 percent my idea.

  he was a little annoyed by this, and now wants to study the "is there a creator that cares about you" book (which is complete bs) with me.

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  Island Man

  Start a very calm and respectful conversation with your Dad along the lines of freedom of religion. Get him to tell you/agree that baptism is a choice that has to be made freely without any form of coercion or pressure. Maybe even mention the bad example of some people - of other religions - forcing their children into their religion against their will. Get the May 2009 Awake (hope I have the right issue date) that says persons should not be forced to join a religion and that persons should not be made to choose between their beliefs and their family.

  After you have done all that very calmly and respectfully tell him that you have given the subject of baptism a lot of thought and come to the decision that you do not wish to get baptized, and ask him to please respect and accept your decision since he already stated that you're old enough to make a decision and he has already indicated (from the foregoing conversation) that he accepts you have the right to freedom of religion and should not face any form of coercion to be baptized or penalties for refusing to do so, because parents that truly respect their children's right to choose would not engage in such actions, and you have confidence that he's not such a parent - based on the foregoing conversation.

  If he asks you why you don't want to get baptized, just very calmly tell him that you do not wish to discuss it as he may perceive what you have to say as attacking his religion and he will get upset. Tell him you respect his right to be a JW and you're not out to discourage him or destroy his faith so you rather keep your reasons to yourself so as not to upset him in any way. You only want him to respect your decision and your freedom of choice to not become a JW, just as you respect his right to be JW.