Island Man

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Posts by Island Man

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  46

  Believers: How do you know your view of your chosen holy book is the correct one?

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  don't start fighting, darlings.

  i am genuinely curious.

  after all i was a jobo 50 years and thought the wbt$ was 100% correct.. i ask this because i see that, for example, christian denominations (or whatever), likely have differing interpretations of the same writing.

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  Island Man

  It has always struck me as supremely paradoxical that a God would use his holy spirit to inspire the writing of an inerrant text, only to leave its correct understanding at the mercy of imperfect humans, none of whom seem able to understand it perfectly. Why go through the trouble of producing an inerrant text if you're not going to ensure that people have an inerrant understanding of it? So the Bible's supposed inerrancy actually counts for nought! Makes no sense. I think this paradox reveals that the text is not the inspired inerrant word of God - at least not a smart God.
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  33

  Hi from England

  by victimofdeceit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  recently quit being a jw because i realised that beyond armageddon i was going to be ruled by people who cover up child abuse, not telling the congregations by their letter where the money they donated in the box is going towards paying compensation for legal battles which they caused, and also i was bullied by elders and discriminated against for being homosexual, even though i am not practicing it.

  it wasn't until i threatened legal action for a breach of confidence that the elders were deleted.

  so through the media and my own personal experience, i realised that they were no different to corrupt businesses in the world.

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  Island Man

  But they're just imperfect men. Why would you let the actions of imperfect men cause you to stop serving Jehovah?
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  15

  2 witnesses told me the literature they were handing out were not religious

  by charity7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  two witnesses came to my door the other day and i politely told them that i was not interested.

  they told me that it was ok and that what they were handing out was not anything religious.

  i told them sorry and that i was still not interested.

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  Island Man

  I would have looked them in the eyes and said:

  "Not religious eh? Well, if those magazines aren't religious then I'm not at home today. Now please go try to insult someone else's intelligence with your offer of non-religious magazines while I get back to not being at home."
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  8

  Watchtower article about shooting at hall?

  by dkztcequ in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  does anyone know if it is mentioned in one of the old watchtowers about someone who made off with someones wife, both of whom were shot at the hall by the woman's husband?

  someone told me this was in a watchtower, but i cannot find it..

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  Island Man

  I have heard of an incident like this happening in Barbados very recently - like less than 10 years ago.
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  31

  Is there any humor in the bible?

  by Normalfulla in

  1. social
  2. humour

  humor plays a big part in a lot of humanity and we all like a good laugh but as far as i'm aware god's supposed word has no actual humor ,of course apart from being a joke itself ,why wasn't there a passage or something like "jesus farted and giggles broke out among them " or something, is anyone aware of any notations of humor ?

  all to.serious really.

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  Island Man

  Here is a Bible verse filled with stinging irony and which proves that the Bible could not have been inspired by any wise god with the ability to foresee the future:

  1 Timothy 6:1: "Let those who are under the yoke of slavery keep on considering their owners worthy of full honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may never be spoken of injuriously."

  Ha ha ha! The writer thought that disobedient, disrespectful slaves would bring reproach on the religion but he was too short sighted and too primitive in his morality, to realize that his condoning of slavery would heaps mountains more reproach on the religion in the future. So his very exhortation meant to avoid bringing reproach on the religion - that very exhortation ends up heaping mountains of reproach on it! Ha ha ha!
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  11

  There is no true religion.

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  l came to this conclusion based on the fact that humans are imperfect living in an imperfect world.the bible was written by imperfect human hands and is impossible to interpret with 100% accuracy.religion is man made to help control the masses..

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  Island Man

  I concur. To me the term "true religion" is a bit of an oxymoron - almost as much so as the expression "true lie". Religions are nothing more than organized systems of superstition. Religion is also like a dream - it seems to make perfect logical sense when you're in it but when you wake up from the dream and think back on it you say to yourself: 'WTF! that was so ridiculous! How could I not see how illogical and ridiculous that was while I was dreaming it?'
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  31

  Is there any humor in the bible?

  by Normalfulla in

  1. social
  2. humour

  humor plays a big part in a lot of humanity and we all like a good laugh but as far as i'm aware god's supposed word has no actual humor ,of course apart from being a joke itself ,why wasn't there a passage or something like "jesus farted and giggles broke out among them " or something, is anyone aware of any notations of humor ?

  all to.serious really.

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  Island Man

  There are actually passages in the Bible that speak negatively of joking and humor. I can't recall exactly where they are - maybe in Proverbs or Ecclesiastes - but the Bible does not approve of humor. That explains why there are no funny passages. All references to humor are portrayed in a negative light, associated with ridiculers and foolish men "in want of heart".

  Jesus never cracked a joke. The closest the Bible comes to humor are passages that speak of God laughing at the demise of the wicked and Elijah ridiculing the prophets of Baal by suggesting to them that their god isn't answering them because he's busy in the toilet. There is no harmless, light-hearted humor purely as entertainment.
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  15

  Just sittin' and mindin' my own business...

  by Distracted in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was sitting at a local city event enjoying watching an activity.

  a friendly looking woman dressed in blue jeans and a floppy hippy looking top came and sat down besides me.

  she notices i am sketching and says she likes to do this too.

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  Island Man

  Call the number on the card she left you and tell her how you feel about what she did.

  "I'm calling to let you know that after our meeting today I felt sort of used. First you pretended to be interested in something that I doubt now that you have any true interest in, to start a conversation. Dishonest. Soon as you got my contact info, you launched into your real reason for talking to me. Third, it distracted me from enjoying the event, and fourth, you made no effort at all in discussing any useful topic or conversing with me further. It was as shallow as it could get."
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  18

  Yup !

  by berrygerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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  Island Man

  "Why Are You Looking Forward Backward to 1975?"

  That would actually be a wonderful title for an ex-JW book about JWs! The title captures both the heightened, false expectations that their false prophecies bring; while at the same time highlighting the way they hypocritically dismiss their past failings as unimportant. It's a perfect book title!
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  12

  The Biblical reasoning behind a judicial comitee?

  by CitizenofEarth in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was wondering today what i would say if i ever were to be called to a judicial trial in the congregation, and my conclusion was that i didn't really have any biblical defense against it.

  so i was wondering what you guys would recommend.

  it seems far fetched to me that the bible condones a 1 vs 3 biased trial (where you already have been judged beforehand), instead of one where you have a unbiased judge, a defense and a prosecutor/accuser.

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  Island Man

  There is actually a scripture somewhere in one of the NT books that says to "reprove sinners in the presence of onlookers". What does that mean? Does it mean walking up to a stage and announcing "so and so has been reproved"? Is merely announcing that someone has been reproved, the same thing as reproving them in the presence of onlookers?

  By way of illustration: If a Mob boss tells one of his henchmen: 'Shoot Lenny publicly', are the police also shooting Lenny publicly, when they later announce at a press conference: 'Lenny has been shot'?

  It's pretty obvious that "reprove sinners in the presence of onlookers" means that gross sinners are not to be counseled and tried in secret but in the presence of others. This is what the passage in Matthew is alluding to when it says to take the sin to the congregation and if the sinner does not listen to the congregation then let him be regarded as a tax collector.