Posts by Laika

54

Was I too harsh?

by chrisuk in

jw
friends

hello, first let me apologixe for both my spelling and my grammer in advance, both are not my strong points.. i'll keep this short.

since i've been a child my mother has studied on and off with jw's ( i'm now 34) so i've been around it most of my life, i studied on and off myself for around 10 years.

thank's to this site and jwfacts i'll never study or step foot inside a kingdom hall again.

Laika

That e-mail wasn't the least bit cruel or harsh. Firm and respectful.

31

i don't know if anybody else has mentioned this, but i'm currently at a dc in sweden, and this morning, during the symposium on different kinds of service, it was mentioned that 40% of baptisms are the result of informal witnessing.

if you add the number of baptisms of children of jw parents to this, how many are left that are baptized as a result of the door-to-door work?

doesn't sound very effective at all....

Laika

What cantleave said, the D2D work is terrible at producing new converts, but it's very effective at keeping current members busy in the Witness community and thus keeping them in the religion.

406

ex-jw-uk

by bigmac in

jw
friends

i'm quite new to this site, & have realised some members have a union jack symbol under their avatar.

i don't.. could we have a "show of hands" from any uk members?

i've already found several by reading older posts..

Laika

Ah, thanks Bigmac! I'm from South London. :)

69

Atheism and the delusion of meaning

by Laika in

jw
friends

in the movie annie hall, written by woody allen, as a young boy, alvy's mother, takes him to see a doctor as he appears to be dealing with some kind of depression.

when the doctor asks alvy what's up, alvy explains that he just found out the universe is expanding, everything will spread out and go cold and die, therefore nothing he does matters, so he is not going to do anything anymore.

most people might see this as a joke, but i think woody is trying to make a serious point.. the point here is about meaning.

Laika

adcms: Belief in God creates it's own absurdities but a lack of meaning isn't one of them, it doesn't matter which God you believe in, belief in any God grants meaning to your life.

EP: Beautiful woman exist, so the fact you want sex with them is consistent with your universe. ;)

69

Atheism and the delusion of meaning

by Laika in

jw
friends

in the movie annie hall, written by woody allen, as a young boy, alvy's mother, takes him to see a doctor as he appears to be dealing with some kind of depression.

when the doctor asks alvy what's up, alvy explains that he just found out the universe is expanding, everything will spread out and go cold and die, therefore nothing he does matters, so he is not going to do anything anymore.

most people might see this as a joke, but i think woody is trying to make a serious point.. the point here is about meaning.

Laika

No Bohm, I think it is evidence, as I said to punkofnice: "We as humans intrinsically stive for meaning, so for us to be the product of a meaningless universe is inconsistent. The Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer argued that this would be an evolutionary failure, like fish in a water world with no free gases evolving lungs, it would be inconsistent with their universe." But I'd like to add that it's not the sole reason I'm a believer.

69

Atheism and the delusion of meaning

by Laika in

jw
friends

in the movie annie hall, written by woody allen, as a young boy, alvy's mother, takes him to see a doctor as he appears to be dealing with some kind of depression.

when the doctor asks alvy what's up, alvy explains that he just found out the universe is expanding, everything will spread out and go cold and die, therefore nothing he does matters, so he is not going to do anything anymore.

most people might see this as a joke, but i think woody is trying to make a serious point.. the point here is about meaning.

Laika

ADCMS,

Thanks for your post. I'll try to take it on board.

----------------------

This thread may be beyond redemption but I don't think the argument was completely without merit (without the personal elements) and is at least worthy of discussion, so I'm going to try again, if it's still offensive, I'll give up:

This is the clip I referenced from Annie Hall, is young Alvy Singer's argument to his mother and doctor wrong? (Woody Allen is an atheist): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pa34orcwwA

"The point here is about meaning. Imagine the universe did come out of nothingness, by the big bang. Next comes the universe, that is now expanding and will eventually die, and say the life of the entire universe then is 30 billion years, that might seem like a long time, but placed between the eternity past and the eternity future, then the 30 billion year life of the universe is just a single sentence, well, no, actually like a single word, no actually like a single letter, actually even smaller than a full stop in an entire library, but even that is an exaggeration, maybe the greatest exaggeration ever! So, then, to find meaning in a life of an individual of 80 years, that is infinity insignificant. If we lived the life of Gandhi a million times over, or an extreme Hitler where we gassed every man, woman and child alive, any of those actions would be totally meaningless in the big picture of all that is." - What was wrong with this paragraph? If you say 'it feels like there is meaning, so I'm going to live as if there is' that seems fair enough to me, but to then say 'theists are deluded, they don't accept reality as it is' when you've confessed that you've created your own fake reality to get through your life, isn't that inconsistent?

And if life feels like it matters, why is it such an irrational leap of logic to believe that it does?

7

Prayer of Renunciation

by TOTH in

jw
friends

so, i have stated here that i am in the midst of what has so far been a fairly painless "fade".

i have over time decided that i am still a person of faith and am on the move in search of a good, christian, grace focused church to go to.

while discussing this with my cousin pete, (a lay minister with the assemblies of god church), he suggested that since i was involved with the wt that i should seriously consider offering up a prayer of renunciation.

Laika

I've not heard of that before, the Watchtower are many things but I don't think they are steeped in occult practices.

Surely your conversion was a renunciation of the Watchtower?

If it makes you feel happier in your Christian walk then go for it, it's not going to harm you, but you said you want a grace centered church, remember grace means that God did all the work for you, you're not condemned because you haven't said the right prayer.

19

Dog attack victim recovering, back to Jehovah's Witness ministry work ahead of upcoming convention

by Watchtower-Free in

jw
friends

http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/dog_attack_victim_recovering_back_to_jehovahs_witness/20130629_11_a1_cutlin782235?subj=1.

by bill sherman world religion writer on jun 29, 2013. .

beverly wright walked with a cane, slowly, avoiding uneven ground on wednesday morning as she went door-to-door on north delaware avenue inviting people to an upcoming jehovah's witnesses convention.. a week ago she had what she hopes will be her last of five skin grafts to repair wounds she received march 19 when a pit bull mauled her so badly that doctors told her she might lose her leg.. wright, 43, could have escaped injury that tuesday morning when an 80-pound pit bull burst through the front door of a house in the 200 block of n. lewis place and attacked her ministry companion and longtime friend, irene parker, 78.. but it never occurred to her not to help her friend.. both women were severely injured in the attack.

Laika

I'm pleased she's getting better. Must have been terrifying forcing herself back out on the service after an attack like that, she is very brave.

3

Did You Lie and Say You Would Attend Another District Convention When You Were Given A Assignment Without Choice? We can't listen from the Help Desk or Info Desk.

by ÁrbolesdeArabia in

how many of you who had the responsiblities holding down posts at the district convention lied to the little children and friends by saying "i am going to come back in next month for another district assembly?

" when they asked you "when are you going to be able to enjoy the lifesaving message jehovah's faithful slave has provided for you?

as julia orwell noticed at the district convention there are brothers usually who do not pay attention to the program so tediously made by the faithful slave.

Laika

I remember an elder asking me to help out with the car parking team before the Convention. This meant that I would miss the first 15-20 minutes each day, nothing else, but he still suggested I arrange to go to another for a listening Convention, can't miss those 20 minutes! I told him I would go to another Convention I had absolutely no intention of going to.

69

Atheism and the delusion of meaning

by Laika in

jw
friends

in the movie annie hall, written by woody allen, as a young boy, alvy's mother, takes him to see a doctor as he appears to be dealing with some kind of depression.

when the doctor asks alvy what's up, alvy explains that he just found out the universe is expanding, everything will spread out and go cold and die, therefore nothing he does matters, so he is not going to do anything anymore.

most people might see this as a joke, but i think woody is trying to make a serious point.. the point here is about meaning.

Laika

I guess my last paragraph in my OP ruined this thread...I wanted a debate on meaning in atheism but instead most of my responses seem to be people I just pissed off.

I'm new to Internet debate. You live and learn. Maybe I'll try again some day.

Sorry guys.