Laika

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Posts by Laika

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  20

  240 'Lands'

  by Jeffro in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jehovah's witnesses are purportedly 'active' in 240 'lands', quite a remarkable feat for a planet with only about 200 sovereign states (206 if you count all that are recognised by at least one un member, of which jws are present in 166).

  more than half of all jws worldwide are in just 10 countries.

  over 90% are in 45 countries.. to achieve this mathematical miracle, various places that are not separate countries are counted as 'lands'.. tahiti is counted as a separate 'land' though it is part of the society islands, which is part of french polynesia, which is part of... france.

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  Laika

  Did they use to count the channel islands as separate lands? When did they stop?
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  41

  The positive achievements of Science and Religion in 2015. How do they compare?

  by nicolaou in

  1. social
  2. current

  science.. landed a probe on a comet, found liquid water on mars and successfully completed a ten year mission to pluto.. developed the first successful vaccine against ebola, discovered another human species in homo naledi, developed cancer killing molecules and high intensity ultrasound therapies which avoid surgery and leave healthy cells alone.

  successfully mapped the human epigenome and developed the gene editing tool crispr, it's potential for medical and agricultural advance is staggering!.

  found a way to produce graphene for a 1000th of the previous cost, developed cheap and sustainable methods to supply clean drinking water where water borne infections have been killing thousands, scaled up production of clean, renewable energy.. there's loads more, please feel free to add to the list.. .

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  Laika

  The religion where I meet uses it's meeting place to provide shelter, meals and community to homeless people each week. That's a tangible benefit religion makes to about 40 people.
  To me personally my religion has continued to form me 'spiritually', helping me with practices that make me calmer, more content, and generally less anxious/afraid.
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  40

  What was your ''the last straw that broke the camels back'' moment

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there is a limit to how much straw (long yellow grass) a camel can carry on its back.

  if you keep putting more straw on top, it will finally break the camel's back.

  when you are at the last straw you are finally angry and will not take any more.. my moment (to stop attending all watchtower meetings) was after the harsh treatment from the elders and fellow congregation members of my second cousin who was disfellowhipped as a teenager.

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  Laika

  An elder at a circuit assembly giving a talk on wisdom. He told a story about a girl who got raped walking home late at night, the point was about how she apparently showed a lack of wisdom. When I complained later nearly everyone defended him, I realised then my worldview was fundamentally different and I just couldn't fit anymore.
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  72

  CEDARS (Again) Is it really about religious beliefs?

  by Listener in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  john cedars has posted his latest blog "the trouble with apostates (and why it shouldn't put you off becoming one)".

  i acknowledge that he is entitled to his opionin just as we are ours but i am disappointed in some of his comments.. at this stage i'll try to be objective about it.

  he is defending his own position after all.. what bothers me most is his comments about athiests and christians which he seems to identify as being in conflict with each other.

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  Laika

  Good post notsurewheretogo! I think Cedars is a decent enough bloke, but maybe he's not cut out for the life of activism... Seems like he'd be better off trying to progress to the exExJW life to me. His choice though, of course.

  I doubt I would be a great exJW activist myself, so hope that doesn't come across as too harsh.
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  25

  Brave New W0rld of Education - The Regressive Left

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  i found this to be a thought-provoking film on the trend in higher education.. oubliette drew my attention to a brilliant article recently called "the coddling of the american mind".

  please have a look at the film, click the link and check out the links in the article.

  i would love to hear your thoughts.. ...

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  Laika

  Ah Luhe, I know we've had our differences in the past but I'm trying to be more civil ;)
  
  I didn't want to 'set anyone straight' just open up the discussion a bit more. I'm a 'white, hetero normative, cisgendered, male' too btw, so the majority of my post was quoted from another writer, I wanted to introduce a different and critical perspective, which seemed in keeping with the intent of the OP.
  
  Of course we should listen to people with different ideas but I think we should also bear in mind that some people have had different life experiences to ours, and be willing to consider them.
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  21

  Is going into a church really THAT bad?

  by Zana in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  family background: my wife ("liberal" jw), me (ubm), two children aged 5 and 2.

  (want more details?

  -> http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/279456/raising-kids-jw-mother-agnostic-father).

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  Laika

  Every exJW should visit a church! (and/or other religious building) Just to challenge the phobia. In my opinion.
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  25

  Brave New W0rld of Education - The Regressive Left

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  i found this to be a thought-provoking film on the trend in higher education.. oubliette drew my attention to a brilliant article recently called "the coddling of the american mind".

  please have a look at the film, click the link and check out the links in the article.

  i would love to hear your thoughts.. ...

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  Laika

  I don't think empathy is regressive, of course people can take things too far, but white male privilege is a real thing, and to be blunt I think a lot of this pushback comes from people who are upset at having their privileges exposed...
  
  http://lithub.com/men-explain-lolita-to-me/
  
  

  There has been a lot said this year about college students—meaning female college students, black students, trans students—and how they’re hypersensitive and demanding that others be censored. That’s why The Atlantic, a strange publication that veers from progressive to regressive and back again like a weighty pendulum recently did a piece on “The Coddling of the American Mind.” It tells us that, “Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Maher have publicly condemned the oversensitivity of college students, saying too many of them can’t take a joke,” with the invocation of these two white guys as definitive authorities.

  But seriously, you know who can’t take a joke? White guys. Not if it implicates them and their universe, and when you see the rage, the pettiness, the meltdowns and fountains of male tears of fury, you’re seeing people who really expected to get their own way and be told they’re wonderful all through the days. And here, just for the record, let me clarify that I’m not saying that all of them can’t take it. Many white men—among whom I count many friends (and, naturally, family members nearly as pale as I)—have a sense of humor, that talent for seeing the gap between what things are supposed to be and what they are and for seeing beyond the limits of their own position. Some have deep empathy and insight and write as well as the rest of us. Some are champions of human rights.

  But there are also those other ones, and they do pop up and demand coddling. A group of black college students doesn’t like something and they ask for something different in a fairly civil way and they’re accused of needing coddling as though it’s needing nuclear arms. A group of white male gamers doesn’t like what a woman cultural critic says about misogyny in gaming and they spend a year or so persecuting her with an unending torrent of rape threats, death threats, bomb threats, doxxing, and eventually a threat of a massacre that cites Marc LePine, the Montreal misogynist who murdered 14 women in 1989, as a role model. I’m speaking, of course, about the case of Anita Sarkeesian and Gamergate. You could call those guys coddled. We should. And seriously, did they feel they were owed a world in which everyone thought everything they did and liked and made was awesome or just remained silent? Maybe, because they had it for a long time."
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  8

  Why the Watchtower is not Christian

  by WireRider in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a simple factual statement.

  part of another thread but i thought i would offer it everyone.. jehovah witness are not christian.

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  Laika

  To be a Christian means to follow Christ, his teachings and life, in that sense JWs could do with a bit of work on loving their enemies, but they are not alone in this (take note Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr)
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  61

  Good books to read?

  by thedepressedsoul in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i read crisis on the conscience and i am about to start, "who wrote the bible?

  does anyone have a list or great books to read for anyone searching for the real truth?

  i've only ever seen the world through a jw lens and i am excited to see what other view points are out there!

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  Laika

  Oh Slim, don't you know that Sam Harris is the most misrepresented man in history! ;P http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/09/sam-harriss-quantum-universe-or-how-to-say-one-thing-while-meaning-another/
  Thanks for the 'How to read Derrida' recommendation, I may check it out over Christmas when I'm off work...
  Depressedsoul, since different perspectives are good may I recommend David Bentley Hart's 'atheist delusions' as a counterpoint to the new atheist stuff. NT Wright has some good scholarly stuff from a more conservative/Christian perspective to Bart Ehrman if you'd be interested in that as well.
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  37

  An elder bought my son a suit

  by Clambake in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i guess being two months old and coming to the kh in his onesee was kind of offensive .

  how rude of me.

  i am thinking about returning to him.

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  Laika

  Has he tried it on yet? I bet he'd look adorable