the past week has been hell for me.
my mother started feeling ill and we went to seek medical assistance.
we live in the mountains and the nearest large hospital is about 150 kms away.
cookiemaster - Just said she hopes Jehovah will forgive her.
If there is a God (which I have no reason to believe in) and he is as loving as everyone says he is, he would not require human sacrifices (symbolic or otherwise). You are better than that God and so is just about everyone else. You put another person's interest ahead of your own. I would worship you before I would worship that God.
i am writing this in the hopes that it may help someone in a debate.
i personally have not had a chance to discuss it with anyone but that is true for most other topics.
i think is a good one to analyze.
I would be more impressed with those WT pictures if the captions read "Wouldn't you like to live in a terraformed Mars?"
I don't think it occurs to most JWs that there are already beautiful and diverse places on Earth that you can visit TODAY...You can study hard, work hard, save some money, and go see them...
the past week has been hell for me.
my mother started feeling ill and we went to seek medical assistance.
we live in the mountains and the nearest large hospital is about 150 kms away.
so you have had some kind of supernatural revelation, a personal message from god and some miraculous sign that you have been personally chosen by the almighty, what would you do?.
would you be the same as every other wt'ite, dragging yourself to the meetings, getting your 10 hours in each month, maybe pioneering?.
listen!
this question is known to be posed by jws to other jws as an acid test of loyalty.
i'm not the first to notice what i'm about to point out and comment accordingly, but today i felt compelled to add a short article on my blog highlighting the new language that governing body member geoffrey jackson supplies as a response.
a person who honestly hesitates to respond with a robust "yes!
Splash - Instead we get a wishy washy answer from a weak man removed from his fan base.
Your entire post totally resonated with me. I could not have said it better.
The way he answered was a slap on the face to every JW who has died for publicly stating loudly with bravery and pride "We're Jehovah's Witnesses, we speak out in fearlessness..." What a coward.
life has been busy, but i am now on 2 weeks vacation which allowed me some thinking room.
and here's what's been on my mind.. we're all going to die.
no matter what we do, our fate is sealed.
here is a quick breakdown of our conversation (by text message).
me: "have you read about the royal commission?
the org has been covering up child abuse.
Lemonparty.org - Him: "The Royal Commission is how Jehovah is fixing it"
Yep. That's pretty much what I would have said when I was a JW 30 years ago. The first person we learn to lie to is ourselves.
i bet they are.
recently, several threads have had some debate about logic, evidence, critical thinking and skepticism.
i wanted to write a post discussing those things, hopefully to clarify what those things are, why they are important and how to use those tools.
first, logic, at its core, is simply a method for how to reason validly, how to draw conclusions based on a premise.
Viviane - "If you haven't bothered to learn about evolution, biology, etc., then your opinion on the truth of evolution doesn't carry any weight."
I second Phizzy as well.
This is one of the best lines yet. Nicely done.
It is a good reminder to continue to keep up with our understanding of science, technology, society, politics, etc. We should either have a good understanding of the arguments or simply say "I don't know".
please don't click the link if you feel details of abuse would upset you http://jwleaks.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/letter-to-the-director-of-public-prosecutions-from-steven-unthank-in-relation-to-discontinuing-the-criminal-trial-february-2012-pdf.pdf.
looking at some of the events that led up to the rc in australia i came across this letter, submitted to the d.p.p.
by steven upthank, in relation to the crown discontinuing prosecution of the governing body of jehovahs witnesses.
CalebInFloroda, I have to say that I am totally confused and maybe you can help me.
Based on your comments it seems to me that you are saying that the Jews had a notion/idea/relationship with G-d (predating the OT) which, over time, was codified over time in the OT. And, that the OT reflects both cultural and religious ideas that cannot be well-understood let alone be used as a foundation for other religions because of the very specific and unique perspective (e.g. one needs to have the context of the Jewish religion and cultural history otherwise you end up with problems). If I got it wrong, my apologies.
However, I am still fuzzy on how ideas are reconciled. For example, how would you would address G-d's endorsement of mass genocide of men/women/children, slavery, stoning, and all sorts of things that we (as a society) and Jews would now find indefensible, immoral, etc.?
When you read those passages from the OT is your perspective "that was then, this is now"? Do you look at these acts as a reflection of the character of the G-d of the OT or is it strictly tied to the character of the people of the time?
I guess I am trying to better understand how you reconcile the G-d of the OT as it relates to some of the things you say. Thank you for your patience.
