StrongHaiku

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Posts by StrongHaiku

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  41

  Convention Tomorrow...

  by freemindfade in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  kill me.... it's hard to put into words just how badly i do no want to sit through this 3 days of bull $hit.

  i will appreciate any and all words of condolence, humorous, serious, or otherwise.

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  StrongHaiku

  Open up whatever mobile device/laptop you can or use a legal pad. Pretend you are taking notes. Start this sentence "June 19, 2015 was the last Jehovah's Witnesses Convention I ever attended. And, this is what happened next...". Start writing the story of your life from tomorrow on. Who knows? Maybe it will someday be a bestseller. I'd sure would buy a copy.
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  8

  Religious explanation for suffering vs church shootings

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  whenever there is a discussion about the "godness" of god and whether he can be described as both "good" and "all powerful" given that he could avoid untold suffering and death for millions of people in earthquakes, floods, tidal waves and other disasters we are often given the same answer:.

  "you don't know why he lets it happen but he has a plan".. bleh.

  often they throw in some snippets that suggest the people may actually deserve it for not praying to the right god or not praying hard enough.. of course it's easy to dismiss the death of all those faceless unknown people.. so, i present to you a new thought experiment for the righteous to grapple with.. i dare you to use the same arguments to explain the deaths of the people in the recent church shooting.. were they not praying hard enough?

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  StrongHaiku

  Well, let me put on my JW hat from 25 years ago...At the time, on reading the news, I probably would have noted their deaths in passing as a confirmation that the world is getting worse and worse, which is great, because it would mean the "end is near". I probably would have not empathized with their loss and suffering because as far as I was concerned, they should have been "in the Truth" and at a Kingdom Hall. In short, I would have done victim-blaming.

  I was a horrible person then. After leaving the JWs, I now have a better appreciation of life and how precious and valuable it is. I hope I can do better now. And, when I read the news, my reaction this time was different than it would have been in the past. This time, I truly empathized with their loss in a deep way as opposed to using their loss as a way to validate my faith.
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  14

  No no No No NO! Jehovah's Witnesses are NOT COOL NOW!

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  they obviously know it.. in the last few years, a more modern, hip, and cool image for their brand has been foisted on the public at large.. jw.org.

  (sidebar: a group of us witnesses, when i was a teen, were sternly lectured by a circuit servant about how wrong it was to refer to ourselves as jw's.want to know why?

  he said, "reducing jehovah's name to mere letters of an alphabet is blasphemy!

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  StrongHaiku

  OG-JW...'Stay alive, till 75...'

  They are not cool. They will never be cool. They are just trying stunt after undignified stunt to appear normal to others and themselves. To me they just appear awkward, anachronistic, and sad.
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  41

  Convention Tomorrow...

  by freemindfade in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  kill me.... it's hard to put into words just how badly i do no want to sit through this 3 days of bull $hit.

  i will appreciate any and all words of condolence, humorous, serious, or otherwise.

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  StrongHaiku

  My pleasure, freemindfade... Here is one you might be able to use... (https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/pdf/FallaciesPoster24x36.pdf)
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  41

  Convention Tomorrow...

  by freemindfade in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  kill me.... it's hard to put into words just how badly i do no want to sit through this 3 days of bull $hit.

  i will appreciate any and all words of condolence, humorous, serious, or otherwise.

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  StrongHaiku

  I do not envy you...

  I would take a list of the most popular logical fallacies and try to start counting them. Maybe make a bingo game out of it.
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  30

  Re: Music at Theocratic Events

  by pixel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is a crappy letter from the watchtower.

  i'm only posting it to show how micro-managers these fools are.

  and at the end, they say: "we should avoid making specific rules about somewhat technical matters".

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  StrongHaiku

  LOL! Great posts.

  Jehovah's Witnesses...the most anal-retentive people in all of unexplored space. "Straining the gnat and gulping the camel" for over 100 years...

  Sometimes I wonder if all of the GB members were toilet-trained at gunpoint.
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  60

  Why don’t we have a better story?

  by iconoclastic in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  1. some say we are all gods, and god is omnipresent..

  2. some say: god created his children who later challenged his sovereignty, who in turn asked his eldest son: go down to the world, do not resist the wicked, but be murdered by them, the value of which will be used to atone the sins of the world..

  3. universe arose out of a big bang.

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  StrongHaiku

  Iconoclastic,

  StrongHaiku,

  You say “a human can or cannot make a "human hand"' still says nothing about evolution or the argument for God.”

  That is correct. Because the proposition "Humans can/cannot make a hand (today)" is a different proposition that "Only God can make a hand" or "Evolution is currently the best explanation for how a human hand emerged." Notice that there are 3 different "entities" being addressed. Each of these proposition must stand on their own merit and evidence.

  Yes it speaks against evolution, as such sophistication will not come from lower forms (or species)

  I respectfully disagree. And, the term "sophistication" is not well-defined and requires quantification. We make some very "sophisticated things" that exceed nature in a number of ways (e.g. airplanes vs birds). We have plenty of examples where we not only match, improve, but sometimes exceed nature.

  I think maybe the fact that most of our improvements are based on inorganic matter and often use processes different than nature, that this may be keeping you from seeing the work in the organic areas. If that is the case, you would be surprised on what is being done with creating/printing organs from organic matter, improving on bacteria and virus to do our bidding, and on, and on...

  [at a time super-intelligent humans now with all the computer advancement simply fail to even duplicate the dexterity of human hands]
  

  Yes! You got it, "now". You are only looking at our current state and time. Imagine going back a few hundred years ago. Can you imagine what people then would think of what you would say about antibiotics, computers, airplanes, cellphones, etc.? The stuff in your head would either have made you look like a god or gotten you burned at the stake. And, if we can survive becoming an "evolutionary cul-de-sac" we may get to do more amazing things.

  There was a time long ago only the "Gods" could fly, make electricity, cure people, etc. However, I get the feeling that it doesn't matter. If we built a human hand (organic or inorganic) I think it would be replaced with another "thing we can't yet make".

  
  When information is lengthened as far as possible (as happened in the case of theory of evolution), you are lost in the ocean of information and you are forced to feel this may be true.

  Not sure whether you are trying to make the "information and thermodynamics" argument or whether you are saying that you are overwhelmed with the "ocean of information". If it's the latter, I can understand that. The amount of information and evidence for evolution can sometimes be dense but there a some books that present the subject of evolution in an accessible manner.

  When you shorten the information to its essence, as I did in my original post, you will see clearly, what is possible and what is not possible, and what is true and what is false.

  No sure what you mean. Sorry.
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  75

  What was your eye opening moment?

  by WasOnceBlind in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  if you had to pinpoint the time or experience that finally made you open your eyes, what would it be?.

  i think for me it was the time i saw my dad shun his brother who he had not seen in decades just because he was a da'ed jw.

  i thought to my self "no way jesus would do that.

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  StrongHaiku

  Twitch, your story absolutely resonated with me. I think part of the reason I "woke up" is because I started living, associating, and loving some wonderful people the JWs would have categorized as "bird food". I would rather throw in my lot with many of the people I have had the privilege to know and love in the "world".
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  16

  Preach, preach, preach....feel guilty...preach some more

  by Tornintwo in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  since starting to wake up, i can't help notice how so many talks emphasise preaching, increasing your hours, pioneering etc...with a hefty load of guilt on the side.. i always noticed the guilt, but now i'm noticing how talks that seem to start out on another issue always seem to come back to hours!

  visit talk seemed to start out about persecution, trusting in jehovah etc...but the main thrust in the end was, 'do more hours, pioneer, don't get an education or pursue a career, don't get distracted, hooray for the pioneers!

  if you dont do more hours you will be 'the sort that shrink back to destruction'.

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  StrongHaiku

  millie210 - Field service also makes you feel euphoric when you are done.

  Yep. Totally agree.

  I would add one thing:

  I am very much an introvert. And, I remember when I was doing FS that my anxiety level was so high from the minute I went to the first door that by the time the day was over I felt "good". I misinterpreted my ebbing feelings of anxiety at the end of the day as "happiness". It was actually, "relief". Kinda like holding on to a rubber ball tightly all day and you are finally able to let it go. It feels wonderful but only because you had held tension for hours.
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  89

  Richard Dawkins talking about a Creator

  by FusionTheism in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  richard dawkins admitted that information inside of dna, and the origin of life on earth, might point to intelligent designers, perhaps extraterrestrials.

  (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boncjbrrdq8 )richard dawkins further admitted, in a debate with francis collins for time magazine, that science might point to a creator existing, but that this creator might not be anything like yahweh:.

  time: "could the answer be god?

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  StrongHaiku

  _Morpheus - Which is why people debating athiestisum as a religion sets up foolish questions. Its not a rleigion anymore than not stamp collecting is a hobby. (Credit nonstampcollector)

  LOL! Yes. "Atheism is a religion" is like saying that abstinence is a sexual position...