Magnum

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Posts by Magnum

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  3

  The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Religion.

  by LostintheFog1999 in

  1. social
  2. current

  i spotted this article on an irish news channel's webpage and thought you might have something to say about the idea.

  perhaps in the future jws will replace their robotic elders with actual robots, what do you think?

  we could consult with ai jesus to see what he thinks about the idea.

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  Magnum

  Evidence of any kind of intelligence would be an improvement.

  😂
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  9

  Load is getting lighter and yolk so kindly it’s hardly there👏

  by jehovaxx in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i heard an answer recently about how jesus said my yolk is kindly and my load is light.. he actually as good as said jwlite but not in so many words.. he said jehovah and jesus know it’s getting harder in these critical times so have made the load even lighter and the yolk even more kindly with padding.. all the changes recently, no more reports, beards allowed it’s jw lite with actually calling it such.

  zoom meetings and ministry groups, new meeting format in january that is so easy there is no preparation needed.

  anyone could turn up on the day not even having looked at the material and give any item as it’s all on rails.. people were talking after the meeting “there is so much new light it’s as if jesus is saying we know you are finding things hard, here let me make the load even lighter still.”.

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  Magnum

  There is so much new light it’s as if Jesus is saying We know you are finding things hard

  Where the F was Jesus when I was slaving and suffering and sacrificing in misery and poverty as a fulltime JW for decades. I lived in an old barn loft, a dirty warehouse, two old travel trailers, and in other primitive ways. I always had old, high-mileage cars that stressed me out because there was always something wrong with them. Life was sheer misery. I lived in an area prone to natural disasters and I was so miserable as a JW that I liked natural disasters because they gave me a break from the misery of the JW routine.

  These lame-ass JWs today don't know what "hard" is. And, if Jesus thinks they're having hard times, then he's not qualified as a judge.
  
  
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  18

  Caleb & Sophia

  by MissDaSilva in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  always felt really uncomfortable with these kids propaganda videos.

  .

  beyond creepy and it reminds me of the hitler youth.

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  Magnum

  Speaking of the video implying children should give their ice cream money....

  Well, some on this site said that Tony's buying top-shelf Scotch was not a big deal. I say and always did that is a big deal, and the ice cream money thing is one of the reasons.

  So.... little children should refrain from having ice cream, but the adults can have top shelf Scotch??? A child should give his/her last few cents, but the adults can spend almost a $1000.00 on liquor??? Shouldn't the adults set the example for the children and give up their liquor money?

  Back to the main topic. Yeah, the cartoon thing just doesn't feel right. It's undignified for such a supposedly serious matter. Billions of lives are at stake according to JWs. The end of the whole damned world is imminent according to them. They ought to be out really warning (not doing the lame-ass witnessing they do) and not producing cartoons.

  Also, if they really think the end is imminent, then why are they worried about training children right now? The end is coming any minute and those children will grow up in and can be trained in the "new system."
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  9

  The 'Tower has no Face

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just thinking about how the wt has evolved over the century of its existence.

  before the gb tricked knorr into making them the ones responsible for everything, the president at the time was very much the face of the society.

  after franz, it all became a bit nebulous as to who was in charge.. is the current situation more advantageous to the wt or less?.

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  Magnum

  peacefulpete, I somewhat agree. The difference is in the quality. As I wrote above, in my day, JWdom attracted engineers, doctors, etc.; it won't do that anymore. The org's glory days are over. It will now only appeal to the down and out, the social misfits, to those lacking critical thinking ability, etc. That's why the new focus in the ministry is going to be on love... not doctrinal, analytical stuff. JWs will not just draw in the lonely widows who want company, etc.

  "I wish I could agree that in the Information Age, controlling minds and loyalties is more difficult."

  I think it is more difficult in the information age. I and many others left because of the availability of info on the internet. I think its a huge factor in the weakening and dumbing down of JWdom. Some of the "vested people" that you refer to might remain, but quality people won't come in from the outside anymore.

  
  
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  46

  Nobody else understands

  by ElderBerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if you once were fully pimi and truly believed jw doctrine to the core like i once did, when you come to the reality that it is not the truth at all it can be extremely devastating.. i think only other ex jws could ever understand.

  i wasted my entire life i thought the real life was yet to come to wasted the best years knocking on doors.

  now i’m so angry.. i can understand why so many top themselves when they realise it was all lies..

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  Magnum

  I think only other ex JWs could ever understand.

  I think you're right. I have tried explaining to never-JWs what it was like, but they just can't grasp it. At most, some of them can only relate it to going to Church once or twice a month. They just will not be able to grasp how all-consuming being a JW is and the sacrifices that are made and the way JW lives are controlled and the never-ending hamster wheel of life-consuming activity. They just won't be able to grasp that if one is a real JW, he will always be behind and he will never have any free time - no weekends, no evenings, etc.

  I have virtually given up on trying to explain. Many of my associates go to church once or twice a month. Outside of that, they do whatever they want whenever they want. Their careers aren't affected, their choices of education aren't affected, there is no preaching, there are no meeting parts to work on, there is no one scrutinizing their lives, etc.
  
  
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  9

  The 'Tower has no Face

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just thinking about how the wt has evolved over the century of its existence.

  before the gb tricked knorr into making them the ones responsible for everything, the president at the time was very much the face of the society.

  after franz, it all became a bit nebulous as to who was in charge.. is the current situation more advantageous to the wt or less?.

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  Magnum

  JWdom is dead/done as an org that will attract outsiders (at least quality ones). Back when I became a JW, there were in my area eight engineers, two dentists, an attorney, a veterinarian, two medical doctors, a college professor with a doctorate, a high school teacher with a BS in physics, a number of deep-thinking & intelligent ex-hippie types, and a number of smarter, successful businessmen who became JWs. JWdom will never again be attractive to such types.

  Therefore, in order to survive, it has to internalize - to focus on keeping what it has and indoctrinating the born-ins. I think that a Franz type figure would serve better for that purpose. He at least seemed to be deeper, more intelligent, more scholarly, etc. than the GB members of today. Though we now view him as being eccentric and maybe delusional, he did seem to be a sincere true believer. He seemed to focus on the Scriptures rather than cartoons, talk shows, pop music, etc. He wrote much deeper material. He was put high up on a pedestal back in earlier decades.

  Some might justifiably argue that the new JWdom (dumbed down, trying to be hip and relevant) will serve to better retain current JWs and their offspring. It might, but I don't think so. I think JWdom will continue to weaken with its current "personality" and atmosphere. I think that a Franz type would better serve the org in retaining what it has - especially the smarter ones. Take, for example, types like my deceased JW grandfather. He was a zealous, true believer. He thought Franz was in Jah's right hand. My grandfather was smarter and more level-headed and reasonable than current JWs. I honestly think that being in the current JWdom would have awakened him, but with a Franz type leader, I believe he never would have awakened. He might have been baffled as to why the end didn't come when it was supposed to, but he would have trusted in the org and excused mistakes.

  The org is just so shallow and dumbed down and corny and cheesy and embarrassing now... the leaders are so obviously not qualified... that I think the org will continue to bleed. I think that a change to a Franz type leader would infuse strength and life into it. However, it's a different world now. The internet changed everything. It would be hard for the org to become analytical and (seemingly) scholarly again because the masses have been equipped with a way to instantly fact check and research.

  So, I think the org would fare better with a Franz type, but it can never again be like it was in earlier decades. The glory days are over; the heyday is over.
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  5

  Edgerton Gospel

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  regarded as likely the oldest (or tied with oldest) gospel fragment we have is that named the unknown gospel or the edgerton gospel.

  sadly it is very fragmentary.

  debates regarding it's relationship with the 4 canonical gospels have continued since it was found.

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  Magnum

  Looks interesting and would love to discuss, but I'm too ignorant of the topic right now. I had never heard of the fragment. Thanks for mentioning it. I want to research it. By the way, I did a google search and found it to be spelled "Egerton."
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  67

  Real reasons behind this change?

  by Gorb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just a good conversation at home about the hour report change.. we think the change was not impmemented because the gb are such a lovely bunch of old grandpa's having the best in mind for us individuals.. there will be only, and we say only, an organizational reason for it.

  a legal reason, to protect jw.org and it's officials and wealth.. next step?

  maybe selling more kh and when jw hollywood studio's in rampoo are ready a change to tv subscription.. what do you think?

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  Magnum

  Fisherman: "All of a sudden this realization and change after a century or so or reporting time?"

  Excellent, thought-provoking question!

  *********

  I agree with Biahi and Blondie. This will give them an easy way to hide decline in the ministry.
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  18

  Has The WT Allowed Outsiders to be Saved?

  by NotFormer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/1734baj/they_just_had_a_huge_meeting/.

  this reddit post suggests that the cessation of reporting hours isn't the only thing announced at the recent meeting.

  can anyone in, or sufficiently well versed in jwdom confirm that the op's understanding of this announcement correct?.

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  Magnum

  WingCommander: "This is NOT the religion I was raised in. This is so far removed from the 1980's that is basically become an Apostate parody of itself. If you could hop in Doc Brown's time-machine DeLorean with an iPad filled with this current GB's nonsense (Splane's Generation chart, anyone?) and go back to the year 1984 and show a Congregation of JW's what 2024 is like, they'd run your ass right out of the KH, probably throwing old green bibles at your head."

  I 110% agree. In addition, in the 1980's, a JW would have been disfellowshipped if he simply persisted in saying that "this system" would still be here in the 2020's.
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  176

  No more REPORTING field service!!!!!!!!!

  by BoogerMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is going to break the hearts of a lot of uber-jw's!

  reddit has now removed the video link of samuel herd telling jw's they will no longer have to report time or placements - just tick a box which says "active.".

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akdshyx79rm&t=13s.

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  Magnum

  Mark Sanderson: "We've deepened our understanding of Jehovah's mercy, his compassion and his patience... and what about that announcement about our field service reporting? Jehovah is dignifying us, he has confidence in us."

  Like... how many decades does it take them to get the memo from their God? Why does it seem that their God is so lousily slow in communicating such major issues to them? Obviously, if this is the better way, their God knew about it decades ago, but, it took him that long to get the message to his channel on earth?

  "Jehovah is dignifying us, he has confidence in us."

  Shit, that pisses me off. So, he didn't have confidence in me all those decades I slaved and labored in misery? He didn't dignify me?

  This issue, to me, virtually proves the JW leaders are liars. I'd bet my life the reason behind this change is not as implied above. The reason is legal and/or financial. Same with the changes concerning the Congregation Book Study and The Theocratic Ministry School and the arrangement to simply ask for donations for literature.

  The JW organization is dying. The Glory days are over. The Great Leaders know it and they are simply in survival mode now. They are now only reactive, not proactive. They used to seem to genuinely care about such things as the field ministry; they would look ahead and try to figure out how they could better it. Now, they're just flapping at the water trying to keep from drowning, so their minds can't focus on such things. They can only react to current situations and put out current fires to keep the whole thing from going up in smoke.