Posts by bemused

17

MY suggestion for Muslims entering this country.

by James Mixon in

first of all immigration is a privilege not a right, the same as obtaining a driving license it's.

a privilege not a right.

my suggestion all muslims that seeking permanent resident or a visa.

bemused

How would you know that they're a Muslim?

16

More than half of UK population is non-religious

by bemused in

the british humanist association web-site has reported on the results of the british social attitudes survey, which is a major annual survey, the latest report covering the year 2013:.

https://humanism.org.uk/campaigns/religion-and-belief-some-surveys-and-statistics/the-british-social-attitudes-survey/.

for the first time, those people saying they are not members of any religious group are in the majority in the uk, up by three percentage points from 47.7% to 50.6% in just one year.

bemused

The British Humanist Association web-site has reported on the results of the British Social Attitudes Survey, which is a major annual survey, the latest report covering the year 2013:

https://humanism.org.uk/campaigns/religion-and-belief-some-surveys-and-statistics/the-british-social-attitudes-survey/

For the first time, those people saying they are not members of any religious group are in the majority in the UK, up by three percentage points from 47.7% to 50.6% in just one year. Furthermore the survey indicates that 62.4% of people never attend religious services, so some of those claiming to be members of a religion must be completely inactive.

I was never a JW and I'm not sure what this means for the WT. However it seems to me that a lot of WT teaching criticises other christian groups, saying they have got it wrong on the trinity, dates etc. - this would seem to become increasingly irrelevant given the decline in those faiths. WT may have to shift focus to attacking the non-religious, but that's a less easy target as, by definition, they have no one set of beliefs..

WT may benefit possibly in the short-term from catholics and anglicans looking for other homes as their churches empty, but ultimately it's hard to see how a decline in religiosity in the UK can be anything but bad news for the JW faith.

9

Songs that have a JW meaning?

by GrownMidget in

jw
friends

do you have any songs that you have listened and then thought that it also works from an apostate point of view?i have always liked this song, but one time realized that i was thinking how it sounds awfully familiar, if you think about those who have lost family/friends due to leaving.this song was originally made/written because one of the actors died in a car accident.

movie was still being filmed and many spots he was needed were never finished with him.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgkafk5djsk.

bemused

My Generation by The Who is pretty clear that a generation covers only people born in a short period of time (and certainly doesn't overlap). Furthermore the song contains the line 'Why don't you all fade away?', which is an excellent question for JWs to consider.

35

Hey! Wanted to say Hi!

by Miss Worldly in

jw
friends

hey!

i've been hanging around her for a while.

this is the third attempt at my 'hello'.

bemused

Hi. I'm also a wordly - never was a JW and most certainly never will be. I think there are probably quite a few of us who visit here because we have relatives, friends and/or spouses in the WT and we benefit from the insight we can gain from the still-ins and apostates. (Of course, some of the apostates on this site have been out so long they could be classified as honorary wordlies.)

14

Catholic Funeral - Rosary and Viewing

by Gram in

jw
friends

tonight i attended a rosary following the viewing.

it was held at the funeral home.

the rosary is a series of prayers led by a priest.

bemused

Whoa, hold on a moment. I've never been to a JW funeral (but have been to plenty of others). Are you saying that the deceased is not discussed at a JW funeral? People don't relive their memories of that person? WTH is said then?

14

Taken from pro JW forum

by username in

now this is embarrassing.. after being cold in the truth for many, many years, and getting back some 2 years ago, my wife and i, decided to auxiliary pioneer last year during the memorial campaign.

we were quite impressed that we made the 30 hrs.. last month, we decide to do it again.

after handing in our application forms, and being approved, our service overseer asks me, "how many hours are you going to do?".

bemused

A different (better) moral would be don't go back to the Org.

I had to laugh at the fact that he and his wife are alone when pioneering. Nobody talking to them I guess!

5

UK Watch Tower branch financial info

by paradisebeauty in

taken from http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/showcharity/registerofcharities/charitywithpartb.aspx?registeredcharitynumber=1077961&subsidiarynumber=0.

i wonder what exactly the uk charity commission is looking into.

just financial data or also practices of the watch tower?

bemused

Thanks Memphis, I hadn't appreciated there were three investigations.

With the seeming never-ending series of child abuse scandals in the UK, it's hard to see how the Commissioners can do anything but come down very hard on the WT's practices.

The legal responsibilities point is an interesting one. As I understand it, each UK congregation is a charity in its own right, with a board of trustees. Being a trustee is quite an onerous duty and carries with it a significant degree of personal risk if things go wrong. I wonder how easy it will be to recruit future trustees if things go badly for the WT here.

5

UK Watch Tower branch financial info

by paradisebeauty in

taken from http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/showcharity/registerofcharities/charitywithpartb.aspx?registeredcharitynumber=1077961&subsidiarynumber=0.

i wonder what exactly the uk charity commission is looking into.

just financial data or also practices of the watch tower?

bemused

I was under the impression that the UK Charity Commissioners were looking at child safeguarding practices at just one congregation - New Moston in Manchester. Of course that may not be as limited as it sounds - if they find fault with those practices and exactly the same procedures are used elsewhere then that has significance for all UK Kingdom Halls.

49

I sent this to Angus Stewart this morning (Easter Standard Time)

by Viviane in

i just sent this email to angus stewart:.

i hope this email finds you well.

i would like to say thank you for your work on the royal commission, particularly in your handling of the jehovah's witnesses elders and experts during questioning.

bemused

Yes a very impressive CV, including Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (the most prestigious university scholarship in the world according to Wikipedia). Well, just as Tony Morris said, the better the university the more dangerous the education is.

24

Why I believe in God. Why I don't believe in God.

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

hi i am delighted to be apart of the community.. having left the witnesses one of my first challenges was my believe in god.

naturally.. i have concluded that i am alive and conscious.

now my intuition tells me god exists, but my analytical thinking tells me god does not exist.

bemused

Hi Rebel. I was never a Witness but I was brought up as a Christian (Catholic). I left that faith because I didn't believe in a god anymore. This is fairly typical of ex-Catholics but it seems that many Witnesses leave their religion but, initially at least, remain as Christians.

I agree with freemindfade that it's key to accept that humans don't know everything, but are learning more and more. Don't be tempted to attribute things we don't understand yet to god.

Regarding intuition - our sun is one star in a galaxy of at least 100 billion stars. The total number of galaxies has been estimated as up to 10 trillion. How likely is it that any god would take a personal interest in our lives? My intuition says very, very unlikely.