Syme

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Posts by Syme

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  45

  ONE REASON

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  out of interest, and to formulate a cordial chat, would you give your top one reason for your belief or non belief?.

  my foremost 'one reason' for non belief is:.

  the historical evidence that provides an explination and timeline for how the modern religious doctrine's and dogma developed over time.. .

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  Syme

  Non-belief. Reason: Over 99% of the species ever existed is extinct. What does that tell you about a ''divine intelligence"? You make an ultra beautiful Creation and you lose along the way over 99% of it? That doesn't sound very intelligent to me. Every few eons a super mass exctinction takes place on Earth, destroying 70-90% of the organic population every time. Does that imply a wise ''watchmaker'' in the background? Or the blind, and impersonal, forces of nature?
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  10

  The Books are Cooked: Grossly Misleading chart and graphic

  by Tech49 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  are the charts and number graphics you see in the wt and awake articles factual?

  or are they misleading?.

  many have already discussed how verses, quotes, and facts are cherry-picked to fit a particular situation.. i came across another blatant misrepresentation of facts, in a grossly misleading chart-graphic.

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  Syme

  Excellent post, Tech49.

  I pioneered for 6 years, and not ONE month did I manage to make the 70 hours. As a matter of fact, the highest pure (= not including pioneer schools etc.) amount of hours I ever reached was 51 hours! And that for only one month! Yet, I remained in my post, for various reasons.

  My average was 40 hours at best, to 25 hours at worst. Again: I'm talking about REGULAR pioneering. For SIX years.

  That, more or less, was the case with many pioneers I knew. And the other ones that managed to throw in 70 hours or more, did that thanks to extremely low-quality 'witnessing'. (such as taking unbaptized children from the KH and ''squeezing'' them to acquire their hours ) The average of REG pioneers in my country, just before the stats vanished from the KM, was at 55 hours. No wonder why they stopped posting the full stats in the KM...

  So, do you want to inflate a certain statistic? No problem, just lower the standards for the respected field, and voila! 250% increase!

  It sure reminds me of the fake growth statistics spouted out every morning from the loudspeakers in Orwell's "1984"...
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  26

  In Death lies Glory

  by BluePill2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was alone at the new branch construction site in ticuantepe (nicaragua).

  everybody had taken off for a weekend assembly in the capital and it was my turn to have watchman duty and guard the site.

  we had dogs and i only had to walk around the perimeters and check all the gates and entrances.. suddenly a young boy appeared at the main gate, breathless and visibly nervous.

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  Syme

  One of my favourite writers, after discussing how the Sun will die in some 5 billion years, then proceeds to make the following analogy: Since even the Sun itself does die eventually, who are we to want to live forever? (I translated it, he said it better in his native tongue )

  The writer suffered from cancer when he wrote that book, and died shortly after. He did not succumb to the easy solution of religion. Until the end he remained a fervent atheist and dialectical materialist.

  Thanks again, BluePill.
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  12

  Recent refinements / changes in WTS

  by Da.Furious in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  we had our co visit and on his second talk he mentioned we need to be a pillar and support of the truth.

  we can do this by accepting and working with all the changes, refinements and the speed of jehovahs organisation moving forward.. he listed the refinements and changes that occurred in the last couple of years:.

  1- study edition of wt - allows the society to use more meaty articles and not worry about non jws understanding them.. 2- public edition of wt and awake.

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  Syme

  Yes, I heard that talk too.

  Here's the hypocrite aspect of the talk (and the BORG in general): From the 10 above-mentioned 'refinements', at least 8 of them have to do with the financial difficulties of the Organization, which extend over a period of the past 5-6 years. However, the financial aspect was not stated EVEN ONCE during the talk as a reason for the 'refinement'. Instead, they state some ridiculous pretenses about ''having more time for study'' etc, etc; while even a 5-year-old can see that the main reasons are economic.

  It's like the elephant in the room, they all see it, but pretend that there's no elephant.

  That is hypocrisy, the definition of it.
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  92

  COBE cannot be 80 or more

  by fader77 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a new letter no longer allows an elder to be cobe if hes 80 or more.

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  Syme

  Thanks for the intell, Fader77.

  Now, WHY? Why hadn't we thought of it before? (Some of you may have had). Why didn't we realise what the true purpose of those recent WT articles about the ''elderly'' was?

  It was right under our noses; we should have noticed it. (again, I believe some of you here will have had noticed it)

  The COBE in 'my' cong is 82 years old. He is very intelligent, absolutely no signs of dementia, very serious reader/researcher, very good at organizing and leading; there's absolutely no reason he should be removed from his post.

  I *will* feel sorry for the guy, but I hope he will wake up.

  I don't know guys, I have a feeling, a hunch, that this particular change is bound to wake lots of Dubs up.

  On the other hand, it will be a major blow for many COBEs like the one I mentioned. I'm afraid some may even suffer heart strokes. It is not an exaggeration; some will perish (literally) because of this violent change.

  They're just throwing them away like used ,well, things. And they came up with those ridiculous articles about the elderly just to pave the way for this change! It is the essence of Orwellian functioning. It makes me soooo sick
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  52

  It is so obviously a lie......now

  by snare&racket in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  once the spell is broken, one you take a deep fresh breath outisde of the watchtower camp, the amazingly obvious realisation becomes clear.... of course this is a lie, of course this is ridiculous!

  you find you have memories of really believing the claims and promises, but it seems like another life, another experience.

  it seems so incredibly false once you leave and it is very difficult to belive you even once accepted it!

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  Syme

  Excellent article, snare&racket !
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  9

  Hope -And A Conspiracy Confirmed

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.businessinsider.com/buttonwood-one-dollar-one-vote-2014-5.

  just because the 'truth" is nonsense doesn't mean i don't hope for a better world.. .

  in recent years, there have been a lot of people on the fringes complaining that the western world in particular is ruled by an unaccountable elite.

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  Syme

  Metatron,

  What you grasped is correct, but did you need a recent PhD assertion to realise it? It is not news, no news at all.

  What you described is not some big secret: it is called CAPITALISM, the economic system on which most countries of the world are based. The economic system that enables a 1% of a given population to thrive on the remaining 99% by exploiting them. And it's no new system, it is some centuries old.

  And we don't need any 'conspiracy theories' and New-Age analyses to reveal it; do you know a guy called Karl Marx? He explained them all more than 150 years ago. Everything that is going on in today's world, was thoroughly foretold by Marx in his writings. He was not a prophet, he was a thinker who used the scientific method to explain history and society.

  So, if you want to learn deeper how the world's engine works, get over the Cold-war anticommunist propaganda, and read Marx.
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  22

  Is It Possible? Are They Retiring To Warwick?

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm not making a bold assertion here, just pursuing an idea.

  what would have to happen to prove that the watchtower is probably "packing it up", conceding the field, retiring to their new headquarters in senescent peace?.

  the dramatic changes we have observed are mostly motivated by money or legal concerns - but not all, as with cutting back on meetings.. you could reasonably have an old guard that still fanatically hopes for armageddon, any day now, while younger men keep their doubts private.

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  Syme

  "The dramatic changes we have observed are mostly motivated by money or legal concerns - but not all, as with cutting back on meetings."

  Who said the cutting back on meetings doesn't have to do with economic reasons?

  More meetings means more expenses for the KH and more personal expenses for the members to go/return from meetings. This means less contributions in the box.

  The cut of book study in 2009 and the just-announced cut on CO-visit meetings is to be viewed in the general consolidation plan that is going on in the last few years. Every organizational change (and not only organizational) in the WT-Land, especially since 2008 (start of world economic crisis), has to do with money. EVERYTHING.
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  40

  OMG I'm so happy!!!!

  by Julia Orwell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  yup, the apostate is happy.

  i shouldn't be, right, because my life is empty without "jehovah" and the organisation.. but i just got a job at one of the best theme parks in the world, which is so what i want to do, and it's the first permanent job i've had since i lost my government job in 2012!.

  the job pays minimum wage but i don't care because working in tourism and entertainment is what i want to do!

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  Syme

  Congrats Julia!
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  39

  ELDER BOOK to be HANDED OVER to Min.of Justice (FINLAND)

  by RagingBull in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  jehovah's witnesses to hand over top-secret manualon friday finland's jehovah's witnesses will give their religious rule book to the minister of justice and the minister of the interior so that it can be inspected to ensure that it's in line with finnish rule of law.

  jehovah's witnesses will hand over their secret rule book to the minister of justice, anna-maja henriksson, and the minister of the interior, paivi rasanen.

  image: heikki saukkomaa / lehtikuva until now, only senior members of the jehovahs witnesses committee have had access to the congregation's secret book of rules.. the disciplinary activities of the jehovah's witnesses committee have been criticised for violating human rights.. according to anna-maja henriksson, finland's minister of justice, the purpose of the handover is to examine the book and determine whether its rules and regulations run counter to finnish law.. henriksson and interior minister paivi rasanen met on thursday with the leadership of the jehovah's witnesses in helsinki.

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  Syme

  Come on guys, this is good news as it is!

  Even without the handwritten notes, the Shepherd book is a *piece of art* in its own right. Let them send a blank copy; no problem. When the minister reads it, I'm sure she'll be shocked and appalled.

  I've known and used this book (and the old one) in various occasions (if you know what I mean). Especially the part which describes the judicial procedure, is bound to give the minister the chills. It is Maleus Maleficarum of the 21st century. No handwritten notes are needed. IF it reaches the minister's hands indeed, and she reads it, she will know exactly what to do. But that's a big ''IF'' there: we don't know yet the outcome of this effort. Let's not be too optimistic, the WTS has survived through harsher inquiries.

  RagingBull, please keep us posted if and when we have further news :)