Syme

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Posts by Syme

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  18

  How was it for you when you had to shun someone?

  by Anator in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember a good friend when i was in and active who was d'fd.

  when he started coming back, for me at that time is was gut-wrenching not to say 'hello' or at the very least encourage him to continue.

  i thought even at this time, does this act of shunning really effective?

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  Syme

  I am ashamed to say that while fully "in", I shunned completely by the book. Even as an elder, I lifted the shunning rule only when it was necessary for religious reasons.

  Alright, I'll refer to a specific incident, confession-like, which might get you angry (justifiably).
  

  Last days as an elder, we had a funeral. The deceased person's daughter was recently DF'ed; I had been in her JC. When we entered the room to give condolences, I passed beside her, giving condolences to all relatives except her. Of course, she was so upset that she called us few minutes later in a room and put a complaint about me in front of the other elders. That shook me well. (She ought to have punched me in the face.) A few days later I was due to deletion, for irrelative reasons. I phoned her, a day before the deletion announcement, and apologized to her for the extreme shunning, almost crying. Fortunately, she accepted my apology. That incident was just few months before my waking up.

  We've done, as jdubs, nasty stuff, more or less. Shunning alone is one of the nastiest. We can't change that, but we can try hard not to be judgmental now, whatever our current affiliation and views are.
  
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  7

  Isn't it ironic that JDubs are the most judgmental people of all? You all know what I am talking about!

  by macys in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  matthew 7:1-5. do not judge, or you too will be judged.

  2 for in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

  3 why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

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  Syme

  Very true story, macys. And sir82, my thoughts exactly on "spirituality". Add to that, that in the last few years spirituality means giving jw business cards or sitting behind a cart, playing with your smartphone. At least when we went with the Bible on hand (and sometimes, with only the Bible) and had vigorous conversations with all sorts of fellas, well, it was a little different. It sure was a complete falsehood back then just as it is now, but at least it required of you to actually use your brain a little, and have real argument-making conversations.
  

  Ask a j-dub how many books she/he has in their library, apart from the Borg books; IF he has a non-theocratic library, that is. Ask them how many, and what books have they read apart from the NWT and the Borg stuff. That should give you a meter of how spiritual they really are.
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  29

  Reading the Bible in 6 months isn't "anything to brag about" - Anthony Morris

  by mac n cheese in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the 2015 annual meeting, specifically, part 1, right about minute 27, has anthony morris emphasizing that "you're better off reading one chapter (of the bible) and really absorbing it" than just reading the whole thing "as a challenge".

  while i agree with the the whole idea of meditating on anything you read, it was doing this very thing that brought up so many unanswered questions.

  i also came to the constant realization that the jws did not have a clue about what the bible really said.

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  Syme

  JWs recite the Bible, they don't read it as in studying. They "read" it like Catholics "read" the rosary, or Muslims recite the Koran. It's more of a ritual, a standardized procedure, than actual reading. It has nothing to do with the mentality of reading books. There's no critical thinking involved; there's nothing intellectual in it.

  It can hardly be called "reading".
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  27

  Full 2015 Annual Meeting Program

  by wifibandit in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=plrw9u-n1z2m8peenfmbdxmvbdkum0ce1n.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uppgsfl6o5k.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9j8ivkmkvk.

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  Syme

  @DATA-DOG: LOL man!
  
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  29

  Why do people kill each other?

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  why do there have to be wars?

  why is there so much hatred?.

  the collective answer i came up with is natalisam, or maybe the correct word should be politics?

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  Syme

  Archaeology and paleoanthropology show that violence was much more prevalent in prehistorical bands and groups, than it is today. Violence between rival bands is also very often in some our closest relatives today, the chimpanzees.

  When the first archaic members of Homo sapiens set foot into a new territory, one of the first things they did was exploit to the point of extinction many other species of animals and plants, including other hominids, and even other human rival tribes. That was the rule back then. (and yes, man-caused extinction is a really old habit.)
  

  The "noble savage" notion of Rousseau has been proven today to be a total myth.
  

  Organized society still holds to many injustices and has not stopped wars and violence worldwide; still, in general it is a lot safer world (and time) to live, than living in pre-organized times and places. (This doesn't guarantee, of course, that things will get even better in the future; study of the past indicates, it doesn't prophesy.)

  The evidence indicates that while peace-keeping and altruism are part of our nature when it comes to a tightly tied group like a family, when it comes to relations between groups, violence is our natural tendency. The point of having superior intelligence to other animals is to be able to overcome those bad traits of our nature.
  
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  21

  When did the Watchtower start opposing evolution with respect to animals?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the photo-drama of creation (1912) says that god directed the evolution of animals into their current "fixed" forms, but that humans were created directed.

  the divine plan of the ages said the same thing.

  (various editions late 1800s to early 1900s) the 1898 booklet on evolution opposes the evolution of man but doesn't discuss animal evolution.

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  Syme

  WT literature even up 70s or 80s refers to evolution as a tool of Satan. But since the latest literature accepts the so-called "microevolution", that begs the question (for j-dubs): If microevolution is true, then it is a part of Creation, i.e. a tool of Jehovah. How can microevolution be a tool of Jehovah, and macroevolution a tool of Satan, since it's the same process, just in different time scales?
  

  Even from Russell days, evolution was thought anti-biblical (it is, of course; it's just that Genesis happens to be a total myth). The Bible Students were just a mixing of Adventist and other fundamentalist US-based Christian groups; all those groups had always been creationists and anti-science in general.

  Side note: the 49,000 years theology of JWs does not differ that much from the literal 7-day theology of young-earth creationists. In the scope of geological time (4.6 billion years), 49,000 years and 7 days are roughly the same, the same absurd, at least. And, basically, the WTS hasn't dropped officially the 49,000 years theology, even to this day (last time I checked). An average thinking person can surmise just from that what kind of loony teachings we're talking about.
  
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  40

  We missed you at the meetings

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a vomit inducing comment.. i asked why do they have to specify 'meetings'?

  they never miss us in tesco or the showcase cinema bar.. in their defence, a friend of mine said: 'that's because the meeting is where they normally would see you.'.

  well, if they want to see you they can arrange a meal out or something.

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  Syme

  I agree. That's one of the disadvantages of fading, instead of DA: they feel sorry for you, they have no idea of the real reasons, and since you can't speak openly to them and explain, they assume some lame reason for your not going to the meetings, like stumbling or being weak/discouraged etc.

  Of course, if you DA, they'll not feel sorry or view you as weak, but will view you as Satan incarnate. Either way, it's a win-win situation for their delusional state of being (for the majority of them of course, not all). In other words, they will either pity you (fade) or fear and loathe you (DA).
  
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  34

  Earliest Life on Earth Pushed Back Another 300 Million Years

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  researchers have found evidence of ancient microorganisms that lived in what is now western australia at least 4.1 billion years ago.

  if confirmed, the discovery suggests that life originated on earth 300 million years earlier than previously thought.

  .... the ancient microorganisms in question were found trapped inside zircons formed from magma in western australia.

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  Syme

  Very interesting link, cofty.

  Creationists: "Hey, see? Now scientists say that life appeared instantaneously after the Earth's formation! Isn't that proof that God created life in an instant, just after creating the Earth? Checkmate, evolutionists!"
  
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  9

  Police: Teen killed in N.Y. church assault wanted out

  by KiddingMe in

  1. social
  2. current

  http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/16/us/new-york-church-assault-case/index.html.

  police: teen killed in n.y. church assault wanted out.

  by ray sanchez, cnn.

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  Syme

  Guys, no offense, but I'm afraid the US is one of the most unsafe and dangerous places to live, lately. Be careful, all who live there.
  
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  112

  Did an EX-JW wake you up to TTATT or did you put the effort to wake up yourself?

  by John Aquila in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  how many of us were woken up by some apostate yelling false prophets at a convention?.

  how many of us were woken up by someone holding a sign and yelling, what happened to 1975.

  how many of us were coerced to investigate the wt because some ex-jw pulled up a bunch of old watchtowers magazines and told us to read the false predictions?.

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  Syme

  I woke up by reading about evolution. By seeing the solid evidence for evolution, the next logical step was the realization that WT doctrine (Adam --> Jesus as ransom equal to Adam --> eternal life due to ransom) was fundamentally wrong.

  Reading of Ray Franz and ex-JWs on the Internet came later.