by R.F. 29 Replies latest jw friends
A lot of people are praying right now, and I'm thinking of those people, but we'll never meet, so no one can relate the experience.
I always thought coincidence or phony story. I didn't view it as something done out of malice, just like a parable, to make a point. We, too, were only there for the food.
What happens when you go to every door in a territory? There will be a certain number that are down at that time, and those will be looking for someone to talk to or lift their spirits. Then they get the book with its specious logic, and it looks like the answer to their prayers. Then they get involved and find out that it becomes their whole life, and they usually end up worse off than when they started.
There is no way it can be the angels directing the work. That is a lie. If you work the territory the way it's supposed to, you are going to reach everyone whether or not they want it. And they will give the angels credit when it happens that one of them is the one who was praying--since they are supposed to be out all the time, they would have been hit whether or not they prayed for it. All illusion.
Many years ago that renown Austrianapfelstrudel - Carl Jung - investigated coincidences and tried to attach mystical/spiritual meaning to them. He coined the word synchronicity and looked for invisible forces at work that were responsible for these coincidences.
Any mathematician could have told him that it is all just numbers game.
There is a certainty that JWs will regularly call on people who have prayed to their uncommunicative god for help or guidance. They will call on people who have been bereaved and want to believe that there is hope for the dead. They will call on people who are sick of living in this old world and want a hope for the future.
The JWs offer to deliver just what these vulnerable people want, right to their door, free of charge, and with a warm smile while claiming that their god is orchestrating these unions.
Don't be fooled!
trev...
Open Mind said it better than I could...Of course co incidences happen but that's life.!
Say you are on the point of signing a credit deal for a car purchase, on the way to tie up the deal you hear a radio advert for a much better deal. You stop and find you have save a packet. Thats not divine intervention (although a few dubs I have known would claim that if it happened to them) it is just the benefit of a good marketing campaign, e.g. The Field Ministry.
Junction Guy said that he was told that the disfellowshipped could not pray and be heard by God. I am sure that some think that, but even as a dub I would have refuted it. Are the WTS able to place limits on God and tell him who to listen to? As Paul would say "Never may that happen" I have heard experiences on assembly platforms where the reinstated claim to have had prayers heard , and this was acknowledged by the Assembly.
When I was a dub, I believed in those so called "experiences". Just like I believed everything else that they taught me. I remember listening to one of those "experiences" at a district convention.
Supposedly, an elderly couple were working on their shutters when a young JW man (that was going door to door) approached them. Apparently the young JW offered to assist the couple with installing their shutters. When they were all done the elderly wife said,"My husband was just complaining, about doing all this hard work. And I told him that if he would just believe in God more, things would be easier. Then my husband said to me, 'If there is a God, then why doesn't he send a young man to help me put up these shutters!' Just then you walked up!" I remember how moved the assembly crowd was and we all started clapping after hearing about this "experience". I believed it and said to myself, "This MUST be the Truth!!!"
Do I still believe that God sent that JW to that couple's door? Nope. Not at all. I think thepackage said it best: It's the law of probability. If you knock on enough doors you'll find somebody...
TCK
"A scrap of paper was used as part of the nest - the patient pulled it out and found it was part of a Watchtower or Awake magazine."
I wonder if it had any bird crap on it, truly making it "Craptower" material.
I wonder if it had any bird crap on it, truly making it "Craptower" material
Oh, Poppers, that was a good one! My first laugh of the day.
It's, as Open Mind put it, a statistical certainty. Internet spam operates on the same principle. They flood the net with emails because they know that 0.0001% will respond and that is enough people to make it a worthwhile endeavor. Or you could ask 2,000 people to write down a number between 1 and 100 and you can videotape yourself guessing the number. If you ask enough people, you can get an impressive number of "hits" once you ignore all the misses.
Hassan relates that he had prayed fervently before receiving whay he beleived to be a sign pointing him to the Moonies. He also relates how he had met several people in the group who stated that they had been praying for guidance shortly prior to being contacted by a Moonie recruiter. - Arthur
That is a perfect example of how an ''answered'' prayer is all about perception.
Belief overwrites logic and reason.
It alters your perceptions and therefore your reality.
I prefer to base my perception on the real world.
Of course this sort of 'it was meant to be,' fatalistic approach to life is as dangerous as any religion. What it comes down to is whether we believe invisible forces control our lives or we don't.
Superstition/supernatural all refer to a belief that such mysterious forces are controlling our world.
Whether you believe they do or not is vitally important. Once you surrender you destiny and purpose to invisible forces that you believe have ultimate control over your life, you have diluted and weakened you own power.
In the words of Simon & Garfunkel - you have squandered your resistance for a pocket full of mumbles.
But it is Saturday night and I am enjoying a bottle of superb chilled wine - not my fault - it was meant to be...
trev
