John_Mann - I briefly googled the "Sentient Puddle Fallacy" and the results were very, erm, interesting! Clearly some atheists have a problem with people like me who plead ignorance. Of course, ignorance simply means "not knowing", either intentionally or otherwise. If I COULD know everything, I obviously would try my hardest to - so in that respect I am not ignorant in the negative sense of the word. However, I have to question atheists who think it is impossible to be ignorant as to the origins of the universe, when in fact, we know so little about the universe AS IT IS, never mind how it began. 25% of our universe is dark matter, and 70% is dark energy. Am I to understand that calling something "dark" means that you're no longer "ignorant" of what that thing is, irrespective of the fact that you don't have the slightest idea of how to explain its existence?
The sooner some atheists get to grips with what it means to be ignorant, the sooner I will take them more seriously! People like this guy, jumping up and down complaining about people who admit to being ignorant, come across as angry and delusional to folks like me who understand what "ignorance" actually means - that it isn't intentional, but forced upon us by our own lack of understanding of our universe (at least at this precise moment in human history). If this "Brandon Jett" can explain to me (in full) what dark matter and dark energy is, then I will happily listen to hours of lecturing on how awful it is to be ignorant - and not a moment before!
As to your second point, yes I too believe that an intelligent beginning to the universe needn't necessarily imply a human-like consciousness. That's another area in which I'm entirely open-minded.
sd-7 - yes, publications such as the Daniel, Revelation Climax and Isaiah books really go into over-kill when it comes to exaggerating the relevance of the organization's early history. It really wouldn't surprise me if my theory in point 2 regarding the amount of scriptures attributed to the early JWs proved to be correct, but counting all the words and actually proving it can wait until another day as far as I'm concerned!
Your observations about elders were also interesting. Trust me, when you actually start serving as an elder, your view of them doesn't get any better - if anything it gets worse. You see how very human and POLITICAL the whole elder arrangement is. You see elders lobbying to have their ideas accepted by other elders. You see abuse of power. You see jostling for position. You see outright lies and deception. You name it, it happens!
Like you say, these things have a habit of building up to the point where you just KNOW that the moment you click on an apostate website you will have all your worst fears about the Society confirmed. It's like you know already that it's all bogus, but "what the heck, let's see just how bad it really is"!!
Cedars