Posts by seattleniceguy

54

There were some good things about the organisation...

by Do I Stand Alone? in

jw
friends

i have read a number of experiences in this discussion forum and quite frankly, i would have to agree that many, if not all, were pretty terrible experiences if not all together traumatic.

i know that my personal 9-11 tragedy resulted in finding out that the watchtower society was involved with the united nations.

that pretty much said it all as far as my "career" in the organisation was concerned.

seattleniceguy

Hello, Do I Stand Alone, and welcome to the board!

I understand where you are coming from, and I have considered the question of benefit from the WT in the past, but in all honesty, I don't believe that there was any true benefit, except possibly in gaining firsthand experience of how people can be controlled.

With regard to the possible benefits of gaining confidence in public speaking, I have two things to say about that. First, not many Witnesses actually are good public speakers. Certainly, there are a few standouts, but I think it is more probable that the ones that were good speakers were simply naturally attuned to that. And secondly, even if there were some marginal benefits in this regard, it is possible to find benefits in anything. For example, if your house was run down with a bulldozer, you might be able to look on the bright side and see that at least you were finally going to get a chance to redecorate your bathroom. But surely there were less traumatic ways of getting there!

All in all, I don't think the JW organization offers any positive benefits to its followers. I think the reality is simply that some people are able to derive benefit in spite of the organization.

Just my two (or maybe three) cents. :-) Hope you'll stick around!

SNG

45

light skin: so much for intelligent design...

by googlemagoogle in

... and evolution, by the way.

if we were designed by an intelligent creator, why the heck do we light-skinned people get burnt to death when the sun is shining?

not very intelligent design... .

seattleniceguy

georgefoster,

I thought evolution had to do with the development of species. You evolutionists are getting all giddy on this thread about the amount of pigmentation in people's skin around the world. Skin is skin.

Evolution is about change of heritable characteristics in populations over time. Skin color definitely is a heritable characteristic, and is therefore subject to the forces of natural selection. The historic distribution of fair- and dark-skinned people is definitely an example of evolution in action. The concept of "species" is a man-made one. Evolution does not act at any particular level or respect man-made boundaries. From a completely naturalistic point of view, it would better to think of evolution as simply "change over time." The change can be in any heritable characteristic. Hope that helps. SNG

15

PBS special " Knocking " info.

by Tigerman in

jw
friends

just checked my e-mail and found info from the folks who are putting out the " knocking," pbs special sometime in early 2006.

( i signed up to be kept informed.

) if you are not acquainted with this film project go to www.knocking.org.

seattleniceguy

A few days ago I received an email response from an intern who said that they had had their eyes opened by reading my mail, and that the contents matched their experiences when a member of an Evangelical Christian group. The intern said they were grateful for the letter and promised to forward it to the directors.

I don't know how much impact it actually will have, but it seemed like it was definitely not a form letter. I hope the directors are able to read and benefit from the letter.

SNG

45

light skin: so much for intelligent design...

by googlemagoogle in

... and evolution, by the way.

if we were designed by an intelligent creator, why the heck do we light-skinned people get burnt to death when the sun is shining?

not very intelligent design... .

seattleniceguy

As several people have already pointed out, evolution provides for skin color adaptation quite adequately. Here is a brief article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color

In brief, skin color is definitely related to the living environment over historic time. Here is an enlightening illustration:

Notice that the parts of the world exposed to the most intense sunlight have on average the people with the darkest skin.

Another interesting fact is that women have lighter skin than men on average in every part of the world. This makes evolutionary sense since lighter skin allows more light to penetrate and assists in the production of vitamin D3, which is necessary for calcium absorption, which is needed by women for pregnancy and lactation.

SNG

81

Apostasy - A Racist Movement?

by slimboyfat in

firpo carr argues that while many white apostates claim to highlight so-called 'racist' remarks and terminology in the watchtower literature, most such apostates are in fact white and have little real interest in black issues.

they are only interested in the issue in so far as they can use it to promote white anti-witness propaganda, whereas a high percentage of loyal witnesses are black.

i know that all the terms of my topic are debatable: apostacy is a witness term of derogation; apostates probably are mostly liberal and not racist (essentially); and they are not a 'movement' in any case.

seattleniceguy

SBF,

This really is a silly thread. Note:

There is no such thing as an "apostate movement." "Apostates" are merely people who have disagreed with and removed themselves from the JW organization.
You have no statistics whatsoever on race among people who have left the JW organization. It is not possible to accurately infer statistics based on "leaders" in a movement that does not exist.
As IP_SEC pointed out, charges of racism in early JW doctrine comprises only the tiniest portion of the "apostate" arsenal. Personally, I have never invoked such a charge. I am content to stay in the realm of science.

It is good to see you on the board, though. And hey, it's never too late to join the movement. :-)

SNG

170

What does your name MEAN?

by RichieRich in

jw
friends

we all are identified by our names here on jwd.

some use their real names, and others pick a moniker that is their nickname or perhaps a few words from a song they like.. why did you pick your name?.

for instance,.

seattleniceguy

I have many interests, so I don't think I could choose a username that reflected any particular one of them, and still be fair to the rest. I live in Seattle, and I try to be a good guy, so I felt like seattleniceguy summed up my persona pretty well.

My real name is Brian, which means "strong." My last name means "crayfish" in Hungarian. So I guess I'm a badass shellfish. :-)

SNG

19

Neaderthals and the Hobbits what the heck?

by skyman in

jw
friends

to me not believing that they were alive and human living at the same time as us is like believing in the tooth fairy.

dna proves the neanderthals lived and were human but not us.

they lived worshipped wore jewry and buried their dead.

seattleniceguy

Hello skyman,

I think that a JW who considers Neandertals thoughtfully will have to reassess much of their worldview. Here's an article I wrote about Neandertals: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/88271/1.ashx

It is interesting that the evidence on Neandertals is not scant as Witnesses might have people believe. Over 400 Neandertals have been unearthed so far, and we have recovered DNA from at least eight of them now. See the article above for more details.

SNG

39

New here.....kinda

by lola28 in

jw
friends

hey everyone, this is my first post and i'am terrefied.

i have been lurking for over a year and finally decided that it was time to post.

i feel like i know all of you and feel more at home here than at the kingdom hall.

seattleniceguy

Welcome lola!

I know what you mean about the shock of finding that people can simply forget you existed when you stop attending meetings. It is shocking but true: Witnesses do not value the individual, only their role as a cog in the machine.

Here, however, you will be valued as an individual. I hope you enjoy the board, learn a lot, and continue to share your experiences!

SNG

20

JW dating sites and the number of divorced!

by toladest in

jw
friends

i was curious to see if i knew anyone that would post on a jw dating site so i checked out jw connections that is linked to on this page.

i did not find anyone i know but i was kinda shocked to see the number of ones there that were "divorced, but free to marry".

is this a big problem now or is it just that more divorced jw's use the web to find "mates".

seattleniceguy

toladest,

Anecdotal evidence indicates that the divorce rate has indeed gone up in the JW organization. However, since they don't subject themselves to demographic scrutiny, it is difficult to come up with any solid figures.

With regard to the dating sites, I would be very careful about drawing conclusions from the slice of the JW population that you see there, since it is probably not a representative subset.

I don't believe that the requirements to divorce and remarry have changed at all, but in my experience, more people are willing to either:

Divorce and hope their ex will have sex with someone, freeing them to remarry
Divorce and deliberately have sex with someone, and then show repentance, hoping for a pardon
Divorce and accept not being able to marry again

In my last hall, there were many divorced people. Probably close to half the marriagable publishers had been divorced.

SNG

36

Meat eating preditors will eat grass like a lamb!

by jimakazi in

jw
friends

i am always a little pi***d when i see jw illustrations showing lions and tigers in the close vacinity of samll children, lambs and other meaty treats with no safety barriers.

[why this is paradise is beyound me - these anaimals smell].. so if we assume an intelligent creator, why would he create large meat eating preditors if he really ment them to eat grass?

every thing about their make up is about specialistation, from teeth, to jaws, to how their stomachs work.

seattleniceguy

Hello jimakazi! Welcome to the board!

So if we assume an intelligent creator, why would he create large meat eating preditors IF he really ment them to eat grass? Every thing about their make up is about specialistation, from teeth, to jaws, to how their stomachs work.

This definitely poses an interesting problem to any serious thinking JW. And the big mammals aren't even the half of it. How about meat eating snakes, birds, fish, insects, and spiders. Especially in the arthropod world (spiders and insects) there is an entire universe of cunning and downright scary tactics for devouring one another. Did God design these guys to eat grass? I don't think so.

SNG