Posts by slimboyfat

62

The status of women in early Christianity

by Leolaia in

the watchtower society maintains a very strict gender dichotomy in its organization.

this is news to no one.

although men -- in many cases, unqualified men -- are expected to reach for advancement within local congregations (e.g.

slimboyfat

This is an interesting thread I never read before.

78

A stunning piece of LOGIC from the Apostle Paul

by nicolaou in

1st corinthians 15 12-17. but if it is preached that christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even christ has been raised.

and if christ has not been raised, your faith is futile... .

If it could be proved that the material universe operates independently of observation that would probably be a disproof of biocentrism. Lanza's main argument seems to be that there is evidence that observation affects causation in the material world. He is suggesting a paradigm shift is in order because the irregularities in the traditional conception of the universe are mounting up. Anything showing that observation does not affect the material world would undermine his argument.

If we ask Lanza how his idea is falsifiable it might be a fair question to ask how the traditional view of the world is falsifiable. If either consciousness arises from the material universe or the material universe arises from consciousness. Why assume it's the former and not the latter? Is there any rational or falsifiable basis for prioritising one explanation over the other? Just because it seems a bit Star Trek or Twilight Zone, doesn't mean it's not true. Just because one view is traditional and dominant doesn't in itself make it more rational than an alternative if the alternative has equal explanatory power.

Yes I was a postman for a few months only. It was much easier then because deliveries were only 2 hours long and sometimes finished by half past 10 on a Tuesday which was the lightest day.

38

What Were Your Elders Real World Jobs?

by pale.emperor in

we all know that education is severely demonized in this religion.

and that the elders are appointed based on how many meetings they attend, hours they put in on the ministry and general attitude to other elders (as apposed to, you know, actual theological training and counseling) - so my question is, what were your elders occupations outside the kingdom hall?.

in my old congregation our elders consisted of:.

slimboyfat

In the mid 1990s as best I recall:

A retired bus driver

A heating engineer in charge of a hospital (don't even know the correct name for this job but quite skilled)

An electrical engineer for a large company (also skilled job)

A pharmaceutical representative (don't know how highly skilled but certainly well paid)

A factory worker (not sure what this involved)

A supermarket shop worker (also pioneer and from MTS)

A retail worker (another pioneer from MTS)

I don't know the congregation well enough now to say how all the elders are employed. But I do know there are at least 4 retired brother and 2 unemployed/caregivers serving as elders.

101

HELP needed from folks in UK, esp. in Scotland!

by WTS Archive in

jw
friends

tl;dr: if you live either in scotland or in other parts of uk and you don't mind traveling, you might be able to help a fellow ex-jw by being present during a courtcase where she alone has to face more than two dozens of jws who have ruined their business.

please contact me directly for details on when and where the court case will be held (i will know these details in few days probably).

ps.

slimboyfat

We had a Polish brother in our congregation who was a bit contentious and some said paranoid. For example one time he found a bottle in the KH cupboard labelled "Polish Remover". He finally started attending a nearby congregation instead, although he still lives in the territory. True story.

37

More speculation on Kingdom Hall closers and money grabbing?

by Crazyguy in

there continues to be more and more rumors of more halls being sold off some even taking the first offer.

the borg trying to get thier bond money back from the court in san diego asap and there's been elders meetings about this consolidation.

my questions is why after selling off all this real estate in new york for over a billion dollars are they still acting like thier broke?

slimboyfat

I agree Searcher, there was definitely panic surrounding Lett's public begging in 2015 and Herd's cutbacks announcement. The closure of old and well established branches has also been rapid and not very orderly.

But then, maybe they've done enough now to deal with their money problems.

101

HELP needed from folks in UK, esp. in Scotland!

by WTS Archive in

jw
friends

tl;dr: if you live either in scotland or in other parts of uk and you don't mind traveling, you might be able to help a fellow ex-jw by being present during a courtcase where she alone has to face more than two dozens of jws who have ruined their business.

please contact me directly for details on when and where the court case will be held (i will know these details in few days probably).

ps.

slimboyfat

According to the JW website there are Polish congregations in Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, but no Polish congregation in Dundee, although Dundee Clepington congregation has "some meetings" in Polish.

Actually quite surprised and impressed to find there are enough Polish JWs in Scotland for five congregations! There are only around 100 congregations overall so that's about 5%. Any Poles I have met have been staunch Catholics with a strong sense of community. I guess JWs pick up the few who lose contact with the community or who have some JW connection back home

78

A stunning piece of LOGIC from the Apostle Paul

by nicolaou in

1st corinthians 15 12-17. but if it is preached that christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even christ has been raised.

and if christ has not been raised, your faith is futile... .

slimboyfat

Have fun, in my day it was a 5 am start and two deliveries. ;-)

Yes Lanza has been associated with "the Chopra" but don't hold that against him. He's also a highly respected scientist. I don't know if I'm convinced by biocentrism but it's a surprisingly interesting idea. The nature of reality may be more elusive than many give it credit for. It may be very far from having been all figured out.

38

Were Conventions, Asemblies and the Memorials boring to you?

by HereIgo in

conventions always just seemed like more of a vacation to me than anything else, especially if you had to travel out of town for it, but definitely were exhausting especially toward the end of each day.

for some reason i didn't mind the special and circuit assemblies too much, probably because they seemed like more of a social event than anything else and only 1-2 days.

the memorial always was kind of boring to me.

slimboyfat

On the whole I liked conventions, because, for a young person, I was strangely interested in things like four-part symposiums on the prophet Habakkuk and new light on Daniel's prophecy and so on. What did get a bit boring to me, were the talks on things like how to be a good pioneer, that were very long, said absolutely nothing new, and included gems like: don't walk too slow between doors, don't waste our precious literature, and conduct progressive Bible Studies. I swear, looking back, the function of these tedious talks was purely to turn your brains into compliant mush, because there was absolutely nothing practical or interesting ever contained in them.

78

A stunning piece of LOGIC from the Apostle Paul

by nicolaou in

1st corinthians 15 12-17. but if it is preached that christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even christ has been raised.

and if christ has not been raised, your faith is futile... .

slimboyfat

I can't understand why the idea of resurrection should be incredible. I used to view it that way but not any more. When I thought it was an incredible idea it was because I was convinced that universe only comprises physical things and physical causes, and that science has explained where we came from and where we are likely going. There's not much mystery left and attempts to fill in parts with mystical things like angels and resurrections were just wishful thinking at best.

But a few things changed my view on this. First of all my worldview was based on a pretty strong inclination that there is no supreme being. If there is a supreme being then it seems to me there should be little problem for him performing a resurrection. Especially now that science offers the prospect of manipulating matter at the level of atoms and of storing massive information. Why shouldn't a supreme being be able to do this if he wishes?

So, saying that we find the idea of a resurrection incredible amounts to little more than saying we find the idea of a supreme being incredible. And I find that increasinly difficult to say. Because the very fact of our existence and our ability to ponder our existence is itself so strange a self-existent being outside of space and time seems a plausible explanation. And if it is possible that God exists then why shouldn't he perform a resurrection?

The more we find out about reality the more it seems a purely material explanation does not exhaust all that there is. The prevailing worldview is that the material universe has given rise to life which in turn has given rise to consciousness. But what if it's the other way around? Have you heard of biocentrism?

https://youtu.be/zI_F4nOKDSM

The problem with atheist sceptics, I often find, is they are simply not sceptical enough. There is so much about reality we do not know that it is really very premature to be definitively closing doors on any possibilities.

15

Christadelphians the closest to JW?

by ab.ortega in

i am curious as to what current religion is similar in beliefs and organization to jw's.

i've only come as far as christadelphians.

are there any others you know of?.

slimboyfat

Christadelphians are close but don't believe in the Devil.

The Church of God of the Abraham Faith is closer. These are sister religious bodies to JWs, sharing common origins, though long alienated.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_God_General_Conference