Posts by slimboyfat

73

Did God know adam and eve would sin?

by gavindlt in

to all those on this forum, i would love to know what your take on this vital question is..

slimboyfat

God chose not to know.

Have you ever been shocked in a dream? As in running away from someone, running around a corner and BAM! they’re right there. What a shock! Did you know they’d be round the corner? Obviously not, or you wouldn’t have woken up in such a fight. But where did the dream come from? Your own mind surely. So did you know what was round the corner? On some level the mind knew it and didn’t know it at the same time. It’s the only way to explain how your mind both produced the dream and was shocked by the dream at the same time. On some level your mind chose not to know what it knew for the purpose of the dream playing out.

This may be an analogy for the sense in which God chose not to know what humans would do in order to give them room for free action and to be fairly held accountable for their actions. If us mere humans can compartmentalise our knowledge in a dream, can’t almighty God choose not to know some aspects of the future if he so desires? Surely he can. The witness of scripture is that God offered humans a genuine choice and not a foreknown one. This is what necessitates that God chose not to know whether humans would obey or rebel.

3150

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

by Simon in

jw
friends

uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

slimboyfat

Good to hear you’re better ForeverAlone, and all you’ve overcome to get here. 👍

I’ve never taken any illegal drugs, but I have been intrigued by recent news about mushrooms having healing properties and expanding consciousness. The suggestion that government and pharmaceutical companies would want to suppress this as a treatment because they can’t make money out of it sounds entirely plausible to me.

In particular I have been persuaded by comments by idealist philosopher Bernardo Kastrup on the topic (look him up) but have so far resisted the temptation. I came across some information that people with colour blindness should avoid psychedelic mushrooms for some reason, so that’s a reason I would avoid them anyway. Plus it being illegal, although that may change, and probably should in my opinion.

14

Is the 1000 year reign literal?

by gavindlt in

to all those on this students on this forum, i would love to know what your view is?.

slimboyfat

I think it is meant to be literal for what it’s worth, although I’ve not got any good arguments for it handy. I think it corresponds to the “Lord’s day” in Rev 1.10, which many think means just “Sunday”, and I think is not exactly JW teaching either, but seems to make sense to me.

33

Where’s the 2023 Service Report?

by slimboyfat in

what’s keeping them?

this has got to be the latest it’s ever been.

maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers ….

slimboyfat

They announced that the full report would be published in January when they posted the edited highlights on their news page a few weeks ago. The news items get deleted after a month or so, so I don’t think it’s there any more.

33

Where’s the 2023 Service Report?

by slimboyfat in

what’s keeping them?

this has got to be the latest it’s ever been.

maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers ….

slimboyfat

What’s keeping them? This has got to be the latest it’s ever been.

Maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers …

3150

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

by Simon in

jw
friends

uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

slimboyfat

He met God and God told him it was Kim Silvio’s fault. Sounds legit. 👍

3150

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

by Simon in

jw
friends

uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

slimboyfat

I don’t think it’s a silly question at all. I think there’s a lot of evidence that altered states of consciousness may give greater insight into the nature of reality than our everyday perception.

I’ve not watched the video, I’m just responding to the idea that chemically induced visions can be easily dismissed. I’ve not tried mushrooms or any other perception altering drugs either, so I don’t have experience, but I listen to those who have with open minded interest.

3150

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)

by Simon in

jw
friends

uh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.

slimboyfat

Oh Lordy here we go.

Has he decided on this as a way back?

I’m not in a hurry to watch it to find out.

109

Why disfellowship must be eliminated for the survival of the WT itself

by TheScientist in

this topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.

many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.

in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".

slimboyfat

The point about the census data is that they show Watchtower figures give a conservative estimate of their membership whereas other groups such as the Mormons grossly inflate their numbers. It seems that the Mormon church counts practically everybody who was ever baptised as a member regardless of whether they still have any contact with the church. That’s why you end up with the church claiming over a million members in Brazil but less than 300,000 describing themselves as Mormons in the census. For JWs it’s the other way round because their own count is far fewer than the census figure.

On one hand Watchtower is at a disadvantage financially because they discourage members from getting an education and a career and they don’t collect a tithe. On the other hand they discourage members from having children and instruct them to cut off contact with children if they leave the religion. As a result a considerable number of JWs leave their assets to the organisation in their will. Former Bethelites have confirmed the organisation receives a lot of money this way, especially now the baby boomer generation is dying off who accumulated property assets during the postwar period. Watchtower is not as rich as the Mormon church but they are probably comfortable within their current needs.

109

Why disfellowship must be eliminated for the survival of the WT itself

by TheScientist in

this topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.

many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.

in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".

slimboyfat

The Scientist

You are aware that JWs consistently number far higher in national censuses compared with their own statistics? This is in contrast with other religious groups.

As one example the 2010 census in Brazil showed that 1.4 million self-identified as JW. This is hundreds of thousands higher than the publisher figure given by Watchtower.

By contrast the same census found only 226,000 identified themselves as Mormons. This was far lower than the 1.17:million members claimed by the Mormon church.

Mormons exaggerated their numbers by over 400% whereas Watchtower underestimated JW numbers by more than 50% compared with the census figure of self-identified JWs.

This pattern is repeated across all countries that count religion in the census: far more describe themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses than are claimed as publishers by Watchtower.