Posts by slimboyfat

83

if you had the slightest of doubt about leaving leaving the watchtower org. go to to jwsurvey.org NOW!

by nowwhat? in

and we are suposed to trust these guys with our lives?

!

slimboyfat

It seems you'd have to be pretty naïve, have an inflated sense of your own importance, and lack critical thinking, to actually believe this is a real award. How on earth could the GB have fallen for it?

Actually I think the title of this thread is interesting and somewhat accurate. You'd like to think it's the big things that shake faith in the religion: false prophecy, blood, falsification of science and history and so on. But often it's relatively trivial things like this that "wake" people up.

50

Our COBE(Coordinator Of Body of Elders) Cried at the Kingdom Hall

by James Jack in

it was announced recently, that "bro.

z is no long the coordinator(76 years old), bro y(60) is now the new coordinator of the body of elders".. you see, bro.

z has been an elder for 43 years and 35 of them as the cobe/po.

slimboyfat

Middle aged JWs are the most likely to leave in my experience, just as people are learning a bit more about life and are less idealistic. It would be ironic for the WT leadership to engineer responsibility to be passed on to 30-40 year olds only for most of them subsequently to leave. What do they do then?

18

Can I pick up a New World Translation from the JW London head office?

by Camperdown9 in

i'm an anglican and not a jehovahs witness.

what i dislike about lots of church congregations is their readiness to make unpleasant and unhelpful comments about other christian groups.

recently someone in a church tried to tell me a little about the views of jehovahs witnesses.

slimboyfat

Not sure if they'd give you one at the branch. If you ask JWs at a cart they'd arrange for you to get one. Or you could ask for a visit on their website. Or you could just buy a secondhand copy on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/New-World-Translation-Holy-Scriptures/dp/1624971644/

5

Second Class Citizenship

by Coded Logic in

can you imagine if a person was refused services because they were black?

or because they were christian?

there would be nationwide outrage.

slimboyfat

Excellent cartoon that rightly lampoons fundamentalists' insistence that you show them tolerance and respect.

The tide is definitely turning. In just ten years support for gay marriage in the US for example has climbed enormously from something like 35% to 60%, and rising. Soon support will be pretty much universal and they won't even bother measuring it any more. A new generation will just not put up with discrimination any longer.

127

The people are mobilizing Mr Drumpf

by Simon in

protesters shut down a trump rally.

massive numbers of people are out in chicago and have shut his event down.

there were scuffles inside the event.. despite his lame attempt to pretend the violence he instigates is nothing to do with him it's clear that it is as the cnn quotes during the last event showed only too well.. this doesn't happen at anyone else's events - candidates have even given up the stage to protesters, not called for them to be beaten and punched.. trump is an ugly person and this is just a small taste of what a future under his rule would be like.. shame on the gop for not kicking his ass out.

slimboyfat

Chomsky describes the filter system at about 10.40. It's not so much that reporters self-censor. It's that people who don't share the hegemonic view of the world don't get into those positions in the first place. They are early on labelled as cranks and marginalised. Very few people who actually question the system itself slip through the net. Robert Fisk springs to mind as an exception, but it's not been easy, and you don't see him often in mainstream media.

I agree with Chomsky that there is a lot of media bias. But his additional step that all reporters are indoctrinated and tools of propaganda is moon landing conspiracy stuff.

Well I don't think it's in any way a conspiracy theory to note that the media plays a key role in upholding the current capitalist and imperialist world system. It's a straightforward statement of fact. The media may be good at spotting and exposing corruption operating within the system and eliminating it. But asking basic questions about the corruption of the system itself? It just doesn't happen, and for the reasons Chomsky gives.

127

The people are mobilizing Mr Drumpf

by Simon in

protesters shut down a trump rally.

massive numbers of people are out in chicago and have shut his event down.

there were scuffles inside the event.. despite his lame attempt to pretend the violence he instigates is nothing to do with him it's clear that it is as the cnn quotes during the last event showed only too well.. this doesn't happen at anyone else's events - candidates have even given up the stage to protesters, not called for them to be beaten and punched.. trump is an ugly person and this is just a small taste of what a future under his rule would be like.. shame on the gop for not kicking his ass out.

slimboyfat

I think Chomsky's explanation of how media propaganda works (manufacture of consent) is spot on. He explained it very well in this interview he gave to Andrew Marr years ago. What's amazing about this interview, that viewers outside the UK might not appreciate, is that Andrew Marr is himself an example of what Chomsky is talking about here in the UK because he was very much a media facilitator for Tony Blair in the lead up to the Iraq war. He was basically the main media figure who enabled the government to lie its way into the war. So his challenges to Chomsky are highly ironic in that context.

http://youtu.be/suFzznCHjko

127

The people are mobilizing Mr Drumpf

by Simon in

protesters shut down a trump rally.

massive numbers of people are out in chicago and have shut his event down.

there were scuffles inside the event.. despite his lame attempt to pretend the violence he instigates is nothing to do with him it's clear that it is as the cnn quotes during the last event showed only too well.. this doesn't happen at anyone else's events - candidates have even given up the stage to protesters, not called for them to be beaten and punched.. trump is an ugly person and this is just a small taste of what a future under his rule would be like.. shame on the gop for not kicking his ass out.

slimboyfat

Those comments from Chomsky appear to be from before Trump's proposed ban-the-Muslims policy, refusing to disavow the KKK, inciting people to violence, threatening the press, and so on. I think Chomsky would have difficulty repeating the view that there's nothing much between the candidates. Now Trump is clearly a fascist and much more dangerous than any of the other candidates.

Elsewhere I read the observation that at the moment Americans face a choice that includes electing the first woman president of the United States, the first socialist president of the United States, or the last president of the United States.

7

Richard Dawkins on spirituality - please help

by Fernando in

jw
friends

i would like to better understand what richard dawkins is saying and would appreciate your help, views and opinions, including the implications:.

"far from being demeaning to human spiritual values, scientific rationalism is the crowning glory of the human spirit.

".

slimboyfat

Have I become... the thread killer?

7

Richard Dawkins on spirituality - please help

by Fernando in

jw
friends

i would like to better understand what richard dawkins is saying and would appreciate your help, views and opinions, including the implications:.

"far from being demeaning to human spiritual values, scientific rationalism is the crowning glory of the human spirit.

".

slimboyfat

Where God once stood Dawkins has put in his place the human mind. Whereas once God was relied upon as the source of truth, Dawkins supports the current orthodoxy that says truth is determined by human rationality.

This is a good book on the metaphysical assumptions lying behind the modern belief that human rationality is the source of truth.

http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Reason-Classics-Francis-Schaeffer/dp/0830834052/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

127

The people are mobilizing Mr Drumpf

by Simon in

protesters shut down a trump rally.

massive numbers of people are out in chicago and have shut his event down.

there were scuffles inside the event.. despite his lame attempt to pretend the violence he instigates is nothing to do with him it's clear that it is as the cnn quotes during the last event showed only too well.. this doesn't happen at anyone else's events - candidates have even given up the stage to protesters, not called for them to be beaten and punched.. trump is an ugly person and this is just a small taste of what a future under his rule would be like.. shame on the gop for not kicking his ass out.

slimboyfat

This is frightening and getting beyond a joke. Surely this madness will stop now. I think this is a tipping point.

Prediction: John Kasich will be the next president of the United States.

Reason: Rubio is finished because he can't even win Florida. Ted Cruz can only win in the south. Kasich will win Ohio, take Rubio's supporters when he drops out, and as votes peel away from Trump he'll pick up the remaining winner takes all primaries. Even if he doesn't get enough delegates to win outright he'll be supported by an anti-Trump alliance. Then in a match up against Hillary Clinton, Kasich has an excellent chance of winning.