Posts by slimboyfat

45

Are there any doctrines which all Christian religions follow.

by jwfacts in

i cannot think of a single doctrine that is so clearly laid out in the bible that every christian sect teaches the same point.

are there any doctrine where there is total consensus amongst all christian religions, including jehovah's witnesses?.

slimboyfat

There are probably some things all people who call themselves Christians believe, but we don't call them doctrines because the word doctrine tends to include the idea of a distinctive belief in the term itself.

Probably all Christians believe Jesus was the messiah for example. And all Christians believe God exists. Christians believe humans are sinful in some sense.

Unitarians are perhaps the outliers who would test even some of these basic beliefs. But then we could ask what it mean to be a Christian anyway and do liberal Unitarians qualify. Does anyone who calls themselves a Christian get to be defined as Christian, regardless if they deny sin, Jesus and even God himself? If so it all becomes a bit meaningless trying to define doctrines or groups or anything.

123

Why do some Jehovah's Witnesses choose to be atheist or agnostic?

by Cassaruby in

jw
friends

"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .

.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .

from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.

slimboyfat

I think it's because basically JWs like certainty, and many ex-JWs simply convert the certainty of knowing there is a God who will soon provide paradise into the certainty that there is no God and they have to provide their own meaning in life.

The more difficult and courageous path is to explore and get to grips with the limits of what we can know and the uncertainty involved in all sorts of human knowledge.

There is also the aspect that JWs enjoy the sensation of thinking they know things other people don't know. They have special knowledge from God. There's a similar tendency among some atheists and self-proclaimed rationalists, or "brights" as some have modestly labelled themselves. So from that point of view you can see why strident atheism is psychologically appealing to many ex-JWs. Although the content of the belief has changed, they still get to perceive themsleves as knowing better than other people.

26

Data for Partakers from 1935-2016. Latest number wasn´t this high since 1954!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i gathered the data for the memorial partakers every year since 1935 (the first year they had data) until now.. the latest figures haven't been that high since 1954!.

this stat looks very bad in watchtower land because the decreasing # of partakers was given, for decades, as proof that the end was near!.

.

slimboyfat

Are you speaking injuriously of glorious ones?

29

Watchtower Annulled My Baptism

by RICHT in

contrary to popular belief you can have your baptism annulled as i did by my local elders after my judicial hearing.. the watchtower of 1964 page 126 first paragraph clearly states that anyone that was committing a gross sin before, during and after their baptism is void.

in order to get right with the lord you would need to be re-baptised.

err no thanks, i'm not a believer!!!!.

slimboyfat

I doubt this would work for most people these days. Especially with a recent WT saying you can't claim your baptism was invalid. Maybe it was a loophole they recently clamped down on.

But I don't doubt the story, or that people successfully annulled baptisms in the past. We too often think of JWs as uniform and monolithic. Which admittedly they are to some degree, and by comparison with other groups. But there is also variety of practice among JWs. Sometimes it comes down to personalities. If your local elders like you and your family are well liked you can expect different treatment than someone the elders don't care for. There are egos, ambitions, grudges, guilt and all sorts going on in elders' behaviour too.

Plus we also tend to accept the JW notion that the WT has a fixed teaching on most things. In fact there are so many statements in the WT on most subjects that in many cases you can pick and choose and emphasize a liberal or a hardline position as you wish for the circumstance. JW elders do this all the time without acknowledging it. They pretend that WT statements are clear cut or they are following the latest instructions. It's rarely as black and white as that. Like any complex rule system elders can manipulate the ambiguities to get the outdone they want, even if they don't acknowledge or even realise that's what they are doing.

39

In praise of Randall Watters

by nicolaou in

jw
friends

exjw's of a certain age will remember randy's site well.

freeminds was instrumental in waking me up along with ray franz's books.

if net soup and armageddon okies mean nothing to you you're probably under 30.. whatever caused randy to post what he did recently is something i can only guess at but it won't be what i remember him for.. randy, i wish you well and thank you for all you've done over the years .

slimboyfat

Still there for me.

Anyone who has never read the history section should check it out. You'll be reading for hours.

http://www.freeminds.org/history/history.htm

24

"Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."

by pale.emperor in

now that im not longer a jw this verse puzzles me.

being born and raised a witness, this verse confirmed to me that jesus was talking about a paradise on earth.

but now that everything the witnesses taught is 99.99% incorrect can somone explain what he was getting at here?

slimboyfat

Do you know something weird about this verse and JWs? According to official JW teaching, this verse applies to the anointed in heaven and not to the other sheep on earth. How can that be! What on earth am I talking about? Well JWs believe the whole of the New Testament is addressed to the anointed, not the other sheep. The sermon on the mount, where this saying occurs, is no different. So although JWs often cite this verse as if it applies to the other sheep, the logic of their own position is that it is addressed to the anointed, not the other sheep. This was pointed out to WT writers and they issued a "question from readers" article on the subject. That article confirmed that this verse, strictly speaking, addresses the anointed rather than the other sheep. The QFR stated that the anointed are the meek ones who will "inherit the earth" in the sense that they will rule over the earth. The verse is not addressing the other sheep,directly, and they will live on the earth but they will not "inherit the earth" in the sense that the anointed will inherit the earth as rulers. This is a technicality JWs don't point out very often, but it's there in the literature.

39

In praise of Randall Watters

by nicolaou in

jw
friends

exjw's of a certain age will remember randy's site well.

freeminds was instrumental in waking me up along with ray franz's books.

if net soup and armageddon okies mean nothing to you you're probably under 30.. whatever caused randy to post what he did recently is something i can only guess at but it won't be what i remember him for.. randy, i wish you well and thank you for all you've done over the years .

slimboyfat

Yes I read Randy's website back to front when I first got on the internet in 2000. The history articles in particular were a revelation.

Freeminds, Watctower Observer and JWD - the holy Trintiy of early online apostasy.

Not quite ancient enough to have worshipped the old deity H2O but heard the stories.

26

Data for Partakers from 1935-2016. Latest number wasn´t this high since 1954!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i gathered the data for the memorial partakers every year since 1935 (the first year they had data) until now.. the latest figures haven't been that high since 1954!.

this stat looks very bad in watchtower land because the decreasing # of partakers was given, for decades, as proof that the end was near!.

.

slimboyfat

Exactly. They condemn themselves, overlapping nut cases. (Apologies to nut cases)

26

Data for Partakers from 1935-2016. Latest number wasn´t this high since 1954!

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

i gathered the data for the memorial partakers every year since 1935 (the first year they had data) until now.. the latest figures haven't been that high since 1954!.

this stat looks very bad in watchtower land because the decreasing # of partakers was given, for decades, as proof that the end was near!.

.

slimboyfat

I'd prefer the graph starting at zero on the Y axis.

Plus the number drops extremely sharply between 1935 and 1940 from around 53 thousand to 23 thousand. Playing devil's advocate, the JWs could argue that many partakers in 1935 later "realised" they were other sheep. So only around 25,000 or so should be counted from this period. That would still leave room for modern anointed, first century anointed, and a trickle in between, as has long been the teaching. Add in a percentage who are wrong or leave JWs and they could still string this out for a long time. Basically until the number partaking itself reaches near 144,000 they'll probably still argue it all makes sense.

The fact the it's increasing when it should be decreasing is a bigger problem that the overall number. They could abandon the teaching, stop publishing the number, or call most partakers liars or crazy. So far they seem to be going with the crazy option and burying their heads in the sand.

46

Some apostates are coming across as crazed psychopaths

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

i'm not sure whether or not my view on this is correct so please leave your input.

in recent months i've been viewing youtube videos.

again, it might just be my view but there has been an increased amount of random people grabbing a camera and doing vlogs.

slimboyfat

Haszardisation of apostasy.

My coinage, a reference to the infamous Danny Haszard. He attacked elderly JWs at his door with a pepper spray and made a thread about it on here. I can't find the original thread. Only other threads referring to it.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/145868/female-danny-haszard