Posts by slimboyfat

119

What does the Catholic church think of JW?

by Halcon in

on a trip to rome a few years ago i asked my friend (who is roman and jw) what the catholic faith thinks of jw.

he simply stated that jw is tolerated by the church but that really not much thought is given to them.

is there an official stance on jw by the catholics?

slimboyfat

Recent genealogical research has provided new insights …

Pure ChatGPT-ese. Is there really somebody somewhere doing serious research on this? Whose research? What research? It’s vague because it’s computer generated generalities aimed to please rather that accurately reflect reality.

I think rational people are well able to make up their own minds on this issue by now. You’re flogging an extremely dead horse at this point.

On a tangent, I’m interested in the claims floating around that pope Benedict’s resignation in 2013 was invalid because of the wording he used and therefore Francis was an anti-pope. And aqwabot123, I know ChatGPT can supply 2000 words in 10 seconds to totally refute that Francis was an anti-pope. We can all do that for ourselves if we want an essay to prove whatever point we want to prove.

25

Top Jehovahs witnesses Historians

by Paul Bonanno in

jw
friends

hi .

who do you think are the best historian/historians about the history of jehovahs witnesses?.

paul.

slimboyfat

I wouldn’t worry about downvotes. Sometimes I even them on my posts, presumably because somebody tried to press the upvote and missed. Nobody’s perfect.

Rivergang, James Beckford’s Trumpet of Prophecy (1975) is from the same period as Stevenson’s book. (1967) I think it’s one of the best books on JWs ever. Alan Rogerson’s Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1969) is good too. A bit older still, but Herbert Stroup’s book The Jehovah’s Witnesses (1945) is good on JWs at that time and has some unique pieces of information as a result of the author’s engagement with JW congregations and headquarters.

3124

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

As far as I can tell the only thing to suggest he is gay was the choice of location for his sex holiday. But Thailand perhaps attracts men who like to exploit young and vulnerable women as well as trans so it’s not clear. I really couldn’t care less if he is gay or not, it’s not the point. In some ways it gives him a win if people make remarks about him being gay, whether he is or he isn’t, and he doesn’t deserve any sort of win.

I was kind of enjoying the fact that we all seemed to forget about him this month. Maybe he’ll sink faster into irrelevance at this point.

26

It’s now official - The Governing Body Members are called for Legal Deposition in a Major Court Case Against Jehovah’s Witnesses!

by liam in

it’s now official - the governing body members are called for legal deposition in a major court case against jehovah’s witnesses!

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/1ke6cgh/its_now_official_the_governing_body_members_are/.

recent court documents show that members of the jehovah’s witnesses governing body — including former member tony morris — have been officially subpoenaed to give sworn testimony regarding cases of sexual abuse in new york and how the organization dealt with (or essentially hid) them.

slimboyfat

Wasn’t Gerrit Lösch called to court before and he got out of it somehow?

On the fake videos, from here on in I don’t think we can be sure any video is real or fake. It’s a problem. Nobody could reasonably deny Jackson at the Australian Royal Commision was real at the time, but if something like that were to happen again?

Given all the other problems AI may cause, all the way up to extinction due to misalignment, it may be the least of our worries however.

18

Youths who gave up amazing lives

by JohnR1975 in

when i was growing up i remember many young people interviewed on the platform at assemblies.

the ones who really stood out are the talented ones who gave up amazing lives to pioneer.. i remember specifically when i was a boy in the 70s and 80s some who were very good at sport or something.

their teachers begged them to get professional training use their talents to the full.

slimboyfat

Every life is amazing, I give up 🤷‍♂️

72

Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

by SydBarrett in

jw
friends

i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

slimboyfat

For what it’s worth I’m not in favour of banning aqwsed it seems like an overreaction. I’m not in favour of banning anyone unless they post something obscene or really disrupt the forum. It’s not that difficult to just ignore his posts if you’re not interested in his posts. And some people do appreciate and like his posts.

62

Probability of Earth and life being how it is

by ballistic in

jw
friends

there are some things we don't know about existence and whether the earth is a simulation or even a creation.

but we can do some statistical analysis on it.. the probability of a planet like earth existing in the goldilocks zone and having a moon that perfectly eclipses the sun is extremely low, but it's not impossible.

the habitable zone (or goldilocks zone) around a star is the region where a planet could potentially support liquid water on its surface.

slimboyfat

Cause and effect arguments for a God simply end with special pleading in the case of God. Not just God himself but the space/dimension it which that God exists. Which came first the space/dimension in which God exists or God?

To say that God can’t exist because he would need to have a cause or exist in space or time is really no different than saying that “God can’t exist because God can’t exist”. It’s not an argument it’s an assertion.

God is outside time and space by definition. The point of God is that he doesn’t have a location in space or time and is self-caused. As Aquinas pointed out, causes either proceed in an infinite series or else there is an ultimate cause. Reflection (which is what the five ways call for) leads many, including myself, to conclude that an ultimate cause makes intuitive sense. It’s not a deductive or an inductive argument, but it seems like the best explanation.

72

Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

by SydBarrett in

jw
friends

i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

slimboyfat

I don’t think vienne said she left JWs. I think she said she’s never been one but has close family links.

72

Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?

by SydBarrett in

jw
friends

i was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.

that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.

but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.

slimboyfat

It’s difficult to know where aqwebot123 is coming from because it’s not clear which parts of his posts are really him and which parts are outsourced. Sometimes he posts a short reply and has a different tone and even a couple of human-like mistakes here and there.

Why Justin Peters? I looked him up and if I got the right one he’s Trinitarian, a Bible believer, and he is successful despite lifelong health condition. I guess there must be something that sets him apart but I didn’t look long enough to find it.

I read Let You Name Be Sanctified a long time ago and I had forgotten that’s where the Elijah/Elisha transition was elaborated. I think the book was good on the divine name and its importance.

There is no argument that Franz had a ton of whacky ideas and if the board of directors/governing body had more sense they would have reined it in sooner and more effectively than they did. The literature under Rutherford was wacky too but less interesting. I’d rather read a book by Franz than Rutherford.

62

Probability of Earth and life being how it is

by ballistic in

jw
friends

there are some things we don't know about existence and whether the earth is a simulation or even a creation.

but we can do some statistical analysis on it.. the probability of a planet like earth existing in the goldilocks zone and having a moon that perfectly eclipses the sun is extremely low, but it's not impossible.

the habitable zone (or goldilocks zone) around a star is the region where a planet could potentially support liquid water on its surface.

slimboyfat

The moon thing is interesting but I’m not at this point convinced it tells us anything really. If the moon didn’t happen to eclipse the sun would we miss it? It’s just one of those things that could be or could not be. I don’t think we’d be sitting on an earth without the moon thinking we really ought to have a moon that eclipses the sun but since we don’t there’s clearly no design.

I can’t get my head round the idea that the laws of nature are perfectly calibrated. (The so-called fine tuning argument) Maybe it makes sense or maybe it doesn’t, I just have no intuition on the matter. I heard an interesting take from a woman philosopher that reality is by necessity the way it is and it is not rational to talk about it possibly being otherwise. That seems as plausible to me as fine tuning, but I don’t know either way.

For me existence itself points to there being a ground of being or God along the lines of Aquinas’ five ways. Natural selection, if it’s true also indicates to me that reality is set up in such a way to produce rational creatures. (As argued by Alvin Plantinga) Again this points to there being a God. Plus the existence of consciousness, I think, is not properly explained on a physical basis and points to mental and spiritual reality beyond the physical.

For me these are good reasons for believing in God. The moon thing is interesting though and I’d be interested to know more about it. I wouldn’t trust AI for calculations however, because it still gets stuff wrong all the time and the only way to tell a wrong answer from a right answer is if you already know the answer. So it’s pretty useless.