serotonin_wraith

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Posts by serotonin_wraith

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  35

  How many people are on JWD right now ?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm curious to know how many people are logged on jwd at a given moment, like how many are logged on now.

  maybe simon knows.. .

  i'd say an average of 50 posters are logged on jwd right now....and probably an additional 100 more that aren't members that are reading here right now.. what's your guess?.

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  serotonin_wraith

  We should do the count on Memorial night to make it look more impressive.
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  33

  Everything you know about God is wrong - new book recommend

  by stillajwexelder in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  everything you know about god is wrong - the disinformation guide to religion.

  new book recommend edited by russ kick published 2007. this is a new book just arrived i ordered on amazon.com isbn-10 1-932857-59-1. it is 387 a4?

  pages long by various authors and a piece by dawkins.

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  serotonin_wraith

  I've got a few other books to get through first, but this one has been added to the list. Thanks!
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  23

  Seeing Patterns That Aren't There?

  by hmike in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in his book, how we believe, religious skeptic michael shermer states "in our complex and contingent world, random events often happen in seemingly peculiar sequences that cry out for meaning.

  we usually rise to the occasion, finding patterns in nature even when they do not exist or have no real significance...." a claim somewhat along this line was made in the tv show numb3rs by mathematics professor epps--that people look for, and think they find, patterns in random events.. you can't watch a movie or tv show about crime without seeing detectives attempting to solve crimes by trying to find patterns in a collection of information.

  they work backwards from the end result to find links between the pieces of information and possibly back to a cause.. yes, we look for patterns.

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  serotonin_wraith

  hmike:

  As for having to allow for any and all other possible alternatives to God or Jesus, we actually know the origin of most of the other suggestions, or we know they are made up. In spite of what may be claimed, the origin of God or Jesus in history cannot be established. We may speculate; we may think we know, but we really don't.

  In that case, because we don't know the true origins of Thor, Ra, Zeus, Atum, Odin, Mithra, Allah, Krishna or most of the other gods worshipped throughout history, it's just as likely to be one of them behind it. I expect it's possible to find the origin of Santa, but the origins of things like faries and pixies, gnomes and trolls are about as hard to find as Yahweh.

  the connections made between events (the coincidences) are consistent with statements attributed to God or Jesus in the ancient texts

  It does say in the Bible that whatever you ask for, you will receive. (This makes it easy to attribute anything to the god of the Bible!)

  But I expect some unexplained things are not attributed to God, when maybe they should be in order to be consistent. For example, imagine getting home after a hard day, ready to tuck into a tub of icecream. You go to the freezer, but discover the icecream is gone. Everyone denies taking it, and you have no reason to think they are lying.

  Now, would you consider that God spirited away the icecream miraculously while you were out so as to prevent you becoming a glutton? We are commanded not to be gluttons in the Bible, so perhaps God is helping us out. Or instead, would it make much more sense to put it down to someone lying, forgetfulness or just a mystery never to be solved? I don't think any sane person would think God took it away, yet if the argument of God helping us out is to be believed, one cannot dismiss this obviously crazy explanation for the disappearing icecream.
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  13

  On Faith

  by BFD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is something that my sister sent me out of the blue.... on faith faith is a state of openness or trust.

  to have faith is to trust yourself to the water.

  when you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown.

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  serotonin_wraith

  Faith is believing in things without evidence.

  Seeing as there is evidence that we float when in water, I can't see how the two are related. We trust we will not drown if we don't fight it because of the evidence. Faith is nothing like going for a swim.

  (Sorry to spoil the pleasantries!)
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  10

  Follow the Christ DC 2007 Audio

  by FadingAway in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have made some of the talks available from the follow the christ dc.

  i had some problems on day 1 with reception, so i was only able to get one talk and day 3 we were late getting there.

  also, i didn't include the drama as there is another thread on that hopefully some will be able to provide transcripts like live life did with the education talk to promote discussion of the material (again, thanks live life).

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  serotonin_wraith

  It looks like these have expired, can someone upload them again or help me find them somewhere else? The last one especially. Thanks.
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  31

  Are YOU Being Brainwashed ? Public Talk MP3

  by AlphaOmega in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  are you being brainwashed ?.

  that was the title of a "public talk" given by brian steinblock of brooklyn bethel(monroe cong) it is a post-2000 talk.

  this talk was e-mailed to me by a jw, and can be downloaded from here:.

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  serotonin_wraith

  Certain clothes are SATANIC PROPAGANDA! Hahaha!

  One pant leg down, the other up - EVIL! Baggy clothes - only Satan could have come up with that! Jeans that look worn out are the fashion of this wicked system of things! Wearing your hat backwards or sideways- turn it round the right way before Armageddon!

  Why are they evil? He says because they "suck us into the trends and styles that are way out there in this world." They make us look the same as others - we become identified as one of them.

  Let's just destroy that argument. Suits and ties- they should be worn to the meetings... right? Well, not if we follow this guy's logic. Business men wear suits- do we want to be identified as someone who tries to make money, someone who may work at the stock exchange, someone who works in the Government, a loan shark, a mafia boss? Surely not!

  If they're going to tell people not to wear certain clothes, they need to be consistent and apply the same restrictions on what they wear when out preaching or at the kingdom halls.
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  33

  Atheists, Agnostics: Do you still pray?

  by Eh in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for people who left, not only the organization, but also the canaanite/judaic/christian/islamic/bahai god, do you still pray?

  before we left the group we (my wife and i) were questioning the bible and the existence of god.

  being witnesses, we were uneducated and never heard of things like pascal's wager, but we (my wife especially) had come to a similar idea - even if the whole thing were ballocks, there was little harm in continuing.

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  serotonin_wraith

  Keeping a diary, sorting through things in your own mind or talking to friends are much better ways to get things off your chest and work out what to do next- praying can be dangerous when instead of sorting out problems yourself or helping others, you think a god will help you out instead. If you want to make a difference or get help, praying isn't the way to go about it.
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  6

  JW's imitate Christ?

  by Honesty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the reality of the watchtower society and jehovah's witnesses imitating christ in every aspect of one's life can be found in their publications as they reveal how they feel about other denominations of christianity: .

  september 15, 1998 watchtower magazine .

  page 17 paragraph 6 .

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  serotonin_wraith

  They follow Jesus' words at Matthew 10:35-37 very well.

  35For I have come to turn
  " 'a man against his father,
  a daughter against her mother,
  a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
  36 a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'

  37 "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
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  51

  Could the WTBTS get JWs to kill?

  by serotonin_wraith in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm not saying those in power would even contemplate doing this, but i wonder just how far jws would go to obey their leaders.

  would they go as far as to kill, if they thought god had given that message to 'his people'?.

  it would probably take years of subtle changes in their message so that it didn't come as a big shock.

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  serotonin_wraith

  This isn't about what will happen, but what could happen if they were ordered to do it. It's a hypothetical discussion.
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  15

  read the Bible for yourself

  by a friend in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  seems a lot of people are depending on everyone else to solve their problem.

  questions like who is jehovah, who is jesus, what is the truth, are some of the deep spiritual truths asked by all of us.

  however, the bible is the one to turn to when questioning.

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  serotonin_wraith

  I think everyone should read the Bible too. It could help you see how ridiculous it all is.

  There's a creation story that's full of holes and which goes completely against science, a sexist, homophobic man in the sky dishing out punishments for the mildest things - death for picking up sticks on the sabbath, nice! Death if you answer your parents back, haha! Being stoned if you get raped and don't scream loud enough, ugh! Then there's the contradictory story of Jesus, which is like the retelling of demi god stories such as Dionysus, Mithra and Horus which were worshipped hundreds of years before. And to end it all, a drugged up hallucination about locusts that look like horses and stars falling to the earth (which shows how they didn't have a clue what stars were!) and which can be interpreted in any way at all (and is!)

  Yes, please, read the Bible. The parts about unicorns, a man living in a whale, a talking donkey and sticks turning into snakes are especially funny!