I dont have a biog - i use it to store snippets from threads that i particularly like "They claim the Bible is written by imperfect men to reflect the thoughts of a perfect God, right? So if Jehovah God could see to it the Bible authors got every word right, (All scripture is inspired by God) why does God allow mistakes today? Looks like God is losing his touch." "Ask yourself: why all these rules? It's simple. It's to keep their members reading, talking and associating ONLY WATCHTOWER SOCIETY! And to keep them SEPARATED from the rest of society. What are they afraid of....perhaps that their members will find out about the deceptions of the organization? You don't see Christain churches requiring these ridiculous rules of their congregations. We have the FREEDOM to READ what we want......SAY what we want.......ASSOCIATE with whom ever we want.... QUESTION what we want......and DO whatever we want according to our own consciences. If you truly love the Lord, you will not WANT to do anything that displeases Him. We don't need a group of men in Brooklyn, NY controling us like puppets and telling us what we can & can't do" Various celebrations/holidays have customs associated with them that are traced back to pagan or other origins that JW see as being in opposition to Christianity. So therefore they abstain from them. What I cannot reconcile is: As an example, when JWs get married and exchange rings, it is openly acknowledged that rings were symbolic of something considered to be a pagan ritual of etc.however, that is not the purpose the rings are exchanged they say, it is a commonly accepted outward symbol of being married .etc. O.K. fine. So I analyze this. What they are saying is that this is a pagan custom, however, because our intention is not what the pagan custom meant, but we have a different intention and so do another billion people, so it is o.k. to do this. But isnt this what other people tell us as to why they celebrate and keep certain customs---they have no knowledge of the origins and arent doing it for those reasons but are doing it for their own reason and intention? (And do they really know why the Pagans started those celebrations in the first place? There are a lot of beautiful, pure reasons. But thats another topic.) (from http://p196.ezboard.com/I-Colored-Outside-the-LinesMy-Story/fexjehovahswitnessforumfrm14.showMessage?topicID=298.topic) Link to stupid awake http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2000/6/22/article_03.htm their own website - follow the instructions and think rather than follow and see how soon you get booted out! link to bulgaria and blood http://www.ajwrb.org/basics/abandon.shtml