Posts by neverendingjourney

90

Some screenshots from new KH meeting!

by pixel in

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they just put up a link to watch a replay of the "new kh meeting", here some screenshots.. .

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neverendingjourney

Every time someone has proposed a theory of the governing body that suggests they are cynical masterminds carefully manipulating the masses for their own gain, I kept coming back to the fact that they have a multi-million member volunteer work force at their disposal that they employ in the near-fruitless activity of peddling published propaganda. If the GB were really cynical, my defense would go, they would use that workforce in a way that actually generates revenue. Such as, for instance, building kingdom and assembly halls with free labor that could then be quickly flipped and sold for a profit. The day I saw concrete steps in this direction would be the day I would begin to entertain the GB-as-cynics theory.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, this appears to be a paradigm-shifter for me. These buildings have all the hallmarks of being designed for usage other than kingdom halls. It's harder to sell windowless structures like they currently use. These buildings could easily be converted to other uses, which makes them more marketable (easier to sell). I'll be watching these developments with a keen interest with an eye towards real estate flipping activity. We should expect to see evidence of this within the next few years.

The bulk of my posting history has seemingly disappeared or else I'd link to a few examples of me raising this argument in the past.

96

21 Years as an Elder, 5 as an MS, I will never be that guy again.

by James Jack in

i was deleted as the cobe after i let my adult child move back home and he admitted that he fornicated under my roof while my wife and i where away on a rbc project.

of course the elder mode in me kicked him out of the house.. the elders moved quickly to remove me because i was too involved in "theocractic activities", i had neglected my adult son.. i accepted this primarily because i didn't want to serve with a boe that did not want me.

i was devastated however because it was the only life i knew.

neverendingjourney

My parents are pushing 70 and have nothing but social security to live on. They raised me in a cult that pushes a hard line no-college stance. Despite this, I put myself through college and professional school without ever receiving any financial assistance or moral support from them.

I'm now several years into my career and am pretty well set financially. Despite providing them tens of thousands of dollars of financial assistance throughout the years, they're still living day-to-day in a house that's crumbling around them. The end is always just around the corner ready to fix all their problems.

I won't let them starve, but I'm done going out of my way to help them monetarily.

What's the point of this story? It's that I'm glad you seemingly realized the truth about this religion in time to spare your children from this fate.

41

Counting service time in a creative way

by nevaagain in

jw
friends

couting time and, how to count time while doing as little service as possible is often a hot topic around witnesses.

i even overheard pioneers discussing about it.

they call it "creative time counting" (i translated that phrase from a different language so bear with me ;-).

neverendingjourney

I've written about this extensively in my prior posts. It was realy eye-opening to me to realize that most pioneers were either lying on their time cards or using ludicrous "creative" techniques that were patently against the rules to pad their field service reports. There was one regular pioneer whom I never saw out in service. Yet he once told me that as long as your neighbors saw you with a tie on you could count your time because you were giving testimony by the simple fact of being in service clothes.

I wasn't the type of guy who carried around a stop watch, but there were clear rules on the subject. Almost all pioneers found it perfectly acceptable to keep counting time even during a 2 hour lunch break. If I ever questioned them about it, they would find ridiculous way of justifying it, such as saying that so-and-so 5 year old was present and you could keep counting time so long as there was an unbaptized person present and obviously the 5 year old qualified as such. Most of the time, though, there wasn't even an attempt to justify themselves.

18

Jim Holt: Why does the universe exist?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoruuqjd81m

neverendingjourney

Crazy coincidence, but this short video was uploaded today on World Science U's youtube channel. It's touches exactly on this discussion.

If you find this sort of thing fascinating, you might want to browse that channel's video selection. You might also enjoy their companion channel, world science festival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm4R688pTRo

18

Jim Holt: Why does the universe exist?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoruuqjd81m

neverendingjourney

Really NEJ, that's interesting. So why did he put it in a pop physics book I wonder? I'm just reading The GrandDesign at the moment. A bit misleading isn't it?

It's not a controversial point I'm making. Notice that Hawking couched it in terms of "according to M-Theory," which is a subset of string theory.

Note the following excerpt from an interview with a leading string theory researcher, Brian Green:

Do you think string theory will ever be accepted as widely as, say, the theory of general relativity? What would it take for that to happen?

Well, the real reason why general relativity is widely accepted is because it made predictions that were borne out by experimental observations. The primary one that put general relativity on the map was its prediction of the bending of starlight by the sun, which in 1919 was confirmed by observation during a solar eclipse. That was the moment when general relativity emerged from the realm of theory and entered the realm of being a piece of reality as we know it.

For string theory to have the kind of acceptance of general relativity, it's got to do the same thing. It's got to make a prediction that is borne out by some experiment. And as yet, we haven't quite gotten to the stage where we can make definitive predictions which, if they're found, the theory was right, and if they're not found, the theory was wrong.

But we have gotten to the stage where we can make some rough predictions for things that might happen at the future accelerators that are now being built, in particular one in Geneva, Switzerland, called the Large Hadron Collider, which should be ready about 2007 or 2008. If some of the predictions that string theory says might happen are borne out through experiment at that accelerator, then I think it's quite possible that string theory would be as accepted as general relativity.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/conversation-with-brian-greene.html

18

Jim Holt: Why does the universe exist?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoruuqjd81m

neverendingjourney

I had no idea it is now totally accepted by physicists.

I don't think that's technically correct. From what I've read and seen, many physicists believe the math points firmly in that direction, but there has been no observational evidence confirming these ideas. Until string theory is able to make predictions that are confirmed by observation, these ideas remain firmly in the hypothesis stage.

119

How many of you followed the WTS direction on education years ago and have been screwed by it?

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

i'm really interested in this question because i've heard for years that if you forgo further education and go pioneering, when you have a family down the track you will get a good job because jehovah will provide for you because you pioneered.

as long as i was a kool-aid drinker, even then, i thought, "how does pioneering pay your bills?

surely education should come first.

neverendingjourney

I'd feel silly complaining about how the WT screwed me given how badly others were affected, but that being said, the WT's policies did lead to a 6 year delay for me.

I graduated high school when I was 17 in order to pioneer and pursue kingdom interests. I languished around a bit until it came together for me in my early/mid 20s. Once it clicked, I went back to school and got my bachelor's degree at the age of 27.

Had I had parents who encouraged me to go to college (or at least didn't discourage me), perhaps I would have gone straight to college and graduated at the age of 21 instead. Alls well that ends well, though. My career has gone pretty well for me, six-year-delay notwithstanding.

In contrast, my parents are approaching 70 and have nothing but social security and government assistance to get them through. I won't let them starve, but I will not set myself back financially to help them out. They made their bed and they need to lay in it.

5

Where's all my old posts??

by DATA-DOG in

my profile says that i have only made 86 posts?!?!

wth?!?

where are all my awesome posts from the past???.

neverendingjourney

I wouldn't be devastated if my history disappeared...posted too many intimate details of my personal life on earlier threads, basically treating JWD as my diary. That was all good and well until I started meeting a few people from this site in the real world. That's when the anonymity disappeared, at least with respect to those specific people.

35

Hi! Long time lurker finally signing up!

by LosingMyReligion in

jw
friends

ok, so the time has finally come to register an account on this site.

not that i think i have much to contribute to the discussions here, but more out of a desire to show that yet another person has learned ttatt.

i am a fader, not discussing ttatt with anyone as i know the inevitable outcome it would have.

neverendingjourney

Do you have any documentaries you would recommend to explain these concepts in a way that makes it understandable for someone who is not well educated in science?

Although it's a bit dated, I would highly recommend the original version of Cosmos by Carl Sagan. Sagan had a real gift for putting complicated scientific concepts in terms the common man could understand.

It was once available on Netflix. If it's no longer on their streaming catalog, it might be on youtube.

35

Hi! Long time lurker finally signing up!

by LosingMyReligion in

jw
friends

ok, so the time has finally come to register an account on this site.

not that i think i have much to contribute to the discussions here, but more out of a desire to show that yet another person has learned ttatt.

i am a fader, not discussing ttatt with anyone as i know the inevitable outcome it would have.

neverendingjourney

I feel that the complexity and the order of everything in the universe is a sign of a plan, or order if you like.

We all go through our own journey in discovering where we fall on these questions, but let me suggest that an unfiltered view of the universe actually reveals a considerable amount of evidence of a chaos, randomness and disorder. As witnesses we were selectively taught examples that might suggest design while ignoring everything else. There's a considerable amount of literature on this topic as well as good scientific documentaries if you, like me, prefer documentaries over books.

Best of luck to you.