The WT's children books my sister and I studied (with my father conducting the study) while I was a preteen were the Paradise book (of 1958) and the "Listening to the Great Teacher" book (of 1971). I don't recall thinking of the content of the books were creepy, but maybe I thought the illustration on pages 208-209 of the Paradise book was alarming. While a preteen I probably studied other WT books also. Later my father also conducted studies using other books of the WT.
Disillusioned JW
JoinedPosts by Disillusioned JW
-
30
What WT Children's Book Were You Studied With As A Child?
by Sea Breeze inmy mom studied with me in the paradise book before i went to kindergarten.
i remember the book vividly.
it creeped me out as a kid.
-
-
-
57
What’s Wrong With President Biden?
by minimus ini just watched excerpts from his cnn town hall event and something is seriously wrong with him.
he can’t put together a sentence without getting lost, tripping on his own words, forgetting what he is talking about.……this is embarrassing.
and it’s not because he has a stutter!
-
-
Disillusioned JW
I was incorrect in thinking that the term "brown shirts" was a term which applied to all of the Nazis, instead it applied to the Sturmabteilung or SA, a notorious paramilitary organization within the German Nazi Party. Members of the Sturmabteilung wore brown shirts. See https://www.britannica.com/topic/SA-Nazi-organization. See also https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-nazi-germany-ajcongress-brown-shirts-1607540 which has an article called "Jewish Groups Blast Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'Medical Brown Shirts' COVID Jab Comparison".
The latter article says 'The "Brown shirts" refer to the Sturmabteilung or SA, a notorious paramilitary force assembled in the 1920s which targeted Jews and other groups and facilitated Adolf Hitler's rise to power.'
Regarding Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and her comments the Newsweek article quotes her saying "People have a choice, they don't need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations. You can't force people to be part of the human experiment". The article further says 'However, Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) condemned Greene's latest tweet, telling Newsweek that her "repeated use of Nazi imagery to discuss public health issues is outrageous, offensive and unacceptable."
...
"Jewish Federations are working hard to secure Jewish communities facing rising antisemitism across the country, and this kind of rhetoric only adds fuel to the fire. Greene should retract her statement and apologize," Fingerhut added.'
Regarding Greene and her comments, the article quotes Joel Rubin, executive director of the American Jewish Congress as saying "The Holocaust and Jewish suffering is not a prop for her delusional views comparing efforts to save lives through vaccines with the most heinous, systematic state-sponsored slaughter of millions of innocent victims."
-
57
What’s Wrong With President Biden?
by minimus ini just watched excerpts from his cnn town hall event and something is seriously wrong with him.
he can’t put together a sentence without getting lost, tripping on his own words, forgetting what he is talking about.……this is embarrassing.
and it’s not because he has a stutter!
-
-
Disillusioned JW
Sea Breeze, I notice you used the phrases "re-education activities" and "brown-shirts". Are you really comparing the door-door activity by the Biden administration (which is like some politicians [and their campaign staff] going door-to-door to persuade voters to vote for them) to the forced indoctrination camps of the communist government of China and to the adverse activities of the former Nazi party (whose members were often called the "brown shirts"? -
57
What’s Wrong With President Biden?
by minimus ini just watched excerpts from his cnn town hall event and something is seriously wrong with him.
he can’t put together a sentence without getting lost, tripping on his own words, forgetting what he is talking about.……this is embarrassing.
and it’s not because he has a stutter!
-
-
Disillusioned JW
JPenB75, in contrast to what you wrote, I write "If you are a citizen of the USA who loves his/her/'their" country and western civilization but wants them to improve (and for our world to improve overall), instead of becoming destroyed, then vote Democrat (or Green or Progressive)."
-
57
What’s Wrong With President Biden?
by minimus ini just watched excerpts from his cnn town hall event and something is seriously wrong with him.
he can’t put together a sentence without getting lost, tripping on his own words, forgetting what he is talking about.……this is embarrassing.
and it’s not because he has a stutter!
-
-
Disillusioned JW
greenhronet, the USA is both a republic and a democracy. We are a republic in that we have an elected President instead of a hereditary monarch or any other kind of monarch. We are a democracy, in the form of a representative democracy. Also to some extent we are a direct/pure democracy since the people, in at at least states, have the opportunity to vote directly on some legislation (and even to write such legislation) in the form of Initiative Ballot Measures. Furthermore, one definition (found in dictionaries) of the word "republic" is "a representative democracy".https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_republic (quote definitions from the definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary ) says "Democracy: "A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives." Though the original form of democracy was not "through elected representatives", modern ones (at least the vast majority of them) are.
The Wikipedia article also says the following.
"Eugene Volokh of the UCLA School of Law notes that the United States exemplifies the varied nature of a constitutional republic—a country where some decisions (often local) are made by direct democratic processes, while others (often federal) are made by democratically elected representatives.[3] As with many large systems, US governance is incompletely described by any single term. It also employs the concept, for instance, of a constitutional democracy in which a court system is involved in matters of jurisprudence.[3] "
It has been my observation that people who say the USA is "a republic not a democracy" are people who are members of the Republican Party or who align with it, but not with the Democratic Party. In contrast I have never heard (nor read) any Democrat or anyone else say the USA is "a democracy not a republic", though Democrats more commonly say the USA "is a democracy" than they say it "is a republic". To me the USA is a democratic republic.
-
57
What’s Wrong With President Biden?
by minimus ini just watched excerpts from his cnn town hall event and something is seriously wrong with him.
he can’t put together a sentence without getting lost, tripping on his own words, forgetting what he is talking about.……this is embarrassing.
and it’s not because he has a stutter!
-
-
Disillusioned JW
WTWizard, you made an extremely false claim (of the magnitude often made by Trump) when you said (on page 1 of this topic thread) regarding Biden "... it is deliberately imposing communism. What else can you call sending troops door to door to force people into getting their torture shots for this little tiny cold?" The Biden administration is clearly not imposing communism. The Biden administration is not going to door to force people get Covid-19 shots (which you call torture shots). The Biden administration is going door to educate people about the benefits of the shots and to encourage people to get them, but not to force them to get them. Furthermore, Covid-19 is vastly more dangerous than the cold - and vastly more dangerous than the flu.
I am astonished that so many twisted statements are made on this site, and that such are posted by so many people. I would think that people on this site would have enough appreciation for truth and have enough self-respect than to say such things. I presume that your comment was said partly to "push people's buttons" (as the saying goes). But if you actually believe what you said, then that might be even more troubling in regards to what it represents about the mindset of apparently so many conservative/"right"-wing people of the USA.
-
12
USA House Bill calling for the global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws, passed overwhelmingly!
by Disillusioned JW inon december 7, 2020 usa congressman jamie raskin's (md-08) bipartisan house resolution 512, calling for the global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws, passed the house of representatives by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 386-3; see https://raskin.house.gov/2020/12/house-passes-raskin-resolution-calling-global-repeal-blasphemy-heresy-apostasy .
a description of the bill says "the resolution also calls for the immediate release of religious prisoners of conscience worldwide.
as more than 80 countries use blasphemy laws to persecute and imprison religious minorities and dissenters, the house asserted the essential importance of freedom of religion and liberty of conscience globally.".
-
-
Disillusioned JW
The article called "Human Progress" at https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2021/07/human-progress/ might be of interest to people. It is written by James A. Haught - the same person who wrote the article about the possible number of secret atheists. I like the article.
-
12
USA House Bill calling for the global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws, passed overwhelmingly!
by Disillusioned JW inon december 7, 2020 usa congressman jamie raskin's (md-08) bipartisan house resolution 512, calling for the global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws, passed the house of representatives by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 386-3; see https://raskin.house.gov/2020/12/house-passes-raskin-resolution-calling-global-repeal-blasphemy-heresy-apostasy .
a description of the bill says "the resolution also calls for the immediate release of religious prisoners of conscience worldwide.
as more than 80 countries use blasphemy laws to persecute and imprison religious minorities and dissenters, the house asserted the essential importance of freedom of religion and liberty of conscience globally.".
-
-
Disillusioned JW
The following article is somewhat related to the topic of this thread
https://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2021/07/social-sciences-researchers-enjoy-new-freedoms-in-saudi-arabia/ says in part the following.
"The broad cultural changes Saudi Arabia has witnessed in recent years have been reflected in the development of social sciences teaching methods in universities and the expansion of research topics that were previously not possible, academics who study social science issues say.
...
Earlier this year, and for the first time in the kingdom’s history, critical thinking and philosophy started being taught to middle and high school students, with the help of a British teacher-training company.
Moreover, male and female students of anthropology, philosophy and other social sciences have also had opportunities to study abroad with state-supported scholarships."
That article links to an article about critical thinking and philosophy called "Saudis look forward to critical thinking and philosophy lessons in schools" at https://www.arabnews.com/node/1764601/saudi-arabia . It says the following.
'Lecturer Abdulrahman Al-Haidari, who has been teaching English at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah for 18 years, said he has always found it important to ask his students challenging questions that encourage them to think for themselves.
...
“By introducing critical thinking and philosophy into the curriculum, students take charge of their own learning experiences,” she said. “They learn how to think outside the box, ask the right questions, be more creative, solve problems and take the right decisions.”
...
“When students develop critical-thinking skills and become familiar with different life-related philosophies, they accept and respect different opinions and see life from different perspectives,” she said. “Hence they become more accepting and tolerant of living in a culturally diverse society.” '
The article at https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2021/07/closet-atheists-abound-in-america/ is relevant to this topic thread since it mentions how many people in the USA might be secretly atheist. And, we know there are a number of PIMO JWs who are atheists and who would like the freedom to be openly atheistic without their family being psychologically forced to shun them.
-
12
USA House Bill calling for the global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws, passed overwhelmingly!
by Disillusioned JW inon december 7, 2020 usa congressman jamie raskin's (md-08) bipartisan house resolution 512, calling for the global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws, passed the house of representatives by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 386-3; see https://raskin.house.gov/2020/12/house-passes-raskin-resolution-calling-global-repeal-blasphemy-heresy-apostasy .
a description of the bill says "the resolution also calls for the immediate release of religious prisoners of conscience worldwide.
as more than 80 countries use blasphemy laws to persecute and imprison religious minorities and dissenters, the house asserted the essential importance of freedom of religion and liberty of conscience globally.".
-
-
Disillusioned JW
Anony Mous, I was not suggesting that it would be good for a bill regarding human rights to stop the USA from ratifying a treaty with an enemy. But I did have in mind that a bill in favor of a "global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws" might prompt the USA to use leverage for a "global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws" as part of negotiations with an enemy, and with a country the USA has some degree of friendship with.
I was also suggesting that human rights (pertaining to bill a about "global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws") might nudge the USA to bring about a UN Treaty regarding "global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws" and that if such happens, the USA Senate might then ratify that Treaty.
I don't advocate imperialism. While forced imperialism in some cases has brought some good, probably in all cases it has also brought much bad.
-
57
What’s Wrong With President Biden?
by minimus ini just watched excerpts from his cnn town hall event and something is seriously wrong with him.
he can’t put together a sentence without getting lost, tripping on his own words, forgetting what he is talking about.……this is embarrassing.
and it’s not because he has a stutter!
-
-
Disillusioned JW
Rather than only watch excerpts that were selected specifically to show the worst moments of Biden's performance, people should watch a much larger percentage of the broadcast. That way they can have a much better impression of how Biden did overall. Also imagine how you would perform if asked the same questions. Ask yourself if you would have learned in advance the answers to all the questions that might asked you, and if you would have trouble remembering and recalling (on the spot) all of the information/data you would need to answer the questions accurately.
Here is a link to the CNN web page which all three parts of the "CNN Presidential Town Hall with Joe Biden (July 21)" of this year: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/21/politics/full-president-joe-biden-cnn-town-hall-july-21/index.html .