Posts by inbetween

69

Not Sure What I Believe In Anymore

by nuthouse escapee in

jw
friends

inside my head is a tangled ball of wool when it comes to what i believe.

i have days where i believe in a creator and other days when i don't.

then there are times when i refer to this as believing in 'something' but what exactly this something is, i have no idea.

inbetween

Totally understand what youre going through.

As others expressed its a journey, exiting and scary. Are we really alone, and only the product of some impersonal mechanism (evolution)?

Its hard to imagine.

Therefore sometimes I tend to believe in a somewhat personal first cause. However, I have to admit, when I try to see the world from a strict scientific viewpoint, there is more proof for the absence of a higher force than for its existence. Sure there are many questions about how life developed, and believers like to point the finger, however, if there was a creator who would like to be known, he could easily provide proof, and end all doubts about his existence.

Therefore, personally, I´m somewhere between believing nothing, and believing in some higher being, who has no particular interest in his work.

And I probably will never find out, whats the truth. This is something quite difficult for somebody who for years believed, he knows everything (as typical JW)

115

Fantastic quote on jwfacts Sparlock article

by cedars in

i'm not sure how long it's been up, but jwfacts has written his own article discussing the sparlock debacle - and it's a great piece of work.. here is the link.... http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/sparlock.php.

in the article he uses a fantastic quote from a 1994 awake!

magazine which reads as follows.... .

inbetween

just adding my 2 cents:

Being still in, and having almost exclusively JW friends (yes I know, its sad, but as a born in what choice do you have)

I know, how most JW will understand the WT lingo like this:

"A christian would not do this or that": Forbidden

"a conscience matter": actually do what you want, just dont make too much fuzz about it. Example the permission of civil services in about 1996, became a conscience matter, and practicall all male JW that i Know instead of being even ready to go to prison, started civil service.

The new trick to work with explicit pictures or even videos is more understood to be in the first category than in the second.

However, there are always some hardcore, who even interpret conscience matter as something forbidden....for them there is no change between the video and the awake article 1994.

However, most witnesses would feel a difference and a tightening grip, or as AM III pointed out, appreciate a more straight forward language ;-)

I see, why KS, as being no part of this special JW world, fail to see what impact certain mind controlling techniques have on witnesses.

37

Did God Invent Swords? - Logic Fallacies and Anachronisms

by cognisonance in

we need not conclude that our loving creator was the first one to make what we know as swords.

adam and eve saw turning in front of the angels something that was blazing.

by the time moses wrote the book of genesis, swords were well-known and used in warfare.

inbetween

Hi tec, thanks for the reply, I always appreciate your comments, since they show a different perspective from most posters here, who tend towards atheism or agnosticism, so its good to have a balance, and for a good discussion differing viewpoints.

Regarding the sword-thing: its true, it came to symbolize more than just the use of it in war. However, this was later, its original purpose, as Moses and its readers must have understood, was its use as a weapon. Especially in connection with guards protecting something.

37

Did God Invent Swords? - Logic Fallacies and Anachronisms

by cognisonance in

we need not conclude that our loving creator was the first one to make what we know as swords.

adam and eve saw turning in front of the angels something that was blazing.

by the time moses wrote the book of genesis, swords were well-known and used in warfare.

inbetween

tec, if it was to symbolize an impregnable barrier, why not describe it as "high wall" around it.

A sword, today and back then, symbolizies a weapon designed for killing. Any reader would have understood it that way.

58

Any gamers here?

by poopsiecakes in

jw
friends

i can't stop playing skyrim.

how did this happen?

i was never into this stuff before and never thought i would be.

inbetween

Gamer here too, love Skyrim on my PS3, and the quest about the "love of Mara" really had me thinking I´m in field service

I would recommend mass effect and dragon age as well.

26

"Keep yourselves in Gods Love"...JW`s and masturbation video #22

by smiddy in

i just looked to see if this video is still on the official jehovah`s witness website "keep yourselves in gods love " ( deaf and sign language # 22 ) and it is.

notwithstanding whether it is appropiate for signers to be explicit or not, depending on what signage they use, the real question should be, why are the governing body of jehovah`s witnesses so concerned that their members are masturbating or not.it is not an issue in the bible .why are they delving into something that quite frankly does not concern them ?.

smiddy.

inbetween

KS. yes I agree, most religions have codes for controlling sexual desires, however, point is, even from the bibles view, that this is done in order to prevent damage to others or one self (e.g. sexual transmitted deseases, broken marriages, abuse or even rapping)

when it comes to masturbation, its something virtually everybody growing up does, it does not harm neither one self nor anybody else (normally, perverted people is a different story) however, with strict rules like in JW, poeple feel guilty and unworthy.

Intended or not, but feeling of guilt will urge poeple to compensate with more field service, donations or whatever...

I agree, sexual desires in a civilzed world need to be controlled, but not condemned like the org does...

62

At what age do people 'wake up'?

by Splash in

i was thinking about this question recently after being at the meeting when new pioneers were announced for the 2013 service year.. we have a dozen or so pioneers in the congregation, and most are in their 20's.

some absolutely love the things they are taught and can't wait to spread the good news.. others in the congregation are going through the motions, tired of hearing the same old same old but have no way to change things now.

then there are a couple like me.

inbetween

It may not be a certain age, it can be a traumatic event, that helps start thinking.

For me, it was different, I always wanted to look at facts, avoid being close minded. However, most research i did, was in WT -library...still I found somethings always questionable, like blaming 1975 fiasco on the brothers, or believing that tigers, sharks etc in paradise will eat straw...

In my case, it was this open mindset, that when I stumbled across facts regarding blood policy I just soaked all the information up like a dry spounge, the beginning of a fast, depressing but also exciting road, to where I stand now after three years as an agnostic, who formally is still in because of family....

I remember, I always was curious for information, even pre internet, I looked secretly in a book written by a former member (very popular in my area, many book stores displayed it in the early nineties) but he wrote lies and half-truths, which confirmed by belief in the org, rather than destroyed it.

Well, but if you really appreciate facts, sooner or later, the time comes and they will shine through myth. Point is, a person has to be ready to accept it even if it may go against wishful thinking...

37

New light or did the speaker just pull this out his wazoo?

by pubtruth in

i went to the last day of the dc here in west palm beach, just to make my mother company.

wow, what a difference can a year outside the lie can do to perception.

it was the same crap as you'd expect but there is a plot twist: the speaker was so into the talk he was actually starting to shout and wound up mentioning that they now know how many angels will be needed to destroy everyone at armaggeddon.

inbetween

EE maybe you can make another calculation considering how many Thor would be able to kill

37

New light or did the speaker just pull this out his wazoo?

by pubtruth in

i went to the last day of the dc here in west palm beach, just to make my mother company.

wow, what a difference can a year outside the lie can do to perception.

it was the same crap as you'd expect but there is a plot twist: the speaker was so into the talk he was actually starting to shout and wound up mentioning that they now know how many angels will be needed to destroy everyone at armaggeddon.

inbetween

how stupid, he probably calculated almot 7 billion people divided by 185.000 (thats how many Assyrians one angel killed), and cam to 37.000 angels needed.

Fur sure nobody said it during our DC, it was perhaps just the idea of the speaker, nothing official...

27

Do Elders Have A Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy During Judicial Committees?

by DT in

jw
friends

i should point out that i'm not a lawyer and i'm not qualified to give legal advice.. there has been much discussion about judicial committees lately and how to handle and possibly record them.. naturally, the question of the legality of recording judicial committees is a concern.

my understanding of the law in the u.s. is that it is legal to record private conversations in most states provided at least one party consents to the recording.

in the other states, it is required to get the consent of all parties to record a private conversation.. however, it would be reasonable to ask whether or not a judicial committee is a private conversation and whether the elders have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

inbetween

wha happened said: "To invoke clerical priviledge, the individual confessing cannot be sanctioned in any way"

I think, this is a brilliant statement, because the society when its convinient, always likes to compare elders with clergy,

How is the situation really in countries, where the clergy possesses such a privilege, is it bound legally to the fact, that confessions cannot be sanctioned ? If that is the case, then sorry, WTS, no privilege for you guys, since confessing a serious sin to elders ends up in a judicial comitee, and that always will have snactions (reprove or dfd !)