simon17
JoinedTopics Started by simon17
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70
"Who else are we to go away to?"
by simon17 into the intellectually honest witness, it seems like it often comes down to this principle.
"fine, if the witnesses aren't the truth, then show me the better answer and i'll consider it.
" and how do you deal with that?
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67
Read S. Hassan's Book: Do JW's really fit the cult mold?
by simon17 infirst time i got a chance to read his book, "combatting cult mind control" and was interested to see if jw's fell into the cult mold.
my opinion after carefully reading and having left the witnesses after almost 30 years is... no, they don't.
however, i would add that they wish they were but are simply too big and unwieldy to really pull it off.
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45
The Little Aggravations: Things I Don't Miss
by simon17 inthere are some major problems with the jws, doctrinally, socially, and organizationally.
from shunning to crazy elder bodies to guilt trips, there are many things that were really bad.
this thread is devoted to the small, insignificant things that just really really irked you.
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33
They're getting soft...
by simon17 inso i had my second random jw visit since i left.
the last time i was sick and couldn't really talk back but i was pleasant enough.
i took the magazines, but they never returned.. attempt #2: a father with his poor miserable looking son.
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27
I Offer You This Choice
by simon17 insuppose the following choice were offered you, and you had to choose one or the other.
which would you pick (and perhaps why):.
1) you can continue living your life as it is, die when you might, and that's that.. 2) you can instead agree to die in 1 year in exchange for this: you will be granted access to the entire past and future history of intelligent life in the universe.
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27
Survey: How Sure are you of Your Beliefs?
by simon17 ini find it interesting to see, not just the state of people's beliefs, but how sure they are of them.
or asked another way, what is the percent chance people feel they are wrong about their current beliefs.
so state your current core beliefs about jws, christianity, god, and a percentage 0-100% of how sure you are that this belief is correct.
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22
And JW stuff made you want to scream: Pope's new book
by simon17 inthis article is kinda ridiculous with all the things the pope is saying, trying to save face like a bad politician.
how does any of these answers make sense when you think of someone as god's spokesman.
it almost made the gb seem a little less ridiculous for a moment:.
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21
To the theists: Your reaction if God hypothetically changed the standards of right and wrong
by simon17 ini have more to say on this and its implications, but i'll keep this short to get some initial discussion.
to those that believe in god, suppose he were to hypothetically change various standards of right and wrong, suppose with the new scrolls to be opened.
things such as rape, theft and immorality are now perfectly fine and acceptable.
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20
An argument against atheism: It's hopeless
by simon17 ini hear this critique against atheism a lot.
that its simply a hopeless way to live one's life.
believers give this argument, not passionately, but almost desicively, as if clearly a outlook they don't want for life is a wrong outlook.. is there anything you can do to reason with such ones?
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Views on the Creation of the Universe
by simon17 ini was thinking the other day about the fascinating dichotomy of how the creation of the universe plays a role in the belief system of believers and non-believers.
it is the difference between a top-down vs. bottom-up view of reality.
in this post i'm mainly disucssing highly rational, scientific type believers and non-believers, open to fully exploring their belief system, of which i have talked to many.. to the non-believer, the creation event, the big bang, is the one utterly unexplainable event.