I recall on many occasions of hearing District Overseers at conventions compare taking the family to visit Bethel as the equivalent to going to Disneyland.
truth_b_known
JoinedPosts by truth_b_known
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Disneyland
by road to nowhere inwe just saw the disney ad on tv.
pimi wife says we never took the kids.
i wanted to reply that we used vacation for conventions and important stuff..
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wt's tale of the two mothers.
by waton inin retrospect, for lurkerking fence sitters.
, today's( may 30 ) study article.:.
a mother un lovingly, on "apostate" advice, does everything, right and wrong to keep her daughter from becoming a wt slave.
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truth_b_known
Yesterday’s WT study article put forward some thoughts that I was not comfortable with. It dealt with enduring persecution with joy , particularly persecution from family. In my view that only encourages the persecution complex that too many dubs have anyway.
The Watchtower has always proclaimed that the "persecution" of Witnesses is proof positive that they have "the truth". The Watchtower refers to Jesus statement that his followers would be persecuted as he was as a slave is not greater than the master. What they fail to see is that Jesus was referring to Christians being persecuted for being followers of Christ. What happens to Witnesses is due to their being a cult and their practices that violate laws.
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Do You Still Easily Believe Everything?
by minimus into be a witness you had to accept whatever spiritual food was being dished out.
even if it didn’t make any sense, we were expected to believe.
now that we are out of the cult, do you find yourself a person who doesn’t just accept the status quo?
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truth_b_known
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
– Gautama Buddha
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God vs ET`s ,why is one more probable than the other ?
by smiddy3 inbillions of people around the world beleive in a god of some sort or other who exerts some power or influence to some degree or other in lifes affairs .. i don`t think there would be anywhere near that figure that would entertain the possability of extra terrestial life elsewhere in the universe.. and i find that curious .. the ancients didn`t know that their were other humans on other continents on this planet until they ventured out and found them .. we live somewhere in the milky way galaxy with millions of suns and planets that orbit them.. our galaxy is only one of trillions if not zillions of galaxys in the known universe.. look at the diversity of life on just this one planet earth ,what possabilitys could exist elsewhere ?
on alien worastronomers can use the hubble space telescope to view galaxies near the edge of the observable universe (the region of space from which light has had a chance to reach us within the last 13.77 billion years).
by examining a very tiny portion of the sky, counting up the number of visible galaxies in the universe in that specific region, and then multiplying that number to account for all the regions of the sky, astronomers estimate the number of galaxies in the universe.
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truth_b_known
If you believe in God, why wouldn't God make life on other planets and galaxies?
In some religions it is that way.
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God vs ET`s ,why is one more probable than the other ?
by smiddy3 inbillions of people around the world beleive in a god of some sort or other who exerts some power or influence to some degree or other in lifes affairs .. i don`t think there would be anywhere near that figure that would entertain the possability of extra terrestial life elsewhere in the universe.. and i find that curious .. the ancients didn`t know that their were other humans on other continents on this planet until they ventured out and found them .. we live somewhere in the milky way galaxy with millions of suns and planets that orbit them.. our galaxy is only one of trillions if not zillions of galaxys in the known universe.. look at the diversity of life on just this one planet earth ,what possabilitys could exist elsewhere ?
on alien worastronomers can use the hubble space telescope to view galaxies near the edge of the observable universe (the region of space from which light has had a chance to reach us within the last 13.77 billion years).
by examining a very tiny portion of the sky, counting up the number of visible galaxies in the universe in that specific region, and then multiplying that number to account for all the regions of the sky, astronomers estimate the number of galaxies in the universe.
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truth_b_known
It appears to me that only Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) take issue with life on other planets. This is especially so with Protestant/Reformationist denominations of Christianity. They whole-heartedly prescribe to Luther's teaching of Sola Scriptura - by Scripture Alone, that is to say everything in the Bible happened just as it is written and there are no other writings to put faith in.
Life on other planets goes against Sola Scriptura as the Bible makes no mention of it. This is where some serious cognitive dissonance come into play with many Christians. Even look into Jehovah's Witnesses. I heard whispers of thoughts of Witnesses who believed that dinosaur fossils were created by demons to try to get us to believe in evolution.
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Has anyone still in or otherwise heard anything about JWs think we only have 12 months before Armageddon?
by blablabluh ini’ve noticed a change in family attitude recently, like there is just something extra on their mind.
i even had to call my brother to check if he was dying and too scared to tell me.
anyway, i saw a video last night my saying jws think we only have 12 months left before armageddon so thought maybe this is the reason for changes attitude.
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truth_b_known
My sister was convinced after that video that the great tribulation had started , but got annoyed when I asked about the cry of peace and security and the fall of badylon the great. That will happen soon, but more than a year and nothing.
I wish every time my dad called me with his newest theory on what was going to start the Great Tribulation or how it was months away that I had written his words down. That way, on the anniversary of every prediction, I could ask why it didn't happen.
In addition, I could ask with every new prediction this question - What reason will you have for this ne prediction for not coming true?
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Has anyone still in or otherwise heard anything about JWs think we only have 12 months before Armageddon?
by blablabluh ini’ve noticed a change in family attitude recently, like there is just something extra on their mind.
i even had to call my brother to check if he was dying and too scared to tell me.
anyway, i saw a video last night my saying jws think we only have 12 months left before armageddon so thought maybe this is the reason for changes attitude.
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truth_b_known
Zion's Watchtower - Crying wolf since 1881.
It seems like every year some event happens to get certain JWs worked up. They take it upon themselves to theorize that "this is it! This is what we've been waiting for!" and then nothing happens. The crisis ends and everything goes back to normal. Just like the Watchtower, these same JWs fail to take ownership of their doom saying and conveniently forget they ever shared their theory. They just eagerly await for the next crisis.
I absolutely love the question asked: "If we are so close to the end will we be told to stop donating to the Watchtower as it is pointless with Armageddon being so close?"
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So telling that there are no little children
by eyeslice inwatching in on my wife's zoom meeting last night, there was an item about discipline is love.
they played a 'caleb' animated cartoon and then the instructions were 'if possible, ask selected young children' several questions.. it seems however, that there are no children in my wife's current congregation so the questions were all answered by retired brothers and sisters.
the congregation mainly consists of elderly people (like us) and the few of childbearing age seem not interested in having children.
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truth_b_known
It would appear that the congregation you speak of is headed for extinction. I am sure there are more just like it. The current and incoming younger generations are able to see through the curtain and don't have to pull it back like we did.
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truth_b_known
Nihilism is a pathology. Existentialism is the cure and it does not require organized religion.
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Non Believers, how do you respond ?
by Phizzy ini recently had this in a message from a jw, a lovely person, but mind controlled, he wrote " a life without hope is no life for me".. how should i respond to that ?
i am an atheist, but want to respond in as kindly a way as possible.. i was thinking along the lies of saying i got no comfort from what i knew to be false hope, but need to say it in a kindly way.. ideas please ?.
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truth_b_known
When Jehovah's Witnesses refer to "hope" they refer to the hope created by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society through its publications, which they claim is based on the Bible.
First, it is their opinion of the Bible's message that is their hope. The hope is based on the opinion (i.e. belief) that humans were originally created "perfect" and would live forever perfect health on a peaceful paradise earth. Their hope is that through their obedience to the leadership of the Watchtower the god of the Bible will restore them to that set of circumstances. They fear death as they believe that death is eternal non-existence. The idea of not having true meaning and purpose with one's limited life causes a great deal of anxiety in a person. The hope the Watchtower extends is a coping mechanism for this anxiety, but it is not a cure.
The first mistake made in the above belief system is that mankind is born imperfect and because of this imperfection deserves to die. All life, from the smallest microbe, to plants, to complex organisms like animals live in perfect cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. In a sense, Jehovah's Witnesses idea of the way human existence should be is like a true that sprouts leaves and then those leaves never die, fall to the ground to fertilize the earth, and then eventually sprout new leaves.
The second mistake made in their belief system is that eternal life has value. Living forever completely undermines the value of life. Something you could do today can wait 10,000 years if you live forever so one's actions have no meaning.
Life only has value if it is lived. You can only live in the present. If your mind is stuck in the past or worrying about the future you are not in the present. Therefore you are not living. Making plans for the future has no meaning if you are not living now. Jehovah's Witnesses hope is based on sacrificing the now for mythological future created by a late 19th century publishing company bases in Brooklyn, New York.
In short, the definition of hope is simply wanting something to happen in the future. Hope can be a distraction from the present and therefor harmful to one's well being and happiness. If you cannot find happiness in your current situation, in the now, you can never be happy.
