peacefulpete

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Posts by peacefulpete

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  124

  JWLITE

  by Teddnzo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  even elders can be part of the new jw lite brigade these days.

  they don’t need to go on door to door anymore and there is no requirement for anything really.. taking meeting parts is all dead easy you could turn up on the day with zero preparation because it’s all in the meeting workbook.. quarterly elders meetings are just old men having a good old natter just like old men do down the pub.. congregations could be likened to pubs or bars these days just without the drinks, those come at other times.. no need for territory maps, these almost went away with covid letter writing now they are extremely slow getting finished as those who still go door to door only do ten mins.. you could even voice your questions these days about things the gb say and then just say “we can’t be dogmatic we just don’t know”.

  i predict they will say this about 1914 soon..

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  peacefulpete

  Pascal was a clever man, but his 'wager' was really just a distortion, misapplication of cost/benefit analysis.

  I wear a seat belt because, though unlikely, in the event of an accident, seatbelts have been demonstrated to offer some protection. Without those conditions I would be credulous to wear seatbelts.

  If for instance, my mother told me that carrying a St. Christopher medal would protect me in an accident. Pascal would suggest it is logical to carry it. Many people do just that, rationalizing that is not worth the risk not to carry one. They are not being logical; they are afraid and intellectually lazy.

  Pascals, wager cannot be applied to the myriad of contradicting supernatural claims of mystics and gurus. It fails to analyze the credibility or accuracy of claims made. It merely assumes the possibility of value without making an intellectually honest assessment of it. As such the 'wager' applies equally to every supernatural claim.

  Those who reason that Pascal's wager compels them to be a JW, had better consider the wager equally suggests they ought be practicing Hindu or Muslim, or Branch Davidian etc. In fact the wager suggests we do them all.
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  8

  Did Charles Taze Russell die a broken man?

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  his 1914 predictions failed...but did he succumb to depression as a result?.

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  peacefulpete

  He was idolized to the end. Had he lived long enough for Rutherford to show his ambitions and seen his church split apart, he might have felt it was all slipping away. But it seems that he was delusional and self-aggrandizing to his death.
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  73

  Any other churches call themselves the 'truth'??

  by Beck_Melbourne in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  old habits die hard...and quite often in my comments i will refer to the borg as the 'truth'.

  does anyone know of any other churches that refer to their own particular church or religion as the 'truth'??

  also, does anyone know how it originated...all my life i have used the term...comments like 'how long have u been in the truth?

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  peacefulpete

  Two by Twos - Wikipedia
  
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  10

  the name Jehovah: magical?

  by enoughisenough in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  didn't know the best subject area to put this question under....i was listening to a discussion on youtube the other day while working, so not getting every point ....part of what was talked about was the word jehovah, ( not being the most accurate translation of yhwh ) was however pushed by illuminati /secret societies for its use in magic.

  (as i informed, i wasn't getting the whole conversion as i also had attention elsewhere and some of the conversation was hard to follow.

  ) so i am wondering if anyone on here has more information on the subject they care to share.

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  peacefulpete

  Names were regarded as potent. Miracles were done by using the name of Jesus for instance:

  By stretching forth thy hand to cures, and signs, and wonders to be done by the name of thy holy Son Jesus.

  Similarly the names of the God of the Jews, in many forms and spellings, were believed to have great power to heal and harm. The practice is very ancient and predates Judaism's formulation in the 5/6th centuries BCE. Relatedly, it was felt that knowing the name of evil spirits gave power over them. It might be that is why the author of the story in Mark has Jesus demand the name of the demon possessing the man who lived in the graveyard who had supernatural strength to break chains. The demons' response complicates the story as it appears to be the result of the merging of two narratives. (the demons entering the 2000 swine, with it's gematria significance, with the story of a demon posession of a superhuman). But the 'name' element is retained.
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  19

  Who is the who of WHO we ARE? And when we die......where does the "who" go?

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if and when you deposit the check from me in your own bank--what happens to my actual personal wealth?.

  2.what happens to my ability to use my entire personal wealth?

  so, how do we answer the question of what happens to you when you die?.

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  peacefulpete

  All the above is an exercise to distinguish what it means to be a real human being from being an identical cult member without separateness of thought, tastes, personal opinions......JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES may well be nothing more and nothing less than mere 'things' just like utilitarian ball bearings inasmuch as they are denied distinction as thinking, rational creatures.

  I love the illustration Terry. It's my view that no one is a 'ball bearing' on the inside. Uniformed soldiers goosestepping through the streets might appear to be identical from a distance. Inside however they are very different. Some are proud, some are afraid, some are asking how they got there. Similarly, JWs, or members of any high control sect, must put real effort toward indistinctness, most all inwardly wish to shine as individuals but the price is deemed too high or impossibly hard. Some might think it's too late to become someone else. Some have been convinced the ball bearing bin is the only place to be.
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  42

  New meeting format

  by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just watched november broadcast very different order to the leaked agm .

  be good if someone did a deep dive on the difference and why the changes?

  i didn’t time the items but it should be easy to see if edited?.

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  peacefulpete

  Maybe they could take some of the spare room in the KHs and add gym equipment. Then simply collect monthly membership dues. Or maybe KH rental fees for weddings? Or daycare?
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  19

  Who is the who of WHO we ARE? And when we die......where does the "who" go?

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if and when you deposit the check from me in your own bank--what happens to my actual personal wealth?.

  2.what happens to my ability to use my entire personal wealth?

  so, how do we answer the question of what happens to you when you die?.

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  peacefulpete

  Everything changes. A local mountain is 12 ft shorter than it was a century ago. It's still the same mountain. My expanding gut and arthritic hands weren't there 20 years ago but it's still me. The mind is no different. I'm not as sharp as I used to be, head trauma and chemotherapy have taken a dozen IQ points. My mind (or self) is an emergent quality of the biological machinery between my ears. It changes with the machinery and ceases along with the machinery. It's like asking what happened to the brilliant posting I was making after my hard drive crashes.

  What freaked me out as a JW was the promise that when my mind and machinery stopped functioning, I was supposed to take comfort in the belief that an enhanced clone of me was going to benefit from my obedience. Similar enough to convince my friends it was me. That 'clone' might even be convinced it was me, being preprogrammed with enough false memories to pass itself off as me. Without, of course, the scars and recollection of pain of loss and trauma that identified the original.
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  55

  Trinity Statements in the Dead Sea Scrolls

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  dr. ken johnson has identified several statements in the dead sea scrolls that predict that god would visit the earth as a man... as the messiah.

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  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljrfvytjhve&ab_channel=kenjohnson%28biblefacts%29 .

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  peacefulpete

  SeaBreeze, Are you directing that comment at me? If so you will need to explain.
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  3

  WT History Video

  by Vanderhoven7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  here is a clear presentation of watchtower history.

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  https://youtu.be/u5jnngqqyvc?si=lbuyopdr-n5sji47.

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  peacefulpete

  A handful of inaccuracies and pretty hostile . Strange comment about "3500 yrs" of 'abstaining from blood" "none had ever died". What does that mean?
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  14

  Israel vs Hamas

  by Riley in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  we might have russians involved in the middle east and are attacking israel.. wait.. i thought the watchtower and tract society was the central figures in the end times.

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  not that i believe in any of this nonsense but any news in jw world about how the evangelical narrative might be playing out closer than the wts stupidity.

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  peacefulpete

  A lot of us need to unplug. Clickbait headlines foster panic and paranoia. Yes, tragedy happens in a world filed with people with different agendas and ideologies but hate breeds hate. It is not in our power to change the world, so we should work on changing ourselves.