Posts by Captain Obvious

14

Teenage Jehovah's Witness loses court bid to refuse life-saving blood transfusion

by Sapphy in

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-27/jehovahs-witness-loses-bid-to-refuse-blood/4985476.

interesting verdict, that despite the judge "...noting he was highly intelligent, a "mature minor" and devoted to his faith, the judge also found the boy had been "cocooned in that faith" for his entire life.".

the young man is 18 in 5 months and will be able to refuse treatment after that.

Captain Obvious

Good. Let's hope this is used as case law for years to come.

47

Any 'Breaking Bad' fans?

by keyser soze in

i finally got caught up with it on netflix, and now it's ending.. predictions for sunday night's finale?

i find myself not really caring what happens to walt.

but i'm definitely rooting for something good to happen to jesse, anything at all..

Captain Obvious

Walt can't off himself too soon! Remember the foreshadowing from the beginning of the season? He has a while to live yet.

Best. Series. Ever.

35

Do you have any "one-liners" for drive-by witnessing?

by Faithful Witness in

i am looking for things i can say in passing, when i meet some of my jw friends.

we used to attend meetings, but have not been officially recognized yet, as apostates.

we were good and curious students, but fell away and were choked out by weeds.. since i will be renewing my bible student status soon, i am hoping this will open more windows into the organization.

Captain Obvious

"Did you know the local indigenous peoples have been here for over 10000 years? Amazing. They recently found a spear head with woolly mammoth blood on it!"

304

Musings about different types of atheist!

by Seraphim23 in

jw
friends

a thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.

or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.

after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?

Captain Obvious

One day I'll come up with an idea for a thread that has an OP with a pile of flawed arguments and assumptions. All I have to do is completely ignore the fact that my OP has been picked apart and tell the posters that they are ignoring my points.

6 pages in 20 hours... Nice work

62

The Lawsuit Landslide: Irwin Zalkin representing ELEVEN child abuse victims against Watchtower

by cedars in

many of you will be interested to know that irwin zalkin now has 11 lawsuits against watchtower at various stages.. these can be summarized as follows.... j.l.

shocked by the lack of action, the victims mother immediately left the congregation with her son.

by this stage campos was a known predator with complaints having been made to the elders at linda vista spanish, playa pacifica spanish and the watchtower dating back to 1982.elizabeth mcfarland ohio a former ministerial servant named scott silvasy sexually molested elizabeth when she was a child through her early teens.

Captain Obvious

Yes a lot of these cases will hinge on the Conti case... But also as long as the current non-reporting policy is in place, there will be more people coming forward and unfortunately, more children abuse who could have been protected. And for that reason I hope the WT bleeds millions and millions. At least the catholic leadership has shown remorse. The WT leadership updated their instructions to more clearly state that cases should not be reported unless it's local law. They say that child abuse is appalling, but potentially tarnishing the org's name is worse.

Disgusting. But think! Of how many GOOD (read:expensive) lawyers the WT is going to have to retain to fight these cases. What about when they are fighting dozens of cases? They will be crying for more funds for the "Worldwide Preaching Work" (Worldwide Pedophile Protection Fund).

The average Dub upon hearing about this will think its persecution. What we need to help our loved JWs understand is the Watchtower's guilt in all this.

62

Discussion w/ Wife: I Welcome Your Suggestions

by breakfast of champions in

so these last few wts have definitely eroded my wife's faith in the org.

she is definitely seeing the bs, and i even overheard her talking openly about it to a family member.

good for her!.

Captain Obvious

There is no scriptural injunction on war. In fact throughout the bible god commands and favours it. The worst atrocities and war crimes in the bible were directly demanded by god.

Are the JWs doing the preaching work? What is the preaching work, and is it being done by anyone? There are other Christian groups who have more missionaries than JWs have members.

The JW message is about Armageddon and a new earth, which even a non believer like myself can see isn't mentioned in the bible at all. The JWs preach the JW message about the Noo Sistem which isn't gonna happen. Perhaps you could help her realize that the JW message as a whole is wrong even by Christian standards. Then it doesn't matter how much JWs preach, it is still meaningless.

Congrats on the mostly awakened wife! I'm very jealous my friend

20

My daughter has been officially dfd, unfortunately...

by suavojr in

unfortunately she still does not know ttatt... the good thing is that my wife (her mom) is not shunning her!.

i gave my daughter love & comfort and told her that nobody is ever going to divide us, i might not be happy with all of her choices and decisions but i just want her to be happy.

my family is still asleep and still thinks this is the truthtm and my wife wants her to come back.

Captain Obvious

Does your wife know TTATT?

I can't imagine a worse kind of hell than truly believing that you have disappointed god, and he will kill you during the imminent destruction of earth if you don't rejoin a certain cult.

My mother is in the same position. DFed for the second time, full believer. Learning TTATT would benefit her and your daughter immeasurably. If only it was easier to share

327

How do believers defend a god who is going to murder billions and pin it on them?

by tootired2care in

at that time those slain by the lord will be everywherefrom one end of the earth to the other.

they will not be mourned or gathered up or buried, but will be like dung lying on the ground.

- jerimiah 25:33.

Captain Obvious

If murder was clearly a sin, why did god have to put it in the Ten Commandments? Couldn't they as a society just decide that murder was wrong? In Cain's case, could he really have known the effects of what he did if he was the first murderer?

A good portion of Genesis is god gettin mad at humans for doing things they didn't know were wrong. Consider the pre-flood world (as if it actually existed..) god gave humankind zero instructions that we know of, zero guidance. Then, once they weren't up to his standards... Rather than teach or discipline them and make himself known, he just condemned them all. Even the animals. What did the animals do?

If your children acted out and were bad because you completely ignored them their whole lives, would you be justified in killing them all? Regardless of how wicked they might become... Not only is it your own fault, but it is quite another thing to consider wiping them all out along with their pets.

Jus' sayin.

67

Do you detect an underlying sadness ?

by Phizzy in

jw
friends

whenever i talk to jw's, and even in some of the jw official videos, i detect a definite vibe of sadness coming off these people.. i am very sensitive to "atmospheres" and to peoples emotional state, you wouldn't think so, because more often than not i do not react to what i detect, i just let people get on with it.. but i do get this feeling that they are sad, probably because very, very, very deep down they realise that it is all false, maybe ?.

Captain Obvious

The younger generation Dubs now go to college, buy houses, have kids, save for retirement and invest more than the previous one. Maybe they see the position their parents are in and realize that they are going to have to take care of them financially.

All that, plus they have to be told every week to "put kingdom interests first, the end is so close!" And it just gets sickening after a while.

The working/saving/investing Dubs are riddled with cog dis about the end being close, and the pioneering/window washing/putting kingdom interests first Dubs are secretly jealous and hateful of the previous group.

Add to that the guilt-o-meter is cranked to 11 during convention time 3 times a year! It's a tough life for a Dub. All they can do is Listen, Obey and be Blessed.

23

Wisdom teeth

by Arkady in

i am not a jw.

i am basically here for two reasons:.

1. i am not satisfied with mainstream christianity and i believe that jw (along with other sects) have some things to offer in terms of answering my questions.

Captain Obvious

JWs don't have anything against dental work... But..

Have you ever wondered why we need dentists? If we were created perfect, then why did our teeth go bad? Can you imagine life before dentists? A simple cavity would have been a death sentence unless you got it pulled.. Then if it got infected, you were dead. In fact, for most of man's existence our teeth have been a big killer.

I guess I'll just chalk it up on my list of things I don't understand in creation. Along with, why are our backs and shoulders so poorly designed? We shouldn't need chiropractors. Why do we have an appendix? They're only useful in herbivores. 15% of humans are born without an appendix at all!