TonusOH

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Posts by TonusOH

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  99

  If not the WT/JW relgion where else are 'we' to go? Why not atheistic/scientific philosophical naturalism?

  by Disillusioned JW in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  sometimes jws wonder if the wt/jw is not the truth, 'then where else are we to go?

  ' i say 'why not atheistic/scientific philosophical naturalism and why not a secular philosophy which teaches a way of life?

  ' what do you folks say?.

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  TonusOH

  I dunno about that. I've met some people that were preternaturally stupid. It might even have been possible to prove it scientifically.
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  10

  Never thought I would see this in my family circle

  by Captain Schmideo2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  so, my 17 year old niece reveals to me that for the past few years, her father (my sister's husband) has been physically and verbally abusive to her.enough so that it finally came to a breaking point, and she reported it to the police.

  she told me that she had wished she had told me sooner, but she was trying to wait til she was 18 so that she could leave.i knew that she and her parents had been locking horns for the past couple of years, but i chalked it up to teen puberty and general growing pains.

  but on their last, most recent visit, i could tell that something was really eating at her.apparently, what set off this latest incident was that he discovered that she had been seeing/involved with a non-witness boy about her age, and got so violent with her that it left marks.ironically, she went and got help from her boyfriend's father, a paramedic, who documented the injuries and encouraged her to report it.so, yeah, he spent a night in jail.she is now staying at the parents of her boyfriend, while still trying to have some aspects of her old life (work, school, etc.

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  TonusOH

  I don't want to be seen as the guy who "turned her away".

  I get the impression that, no matter what you do, you will be accused of helping her turn away. The family seems to want to protect the father and organization regardless of cost, including the truth. No matter how carefully you tread, they'll use you as an excuse. They'll use you to cover themselves and the organization and drag your name through the dirt.

  I think you should help your niece in any way possible, and don't worry about giving your sister and her family any ammunition. Save that young lady.
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  10

  Can TiKToK spy on you?

  by Fisherman in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  several years ago i was having a conversation with a neighbor inside a store and he told me that he was in the park one day with a friend who was then struck by lightning and after a few moments after being struck they walked away from there and while they were walking away my neighbor told me that his friend got hit by lightning a second time ki&&ing him.

  after telling me this story lightning struck and we heard thunder.

  coincidence or act of god?

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  TonusOH

  I have a mild anxiety attack whenever I hear the "ding" of a message, but that's because it's on someone else's phone and it's goddamned annoying. I have two mobile phones (one personal, one work) but I hardly use them at all. My personal phone gets used for my shopping list, and... not much else. Which is why I plan to get rid of it soon.

  I'm a technophile, but I learned enough about security over the years to be quite afraid of this stuff. Knowing doesn't save you, either. You can make a determined effort to keep your info private... until Experian gets hacked and gives up all the info that someone would need to wipe out everything you have (and everything you could've had).
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  8

  Do the publications still use exclamation! points excessively?

  by BettyHumpter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i dont know why the question popped into my head.

  i've been out since '90-'91 and haven't read any literature in years.

  was this a fred franz quirk or do they still write in that style?

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  TonusOH

  I faded in the late 90s to early/mid-aughts. I would say that, as late as 2003-4 (the last time I would say I read any of the literature at all) they were still using exclamation points to emphasize how wonderful it is to get this provision from Jehovah God!

  More annoying than that was the way that, in the 90s, the speakers at conventions would end their speeches with loud and emphatic voices, rising to a crescendo that would end in long and loud applause from the audience. I think they got a bit addicted to it for a while. Even guys that I knew were pretty even-keeled gave in and started sounding like Pentecostal preachers as they closed their talks.
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  24

  The elephant in the room post

  by joey jojo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  is it ok to talk about the ongoing post about 'he who must not ne named"?.

  my perspective: im a neutral observer.

  i dont know lloyd evans, im not an active member of any ex-jw group (except this one i guess).

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  TonusOH

  joey jojo: why do some of you guys care so much?

  I don't know about the others, but I find that thread extremely entertaining. It's about an obnoxious, self-important jerk who blew his reputation to smithereens, and now is trying to salvage the mess he created, even though he has no clue how to do so. It's a real-life sitcom, right down to the bumbling male lead.

  Just to be clear- I have nothing against Evans. I watched some of his videos and read his site a few times, and have had no interactions with him, here or anywhere else. He hasn't done anything to me, personally. If he got his shit together tomorrow and rode off into the sunset, I'd shrug my shoulders and go on with life, a bit sad for the loss but otherwise ready for whatever else comes along.

  I don't pretend to be concerned about the moral angles either, though it is entertaining to watch his struggles because he tries so hard to pretend he's a moral person while also admitting that he's a slave to his uncontrollable libido. Most people recognize that we're not nearly as spotless as we like to think, but we also don't promote ourselves the way people like Evans (or Trump, since someone mentioned him) do: creating a brand that they use for power, influence and money. And if you're going to do that, then it's a very bad idea to show your ass to the world the way he did.

  Well... it's a bad idea for him. I get free entertainment out of it.
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  53

  Watchtower vs Islam: Why the deafening silence?

  by raymond frantz in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  why has the watchtower failed spectacularly to evangelize to the muslims?

  considering the recent influx of muslim people in european countries you would think that some attempt from the religion that touts the are preaching the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth would have been made.instead the only meaningful attempt dates back to 1953 ,almost 70 years ago!!!!

  book " man's search for god.what do you think?

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  TonusOH

  Biahi: They are afraid to speak out against Islam, they don’t want a “fatwa” put against them. The GB would be afraid to EVER leave the cult compound.

  Free volunteer labor is great when you want to print magazines and make internet videos. It's not so great when you want to protect yourself from violent aggressors. The GB understand the limitations of their grift and of Jehovah's protection.
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  24

  Naked in the New World

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i know there was a painting of a woman being resurrected naked and someone coming to greet her holding clothes, but what about after perfection, after the thousand years?.

  the idea is we're supposed to achieve what adam lost by returning to human perfection, so wouldn't that include not wearing clothes, especially as the act of adam and eve hiding in the trees and sewing fig leaves signified shame, and imperfection passed on through the reproductive organs.

  has the wt ever addressed this?

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  TonusOH

  The angels had to be clothed, because we know they were pretty horny for Earth women. Imagine if they were all walking around in Heaven, buck-nekkid with their perfect bodies and working plumbing. It would be a holy sausage-fest up there in the Pleiades!
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  68

  Where it all went wrong for the WT - JF Rutherford

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was thinking a bit about this the other day.

  ct russell, from what i remember about him, kinda seemed like a genuine, nice(ish) guy, although he had a few eccentric but harmless ideas.. during the russell era jws (actually bible students) could still celebrate christmas, worship in other churches if there was no kingdom hall available, and accept blood transfusions.. then after russell died, along came rutherford - a major league a-hole, for sure.. rutherford had plenty of eccentric ideas but at least some of them weren't/aren't harmless.

  some have been long forgotten about - jesus depicted without a beard, the plan to rename the names of the week because names such as thursday (thor's day) is pagan, the articles about the 'dangers' of aluminium, etc.. one key contribution of rutherford which does a lot of harm is no blood transfusions, even in life-threatening situations.. another is shunning, something which never occurred under russell, or at least was much milder.. rutherford has a lot to answer for, i reckon ....

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  TonusOH

  There was a site that I read a year or two ago that had some pretty extensive info on Russell, specifically his business dealings and his relationship with his wife, which apparently ended in a bitter divorce. I thought it was the ad1914.com site (and it might be) but I can't find the articles about him.

  He does strike me as a con man, who put up a respectable front but found every which way to make money, including by selling snake oil to Bible students. He does seem to have been a sincere person early in his life and ministry, but his ego got built up and at some point he got to like it too much, IMO. His religious ideas were occasionally pretty well out there (the stuff about the Pyramids of Giza stands out).

  Rutherford, I think, wanted to leave his mark on the organization. At first, he seems to have followed Russell's lead, marking dates with supreme confidence and promoting world-changing events, but that caught up to him and I think he learned a lesson. After that, he decided to rebuild the organization from the ground up and made sweeping changes to doctrine and interpretation, essentially wiping a lot of Russell's work away.

  I think that they both had the gift of communication, be it in their writings or their public speeches. They also understood the importance of keeping firm control of the organization and presenting a clear and united front to the public. This is what helped keep the organization together during tough times and grow it quickly during good times. Knorr seemed to learn fairly quickly that the age of big pronouncements was ending and the organization really just needed a steady hand. If there's one thing he could have changed, I bet he would have told Franz to drop any talk of 6,000 years since man's creation and anything to do with 1975.
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  TonusOH

  Vintage: So, if not lonely, what?

  Maybe he's just an asshole.
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  11

  Beware of "organization." - They said it!

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  watchtower, september 15, 1895: "beware of "organization.

  " it is wholly unnecessary.

  the bible rules will be the only rules you will need.

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  TonusOH

  The issue is that 'progressive understanding' is impossible to distinguish from 'making it up as we go along.'