Syme

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Posts by Syme

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  29

  Is it true that elders lurk the forums?

  by make yourself in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  it seems like it is one huge contradiction.

  but are they doing it for the purpose to try to guess exactly who in the congregation is on ex jw sites?

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  Syme

  "Something evil's lurking in the dark", as brother Michael Jackson would put it...
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  135

  Shark Evolution

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://descrier.co.uk/science/fossil-discovery-shows-model-evolution-sharks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fossil-discovery-shows-model-evolution-sharks.

  i used to consider sharks to be evidence for creation - and against evolution because it was stated that they are largely unchanged after millions of years ( hence, 'what evolution?')..

  that's not the case, however.

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  Syme

  The mere existence of the huge divergence and variety of the shark family is a beautiful example of evolution's power.

  Apart from that, the very structure of, let's say the Great White, is an argument against a Creator, at least such as the WTS imagines Him.

  I mean, just look at those creatures. Unstoppable apex predators, with every inch of their body specifically 'designed' to produce an effective killer. How could this be the work of a 'Garden of Eden'-like creator?

  Sharks are one of evolution's mastepieces.
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  69

  Your Experience with Resigning as an Elder

  by committeechairman in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i'm considering resigning as an elder.

  i'm not planning to fade or stop as one of jehovah's witnesses, just stop serving as an elder.. i have responsibility in the congregation and in circuit, district, rbc, etc.

  and i'm completely exhausted.

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  Syme

  committeechairman,

  It is my theory that privileges are a kind of dope. To paraphrase Marx, I would say that privileges are the opium of the j-dub.

  In what way? If you have privileges, you are too committed to let yourself think doubtfully etc; moreover, the actual privileges that come with the office, the benefits, the recognition, the respect you gain, the power you have over other people, all these are very powerful opiates!

  I was deleted as an elder, I did not ''step down''. For the first few weeks/months, I was determined to follow a reinstatement course. However, for the first time in years, I felt actually FREE, free to think and read and study and travel, things that I did not have the luxury for previously. (as an elder, a pioneer and an MTS graduate)

  After some time, I accidentally came across the scientific evidence for evolution. Were I still an elder, I would not allow myself to indulge in that study. But since I did not have that chain over me, I dag deeper and discovered that up until that moment I was scientifically illiterate (as most poor jdubs are), even though I was a university graduate! A whole new beautiful world of wonder opened before my eyes.

  Of course, the price was doubt and eventually, disbelief. However, I do not change knowledge, REAL knowledge of creation and its wonders for anything in this world, let alone for serving an organization in which the idea of spirituality is giving out leaflets advertizing a website!
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  51

  So Spill the Beans, Brothers: Were There More or Fewer At this Year's Bore-Fest

  by steve2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the jw date-worshipped memorial has just completed its bleak worldwide commemoration.

  that wasn't a dust cloud you saw; it was a millionfold hearts limply beating themselves into another round of great tribulation expectations.

  i was knocked into a deep, deep sleep by the imagined experience of being at several thousand consecutive kingdom halls as the platformed drones spat forth the predictable sludge that, once released, hits and stains white clothing and bleach is useless.. we know that memorial attendance worldwide has dipped for two consecutive years since 2011 when it reached a high of 19,374,737 and for the promised land, obama's usa, the all time memorial attendance high was also 2011 when it hit over 2.5million (2,563,518) but shrunk in shame back to 2,502,055 in 2012 and spluttered upwards a handful or two to 2,504,114 last year.. so, what was attendance at the date-obsessed bore-fest this year in your neck of the woods?

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  Syme

  In my KH today an elder announced how many attended the memorial. They were 10 less than last year, but instead of revealing that fact, the elder said than they were MORE if we account for the fact that many local JWs have moved from town sicne last year!

  Sneeky poor fella. If they were 10 more than last year, he would surely announce it with great pride!
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  2

  Jw.org FAQ do Jehovah'Witnesses practice tithing?

  by Skinnedsheep in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/do-jehovahs-witnesses-tithe/.

  5 bucks says this article either disappears or is re written in the next month.

  here is the text of the article... .

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  Syme

  "If the Mosaic Law required one tenth of one's belongings, then how much more should the Supreme Law of Christ himself require? Of course, that does not mean that Jehovah's Witnesses are required to donate a certain amount, let's say 20%, but rather, that they feel impelled by their conscience and by Christ's death to do so."

  [Possible content of a future BOE letter. Soon, in a Kingdom Hall near you.]
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  32

  Did you count the time for your "hour talk"?

  by compound complex in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi fellow speakers (sorry, brothers only!):.

  my first public talk, given in my early 20s, was actually a twenty-minute part of a symposium talk.

  my pioneer partner friend and i each had twenty minutes and a "servant" had the concluding part.

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  Syme

  I counted my public talk time. I counted 1 hour when I gave 45' talk, and 1/2 hour when I gave a 30' talk (after the recent change). That includes memorial talks.

  I did not count any other kind of talk.

  Of course, when I went for a talk to a distant congregation, I used to take along with me at least 1 unbaptized publisher, so the actual counting was a lot more than 1 hour.
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  23

  Advice, Opinions, Please!

  by mellojello in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  do any of you sometimes experience difficulty in shaking wt teachings?

  like it intrudes in your daily life and thought and some things that may be alright, now you feel as if they're wrong or you plain just don't know.

  i know the wt is a lie but i haven't lost my faith in god, i know he's there but it's hard knowing whats the right thing to do.

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  Syme

  In order to ''know what to do'', you need resources.

  Before you act, you need to have a background. The sterile WT publications that were your sole channel of information until now, do not provide that background.

  Now that you are not bound by the WTS publication chains, try reading as if you read for the first time.

  Read philosophy, read science, read politics, read economy, read applied psychology. Read everything that helps you re-discover the world around you and re-defince your place in it!

  When you have sufficient amount of secular knowledge, you will apply it to your own life, circumstances and feelings, and then do what's best for you.
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  29

  Creative ways of counting field service time

  by 4thgen in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there was a sister in my congregation that signed up to aux pioneer one month to put in 60 hours.

  we couldn't figure out why she was never at the arrangements, but yet she said she got in her time early in the month.

  we found out later that we wrote a letter that took her an hour.

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  Syme

  Two pioneer couples went on a holiday trip by car. They made a 7-hour journey to their destination, and counted the WHOLE 7 HOURS as field service because ...they witnessed to the clerks at the toll stations!

  The most ridiculous thing is that, when they came back, they actually bragged about it, as if it was something ingenious! They really showed me what ''pioneering'' means for the average jw, and reminded me why on this forum the term ''pious-sneer'' is so often used.
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  20

  REMEMBER THOSE IN NURSING HOMES

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when i saw this article's title in the latest kingdom ministry - http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/278822/1/june-2014-kingdom-ministry-km-06-2014-pdf - i was delighted!!.

  i thought, "at last, we are all being encouraged to visit our poor brothers & sisters in nursing homes, who feel abandoned!.

  nope, that's not it - it's all about targetting non-witnesses in those establishments, and get them to sign up for "bible" studies.

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  Syme

  In my country proselytizing (converting) is still illegal. However, that law nowadays only applies when trying to proselytize certain 'sensitive' groups such as minors and elderly who are not in full mental clarity (e.g. dementia). So, it would indeed be interesting to see how the relatives and authorities will react when j-dubs begin to preach systematically to elderly people in nursing homes....
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  34

  How did you find the truth about the truth (TTATT)

  by Maat13 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am sure there has been a post about this subject, however being a recent addition to the network i don't know how to do a search.

  and i'm sure new folks have joined since then.

  i am really curious of how others came to know ttatt.. for me is was a real bad experience with one elder after another.

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  Syme

  I started by reading about Evolution. I cross-checked the quotations and statements made in the Watchtower books, such as Creation (1985) and Creator (1998), and found out that they were full of quote-mining and various other fallacies. A moment of revelation was when I cross-checked a certain Hitching (not Hitchens) who WTS presented as a prominent ''evolutionist'' who discredited evolution (!!), and found out that he actually was a charlatan with spiritist practices! That undermined my faith in the sincerity of Watchtower authors.

  I then viewed the movie "To Verdener" (Danish), which is about a malfunctioning JW family. It presented a familiar scenery, though seen from a different viewpoint, more realistic, more cynical.

  Then came this forum :)