Jehovah’s Witnesses vs Real Facts.

This is a post about a recent exchange I had with a Jehovah’s Witness. I have many exchanges with JW’s, most of which I am saving for a big post about, well… exchanges with Jehovah’s Witnesses. I post on many websites and this very well meaning person felt moved to send me an email and it was actually quite thoughtful. I did appreciate it

 

 

 

I responded in an appreciative manner, with a little bit about my personal history etc. and mentioned my blog.

 

 

 

Well, things went to shit in a hurry. This person was offended by my swearing. This person never mentioned the facts I presented, only that my swearing was offensive. I mentioned that Jehovah’s Witnesses have predicted that the end of the world or Armageddon would come on 6 separate and distinct dates and or time periods and all were false. I don’t know if this person actually read this, but here are the quotes below.

 

 

This is stuff from an earlier post:

 

 

 

Six (6) predictions by Jehovah’s Witnesses that Armageddon was coming that proved to be absolutely false.

 

 

 

1 – 1914 –  1902 -”In view of this strong Bible evidence concerning the Times of the Gentiles, we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God, will be accomplished by the end of 1914.” (The Time is at Hand, 1902 edition, p. 99) Note: this same statement was contained in the 1908 edition of the same book.

 

 

 

 2 – End of WW1: “The present great war in Europe is the beginning of the Armageddon of the Scriptures (Revelation 19:16-20). It will eventuate in the complete overthrow of all the systems of error which have so long oppressed the people of God and deluded the world”. (Pastor Russell’s Sermons, 1915, p. 676)
In the same year (1915),

 

 

 

 3 – 1925 – “The period must end in 1925 . . . [This date] is definitely fixed in the Scriptures. Every thinking person can see that a great climax is at hand. The scriptures clearly indicate that the climax is the fall of Satan’s empire and the full establishment of the Messianic kingdom . . . Therefore, it can be confidently said at this time that millions now living will never die”. (Golden Age, January 4, 1922, p. 217)

 

 

 

 4 – 1975 – Watchtower, October 15, 1969 pages 622 and 623:

 

  “More recently earnest researchers of the Holy Bible have made a recheck of its chronology. According to their calculations the six millenniums of mankind’s life on earth would end in the mid-seventies…. Would not, then, the end of six millenniums of mankind’s laborious enslavement under Satan the Devil be the fitting time for Jehovah God to usher in a Sabbath millennium for all his human creatures? Yes, indeed! And his King Jesus Christ will be Lord of that Sabbath.”

 

Notice the use of the definite article “the”. It would be “the fitting time”, not “a fitting time” not “an appropriate time” but “THE FITTING TIME”, to the exclusion of all other times. “Yes, Indeed! And his King Jesus Christ will be Lord of that Sabbath”. Not “might be”, not “could be”, but “WILL BE”. 

 

 

 

  5 – End of the 20^th Century – Again in 1971, they said it would come in the 20th century:”Shortly, within our twentieth century, the “battle in the day of Jehovah” will begin”. From: The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah – How? 1971 p. 216”

 

  

6 – Within the life span of the 1914 generation: Watchtower, 7/1/69 pg395:

 

 

 “People who were only just old enough to understand what was happening to the world in 1914 are now approaching seventy years of age. Yes, the numbers of that generation are dwindling fast, but before they all pass away this system must meet its end in the war of Armageddon.”

 

 

 

 Of course, none of this happened. It’s even more bizarre in light of what the Watchtower 4/1/72, pages 197 says:

 

 

 

 “So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come? These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is this prophet?…This “prophet” was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah’s Christian witnesses….Of course, it is easy to say that this group acts as a “prophet” of God. It is another thing to prove it.”

 

 

 

In the face of these facts which I assume this person read, this person went off on the fact that I swear.

 

 

If I said to you “Hey get out of the fucking way! A truck is headed right for you!” Would you choose to dismiss my warning or the factual content of the statement because of the way it was presented.

 

 

 

“Hey, you said fuck!!

 

 

 

To the contrary, I think you’d move your ass out of the way and thank me.

 

 

 

This Jehovah’s Witness chose to ignore my facts because I swear. I see this all the time when I ask Witnesses to please explain the above statements and how “God’s true organization”, allegedly led by God could be so consistently wrong. They ignore the facts, but find another excuse to not believe what I say. 

 

 

 

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon which refers to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and any new, conflicting information or interpretation. It therefore occurs when there is a need to accommodate new ideas, and it may be necessary for it to develop so that we become “open” to them.

 

 

 

Stated differently, Cognitive dissonance is a psychological state that describes the uncomfortable feeling between what one holds to be true and new conflicting “facts”.

 

 

 

We see people in denial all the time. You are told you have cancer. You can’t wrap your mind around it and often go into a state of denial. The problem here is that the cancer is not going away. It’s going to progress, or get worse so you can’t deny or ignore it for long. Sooner or later you must face the facts.

 

 

 

 Cognitive Dissonance, cognitive (“cognitions” meaning beliefs) and dissonance (meaning unresolved tensions) basically means your mind wrestles with itself, trying to make sense of two or more conflicting ideas, usually one, a long held belief and the other irrefutable facts that are diametrically opposed to your long held belief.

 

 

 

 The scientist who fist coined this phrase, Leon Festinger, wrote a book entitled “When Prophecy Fails”. Mr. Festinger observed and studied counterintuitive beliefs and  persistence among of members of a UFO doomsday cult. The members of this cult had come to believe that aliens were going to destroy the earth in 1957. Well, this “cognition” didn’t happen, And yet, strangely, their proselytization increased after the leader’s prophecy failed.

 

 

 

The failed message of earth’s destruction, purportedly sent by aliens to a woman in 1956, became a disconfirmed expectancy that increased dissonance between cognitions, thereby causing most members of the impromptu cult to lessen the dissonance by accepting a new prophecy: that the aliens had instead spared the planet for their sake.

 

 

 

What they believed didn’t happen. The explanation that that the aliens had instead spared the planet for their sake, solved the internal mental conflict. The “new information” soothed the feeling of uncomfortable tension which came from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time.

 

 

 

This Jehovah’s Witness solved his/her internal conflict by dismissing my facts, using the excuse that I swear, so none of what I say has any credability. Thus he/she soothed the conflict between my facts and her/his beliefs. In fact, it’s likely that he/she did not even read the facts presented before seeing my swearing as the “way out” of possible mental distress. 

 

 

The same mental state is what allows the Witnesses to prophesy falsely 6 times and the membership suck it up. This person just parrots what all Witnesses say, now that they are not living with a Watchtower Society prediction to look forward to.

 

 

 

The Witnesses will encourage everyone else to examine their own religion, but warn their own members not to. And the membership sees no problem with that.

 

 

 

“It’s for our own protection” they all recite.

 

 

 

No it’s not. It’s to keep all you fucking brain washed little profit centers in the dark. If you honestly looked at the contradictions in their literature, you can only reconcile them through

 

 

 

a)      realizing they are full of shit or

 

 

b)      irrational “rationalization” type behavior, otherwise known as cognitive dissonance.

 

 

Like the flying saucer cult. Same shit.

 

 

 

As a closing point, this person also assumed I left the Witnesses because I was hurt as a youth, offended by “imperfect men, etc. Is it possible that people leave the Witnesses because they figure out that the Watchtower Society is simply full of shit?

 

 

 

“That can’t be right. We have the truth.”

 

 

 

There has to be something wrong with someone for leaving the Witnesses. There can’t be any problems with the Witnesses. If you do the math, you can extrapolate that over 1 million Witnesses have left the organization in the last 20 years. That’s a lot for an organization of only 6 million. All were defective.

 

 

 

As far as having the “Truth”, which “Truth”? You have to be specific. The current “Truth” that teaches something totally different concerning the 1914 generation than I was taught? Was I not taught the “Truth”? Was it the “Truth” then and not the “Truth”now?

 

 

 

The Witness call this being progressive. If you change the “Truth” that means the former thoughts were not true, or lies. It would be different  if the new “Truth” about the 1914 generation was simply an expansion of the old “Truth”, but it’s not. It’s a total paradigm shift. The generation that was born in 1914, that was central to my beliefs, is now irrelevant.

 

 

 

Of course, there are many instances of the Witnesses changing things and editing later copies of their literature. Most Witnesses don’t want to hear about it.

 

 

 

Remember when  you were a kid and someone was saying something you didn’t want to hear so you put your hands over your ears and yelled loudly “La La la lalalalalalal…”?

 

 

 

Go by a Kingdom Hall (Jehovah’s Witness church or meeting place) when they are having a meeting. I bet you here a loud “La la lalalalalala…..” as they try to ignore real facts.

 

 

Allow me to close with a message to my new Witness “friend”, all Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christians and Religious people in general: Fuck you all, you delusional assholes.

 

 

It’s my blog. I’ll swear if I want. If you want to swear, make your own blog. If swearing offends you than don’t read my fucking blog!

 

 

 

The Plan Sucks!

 

Just a rant based on a few conversations of late.

 

This week a two year old baby boy drowned. He belonged to a family I was very close to.

 

There is nothing sadder. They always say that it’s unnatural for you to outlive your kids and I guess that’s right. You don’t expect a toddler to die. A 70 year old drops dead from a heart attack, and while still tragic and painful to the family, nothing can hurt as deep as the death of a child. So much promise and potential, gone in the blink of an eye, the lives of the parents and relative forever altered.

 

You look at your kids in almost a future tense. School, college, marriage, grandkids and then you die, not after you cost them a few bucks caring for you, I guess as payback for the total carnage they wrecked on your finances and life style as you raised them. That’s if they care to take care of you. Most of us do, a lot don’t. I would like to think I can depend on mine.

 

The death of this child caused me to raise again the age old question of why we are here, why we suffer, why we die, why we grow old, why we cause pain and death to our fellow humans, either as individuals or as groups in war.

 

The basic questions “Who in the fuck is running things?” As a Deist, I have concluded that there is a God/Intelligent Design, but I do not presume to have any exclusive communications with him/her/it and/or them. I have come to this conclusion simply by observing nature and the universe. To me, it’s reasonable.

 

I say I have “concluded” that there is a God because to say I believe in God implies religious faith, which I do not have. I do not believe in any religion. I see no evidence that God. Or whoever is using any group as his exclusive way to salvation, there is no proof the Bible is from God, or that Jesus in fact ever lived. The same can be said for any other religion or holy book.

 

But again I ask “Who in the fuck is running things?” This “God” that I have concluded exists, evidently is not in charge, or maybe he/she/them are and we are like ants on an anthill, being incinerated by the 12 year sadistic future serial killer with a magnifying glass.

 

Of course, I did mention the death of the child and how it upset me in my office and a lady from a neighboring office felt compelled to tell me about Jesus and how Jesus is caring for the youngster, he is in a better place, accepting Christ is a wonderful experience, blah, blah, blah.

 

Let me say first that this lady was not a Jehovah’s Witness. She belonged to some other Christian mind meld. But on an individual level, I did appreciate here attempt to ease my pain, in her own way.

 

But I asked her, why do we die?

 

“It’s God’s plan” she replied.

 

So he planned for us to suffer and die.

 

“If you believe in Jesus, you will go to heaven.” She replied confidently. “Through Christ we have salvation”

 

I asked her why the majority of people on earth are not Christian and therefore not candidates for “salvation”.

 

“It’s God’s plan”

 

Well the plan sucks. Just because she or anyone says its God’s plan does not make it so. But, The Plan as she and most Christians and other believers understand it makes no sense on any level. There is no rational explanation for the human condition, so the believer assumes God has a plan.

 

Being raised a Jehovah’s Witness, I have read the Bible at least 50 times and studied in detail most of it. It basically says that because of Adam’s sin, we all suffer and die. How fucking unfair is that? Anyhow, an individual’s only escape from this is death and the Bible has several versions of what happens to you after you die, none of which are provable. And by the way, if you choose to escape and take your own life, God punishes you for that too.

 

You can’t win, you can’t break even and you can’t even quit the game.

 

But the overwhelming question is that if you assume (or believe) that God created everything, is all powerful and can change things at his whim, than why doesn’t he?

 

“Oh, Jesus loves everyone”. Lucky for us humans. I’d hate to see what we would be allowed to endure if he didn’t love us. The ultimate death of every human has led mankind to invent all types of reasons his particular God would allow human suffering, none of which make a damn bit of sense.

 

Are we being bread on a mass scale, with the ones embracing Jesus (or Allah, or Vishnu) the ultimate pedigree? Is it death to the mutts?

 

There is no rational reason on any level for humans to suffer as we all do, to one degree or another. If God has a plan, please tell us. I have mentioned this before but God could with one appearance, change everything.

 

Suppose the true God is Allah. Prove he isn’t? What if one day in an unmistakable way, he appeared to the whole world and said that Islam was the true religion, this is what happens when you die, this is how I want you to act and worship me, etc.

 

I’d be a Muslim. No doubt. As a side point he would have to appear every twenty years or so, because humans have such short memories.

 

Would you believe in God? I would.

 

“Hey, I saw him in 1982 and then again in 2002. He said he’d be back in 20 years so we’ll see him again in 14 years.”

 

However, we see nothing tangible. If when he appeared he said “Look, it is my purpose for you to live like you do and suffer death. You’ll understand it when you die”. That would be good enough for most people.

 

It’s like Marine Corps basic. They kick the crap out of you and it is most unpleasant. But you know they are doing it for your own good. They want you to be up for combat.

 

Maybe we’re in human “basic”. It would be nice to know why. Hell, even the Marine Corps tells you why.

The Most Dangerous Religion

Most people believe that by far the most dangerous religion today is Islam. Recently Dutch film maker Geert Wilder’s film, critical of Islam and the Quran, “Fitna” was greeted with the customary outrage in the Muslim community and as such now Mr. Wilder is in hiding, fearing for his life.

The film can be seen in it’s entirety at:

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3369102968312745410

 

 

The noted atheist, Sam Harris had these comments, from his article “Loosing Our Spines to Save Our Necks. The full article can be found at: 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-harris/losing-our-spines-to-save_b_100132.html

 

“The film has been deemed offensive because it juxtaposes images of Muslim violence with passages from the Qur’an. Given that the perpetrators of such violence regularly cite these same passages as justification for their actions, merely depicting this connection in a film would seem uncontroversial. Controversial or not, one surely would expect politicians and journalists in every free society to strenuously defend Wilders’ right to make such a film. But then one would be living on another planet, a planet where people do not happily repudiate their most basic freedoms in the name of “religious sensitivity.”

 

 “Witness the free world’s response to Fitna: The Dutch government sought to ban the film outright, and European Union foreign ministers publicly condemned it, as did UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Dutch television refused to air Fitna unedited. When Wilders declared his intention to release the film over the internet, his U.S. web-host, Network Solutions, took his website offline.”

“Into the breach stepped Liveleak, a British video-sharing website, which finally aired the film on March 27th. It received over 3 million views in the first 24 hours. The next day, however, Liveleak removed Fitna from its servers, having been terrorized into self-censorship by threats to its staff. But the film had spread too far on the internet to be suppressed (and Liveleak, after taking further security measures, has since reinstated it on its site as well).”

“Of course, there were immediate calls for a boycott of Dutch products throughout the Muslim world. In response, Dutch corporations placed ads in countries like Indonesia, denouncing the film in self-defense. Several Muslim countries blocked YouTube and other video-sharing sites in an effort to keep Wilders’ blasphemy from penetrating the minds of their citizens. There have also been isolated protests and attacks on embassies, and ubiquitous demands for Wilders’ murder. In Afghanistan, women in burqas could be seen burning the Dutch flag; the Taliban carried out at least two revenge attacks on Dutch troops, resulting in five Dutch casualties; and security concerns have caused the Netherlands to close its embassy in Kabul. It must be said, however, that nothing has yet occurred to rival the ferocious response to the Danish cartoons.”

Mr. Harris’s point is well taken. The Non Muslim world, genuflects to the Muslim world, whose mission is to destroy all Non Muslims.

We, the Non Muslims are pathetic in our responses, which are basically, “We’re sorry we offended you. Please continue to plan to kill us”

There is looming in our near future a religious conflict between the Muslim and Non Muslim world that will rival the last World War and has the possibility of surpassing it in death and violence, in the very likely event that it turns nuclear.

The West, while it can, should take whatever action necessary to nip this in the bud. But for some reason, we don’t. We need leaders with clear vision and purpose and we get empty suits who call for “change” with no real plan or strategy to implement such change. In fact, in Barrack Obama’s case, he hasn’t even said WHAT he is going to change, never mind how. What a piece of shit he is.

Presently, I think we can count out any real action by any of the three presidential contenders. Hopefully we get some real leadership before we are all totally fucked.

It is not so much that we stand the possibility of loosing our world dominance, but if we loose to the Muslim world they will impose their religion on us, or kill us, likely the later.

Is this fanatic lunacy the exclusive franchise of the Muslim world?

Hardly.

I would take you back to the time of the Inquisition and the Crusades when the Church of Rome dictated every detail of your daily life. Were you forced to go to church, under penalty of death? Yes you were. If the technology existed for you to make a video, critical of the Catholic Church, like Wilder’s film “Fitna is critical of Islam, what would have happened? You’d be hiding in a hole somewhere too, under the threat of death.

I don’t want to, in anyway minimize the danger Islam poses to our future. It’s real and we will be faced with it sooner or later. My point is that religious attitudes and inclinations are all the same, save for the circumstances.

The Church of Rome gradually lost its influence and hold on society and once free of that brand of religious lunacy, we flourished.

Do you think that if the Government sanctioned any religion, Catholic, Mormon, Judaism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, whoever that you wouldn’t be required to participate at the religious level required of most citizens in Muslim states?

Don’t think for a minute The Pope, Old Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts or the late Jerry Fallwell, if they had the governments backing wouldn’t drag you ass at gunpoint to church every Sunday and several times during the week.

You’d have a 10% tithe deducted directly from your pay check and the “Moral Police” would make surprise inspections of your home, looking for porno, short skirts, literature and videos, anything “unbecoming a Christian”. If they find anything, your whole family would be hauled off to a “love camp” for rehabilitation or if that didn’t work execution as the “seed of the devil”

This happened! I mentioned the inquisition but do you remember the Salem Witch trials? This shit is real and as I said, not the exclusive franchise of the Muslims. They just live in countries where they allow this type of stuff.

Of course, the Holy Christians would water board the gayness out of homosexuals and if that didn’t work, do you think they would think twice about beheading them?

Religion is a putrid stain on humanity. Islam stands out now only because their society presently permits and in fact encourages the enforcement of Muslim law. The same intolerance lives in the hearts of all religions.