Awake Redefines Irony: Atheism Issue

November issue of the Awake available here
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?54bn2z08urrget9

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, aka, Jehovah's Witnesses, have once again redefined irony!

The statistics referenced in the video.
Atheist prison population: Golumbaski, 1997
http://www.adherents.com/misc/adh_prison.html#altformat

Atheist divorce rates: Barna Research Group Survey 1999, 2007
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm

Secular Nations better off
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article571206.ece

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Jehovah's Witnesses
• Watchtower
• Bible
• and
• Tract
• Society
• Atheism
• Cult
• Irony
• Are You Kidding Me

[laflugantabastardo]

The beard thing is not entirely true; I knew several bearded brothers (and one sister with a mustache) and they never caught any flak.

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@laflugantabastardo did any of the bearded brothers have any "privileges" (e.g. Ministerial Servants, literature distribution, talks, even microphones)? It has always been my experience, as well as other's, that if you insist on growing any facial hair other than a well groomed mustache, you don't advance. The brother may be baptized, but he'll be seen as spiritually weak since he's not advancing because of not having privileges in the congregation because of his beard.

[laflugantabastardo]

@TheRecoveringZombie

Yep. One of them used to be an elder.

Though my dad actually used to wear a beard too decades ago until he was told to shave it off, but that was then and this is now. Perhaps it's because we've become a bit more liberal in Holland than the US.

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@laflugantabastardo that is very unusual. I have never seen any brothers, especially the ones who want to reach out for privileges, wear beards. Some men who were studying perhaps, but as soon as they declared that they wanted to pursue baptism, they were pressured to shave it off.

[tubian323]

1:34 I've noticed that. I remember one Watchtower or Awake illustration in particular, it was of the Watchtower's much hated preacher of "Christendom" He had a beard and a American flag pin on his suit, the implication being that a man with a beard and a patriotic pin cannot be a moral person. I've also noticed that in Watchtower art the "wicked" people being destroyed at armageddon have tattoos, piercings and if they're men they have long hair or are not clean shaven.

[laflugantabastardo]

@TheRecoveringZombie

Let's put it down to a difference in culture. I live in an area where pot and prostitution is the most normal thing in the world (even if brothers and sisters don't associate with them. Not counting my 61 year old mother - I think she'd do pot if she wouldn't get caught...), so putting it in perspective, what's a beard in the liberal modern sodom and gomorrah that is Amsterdam?

[av1611preacher]

Even I have to admit, your take on this is pretty funny

[beardfreak1969]

@TheRecoveringZombie The sad thing is, a lot of the folk reading that magazine at the hall will have no clue that there are viable counter arguments, and the mostly clueless general public who are given that article, will nod their heads and say "yeah, sounds reasonable to me"... there are elements within the article hard to dispute of course (like absolutely disproving a god exists), but, there are clear fallacies that can & should be addressed.

[TheRecoveringZombie]

@beardfreak1969 LOL!  I'd love to see Matt and Jeff rip into it.

I should have put a facepalm advisory warning before my link. I know I facepalmed so much, I have myself a headache.

[beardfreak1969]

@TheRecoveringZombie Thanks for the Awake upload - I read the article, talk about biased quote mining and misrepresenting arguments and science.Yuk. I sent a link to the Awake to the guys at Atheist Experience.