The store is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, and is the next phase of Watchtower’s “Manhattan Project” – which so far has seen bookstands with Society literature pop up on sidewalks in major cities.

Oh yeah. That happened. JWN is talking about it and an anonymous article was posted about it online as well.

VIDEO: Governing Body’s David Splane says forcing young ones to get baptized is “wise” thing to do

Nothing creepy or weird about that.

Science says atheists should come out of the closet for their own good

I have felt the same way for some time now. Exposure erodes prejudice. The more atheists you meet, the more “ordinary” we become and the less threatening we seem.

Anger—How We Transfer Feelings of Guilt, Hurt, and Fear

What I’d like to clarify in this post is that a good deal of our anger is motivated by a desire not to experience guilt—and beyond this, the distressing emotions of hurt and fear. It’s by now generally agreed upon that anger, as prevalent as it is in our species, is almost never a primary emotion. For underlying it (as fellow blogger Steven Stosny pointed out two decades ago) are such core hurts as feeling disregarded, unimportant, accused, guilty, untrustworthy, devalued, rejected, powerless, and unlovable. And these feelings are capable of engendering considerable emotional pain. It’s therefore understandable that so many of us might go to great lengths to find ways of distancing ourselves from them.

I think many of us would agree that Jehovah’s Witnesses are prone to certain emotional issues that affect them more than the general public. (Some seem to consider fundamentalism in general to be a breeding ground for certain issues.) Unfortunately, ex-Witnesses are not immune. Many of us carry the same issues with us into our new found “worldly” lives. Articles like this one are worth checking out.

A Powerful Two-Step Process to Get Rid of Unwanted Anger

I think you’ll agree that only rarely can you claim that your anger is both warranted and helpful, whether to yourself or the relationship.
So let me offer you a two-step alternative to abandoning your better judgment and giving in to the temptation of anger—one that should neutralize your anger in seconds. Or, when you’re really angry, in minutes.

Atheist vs. Atheist—What?!

Its author, the prominent French philosopher André Comte-Sponville, makes the distinction between the “dogmatic atheist” and the “non-dogmatic atheist.” Largely self-explanatory, the first type of non-believer might be seen as lacking a certain humility. For the assuredness of their atheism borders on an arrogance comparable to that of their fundamentalist-believing counterparts. In their outspoken conviction, they’re quite prepared to go on record declaring the non-existence of any supernatural being. Which is to say, their claim is not expressed as an opinion but as undeniable fact. They’re rationalists in the purest sense (i.e., “No God, or gods, exist. Case closed—unless you present me with indisputable scientific evidence to the contrary.”). In their minds virtually all possibility of a cosmic creation undertaken by some celestial deity has been vanquished. (And that’s why some believers experience this adamant stance not simply as overbearing but as downright “militant.”)

Prepare to be a bit annoyed at some parts of this article.

The Science Delusion argues that science wrecks truth and beauty

Curtis White’s book, The Science Delusion, makes two broad points: that science is based upon ‘assumptions that are deluded,’ and that scientists can be real jerks. He provides ample proof for one of those claims.
The title of the The Science Delusion, published on May 28th, is an obvious reference Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. It’s no surprise, then, when Dawkins is one of the many scientists that populate its pages. They’re not an attractive bunch. Through anecdotes and commentary, Curtis White paints various scientists as dismissive snobs, smug pseudo-intellectuals, manipulative showmen, immoral politicos, and people who make bad faith arguments from behind a protective screen of elite supporters.

This one too.

Changes at AAWA:

I don’t see anything about it on their website yet and I don’t have a link to it, but Cedars, the editor of JWSurvey and former President of AAWA, has stepped down as President of the organization to focus on what he does best: writing articles for ex-Witnesses. No word on who will replace him yet.

Four Jehovah Witnesses ’Preachers Thaught A Lesson By Prostitutes

Go there and see the awesome for yourself!

‘Man of Steel’ filled with Jesus, Christianity references

A transcript has been made here. Take note, this is one of the Society’s most vicious screeds against their former followers turned critics.

“New light” Watchtower magazine leaked from organization weeks ahead of general release

Big changes are on the horizon for several key Watchtower teachings!

Some very bold statements found in the April 15, 2013 Watchtower Study Edition.

Ditto.

Paris Jackson Possible Suicide Attempt Rushed to Hospital

Don’t forget about this recent event in her life as described below…

Paris Jackson stands up against her grandmother’s Jehovah’s Witness beliefs and ‘refuses to preach door-to-door’

Did Cultish Religion Move Paris Jackson to Attempt Suicide?

Letter to Hitler & Declaration of Facts

This has been getting a lot of play among exxers of late. And, on a related note…

Religious fundamentalism could soon be treated as mental illness

Kathleen Taylor, a neurologist at Oxford University, said that recent developments suggest that we will soon be able to treat religious fundamentalism and other forms of ideological beliefs potentially harmful to society as a form of mental illness.

It should be noted that the Watchtower Society has, in various ways and at different times, put information out to the public regarding its official stance on child abuse. Their statements are, as with most things, pretty devoid of meaning and full of obfuscation. Nothing has really changed. Nothing good at any rate. Internally, the organization seems to have dug in its heels even deeper than before.

Jehovah’s Witnesses Pedophile Policy: Jehovah’s Witnesses Pedophile Policy

Many have been disfellowshipped (excommunicated and shunned) from Jehovah’s Witnesses without any or with little possibility of defend themselves just because they tried to stand up for molested children and protect them from pedophiles within Jehovah’s Witnesses organization.

If you question Jehovah’s Witnesses about these things you cannot rely on them telling the truth not even in the court. “While malicious lying is definitely condemned in the Bible, this does not mean that a person is under obligation to divulge truthful information to people who are not entitled to it.” – Insight-2 p. 245

Do Jehovah’s Witnesses protect pedophiles within the organization? Yes, they do. The policy of Jehovah’s Witnesses is that if a congregation has a known pedophile only a few of the elders in the congregation knows about it. Today the elders, that know they have pedophiles in their congregation, are not allowed to warn and protect the congregation. This is the current policy of the Watch Tower.

Watchtower Paedophile Policy and related court cases

There have been several reasons that paedophiles have been able to find sanctuary amongst Jehovah’s Witnesses and that the Watchtower Society is now being held accountable for the actions of its members. Most damaging, and described in detail below, were the following:

The two witness rule to establish Scriptural crimes

The three year rule for sins of elders

Other concepts also at play have been:

Worldly wisdom cannot be trusted

Reproach must not be bought on Jehovah’s Organization – Witnesses are expected to solve problems within

Everyone must engage in preaching

Since 1997, there has been improvement in Watchtower policies regarding child abuse, particularly due to pressure from the media and legal cases, and included are the latest Watchtower regulations for each point.

New evidence in Jehovah’s Witness allegations

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have settled nine lawsuits alleging church policies protected men who sexually abused children for many years.

Expose on Jehovah Witnesses Pedophile Cover-Up

Silentlambs.org

Inside sources reveal 23,720 reported/unreported child molesters on file at Jehovah’s Witness headquarters in New York

JW Survivors

JW Survivors is a volunteer not-for-profit community based victim advocacy group for survivors of the Church of Jehovah’s Witnesses within Australia. The group was founded by Steven Unthank. The seeds of JW Survivors were planted by current and former members of the Church of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and their families, in response to the Victorian Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Organisations, and an extensive submission made in relation to the Church of Jehovah’s Witnesses and their administrative controlling corporation, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia.

Pedophile Cover-up « Jehovahs Witnesses Revealed

Jehovah’s Witness Pedophile Cover UP

Jehovah’s Witness pedophile walked free from court despite one of his victims was a baby

Legal Loophole Used by Jehovah’s Witnesses to Avoid Moral Obligation

Jehovah’s Witnesses ordered to pay $21 million in child sex abuse case

Child Abuse | JW Leaks

Documents and court cases relating to child abuse within the church of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Spiritwatch Unchained: Organized To Accomplish Their Molestation: A Spiritwatch Real Video Presentation On Pedophilia Among Jehovah’s Witnesses

JW Class Action | official information site

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT: December 1, 2012

$3 Billion class action lawsuit on behalf of Jehovah’s Witnesses children

A $3 Billion class action lawsuit is being launched in Australia on behalf of up to 6,160 children within the Church of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Documents relating to the class action reveal over 14,000 serious criminal breaches of mandatory child protection laws, committed against these children by elders and “ministers of religion” within the Church of Jehovah’s Witnesses over the past 4 years.

Candace Conti | JW Leaks

Documents and court records relating to the case of “Candace Conti v. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York”.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Despite this, I liked the previous Star Trek movie. It could have used some of the smarts that went into the TV shows that came before it, but it was totally enjoyable. And, most importantly, the characters felt right.

Can the same be said for Star Trek Into Darkness? Or should we set phasers to kill?

Three guesses where Scotty’s hand is right now.

Star Trek Into Darkness feels like the previous Star Trek movie. Overall, that’s a good thing. The closest we get to a yawn-inducing conference scene is when Scotty gets drunk at a bar while talking to Kirk.

Like most J.J. Abrams movies, this film was more style than substance. IO9 understandably referred to it as “Star Trek into Dumbness.” Like the previous movie, even a cursory glance at the story reveals a lot of glaring plot holes, conveniences, and inconsistencies that strain our suspension of disbelief. Below, I’ll point out some of the most obvious ones.

Here come the spoilers, kids. Gird your loins.

1. Kirk is demoted to First Officer for violating the Prime Directive and Admiral Pike is given command of the Enterprise … again. Pike gets killed after five minutes of screen time, putting Kirk back in the captain’s chair. What was the point of having Kirk demoted? Maybe the writers were taking a stab at character development by teaching Kirk he’s not above the rules, but I felt nothing. In storytelling, less is more, people.

Here we see Spock helping Khan with his dandruff problem.

2. Admiral Marcus finds Khan floating somewhere in outer space and thaws him out of cryosleep. Let’s pretend I buy that. Then Marcus gives this 300-year-old evil genius access to modern science and a frigging laboratory to create a new starship that’s way more advanced than anything else Starfleet has. Let’s pretend that doesn’t also sound stupid so we can get to the real stupid.

How does Admiral Marcus keep anyone from finding out about the ship or about Khan and his fellow supermen? Wouldn’t Khan need special clearance to work in an experimental military facility where they build starships? Or did Marcus keep Khan in his basement and pretend he thought up all these advances himself? And where the hell did Marcus hide a starship that was twice the size of the Enterprise? His backyard?

I know space is huge, but come on, this thing would need to be docked to a space station to keep all its lights blinking and warp engines breaking. You could say there’s a conspiracy within Starfleet that goes beyond Admiral Marcus, but if that were true, why would he bother destroying the Enterprise to keep its crew from informing Starfleet?

You think I’m stupid, don’t you movie?

3. Khan supposedly designed some new photon torpedoes for Starfleet. At first, I thought they might be quantum torpedoes. Instead, they were simply hiding places for the rest of Khan’s evil henchmen. Um, how does that work? Did Khan build all 72 torpedoes himself so no one would find out he was hiding human beings and their cryotubes inside them? If he could do that, why didn’t Khan just wake the supermen and smuggle them out instead? When Khan explained this to Kirk, he told the captain that Admiral Marcus found out about his plan. No shit. It was a stupid plan. Does being genetically enhanced mean that you’re really a dipshit and everyone has to pretend you’re super smart?

Never thought I’d say this, but Kirk’s isn’t bigger.

The stupid doesn’t end there. Why would Marcus have Kirk fire those torpedoes at Khan instead of just sending Khan a Youtube video of the supermen being executed to make his point? Maybe Marcus was hoping that Kirk would find out so he could justify killing Kirk? But wait, if that was the case, why not ambush him and shoot him in the face on some alien planet when no one was looking? If no one knew about Khan, wouldn’t that be the safest, easiest way to handle it?

Except for his daughter, who figured it all out on her own. Hotness = smart, I guess. I could go on, but the more I think about it, the more I want to send this movie to a creative writing class to learn from its many horrifying mistakes. I just don’t have that kind of money right now. Sorry movie.

4. Khan wasn’t a skinny British guy in the TV show or in The Wrath of Khan. Carol Marcus wasn’t British in The Wrath of Khan either. Wait, her dad wasn’t even British in this movie! So why does she have the accent? Even if her mother was British, would she really be that British? I mean, what the hell, movie?

George Lucas was wrong. Chicks do wear bras in space. Dammit.

Still, I will allow it because Alice Eve looks pretty hot in the skimpy underwear. And her accent makes me extra tingly. Well played, Mr. Abrams, using my boner against me like that. You win this round!¹

5. Before moving on to the big fight scene, I question the wisdom of having Spock scream, “Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!” for any reason. The movie became a parody of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan at this point. I didn’t feel like Kirk and Spock were close enough in this altered universe to warrant that reaction. It would have been better if Spock went all deadly-quiet, his rage simmering just beneath the surface as he marched onto the transporter pad to go after Khan, but having Spock shout out Khan’s name was in bad taste. Also, if they could beam down Uhura to give Spock a message during the fight, why couldn’t they just beam Khan up to the ship to get his blood? There clearly wasn’t anything wrong with the transporter then.

Since Spock is a Vulcan, he and Khan should be about the same strength. So why was Khan trying to crush Spock’s skull in with his bare hands? And why was it working? Don’t tell me it wasn’t working. We could hear Spock’s bones popping! Are Vulcan skulls made from peanut shells or something?

6. I thought the Klingon home world was on Quo’nos, not Kronos. Oh, just go to hell, movie!

OK, that was just a taste of the dumbness. And yet, despite all these errors, Star Trek Into Darkness was fun! Just like the first Abrams-spawned Star Trek film. In fact, this movie was more fun than Iron Man 3, which I already recommended. So I’m recommending Star Trek Into Darkness. Despite the dumbness. Or the lack of a colon in the name.

Seriously, you can’t even give us a comma? Abraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaams!!

Extra Links

Here’s a few tidbits from other websites about Star Trek Into Darkness you might find interesting.

Zachary Quinto vs. Leonard Nimoy: “The Challenge” – YouTube

A Close-up Look at the Star Trek Easter Egg You Might Have Missed

‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ director J.J. Abrams shows deleted scene of Benedict Cumberbatch in shower

The Braver, Better Movie That Star Trek Into Darkness Could Have Been

My Review: J. J. Abram’s New Star Trek

Why The New Battlestar Galactica Is Better Than Star Trek (Eat It Trek Nerds!) – Atheist Geek News

Metacritic gave Iron Man 3 a 62% approval rating, while Rotten Tomatoes gave it a freshness rating of 78%. So more critics liked the movie than didn’t like the movie. What did I think? Clink the link to find out.

It didn’t suck. It was fun, but also pretty predictable. Let’s work our way out from there.

That one kid from Iron Man 3.

All three Iron Man movies feel really similar. It almost feels like the stories were kicked out of a computerized plot generator. For me, the similarities between Iron Man and Iron Man 2 are what made the sequel feel weaker than the first. Well, that and the fact that all the women in Tony’s life suddenly wanted him to die.

Despite the repetition, the producers always seem to find a way to make the movies fun. Not as fun as the first movie where we get to know Tony Stark and see what a mess he is, but fun nonetheless. Iron Man 3 continues this trend. I think they have Robert Downey Jr. to thank for that.

The best parts were the ones between Stark and this kid he meets after he crash lands in a small town. We get to see multiple versions of the Iron Man armor in this film, which holds true to the comic books, so that was kinda neat. It was also nice to see that Pepper Potts has a six-pack. The enemy, however, was the weakest of all three movies.

Even weaker than the Russian with his stupid bird.

They attempted to add some depth to Tony by giving him a new mental problem to solve. Thanks to the events from The Avengers movie, he now suffers from PTSD. I didn’t really care and neither will you. It barely factors into the story at all.

Major Spoiler Time

Iron Man! Cross your legs, you whore!

I’m about to destroy this movie for many of you now. If you don’t want that to happen, stop reading at the end of this paragraph. For those about to leave this review, I will declare Iron Man 3 a decent movie that you should go see if you just want to have a good time and don’t want something too deep or original. Have a good day.

Losers. Wait, you said you were leaving! No fair…

For the rest of you, I dare you to remain calm as I tell you that the Mandarin is fake. Totally fake. He’s just an actor paid by the real villain to appear on camera as a distraction. So no magic rings. No evil. No anything, really, except total lameness. I call, “Booooooooooo!”

After this was revealed halfway through the movie, I really expected to learn that the Mandarin was faking it the whole time. But sadly, no. As predictable as that would have been, I think it would have been better. This just felt cheap. When you make me feel all dirty inside, then dammit, you’ve gone too far!

Fakety fake fake bogus fake lamety lame lame.

I found it hard to care about the real villain, Killian, either. I also had trouble accepting the villain’s origin story and the basis for his powers.

If I was into using numbers to rate movies, I would give Iron Man 3 a three out of five. As it is, if you want to see a fun movie that has been Atheist Geek rated as “not bad,” then this is for you.

P.S.

Oh, and no Black Widow in this movie. Sorry gents. Yeah, that pissed me off too. And Happy is a major cock block. For this alone he deserves death. Remember that, Marvel, for Iron Man 4.

Death to all cock blockers the world over!