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About The Atheist Geek

The Atheist Geek is a former Jehovah's Witness turned secular humanist. He's a lifelong sci-fi geek and a writer wannabe.

News and Links for Ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses: PBS Newshour Asks, “Did Jehovah’s Witnesses Cover Up Child Sex Abuse?”

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PBS NewsHour full episode Feb. 17, 2015

The link above will take you to the full episode, but the part about Jehovah’s Witnesses can be seen below. It is called “Did Jehovah’s Witnesses Cover Up Child Sex Abuse?”

I think most of us are pretty sure the answer is yes. Especially since it’s hard to be an active member of the ex-Witness community without knowing at least few exxers who had similar experiences.

Jehovah’s Witness Report gives a short summary of related information here. Cedars of Jehovah’s Witness Survey fame gives a summary of the episode here. Here is an article I wrote for Michigan Skeptics a while back; make sure to check the comments. 🙂 Note that this was written a while ago and more information has come to light since then.

Jehovah’s Witnesses use 1st Amendment to hide child sex abuse claims

The religion’s parent organization, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, issued the directives in at least 10 memos dating back to 1989. Although the memos were anonymously written, Watchtower officials have testified that the organization’s Governing Body approved them all.

Remember the part in bold. The next time a Witness tells you these letters are all apostate fabrications, you can now tell them how mistaken they are. Why would officials admit it in court if it wasn’t true?

Candace Conti Letters

A list of documents regarding the ongoing Candace Conti case, the first ex-Witness to successfully sue the Watchtower for its failure to warn other Witnesses about known pedophiles.

Are Jehovah’s Witnesses a Cult?

According to Janja Lalich and Michael Langone, a psychologist and the executive director for ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association at icsahome.com), several characteristics* that may be present to a greater or lesser degree, and which help to distinguish cults from other communities or groups are:

This one comes from AAWA’s website and is written by Richard Kelly.

DateLine TV Watchtower Jehovah’s Witnesses Pedophilia Witness for the Prosecution

An older story exposing the problems with Jehovah’s Witnesses and pedophilia, but also from a major news source.

 

TONIGHT on February 16th: PBS Newshour to air Trey Bundy’s Jehovah Witness child sex abuse investigation

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It’s true; PBS Newshour will be talking about Jehovah’s Witnesses and child sex abuse allegations this very evening. The title was taken from a link to this article, which is rather lengthy but goes into detail about the legal issues the Watchtower Society has been having with increasing numbers of pedophile cases. Go to the PBS News Hour website and register your local PBS station to get it streamed to your computer.

On a related note, another article, titled Jehovah’s Witnesses use 1st Amendment to hide child sex abuse claims, talks about some of the Society’s more recent legal maneuvering. It also mentions the show.

News and Links for Ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses: Apostasy

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Apostasy

This one sounds interesting. From the film makers:

Our feature film Apostasy needs your help. We are in a tight competition with eight talented teams to win the funding we need to make this film. To succeed, we need to prove that this story MUST be told – that we have an audience who not only wants to see it, but believes it must be seen by others.

This film deals with the pain that is caused by Jehovah’s Witnesses who shun loved ones – simply because they dare to live their lives differently. Our director, Dan, was raised as a JW until he left at 21. From his personal experience, from the stories you’ve shared, and from the media coverage about this ‘religion’, we are surprised that there is not a single English speaking film in history which deals with this subject. Why?

So… all we ask is that you like our page **not just this post, but our official Apostasy page www.facebook.com/apostasyfilm**
Thank you and very happy holidays to those who choose to celebrate it.

Their Facebook page is here. Please like it!

The World Is Not Falling Apart Never mind the headlines. We’ve never lived in such peaceful times.

Yes, contrary to the claims of many doomsday cults, the world is getting better, not worse. This seems kind of obvious to me, but this link gives you some real facts. Another one that lists 26 charts and maps can be found here.

WATCH: 10 Body Parts You No Longer Need

Because Intelligent Design doesn’t make a lot of sense if you take the time to really understand actual science. This one could easily go under my atheist links, but it just so happens that the AWAKE! for this month talks about abiogenesis/evolution (they lump them together, so I might as well do the same). It is … pretty bad. If you read it, make sure to take note of the quotes and the lack of citations. In other words, business as usual.

JWPODCAST.ORG

A new podcast about Jehovah’s Witnesses, run by former Jehovah’s Witnesses. They seem to have a full cast of ex-Witness celebrities you might enjoy. You can also follow them on YouTube.

Jehovah’s Witness Publication Urges Faithful to Treat Disfellowshipped Loved Ones as if God Killed Them

In case you need another reminder that Jehovah’s Witnesses can be heartless, just look at the latest issue of The Watchtower:

This one comes from the Patheos website and was written by the Friendly Atheist. Note that he’s been posting a fair amount of Witness related material over the past year or so. Some may want to keep tabs on his blog.

Reshaping History – How the Watchtower controls their image by editing their own past

This one appears at Cedar’s website, but was written by a guest author.

When Watchtower’s new ‘history’ book was released this summer it was said to have been released because their old one had too many pages. “God’s Kingdom Rules!” was presented as a slimmer, and therefore more translatable, volume than its predecessor.

I’ve recently had a chance to go through it, and I firmly believe its purpose is much more complex than we have been led to believe.

Merry Christmas 2014

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Merry Christmas to all my fellow geeks and heathens. As a (sort of) gift, I am providing links to some of my YouTube playlists for you to ignore or enjoy. Note that I would like to edit the start and end times for some of these, but it seems that YouTube (aka Google) has decided to take this feature away. For some reason.

I maintain all these playlists to varying degrees.

Entertainment

Canada’s Worst Driver is probably my favorite reality TV show. And most episodes are available on YouTube! The last 6 seasons are at least. I maintain this playlist because my wife and I like to go back and watch it from time to time. As more episodes become available, I will add them.

Canada’s Worst Handyman is another good reality TV show from Canada. It’s also very Wintery, so it feels like Christmas. 🙂

Here is a playlist featuring movies, TV shows and other videos for geeks. Many of these are anime. Note that some of these get deleted from time to time and I have no control over that.

This is a playlist of standup comedy in no particular order.

Secularism, Atheism, and Skepticism

Conspiracy Roadtrip is a BBC show that takes true believers in various conspiracy theories, including the idea that evolution is a scientific conspiracy, on a bus throughout the United States to show them the evidence that their belief is wrong and to see if they can change anyone’s mind. Note that the host of the show is a nonbelieving comedian, but he seems to treat the people pretty respectfully.

This is a collection of secular and atheist videos I’ve found across YouTube in no particular order.

Below are two playlists of my favorite Atheist Experience episodes and clips.

List 1:

List 2:

Here is a small list of ex-Jehovah’s Witness videos. Note that it includes the one about Kissing Hank’s Ass. 🙂