Does anybody feel like if not for the Internet we could have still been in

by ladione5000 30 Replies latest jw friends

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  ladione5000

  the dark? walking around knocking on peoples doors and telling them they are going to die if they do not follow our beliefs?

  I for one feel like this is the new world, and there is just no stopping this super highway we call the internet... it is like a whole new world, we can now talk and meet people around the world.

  We have the option of expanding our lines of communication and learning what the Org has been keeping from all of us for so long now exposed I can actually see why the time will come when the Org will end.
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  JH

  Well, I quit going to meetings 4 years before having access to internet. Definitely the internet played a major role in my post JW era.
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  lovelylil

  I for one am very grateful for the internet. I knew something was not right with the organization for a long time but felt it was due to my own weaknesses. But when I finally went online and researched the org. from its very beginings and found others who had been through the same hell I was going through, it helped me get up the courage to finally get out. The great thing about the net is you can acess so much information from the privacy of your own home and without the scrutiny of the elders. No wonder the society sees it as such a threat! Lilly
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  Seeker4

  The Internet is a huge factor in people leaving the Witnesses, and probably an even greater factor in keeping people from ever getting involved to begin with. What's the first thing that you do when you hear about something new that interests you? Google!! And what do you find when you Google Jehovah's Witnesses? Two pro-Witness sites and 2000 anti-Witness!

  Jehovah's Witnesses have the most powerful anti movement of any religion in the world, it seems to me.

  And yes, the Net had a huge influence on me leaving. Apart from all the great info available right at your fingertips, the most important thing it did for me was to help me realize that all of my doubts were well-founded and common among ex-Witness thinkers. I wasn't crazy, I was normal.

  Here's a thread I started on this a while ago: What Great Resources Apostates Have - Created Bottom Up, Not Top Down!!

  S4
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  Balsam

  If it hadn't been for the INTERNET I would have never known about Raymond Frantz and his book COC. I would have never found all the helpful people I found here and at Channel C. I know it was instrumental in helping me find my way mentally and emotionally out of that silly religion. I hope it helps everyone.

  Balsam
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  parakeet

  "Does anybody feel like if not for the Internet we could have still been in"
  
  For me personally, no. I left in the late 1970s, long before the Internet. Now, of course, the Internet makes leaving a quicker and less difficult process for disaffected JWs.
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  Highlander

  I was well on my way as a fader before I researched Jdubs on the net.(I started fading in 1999 though I had some sporadic field service time over the last few years)

  I must say the internet has solidified my gut feelings about 'jehovah's organization'. When researching on the net about a particular j-dub belief(prior or present) I will often times

  purchase the coresponding j-dub book or material on ebay to verify what is said here or at other sites. There is no doubt the net is very helpful to me now and I can only imagine

  the increased awareness that the net provides to active j-dubs that are beginning to question or have doubts about their version of the 'truth'.

  On the flip side I know of many j-dubs that are well trained by the watchtower and will immediately dismiss anything critical of the wt corp belief system.

  Ultimately I think the net is great for those with doubts, but for those that are fully indoctrinated, it may not have much if any of an effect.
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  candidlynuts

  i quit going years before i ever got online and looked at anything about jw's. what the internet did (and does) is help me heal without a lot of the residual fears you have after you quit going .
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  XU

  What is Channel C? I never really looked at the internet before leaving. But after leaving and searching for years for "my people" (where my homies at?) I finally realized after this site and Ray Franz books that I'm an "apostate" (free-thinker). For some witlesses, I'm sure Satan seems like a genius if they think all this anti-witness stuff is his doing. I remember being paranoid as an elder's kid because the bad dude was wandering around seeking to devour me or something.
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  garybuss

  I'd be out and away no doubt. I doubt I'd have so many questions answered and so many facts ready in a instant. I had read over 200 books on the topic plus many Society produced books. The Internet was frosting on the cake.