by life is to short 74 Replies latest watchtower scandals
Wow.
The only child molester I knew outside of therapeutic settings was a JW.
The only heroin abuser I knew outside of therapeutic settings was a JW.
The only incestuous relationship I knew outside of therapeutic settings were JWs.
The only wife beaters I knew outside of therpeutic settings were JWs.
And I left in my late teens!
So there you have it those of us who do not believe anymore are just screwed up and very unhappy in life. We are out sleeping with everyone and just living a totally horrible life.
Darn I wished that was me....
Darth has me in stitches!
The posts are put so well. I personally feel as if i untied wings that i always suspected i had. And who's to say that our freedom has to be used for hurting ourselves or others?
By Watchtower's own admission appx. 40,000 of their members are disfellowshipped yearly for immorality. This does not take into account the "many" who are reproved for the same conduct. So being in the "safe waters" is no guarantee one will exercise moral restraint either.
Cult Classic
God, yes, I've had 900 abortions, I'm a heroin addict, I gamble away my children's milk money and I run around naked screaming "I'm a ham sandwich!" since I left the Borg.
*big eye roll*
dgp, you make a great point. Although I read Dawkins, it didn't take his observations in order for me to realize that morality does not stem from religion or even from a belief in God. I noticed that early on from the scandals I witnessed at Bethel and from the good life the friends of my unbelieving father led. It didn't take long for me to realize that people will be whatever they will be no matter if they are religious or not.
I'm very curious about the mind process that a JW goes through to convince him or herself that leaving the faith leads to perdition. In my own case, I had fears and apprehensions that I now recognize were aggravated by my familial conditioning and by the threat of eternal death the JW hung upon my head. I envied some people who grew up in a nurturing and secure environment who absolutely refused to drink the Kool-Aid. Having a bit of a discernment, I eventually could not ignore that little voice in the back of my mind actually asking if what I was hearing was true. Alas, I did a lot of ignoring and glossing over some of the obvious incongruities in the religion. I can picture many members of my family taking that Watchtower blue pill right now, with perhaps one exception: my older sister. She's a puzzle. She actually admitted to me that she doesn't agree with the Society that there's anything wrong with celebrating a birthday. Yet, she and her husband are faithful followers. So much so that I can't really argue with them about JW issues. It's not that she can't reason (she's quite intelligent). It's that in this respect, she will refuse even to consider anything negative about the Organization because she certain that they're right, in spite of those little troubling issues. It drives me friggin' insane.
Etude.
Well Tanya was a drugged up slut, I'll bet she's not happy now either.
The witlesses appeal to mean hate filled people who engage in mutual masterbation at the idea of billions of people murdered by their invisible sky daddy. I mean anyone who can be 'happy' believing that shit isn't going to be happy anywhere in life. In out up down they will still be hate filled morons who are unhappy wherever they are craving nothing but the destruction of innocents who they imagine have slighted them.
I actually think that being in the JW religion PREVENTS people from becoming better people. ( I'm speaking in general terms. )
It always seemed to me that most JW"s tend to feel they are perfect the way they are, since they belong to and adhere to all the trappings of their "perfect" religion.
Because they feel they are already better than other people, they tend to do very little real self-examination. I don't think they really try to "better" themselves in any way, because they don't feel they have any real changes to make.
** waves to LifeIsTooShort ** Good topic!
One interesting point that anthropologist Jared Diamond makes in "The Third Chimpanzee" is that chimps and dolphins are about as moral (and immoral) as humans are in most comparable situations, and then gives some specific examples.
A good many more socially adept animals show traits we think of as purely human, and one of those is they can display compassion, loyalty and honesty, and some animals for whom it is biologically advantageous even practice monogamy without ever hearing one hellfire sermon on the evils of promiscuity.
The morality of bonobo chimps is sexually more promiscuous than ours, but they have us beat all to hell in the peaceful department. Mostly because they've learned to use sex as a social tool even better than we have. They literally would rather make love than war...something that so far only a few hippies have managed to put into practice among humans.
But it is interesting that the factors that influence unacceptable or violent social behavior are the same for most mammals as they are for us...lack of food and other resources, overcrowding, sexual competition, plain old boredom, social anxiety, the "stranger" factor, psychotic individuals, etc.
Hey mindmelda, just wanted to chime in and say that I really enjoy your posts.
