JW.org publishing Urban Legends in their News section (page 2)

wha happened?

ah yes, the same stories that get repackaged with the speakers religion, and rebundled with some slight variations but the same steaming pile of a story that's told over and over again

QueenWitch

When I went to my 1st Buddhist meeting, a lady related her experience (sorry for jargon) about praying and then her Buddhist friend called her. She was Baptist I think.

cobaltcupcake

Well, here's one of those stories that is true, because it happened to my father.

He was suicidal one night (he had a hand gun) and as going to do himself in. My mother told him to pray first. He prayed, asking God to show him what he needed to do. He decided not to do it that night, and went to bed. The next day, JWs knocked on our door, and Dad took it as a Sign.

I was 12 at the time and remember the call. I scuttled into the kitchen to hide with Mom, and she whispered, "Oh no. Anything but them."

I wish it had been the Good Humor man, and maybe we would have worshiped ice cream instead.

Apognophos

Wow, that's quite an experience, cobaltcupcake. But your mother ended becoming a JW too, didn't she?

I was going to say, "I was saved from suicide" isn't quite an urban legend because statistically speaking, this has no doubt happened to many people who ended up joining various religions. As blondie mentioned, the real question is how many people prayed to God and heard nothing back, then went through with it. That we can't know.

Besides, why would God see fit to save one person in that situation and not another? It's one thing for someone to say that they were depressed and wanted to kill themselves, then were helped by the Witnesses. It's another to imply that God miraculously delivered help to their door at the right moment.

scotoma

Salesmen tell the story over and over about how they went a whole day trying to make a sale.

It was 5 minutes after 5 and one more cold call made a sale.

The Jungians call this "synchronicity".

I call it plain ordinary luck. Maybe bad luck.

LisaRose

I think people are desperate to believe in God or anything, really, that makes them feel they have some control over the random nature of life. It makes no logical sense, but once a person has received what they see as a sign, they cling to this false belief, because their faith gives them comfort, and they cannot accept the alternative, that life is random, and that's all there is. Reality is painful, and people tend to avoid pain, by whatever means necessary, that is why they are so ready to believe these stories. This particular story may be true, but even so it doesn't prove anything, except to those who need to reinforce their comforting beliefs. They don't see reality because they don't want to see reality.

For about the last ten years of being a Jehovah's Witness, I was getting glimpses of reality, but I couldn' t quite accept it yet, so it created coggnitive dissonance. Then one day I had an aha moment. I realized that everything the Watchtower said was completely made up, there was no proof that we lived in the end, that we would be the only ones to be saved, all of it. To this day I don't know why it took me so long to see the truth, I am just glad I did. As painful as reality is, it is better than fooling yourself.

wha happened?

although miraculous works are suppoosed to be gone now, dubs sure like to pull them out from time to time.

It is sad. I have a friend who is still in, as far back to when he was 1st studying, he would make claims of having an issue in life and he happened to pull out an awake or WT and there was the answer.

It's sad to watch

fulltimestudent

Yeeaaaah! Lots of witnesses look at a co-incidental event and think they are seeing a divinity's intervention. A friend tells me he was about 17. Having a few problems. (e.g. His father was ill and he thought he was going to die. He was in love with another boy and thought he'd finish up in gaol. The world was in dire trouble as the US and the USSR faced off with nuclear weapons. He was an idealist and did not want to go into the army when he turned 18. (Korean war was still raging). He tells me that from the deepest part of his heart, he called on God, if he was there, to help him.

The very next day, at the usual morning tea discussion/arguments, another guy (not a witness) started talking about the Bible and itshope (he'd been raised a witness, but did nto accept everything). This friend went out and bought a bible and started reading. Heard that the witnesses would not jpoing the army either, so went up to one on the street, found out where the meetings where and went the next sunday and just kept going.

Divine intervention? Well, he's out now - can no longer accept the Bible as 'divinely inspired truth.'

cobaltcupcake

Wow, that's quite an experience, cobaltcupcake . But your mother ended becoming a JW too, didn't she?

Yup. Can't tell you why she accepted it, but she became the most active of all of us.

But, with my father, resistance was futile. After we had attended a few meetings I asked him one day, "What if I don't want to become a Witness?" He said, "Well, you'll have to anyway." For all I know, Mom may have met with the same answer.

The Searcher

Rememember 9/11? Ecclesiastes 9/11!! = "Time and unforseen occurrence befall us all."

I cringe when brothers attribute a happy outcome to some event as Jehovah's handiwork. How arrogant of them to think that God Almighty intervened to ensure that they got a new job/house/car, but did nothing to prevent faithful old sister Smith being mugged!!

Members of every religion and none, experience fortuitous circumstances at some point in their lives, so who gets the credit for all of them?

JW.org publishing Urban Legends in their News section

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