when you finally and officially exited the cult, whether it be by disfellowshipping, disassociating or fading - what was the first things you did that are considered "worldly"?.
for me, it was like crash landing on another planet that looked like earth but was completely different to the earth i knew.
i wanted to learn everything that i thought i already knew.. first things i did:.
I smoked... have now stopped
I drank a LOT. have now stopped.
Took loads of mind bending drugs. have now stopped.
Is this because I'm more mature now and disapprove of such things? Hell no! I had a kid!
Just not poss. With said kid,
In twenty years time though, when he's moved out, I'm going to go buck wild!
i'm wondering if there are any here that are from new zealand or currently live there.
i'm going to be staying there for a month in july 2017 ... location to be determined.
i would love to have someone i can ask questions while i am in the planning stages.
Not a Kiwi personally, although I went listening for Kiwi's in Arthur's Pass on the South Island. South Island all the way for me. Hopewell hostel in Abel Tasman National Park was a stand out memory. Arthurs Pass has the most expensive toilet in the world I believe. Well worth a visit. Christchurch was beautiful the first time we visited and then somewhat earthquake damaged the second time and I think they've been walloped again since but those busy Kiwis are probably on top of sorting it out.
Can't recommend South island highly enough!
Violence is easy. It's the fast food of conflict resolution. It's quick, it's readily available and it gets the job done.
It's also dirty, bad for you and often causes more problems than it solves.
Just like a cheeseburger...
35-year-old female in california here.
never a jw, but have had bible studies and attended several meetings and even a convention once.
i've always been agnostic with leanings toward the belief in some deity or other, although the more i learned from the jw's, the more i've learned to doubt, not just their teachings, but the fundamental teachings of all religions.
Touche Landy! Touche!
I have a one year old son. Sometimes he has nice dreams and laughs in his sleep! It makes sense to me that a friendly, invisible, giant of some kind is blowing dreams into his ear with his dream trumpet. I call him the F.I.G. and you can't prove he doesn't exist.
im asking for you guys help in a phase im going through right now.
im sure it’ll pass but id appreciate your advice..
born in, my family consists of mum, dad, two brothers and two sisters.
I don't just think, I know that your mood and esteem will continue to go on a rollercoaster ride as you continue to adjust. There will be gradual but constant improvement but of course there will always be occasional bad patches. The thing is that from now on, you don't have to get through the bad times while carrying a massive load of bullshit on your shoulders at the same time!
so i was talking with my daughter the other day and she tells me that she doesn't want me to push my beliefs on her.i am agnostic.
which isn't a belief.
it's a lack of belief.
Randi's book Flim Flam played a part in my awakening. It made me start thinking in a more sceptical, analytical, way. Plus it's a really entertaining read!
now we all have heard how the universe is composed of matter and space.
and we always here of how it had a beginning.
but really what could have begun it?
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
"If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument. It is exactly of the same nature as the Hindu's view, that the world rested upon an elephant and the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, 'How about the tortoise?' the Indian said, 'Suppose we change the subject.'" - Bertrand Russell
working an area in town with this brother who after knocking on door and finding no one home , he stands behind small tree and has piss on front lawn.fairdinkim.i hope they weren't peeping through binds,but then again better the piss than the shit mags we were going to leave..
I was at a wholesome gathering playing a game where you read a scenario and give a person two options, they choose one, everyone says whether they are telling the truth and they reveal if they were. I think it's a real game but we'd done our own JW version.
Anyway The question I had written was this: "You're out on the field service with Elder Bob. The householder pulls a gun on you. Do you A) Dive into the bushes or B) Pull Elder Bob in front of you to take the blast."
Elder Bob was one of those crusty old elders who all the youngsters were scared of. Cut to the Sunday meeting and elder Bob puts his hand up to answer a question in the Watchtower and says "This one time, I was on the field service and the householder pulled out a gun. I had to dive into the bushes to escape." All the kids were looking at me open mouthed. I couldn't believe it!
It turns out that the watchtower elders son was at the party and had told him about it and then he and Elder Bob had cooked up this plan to freak me out!
i'm probably going to say some things here that will disappoint many.
there are some that may look back over the years and say "man i really blew it" i'm not writing the following to scold for failures, but rather to help those who are young enough to put into practice what god wills for their life, and also to those of us who are in our middle years that still have time to change some things, in order to please god and find a peace that only being in his will can bring.
first let me say that god didn't create man for you.
let's be clear: people have the right to like or dislike what they want - that is why the option is there.
as long as they are not doing it in a malicious way to retaliate or game the system, there is no policing the votes.
if you get a down-vote, live with it.
Yep, I just came on here to click dislike on the OP's post as a joke, but it seems to have got rapidly serious so I'm going to just tiptoe out of here again...
Shhh... nothing to see... forget...forget....
