Posts by Onager

22

Do You Have Any Indoctrinated Guilt Left Over?

by pale.emperor in

i voted this morning for the first time.

at 32yo i wondered in a church of england parish hall with no idea what i was doing.

everyone else knew how to do it.

Onager

I still get micro-flashes of guilt now and then. The programming was deeply embedded and it's going to take a long time to iron out all the wrinkles. They're over quickly though and leave no lasting damage.

3

Watchtower in Australia - Number of Corporations

by Onager in

can anyone link me the thread where the number of watchtower companies in australia was compared to other religions?

my search-fu is weak this morning.

cheers!.

Onager

Hi,

Can anyone link me the thread where the number of Watchtower companies in Australia was compared to other religions? My search-fu is weak this morning. :(

Cheers!

51

To those taking a stand and not attending the Memorial tonight

by doubtfull1799 in

i salute you.

many of you, like me, are probably under enormous emotional pressure, whether from a lingering false sense of guilt from your indoctrination, whether from "invitations," and assumptions that you'll naturally be coming, or whether from outright emotional blackmail, even begging and pleading.

i am thinking of you whoever you are, all of you, even though i don't know you in person.

Onager

I'm confused. Isn't the memorial tonight? The Tue 11th? If it was last night, Monday, then why the frick did I have a JW knock on my door at about 2pm with a flyer? Did they honestly expect me to get ready and go to an event that same evening?

I've got my wedding anniversary coming up and I've given my extended family a months advance notice to make sure they turn up!

60

Marc & Cora on YouTube causing unnecessary divisions

by jambon1 in

jw
friends

what is it with this pair?

why do they have to constantly have a bitch about guys like john cedars?

a very recent video of them shows them calling him a 'village idiot' and making other disparaging claims.

Onager

Humans being humans. :(

17

My Current Views About God, Relgion, JWs and Life In General

by pale.emperor in

this past year has been the most life changing year anyone could ever go through.

waking up, leaving the cult, separating from my wife, research, research, research, reading, pondering etc.

and i've found myself having to re-learn and re-evaluate everything i thought i knew.

Onager

1. What about a hateful god that enjoys misery? Zero God or Loving God aren't the only options...

2. Humans create gods. So humans create gods which have worse morals than themselves. What's that all about?!

3. I think that living responsibly makes a human being good.

4. I never thought of it quite that way, but you're absolutely right. Jesus is an apostate!

5. Paul was a dick.

6. I struggled with this for a long time. I called the Watchtower society a High Control Religion for ages. But gradually it has become inescapable that it is a cult.

43

Atheism would not appeared if …

by venus in

· if religions were immune to division.

· if scriptures were immune to scientific errors.

· if religious leaders were immune to hypocrisy.

Onager

Hi David Jay,

My question was for you particularly and anyone else generally.

" I don't subscribe to the concept of debating about concepts which have no practical application."

So... You're Anti-semantic? :)

"I was not whatever you said before, and thus am not anything (having to do with that subject) now."

That's the whole of my point, You're not atheist before you are aware of the concept of god, you're only atheist once you are aware and make a decision that the concept is false.

This might be hair splitting semantics, but it's where I disagree with Richard Dawkins. I don't believe children are born atheist. I believe they are born innocent.

(and fwiw, I've loved Jewish people ever since I toured Israel. I just don't like the Israeli government.)

43

Atheism would not appeared if …

by venus in

· if religions were immune to division.

· if scriptures were immune to scientific errors.

· if religious leaders were immune to hypocrisy.

Onager

"Her family is entirely composed of atheists. Like the Cambridge Study, none of them, including my wife, became atheists due to religion. They never belonged to one. Their parents never did either."

Sorry David Jay, that's how I interpreted this comment of yours.

So, as this thread is about the origins of atheism, having read the sentence in my previous email:

You are aboqticist now, but what were you before you read my post?

Or did you wig out as soon as you read "David_Jay says"?

43

Atheism would not appeared if …

by venus in

· if religions were immune to division.

· if scriptures were immune to scientific errors.

· if religious leaders were immune to hypocrisy.

Onager

"Onager,

If belief in God were creating good citizens, everyone would have accepted God even if he were not real. Everyone accepted electricity without even labeling it American electricity, UK electricity, Russian electricity …etc. because electricity is good.

If belief in God were not creating good citizens, some would doubt the existence of God which means atheism would only appear after decay of theism.

4 hours ago venus"

Venus,

Er, You know that the UK has different electricity to the USA don't you?

The gods are humans attempts at explaining the world around us. At the moment that one person ascribed a supernatural cause to a natural phenomenon and someone else didn't believe him, atheism was born.

David_Jay says that the state of everyone before this was also atheism but I think it is something purer than that. Proto-atheism maybe. What is it called if you don't have a belief in gods but you also don't even have a concept of gods to not have a belief in?

For example read this sentence:

There is an alien race called the Boqtic. They are like insects in appearance and are very good mechanics.

Now, having read that sentence you (I hope!) do not believe that the Boqtic exist. You are Aboqticist.

But what was your belief before you read that sentence.?

17

What the "Worldly" media has to say about the proposed Russian ban of JWs

by NikL in

jw
friends

interesting to read the reports from around the world.

i doubt many jws have read any of them.. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russian-government-jehovahs-witnesses-extremist-group-lawsuit-supreme-court-a7634671.html.

russian authorities threatened to close jehovah’s witnesses administrative centre last march, when they issued a formal warning to the congregation that the “religious association will be subject to liquidation” if it failed to eliminate within two months the violations identified by the government as “extremist”.

Onager

Someone should tell Putin not to ban them, just remove any tax exemption from them.

That would achieve his goal much more effectively.

18

The Russian letters

by purrpurr in

so all the jw's i know are practically wetting their pants in excitement over the russian letters they are sending out.

they seem to have this insane idea that putin's office will be pulled sky high with all these letters and they have this image in their imaginations of him having to open and read every letter (!).

also all the jw's i know have all put their name and address on the letter... which couldn't have any repercussions of course (!

Onager

I agree with tiki. I can't imagine a scenario where this has a positive effect on the situation.