i was having a conversation with a relative who has been inactive for several decades (part of the ‘75 generation) and he argued that a person that is a born in is better off staying in the organization rather than someone like him who lived as a “worldly” person but then became a witness later in life.
he argues that when you’re born in, all you know nothing outside of the organization, so you’re better off in than out, that’s why when born ins leave the org, they always come back.
i agree that as a born in, your social circle is composed of witnesses but i do feel that even born ins would be happier outside of the org than being in.
You know there's a reason that in all the films about dystopian totalitarian societies the hero is trying to escape\bring down said totalitarian society? They're not a good thing!
There's usually a character in the film who is happy being a slave. Think about the man in the Matrix eating steak and smoking a cigar. That's a PIMO that's happier being IN. He knows about the matrix, he know's it's not real, but he's happy eating up the lies.
Don't be that guy. Be Neo!
so many of us have had (perhaps well-meaning) jws ask us questions about our inactivity, or lack of attendance at meetings.
they may pry about why..... how is this for a simple, yet straight to the point response?
to a sincere person, it may play on their mind and make them ask more questions.
cha ching8 hours ago8 hours agoI understand what you are saying scratchme.... I kind of feel the same way.... I know how JWs think…
But........
Like stuckinarut was musing... I want to have a retort ready, to blast them if they ask. Kind of a 'damned if they do, and damned if they don't" kind of answer. I don’t like being left speechless, like I just got hit on the head.
My JW uber duber sister, with an elder for a husband, came up to me as I came to clean my JW mother's house, and announced to me:
"I just want you to know. We know you are not disfellowshipped, but you don't believe in the name of Jehovah. You are an apostate, and we ARE going to shun you"
One possible answer could be:
"It is incredibly rude to tell a person what they believe. If you dictate my beliefs to me again I swear I will S**t in your screaming mouth. Now F**k off back in your box you glassy-eyed C**kwomble."
if i go to the jw website and then afterward to say this website, is it likely that the jw website has then tracked what websites i go to after visiting theirs?.
i don't know how cookies work btw .
If I was a JW or cared I would be worried too. The internet is a weird black box machine that I have no idea how it works, but I do know that if I go on Amazon and search for Shaun the sheep movie dvd's and then go onto Facebook, the adverts are Shaun the sheep related. So you are carrying some kind of data "stink" around with you when you travel the internet. I believe that deleting cookies or private browsing stops this happening. It's internet deodorant...
are all the gb members past and present, part of skulls and bones and other masonic secret societies?
we know the first few top brass were, like br rutherford and br russel.. they all have several expensive watches.
like literally more than one for everyday of the week, rolex and omega, where did they come from?
I think all that bling is explained by the GB having access to all the donations from the JW community. No need for secret societies, just normal human greed.
below i link the article.
i thought some points on the claim were interesting.
such as how prolonged direct exposure to sunlight hurts us vs other animals, sicknesses, etc.
Bad_Wolf4 hours ago
Steve2 - I don't need to hear anything. I just want to know where we really came from and solid evidence to back it up. Origins of life thus far are just like religions, all may claim they are correct but like religion none can prove themselves.
That's not how it works. There is no absolute proof. What you have are working hypotheses. The current hypothesis is that life started here on earth gradually evolved more complexity and that humans evolved out of that process.
What evidence do you have that validates your hypothesis and, more importantly, that invalidates the current hypothesis?
i know this thread has probably been covered in the past but i thought it would be nice for newbies and lurkers and just a reminder to those that left a while ago.. how has your life improved since leaving the cult?
are you happy?
have you made some amazing friends or maybe met an amazing partner in the world?.
I embrace ignorance now. Or rather that it's ok not to have answers to stuff.
"How did life get here, by evolution or creation?" - I don't know. I do know it wasn't evolution though. Evolution says nothing about the origin of life, only the origin of species.
"Is there a God who cares?" - I don't know and neither do you.
"Is there life after death?" - I don't know.
I don't have all the answers, in fact I only have a tiny percentage of answers. What I do have, though, is a working model of reality that doesn't rely on wishful thinking, denial and claiming to know the answers to questions that are essentially unanswerable.
i see there has already been discussion over lloyd’s new book how to leave the jehovah's witnesses.
this includes discussion around his personality, motives and financial gains.
i have written a foreword for this book, because it is an important topic that has not been covered in such a complete format before.
I don't watch John Cedar's videos nowadays because I only want a general overview of what's going on in JW land and not an in depth analysis. When I first started looking, though, his videos and website were invaluable. Mr Grundy's website is amazing and the best resource on the internet (that I know of) but I was only led to it initially by the more easily accessible talking head of Mr Cedars.
look at the picture for yesterday's watchtower study.
see the good jw folks sitting around the campfire..... zoooom in on that campfire.
have a good look..
I "clearly" see two cats in the fire. There's a tabby cat sitting upright on the left side and on the right another cat is in the act of hitting the tabby cat round the face.
i have to make a token appearance at the k.h.
once a month or so and this week went to a different hall.
and believe me they are all still totally oblivious to all the negative news about the pedophiles and shunning that have come under scrutiny by the media and other governments.
shepherdlessan hour ago
(In fact I would expect to see a few additional things, such as the sale or abandonment of Cheltenham before that).
Cheltenham??
That's the town I grew up in, 3 congregations of varying size in a backwater town of no significance I'm aware of?
what can i do when elders want to poke their nose in?.
they want to have another chat with me and my wife, but we dont want to, it just gets us down..
@Drearyweather: I know that sad. But you gave them the authority to poke their nose in when you got baptized.
Maybe, but you can revoke that authority any time you like.
