OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

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  31

  Something terrible has just happened

  by Crazyguy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the neighbor child came over to play with my youngest child.

  i think she's about 4 maybe 5. well anyway there was some strawberries out on the counter and she asked if she could have one and i said no.

  when i looked over later i saw her sneak one.

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  OneEyedJoe

  That was a great laugh. Thanks for that.
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  34

  Are J.W.'s as Gullible as the Org's Writings Imply?

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the latest watchtower certainly indicates that the org thinks they are!!

  why keep in expectation?

  watchtower august 15 par.

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  OneEyedJoe

  They're not necessarily gullible, generally speaking but they force themselves to be gullible when the WTS speaks because the cost of examining things objectively is too high.
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  41

  Paradise is going to suck!

  by WasOnceBlind in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  once you really start thinking about it, the whole paradise idea is kind of depressing.

  i remember growing up as kids my sister was the first to tell my parents (admittedly very courageously) that she wasn't sure she wanted to live in paradise, it sounded boring living forever.

  i thought she was dumb for thinking that, i mean playing with lions!!!!

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  OneEyedJoe

  Yep. Trying to reconcile the fact that most of the things that I enjoy doing create some form of pollution or involve eating animals, etc with the promise that we'd be happy in paradise often left me wondering just how lobotomized I'd have to be to live in paradise. I could never look forward to paradise and imagine myself there because it would've just been a shell of a person, not someone that I can see as being "me."
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  10

  I Felt Proud Telling People That Michael Jackson Was Raised a JW

  by Tempest in a Teacup in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just remembered this thing this morning:.

  sharing the same faith with the king of pop made me feel important for belonging to this religion, even if he was never baptised.

  we were not in america or anywhere close by.

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  OneEyedJoe

  I was always embarrassed when someone name-dropped him or prince to a study or call. In my mind the truth should have been able to stand on its own without having to resort to "well so-and-so believes it so you should to" type arguments. Plus it seemed like a bad idea putting all your chips on one famous person that's liable to become a drug addict or something - and in the case of MJ it seems I was right.
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  59

  On the subject of Child Baptism - Video

  by cappytan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so, the latest "kids" kingdom melody video is out.. here are some screenshots:.

  .

  yep, that's right, they showed a kid with a teddy bear getting baptized.. here's the video in full for documentation, if you can stomach it.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ellrtyj_maq.

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  OneEyedJoe

  OrphanCrow -

  The difference between then and now is that prior to 1980, or thereabouts, someone could disassociate themselves without the enforced shunning that someone today would experience in those circumstances. Plus world conditions probably made it seem considerably more reasonable to make that particular bet and get baptized, with WWI a recent memory and WWII starting in 1939.

  Today, world conditions are better than ever and armageddon is clearly nowhere near the horizon. Meanwhile, the punishment for changing your mind is much harsher. This time it's clear that the motivation is 100% control, not some altruistic desire to see these children survive the wrath of the desert god.
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  13

  Will they jump of the building?

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  during the depression people committed suicide because everything they had invested in was gone overnight in an instant.

  many people are very fragile creatures.

  if by some freaking chance, (like enron, tiger woods, or the morning of august 1945 in hiroshima) the wts gets caught in a humongous scandal, say like links to human sex trafficking, (i can fantasize right) and the government steps in to investigate and finds them guilty and legally shuts them down permanently, will there be tons of suicides?

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  OneEyedJoe

  I think the persecution complex is built up enough that quite a few would only redouble their efforts to remain loyal to the cult if the government tried to shut them down. If, on the other hand, some freak natural disaster (an asteroid strikes the new cult compound right after completion and kills the entire GB and most of the higher-ups - now who's fantasizing?) I think there could be something like what you're talking about.

  There's been too much preparing (even the recent "gog of magog" change) for a government to try to shut them down that I think it might actually have the opposite effect and pull in a lot of the fence-sitters and doubters.
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  5

  Trolley Witnessing Saves Money?

  by TTATTelder in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was just wondering, do you think the trolley cart stationary witnessing is to slow down the literature distribution at not-at-homes?.

  it basically traps several shifts of pioneers to a cart or table and keeps the placement count way down compared to leaving something at every door in a neighborhood.. is money the main motivation here?

  (besides staged facebook pics lol).

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  OneEyedJoe

  I don't see why money would be the main motivator. They're constantly pushing their stats on everyone, and one of those is placements and distribution numbers, so I don't think they're really motivated to place less literature. Perhaps they want to place literature more efficiently (i.e. only people who want it enough to walk by and take it, not just getting rid of the cultists on their stoop) which is a reasonable goal.

  In the end, I agree with Driving Force - it's an act of desperation. They'll try anything at this point.
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  62

  Hello, just introducing myself

  by Miss Behaving in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've just signed up two days ago, but i've been lurking for about a year and a half.

  here's my story if you're interested:.

  my parents converted when they were in their first semester of college.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Welcome to the forum. I'm sorry to hear that you've had such harsh retribution taken out upon you for the sole crime of daring to live an honest life with integrity. It's such a shame and is treatment that no one deserves. If you ever feel like talking more privately, feel free to message me for a listening ear. I'd love to help if I can.

  It's stories like yours that serve to remind everyone just what this cult is. It DOES destroy families. It DOES cause people immense pain. It's not the harmless, benign group that they love to paint themselves as and it causes very real pain to thousands (maybe millions) every day.

  I hope you can take solace in the fact that you're by no means alone in what you're dealing with, and there are many here that have been through what you're in now and came out the other side. You'll make it through too. Just keep going and start building your new support network and your new life. The possibilities are endless from here on out!
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  22

  How do JW's know that the bible is inspired?

  by cappytan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  asked a friend of mine this question the other day.

  here was his answer: "well, because paul said, 'all scripture is inspired of god...'".

  but seriously, that argument is like saying, "the bible is inspired because it says so!

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  OneEyedJoe

  Wouldn't it only be circular reasoning if the Bible were all one book, which it isn't?

  Didn't the friend refer to fulfilled prophecies?

  If there were some other proof that the letters to timothy were inspired (hint, there isn't) then it would not be circular logic to use this to prove that the rest of the bible is inspired too. However, using this as the sole proof that the bible is inspired most certainly does qualify as circular logic:

  The bible is inspired because it says so and I can trust what it says because the bible is inspired.
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  22

  How do JW's know that the bible is inspired?

  by cappytan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  asked a friend of mine this question the other day.

  here was his answer: "well, because paul said, 'all scripture is inspired of god...'".

  but seriously, that argument is like saying, "the bible is inspired because it says so!

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  OneEyedJoe

  Yeah, that was never enough to keep me believing in the bible. What did it for me was that I never bothered to research the evidence that the book of Daniel was a forgery and written much later than most believers will claim. I know that the prophecies in there about cyrus and alexander the great, etc, are what have many of the more intelligent JWs that I know still stuck mentally believing in the bible. I know one elder in particular, who likes to talk about having been agnostic prior to his wife's indoctrination (he joined not long after) and that's always the proof he cites that the bible is god's word.

  They like to go on about the advice being timeless and only god could do that, but unfortunately the advice is only timeless when you cherry pick what suits you. When you have a written work the size of the bible, it's not that difficult to find "timeless advice" in there for most situations.

  The cult offers so many different (and all inherently flawed) explanations to convince people that the bible is inspired, but it seems most JWs just hold on to whichever one it is that makes sense to them, and dismiss what seems spurious or too complicated. It's the shotgun approach - give 'em 100 reasons and even if they see through 99 of 'em, the one that sticks will keep 'em trapped.