OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

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  18

  Passive aggressive circuit overseer talk

  by hoser in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i went and listened to the circuit overseer talk last night.

  he started off by saying how many jws are in prisons in other countries and how we need to be prepared for when we are persecuted by the governments because it will happen "soon".

  near the end of the talk he got into how our own minds often imagine the very worst case scenario and that this isn't good.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Whatever you do, absolutely never, ever imagine that you're going to be put in jail for being a JW! Just don't do it! Definitely don't picture being tossed in, and having the bars clank shut behind you while you turn around to look at the bare cot and your unscrupulous cell mate. You absolutely should not imagine anything of the sort!
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  Apostate on Inside Amy Schumer

  by OneEyedJoe in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  on tonight's episode of inside amy schumer she interviewed a comedian (kurt metzger) that was talking about having an open relationship with his wife.

  at one point he said (paraphrasing) 'i was raised to believe that a monogynous relationship is the best thing there is ... i guess that's fine if you're going to stay in your doomsday cult all your life...'.

  looked him up and sure enough he was a born-in.

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  OneEyedJoe

  On tonight's episode of Inside Amy Schumer she interviewed a comedian (Kurt Metzger) that was talking about having an open relationship with his wife. At one point he said (paraphrasing) 'I was raised to believe that a monogynous relationship is the best thing there is ... I guess that's fine if you're going to stay in your doomsday cult all your life...'

  Looked him up and sure enough he was a born-in. It's crazy how many there are out there.
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  18

  August 2015 Awake! FML

  by InjusticeSystem in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i'm gonna have to stop reading this shit just for my own sanity and the survival of my computer.

  august 2015 awake!.

  can we please destroy this box that they keep publishing with some actual facts?

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  OneEyedJoe

  Simon - I don't understand your concession that evolution can't be reproduced. It can, and has been reproduced. Obviously no one has gotten a line of chimps to eventually give birth to a human, but there have been plenty of demonstrations that bacteria evolved to better exploit the resources in their environment. That is evolution and it's been reproduced in a controlled laboratory environment. Since we can reproduce it, it's obviously observable.

  It also has made numerous predictions that have been accurate. Darwin himself predicted the existence of a moth with a super long tongue based on his observation of a flower that had an extremely long tube leading to it's nectar. This prediction was later found to be true. There have also been lots of predictions in the areas of genetics, embryology, paleontology, psychology and other fields that have been shown to be accurate.

  It's funny that even a cursory look at their argument is all that's needed for it to fall apart. Also, by their criteria God doesn't even qualify as a theory...
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  19

  So I overheard a discussion that my son and wife were having about creation yesterday

  by My Name is of No Consequence in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so i am getting ready for bed yesterday night and i overhear my teenage son and wife talking about how the evidence of creation far outweighs the evidence of evolution.

  i heard my son say that evolution has so many holes and how could something happen from nothing.

  i wanted to open the door and ask them both how the creator happened from nothing just to see what they would say..

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  OneEyedJoe

  I plan on talking to my son when my wife is not around and tell him not to allow himself to be spoon fed everything that he hears and is taught. It is difficult because he is my stepson and my wife has legal authority in virtually all of the decisions that involve him. I am going to try to encourage him to do his own research and to arrive at his own conclusions.
  

  This is a great plan, in my opinion. Telling him "evolution did it" vs his mother saying "god did it" isn't going to seem like either of you are any different, so he'll just stick to what he's decided. Telling him "don't trust anyone" vs her implicitly telling him "take my word for it" will be quite a contrast and might be enough to make him question why you have the confidence that he should figure it out on his own, while she (and the cult) insist you simply trust them.

  On the topic of the earth's apparent perfection for suitability for life, the creationist argument can be defeated without even appealing to natural disasters. If life requires a fairly narrow set of conditions to exist (this can be argued for the life we see here, but might not be the case for all forms of life) then it would make sense that any life that formed would do so in a place that is apparently perfect for it. Furthermore, specialization over 4 billion years would be expected to result in life that appears to be perfectly suited to its environment. It's not that the earth is perfect for life, it's that life has become more or less perfect for the earth.
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  29

  Mentally Diseased - is it partly our fault that we got this label?

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was thinking about this the other day.. a common way for apostates to "fade" is to pretend to have depression or anxiety problems.. is it possible, that when apostates become known, the elders report to the society that said person was undergoing mental health problems?

  i can see a scenario where the society then took those statistics that were reported and just decided, "well, it looks like the only ones leaving are those with mental diseases.".

  oh, and not to mention the subliminal messages conspiracy theorists.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Another thought on this - confirmation bias being what it is, the GB could probably tell the JWs that apostates turn green after they defect and JWs would find a way to see examples confirming this. If someone left and wore green eye shadow once, would she then be partially responsible for the statement? The mentally diseased nonsense is just a means of demonizing us and reinforcing the phobia. I wouldn't read too much more into it beyond that.
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  15

  Vacation Time: You want me to use my personal vacation to attend the D.C.? Something i feel is a load of B.S.and waste of my precious time

  by goingthruthemotions in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so you all know that my wife is still blinded....i am well awake and so are our son's.

  so she is expecting me to use my vacation time from work to attend the d.c. waste 3 days of dribble from the cult.

  what of waste of time....yet i will do it to keep the peace.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Ugh that's miserable. Bring a flask.
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  29

  Mentally Diseased - is it partly our fault that we got this label?

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was thinking about this the other day.. a common way for apostates to "fade" is to pretend to have depression or anxiety problems.. is it possible, that when apostates become known, the elders report to the society that said person was undergoing mental health problems?

  i can see a scenario where the society then took those statistics that were reported and just decided, "well, it looks like the only ones leaving are those with mental diseases.".

  oh, and not to mention the subliminal messages conspiracy theorists.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Even if we apostates have done something to earn the title, it's still the cult's fault in most cases since they're the ones that screwed us up to the point that we might be a little off. That said, it should be obvious that people leaving are no more mentally diseased than the average JW. I've never seen another group of people with such a high incidence of depression, hypochondria, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc, etc. as JWs have.
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  16

  Another "damned if they do/don't" Thread & the Perpetual Motion Machine

  by DarioKehl in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a few days ago, a jw apologist posted a thread with a similar title.

  although he was defending their behavior, i've observed this cycle as well.

  i have a different spin on it, though.. how often do you see posts from people who are upset that "no one even bothers to check in on me," only to read as many threads about "they keep calling & texting--why won't they leave me alone?

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  OneEyedJoe

  I think what the OP misses is that there's more than 2 choices. When someone stops going to the cult meetings, the options aren't limited to either hounding/manipulation tactics or complete shunning. There's the "normal" option of just interacting with a person like they're a damn human being and not trying to manipulate them in any way. The reason they're "damned if they do, damned if they don't" is because (in most cases) whatever they do all falls into the same category - manipulation. The hounding by elders, the "we miss you" comments from people you never talked to, the love bombing if you happen to show up for an odd meeting, etc is all just as bad as the complete shunning and dropping you when you leave because it's manipulative behavior that shows that your only value to them is in your tacit endorsement of the cult by your presence.

  So in my opinion the simultaneous complains about being ignored and being hounded is not hypocrisy at all. It's all a valid complaint about the manipulative behavior of JWs that you probably once thought were real friends. It's painful coming to the realization that (for a born-in) everyone that you've ever had a relationship with only valued you because you were a fellow cultist. It makes your entire life feel like it's all been fake and a lie and manipulation and I think it's completely justifiable to complain about the continued manipulation, whatever form it takes.
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  10

  I Went Into "Cult Mode" The Other Day..

  by humblepotato in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  if you recall, i'm just coming to grips with ttatt and atheism after a few years of doubts.

  made a long post around here, a while ago, talking about the very subject.

  but, anyways.... so the other day, my wife was telling me how she was just exhausted and "peopled out.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Can't say that I've ever done anything quite like that - though I do know a large part of my thinking is still influenced by the cult indoctrination.

  I have the same issues dealing with my wife's guilt. The best thing to do is probably distraction with something she really enjoys. If you miss a meeting and you're just moping around the house instead, it actually serves to strengthen some of the indoctrination - she'll associate being miserable with missing meetings. You need to distract with something especially good and break that association.

  The meetings and recruiting can definitely make a JW feel happier, but it's only serving to ease a problem that the cult itself created. You definitely shouldn't feel guilty like you're making your wife miserable by helping her to miss cult meetings - it might make her miserable short term, but the cult is what's responsible for that, not you.
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  19

  Ideas how to answer a jw friend

  by Daniel1555 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i faded completely (no kh visits or field service).. just recently a close friend from the kh wrote:.

  "dear daniel.

  it's a pity that we don't see you anymore at the kingdom hall.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Depends on the type of relationship you have, but I would probably say something about how happy you've been lately and if you actually value them as a friend, invite them to meet up in a non-cult setting.