Posts by OneEyedJoe

17

I need food for thought..

by raven in

hi friends,it has been 20 years that i've slaved for the wt and through out the past couple of years i could feel myself fighting an urge to accept that something was not right.

i fought it off for so long only for it to resurface frequently throughout my years of pioneering, assembly/convention parts, & speaking with people about the "truth", slaving and giving to try to be a "spiritual person" but in reality i was not spiritual because spirituality (according to the org) is doing all of the things they want you to do.

which then will label you as spiritual... no !!!

OneEyedJoe

jwfacts.com was by far the most influential source of information for me. Everything is clearly laid out in black-and-white.

I can definitely relate to your concern that you're being blinded/manipulated by satan, It took me a year or so to convince myself that I was motivated by nothing more than desire to know the truth, and even then it took the overlapping generations WT study and another 3 months to finally push me over the edge to research. It can be a process. Examine your thoughts and your reason for doing things - are you just lazy? Do you just not want to go out in service? Or is it that you truly want to know what the bible says or what the truth is? Be honest with yourself and then trust yourself. Don't let years of indoctrination tell you that you're being mislead if you know within yourself that you're trying to find truth. Have faith in yourself, because you're the only one in this world that you can completely trust to be looking out for yourself.

Try to keep an open mind...when presented with a solution/explanation for something, see if you can think up alternate possibilities. See what you think feels more likely to be the truth - use occam's razor and sound logic to avoid fallacies (like the appeal to consequences - where else would we go?) and you'll get there.

13

Would crime rate go up if we were 100% positive this is the only life???

by James Mixon in

no resurrection, no 70 virgins, no 7 millions jw's living for thousand of years, no coming.

back as dog or cat you are dead and done..

OneEyedJoe

As the saying goes, you will always have good people doing good things and bad people doing bad things. For good people to do bad things, that takes religion.

While some people may think that their belief in god is what keeps them from being a bad person, they probably attribute the good feelings that our brains give us when they behave according to their conscience to god. It's not god, it's millions of years of evolution that's trained us to cooperate towards mutual benefit. Without god/heaven/hell/72 virgins/whatever, there would be (for the vast majority of the population) no motivation to fight the instinct to be good. And as Island Man correctly pointed out - there's a ton of evidence that secular societies are much more peaceful than heavily religious ones. Removing religion removes another thing that divides people and encourages everyone to realize that we're all the same and we're all in this together and might as well make the best of it.

4

Skin of My Teeth

by WhatshallIcallmyself in

an evidence for divine origin that has often been used (at least to me) is where job describes "...escap[ing] with the skin of my teeth".

science is quoted as having discovered that teeth are covered in skin and therefore how would job have known something that modern science has only just discovered.

i was reminded of this at this weeks meeting when this verse was quoted but was surprised when a commenter said how it wasn't necessary to mention this in light of other "evidence" in the bible.

OneEyedJoe

Discovery of "skin" on your teeth! Bible proven scientifically accurate!

So what if there's not literal skin on your teeth? You're just looking to find fault! It was meant figuratively!

And so it goes with every bible verse. The lucky guesses are prophetic, the failures are figurative or hyperbole.

40

Help messy problem

by poopie in

jw
friends

the problem is i have a baptized witness going out on service door to door giveing comments at kh who for the last 4 years has had sex with at least 10 prostitutes and regularly takes drugs ie speed the cong has no idea he's doing this he says he will never go to elders for fear his family will shun him if df so he continues i know because he tells me everything should i tell the elders or not.

OneEyedJoe

Unless his behavior is directly hurting you, just leave him alone. Consenting adults and all that. Just my opinion

Edit: on second thought, even if his behavior is hurting you, there are better ways to handle it than going to cult elders. If you are being affected by his behavior, I'm sure many here (including myself) would be glad to help you find a solution.

17

Is reasoning with a JW the answer?

by Saved_JW in

when i first left the watchtower society, i can remember being very eager to learn new information, especially information which pertained to discrediting the watchtower organization.

i called it "the cage stage" .

this excitement and newfound change in worldview completely rocked my world.

OneEyedJoe

While I definitely believe there's a place for reason and facts and all that jazz in waking up a JW, I think it takes a secondary role. I woke up purely because I determined the doctrine to be false and I had been intentionally lied to, but I still had to be in the right emotional place before I could accept that. There had been sufficient evidence to tell me I was in a cult for my entire adult life, but accepting the evidence and seeking out more potentially faith-destroying evidence is something that most will not do until they're emotionally ready to do so.

13

Good article - Are Jehovah's Witnesses a religious Ponzi scheme?

by defender of truth in

www.the-newshub.com/general/are-jehovahs-witness-a-religious-ponzi-scheme

OneEyedJoe

I think the Ponzi scheme comparison is unfair to Ponzi-schemes. At least in a Ponzi-scheme some of the initial investors actually get paid off (and in some cases can make out pretty well) - in JWism no one benefits unless you're able to work your way up to the top and join the GB in their scheme, which is next to impossible.

5

What should they really do?

by Gratefullyunstuck in

i am now seperated from my jw husband.

he cheated twice on me, once while i was pregnant.

he hasnt been to meetings for approximately 2 years.

OneEyedJoe

They often show themselves as being completely legalistic. They act as if DFing is some arrangement that just makes it easier for everyone in the congregation to do what they should/would be doing anyways (if they knew all the details for the situation) but in reality many in the congregation only care about someone's transgressions if it actually gets them DFed. There's a similar situation for me - I've told one of my (conditional) friends about my reasons for leaving the cult, outright admitting that I am an apostate and he basically said he'll still be my friend as long as I don't get announced as no longer a JW. I told him myself I'm no longer a JW, but he doesn't care until it's official. So legalistic. Also, some friend that he'll tell me to my face that if some random guy stands up and says I'm no longer a JW he just immediately drops me even though it is in no way new information to him.

Your situation also demonstrates what I suspect is a result of the rampant misogyny in the cult. Something tells me if an elder was trying to get his wife DFed for cheating, it wouldn't matter if she didn't attend meetings - they'd be happy to DF her so that he could save face in front of the congregation when he starts dating.

21

Whats the one thing

by MrTheocratic in

jw's are constantly trying to prove they have the truth.

they always point to matthew 24:14 and say "who is accomplishing this work today?

this proves we have the truth and gods backing".. for those of us in this community looking from the other side what is one thing that proves to you that this organization does not have gods backing?

OneEyedJoe

I don't suppose it's exactly possible to prove they don't have the backing of one god or another, but there's an endless supply of things that make me want to have no association with any god that would back them. Child abuse, shunning, homophobia, blood ban, misogyny, lies and deceit, constant money begging and hypocrisy, for starters.

25

Very Weird Experience During Recent Special Talk After Memorial

by Tenacious in

hesitantly i attended this talk with my family and sat through it without batting an eye.. mentally i take myself out during the entire meeting some would describe this as daydreaming or zoning out.

whatever the case may be, for some reason this particular speaker, whom i know of but not personally, got my attention the way he would say certain phrases.

he cited some texts that directly advised the audience that faith in christ was the only way to salvation.

OneEyedJoe

Call me a pessimist but being as this is the special talk, I expect there were more nonbelievers in the audience than is typical. He might just be aware that many people object to JWs with "you doing believe in Jesus" and decided to tailor the talk to non JWs in the audience that are used to hearing about Jesus and not Jehovah. If say it's more likely he was full-in and just using deceptive recruiting tactics than it is that he was awake.

15

I like how it looks in other people but not for myself. A question specially for women.

by StarTrekAngel in

i like how it looks in other people but not for myself.. this is a phrase i have heard often from my wife.

now i am to a point where i am trying to figure it out if this is something all women do or say.

i can understand how you would say this if you were talking about a type of clothing that doesn't go with your figure, except that you may add the disclaimer... "if i had that figure i would wear this".

OneEyedJoe

Sometimes things look good but don't suit your personality? Sometimes I see guys that have their hair dyed a neon color and it looks good on them (might even look just as good on me) but I wouldn't like the attention that it would bring because I'm an introvert. Sometimes I'll see a guy with a bunch of jewelry or bracelets or something and it looks good on him, but I wouldn't want to have to worry about putting all that stuff on in the morning. Surely you've been there too. I don't see what's so hard to grasp about it.

Another possibility is that its an easy excuse to avoid making a commitment to something new or going after something you want - sometimes people are afraid to try and they avoid doing so.