OneEyedJoe

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Posts by OneEyedJoe

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  34

  So Today Was My Wife's First Ever Birthday Party

  by dubstepped in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  she turned one today, and 36 earlier this week.

  we planned a big party, big for two people that have never thrown a party before.

  we rented a church fellowship hall because 1. it was nice and big and affordable and 2. it was kind of awesome to throw a party in a place we would have never ventured in our previous life.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Congrats! Though it's not a party until the beheadings start. You guys will get the hang of it eventually.
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  30

  What would you like to have known about JWs before deciding whether to get baptised?

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing about jws would you do it?

  and what would you choose to say to yourself?

  do you think you could have convinced yourself not to get baptised if you chose the right thing to say?

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  OneEyedJoe

  I'm pretty sure the misquotes and associated lies in the creation book would've done the trick for me. I always valued truth over everything else, I was enamored with the idea that I had the absolute truth and I put that ahead of everything else.

  The timing might matter somewhat - if I could talk to a 17/18 year old me, I have no doubt I'd be able to wake myself up. I was really close to leaving, but hadn't gotten past the apostaphobia enough to do the research to prove to myself that it's a cult. If I had just one little push, I would've been out for good then. What i wouldn't give to do that so I could've started building a normal life in college instead of in my 30s, way behind the curve.
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  166

  Mobile Hotspot - JWFACTS.COM - Assembly & Conventions

  by thedepressedsoul in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  here is an idea i tested.

  works at both assemblies and conventions.

  i have noticed at the last convention and at my last assembly that when i opened up my wifi setting, tons of hotspots came up for people tethering their tablets to their smart phones.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Assuming you don't want anyone to actually connect, is there a way that you could create the hotspot as an open network but still prevent connections? I'm just thinking about it because a lot of people have their phones set (I think in many cases, it's the default setting) to alert them when an open connection is available. So you might get more people checking it if you broadcast something that doesn't require a password.
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  4

  Saw this on Facebook and it sent chills down my spine

  by stephanie61092 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i saw this on my feed this morning and i had to share:.

  http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/billboard-seeking-to-reunite-broken-scientology-families-coming-to/2285112.

  the billboard says: to my loved one in scientology...call me.

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  OneEyedJoe

  When I was a Witness I would have thought this was terrible, but never associated it with shunning. After all, WTS was the "true" religion, and its shunning was right to do.
  

  Same here, at least when I was at my peak cultiness. Scientologists are horrible! They shun family members just so they can hide from the truth that they're in a dangerous cult! Nothing like JWs, we lovingly encourage people to return to Jehovah by demonstrating our loyalty to him above all else.

  Looking back, it's disturbing how deluded I was.
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  12

  Fundamentalism Vs Radicalism

  by freemindfade in

  1. social
  2. current

  i had a thought this morning and i am putting it out for discussion.. when a christian is a nutjob we call them fundamentalist but a nutjob muslim is "radical".. doesn't one detach the person from the religion while one puts them square at the root?

  shouldn't we call radical muslim terrorists "fundamentalist"?

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  OneEyedJoe

  I think the difference is you can be fundamentalist without being radicalized. You can believe your holy book is the infallible word of god and is to be taken literally (fundamentalist) without going out and killing people (radical) because of it. That's my take on it, anyway.

  Though, in the case of Islam it becomes much more difficult to be a fundamentalist without being radical just due to the very nature of the religion so the two become somewhat more interchangeable.
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  7

  How Human was Charles Taze Russell?

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  pastor russell's life fascinates me.

  because he seems like a person who never had any fun.

  such a serious face without a smile to be found!

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  OneEyedJoe

  Such a serious face without a smile to be found!

  Well to be fair, smiling for photos did not become customary until well beyond CTR's time.

  I think he was just a guy that was, to borrow a phrase, a captive of a concept - that Jesus had returned and the end was near. The difference between him and the average nutjob is he had money to build something. And so he did.
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  9

  We Cannot Understand Because We Are Not Perfect

  by berrygerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  starting this thread because of katewild's post.

  (from where came god?).

  the unanswerable questions of life are usually attributed to: "we are imperfect, so cannot understand.

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  OneEyedJoe

  I'm so tired of the myth that we only use 10% of our brains.

  But, yet, to the larger point - in my book anyone who asserts that there's something that we can't hope to understand is hiding something from their audience, and often from themselves as well. Most of the time "it's impossible to understand" really means "it's impossible to explain without generating contradictions." Sometimes it just means "I'm lying to you and don't want you to look deep enough to see the lie."
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  34

  If God is the Creator, who created God or how did he evolve?

  by KateWild in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if god is the creator, who created god or how did he evolve?.

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  OneEyedJoe

  Any creationist answer to this question amounts to nothing more than special pleading.
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  21

  What is the real purpose of attending your JC?

  by StarTrekAngel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was compelled to ask this question because i have seen several of the youtube videos on jcs.

  on striking similarity among all these videos is that most of the people bringing the arguments to the elders are pretty much atheists or have turned to another religion altogether.. i can easily see that the common concern in most of the people involved, is their ability to keep in touch with family and friends, which by all means would be my concern as well, when and if i ever end up in one.. however, i can't help but to notice something.

  it is difficult enough to think of the day that the wt would accept a loose canon in their ranks, let alone someone who openly claims to no longer believe in god.

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  OneEyedJoe

  As I see it there's a few reasons to attend a JC for apostasy, and keeping your family is probably one of the smaller ones. In my mind the only thing to do if you want to keep your family is to go and lie your ass off in an attempt to prevent being DFed. Going and arguing with elders and deciding whether you claim the WT is wrong vs god doesn't exist - none of that really matters because you'll be DFed and your family will shun you (often without fully knowing why anyway, so it doesn't matter if you're athiest or just non-JW christian).

  For those that go and argue the point with the elders, there's a couple reasons I can think of. 1st is probably the misguided attempt to wake them up. I say misguided because I don't think I've ever heard a story of a former elder here relating how they woke up after sitting on a JC for apostasy. I'd love to be shown wrong, but I doubt that's happened anywhere near enough times to justify the effort.

  Next possible reason would be seeking validation. In some cases this might fall into a subset of the first reason, i.e. you think you're going to be validated by waking up an elder in the JC, but I think in most cases it's to go and make airtight arguments that the WT is wrong and see the closed-minded iron-fisted elders fight back using dirty tactics, excuses and fallacious arguments. I can see this being validating because you'd leave knowing that you're absolutely right if their best is truly that pitiful. Another way it could be validating is to see that these elders, in spite of what they might say, are not seeking to save a lost sheep as they are supposed to according to the bible. They are seeking to expel you, further proof of the unloving, unchristian policies of this cult.

  Then the best reason I can think of to attend a JC - to record it and post it online as a way of demonstrating just what this cult is really about. The more publicity this nasty side of the cult gets, the better.

  Maybe I've missed something, but I really can't think of any other goal that you could possibly hope to achieve by attending your JC. That said, I will never attend a JC. I'll probably be DAing at some point in the not-too-distant future.
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  31

  Why JW's Rave So Much About Conventions

  by freemindfade in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  "it was so beautiful, we are truly blessed!

  now, they also plaster these affirmations all over social media, "this is the best life", “so blessed”, “best convention”.. why the gushing?

  have you ever heard anyone say, “mmmm it was ok”?

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  OneEyedJoe

  Yeah, I think for the true believers, FMF's first post really captures a lot of what makes them declare every convention (and, indeed, every meeting) the "best ever." Then there's the fence-sitters and those that don't really 'feel it' like everyone else (I was always in this group, personally) who just agree and nod along or say it with some sarcasm just because it's the only thing that's socially acceptable to do. Who wants to have an argument over whether or not it actually was the best convention ever? I certainly never did. You'll only lose when everyone starts in on the attack and end up getting lectured and scolded and left receiving suspicious looks for a while.

  Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the true believers and the semi-doubters apart, just because any appearance other than being a true believer results in punishment in some form or another. This just leaves anyone who doesn't really "feel it" feeling as if they're completely alone with no choice but to just go along.