maksutov

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Posts by maksutov

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  4

  Raising Concerns To My Wife - Success!!

  by pale.emperor in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  in case you havent read any of my previous posts the situation is im in the process of fading, my wife's dad is an elder and has the annoying habit of telling the body of elders anything and everything my wife tells him in confidence.

  over the years she's started to see how we can tell her parents anything.

  weather it be worries we have, music we listen to, movies we watch, decisions we make regarding our child etc.. anyway.

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  maksutov

  Good luck.
  
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  26

  Why don't people believe Facts?

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have enjoyed some fascinating debates on the forum.

  i have found it interesting when" facts" have been presented to support a viewpoint, yet the " facts" have then been rejected.. what does this mean?.

  well the " truth" is as a dub, i was often presented with " facts" that the organisation was wrong, yet as this information challenged my belief system i convinced myself the " facts" were either completely wrong or misinterpreted, .

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  maksutov

  It gets worse - showing someone facts that disprove their belief often has the effect of making their belief stronger. It is called the backfire effect: http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/06/10/the-backfire-effect/

  Some people claim to have had some success working around it (eg. Peter Boghossian), but it takes a lot of effort, and success is certainly not guaranteed!
  
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  43

  when you went to an "assembly" did you wear a badge?

  by greenhornet in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it embarrassed me.

  when i was young my folks made me wear one and i opened it up and took the paper out making it look like it fell out.

  after my folks ask what happen i said i dont know.

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  maksutov

  I would sometimes put the badge on my jacket, then 'accidentally' leave my jacket in the car.
  
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  152

  If YOU had to make the decision, would you respect a JW relatives wish to refuse a blood transfusion?

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  a few years after i quit the meetings my mum needed her medical directive signed and witnessed and she asked if i'd do it.

  i was surprised to say the least!.

  i think she was just angling to include me and maybe find some lever to get me involved again.

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  maksutov

  Good question. I would absolutely not witness a blood card, but if my wife needed blood, her blood card was unavailable, and she was unable to speak, I'm not sure what I would do. Is it really my decision? Hmmm.
  
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  16

  Born to Be Conned - The New York Times

  by paul from cleveland in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  born to be conned - new york times.

  when people want to believe what they want to believe, david sullivan, a professional cult infiltrator, told the commonwealth club of california, a public affairs forum, in july 2010, they are very hard to dissuade.

  and the reason it happens (and often happens to the most intelligent people) is that human nature is wired toward creating meaning out of meaninglessness..

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  maksutov

  Thank you, a very good read.
  
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  155

  Survey: How long were you in the cult vs what year you were baptized

  by ILoveTTATT2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi people,.

  i want as much data as possible on the effect of the internet on the time captured by the cult.. please answer the three following questions about yourself or about someone you know (for example, if your parents or grandparents were jw's and left).

  1) were you raised as a jw, or did you convert?.

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  maksutov

  1) raised
  2) 1992
  3) 2010

  Time in: 18 years
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  20

  UPDATE APRIL 2015 New Documents Re: Charity Commission Investigation into Watchtower Britain

  by jwleaks in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  an updated list of documents relating to the charity commission investigation into watchtower of britain and jehovah's witnesses are available on jw leaks.. jw leaks.

  original charity commission press release.

  press release.

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  maksutov

  Announcement that the Charity commission will specifically look into the Anglican and Catholic churches in the UK.
  

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34940723

  Just to clarify - that link is not talking about the Charity Commission investigation. The link refers to the inquiry into child abuse commissioned by the government, which is completely separate to the CC investigation.
  
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  113

  I just found out that my youngest brother committed suicide

  by SnakesInTheTower in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my middle brother called me a couple of hours ago.

  our youngest brother, josh, who was 38, was found by his friends in his apartment.

  he hung himself.

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  maksutov

  How tragic. Condolences.
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  19

  The fraud that is the WT member numbers

  by Crazyguy in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  ok i'm just thinking out load here so to speak.

  but let say in the year 2000 the wt says they have 1 million publishers and at the end of the year they say they had 300,000 people get baptized so in the beginning of the year 2001 they show 1,300,000 publishers.

  then in this new year they state another 300,000 get baptized but with 50,000 deaths and 50,000 disfellowshippings they stated at the end of year 2001 a total of 1,500,000 total members.

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  maksutov

  Fraud in the numbers certain occurs at publisher and congregation level - publishers report time that they never did, and congregation secretaries insert 'estimated' reports for those who never actually turned in a report (I have seen both of these things occur, and I am quite confident it is very common). Once the numbers make it to the branch office though, does the trend continue? Possibly. But I highly doubt they count publishers twice if they get baptised. The baptism figure is not included in any of the other figures. Average pubs and peak pubs are the number of individuals who report time, regardless of whether they are baptised or not.

  Assuming a trend of growth, the number baptised will lag behind the increase in number of publishers. That being the case, 2015-2016 should see a reduction in baptisms (due to the reduction in publisher growth for 2014/2015). If there is no drastic drop in baptisms in next year's figures, that could be due to people taking longer to get baptised after they start reporting time, or it could be due to an increase in the number of people leaving. There are also those who remain perpetual publishers or on/off publishers and never get baptised. So the best we can do is a very rough estimate as per the chart above (which is nevertheless, very interesting).
  
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  51

  My first post

  by thewalker in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi, i just joined the board and wanted to present myself.. i'm active, in fact very active in congregation activities serving "where the need is great" in a foreign language congregation somewhere in western europe.

  as a young brother, i'm seen as an example as i'm doing all a good witness should do.. i had doubts years ago but i decided just to ignore them and move to another congregation to preach more.

  that worked for some years but i'm now at the exact same point.

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  maksutov

  Hi Walker (my surname is Walker!), nice to meet you. As you have no doubt discovered, you are not alone - we can all identify with your situation. Like you, I suppressed my doubts vigorously for many years, and was often held up as exemplary. I joined a Portuguese group so that I could get busy learning the language and focus on that rather than my doubts. It worked for a while, but eventually I had to just stop and admit to myself that I just didn't buy it any more. It is a very difficult thing to admit you may have been wrong and wasted so much time, but it is definitely worth it. My life has been much happier since I started being truly honest with myself and following the evidence wherever it leads, not filtering it through what the Watchtower organisation says is possible. Take your time, do lots of research, learn about critical thinking and logical fallacies, and above all, be honest with yourself. Good luck!