Posts by maksutov

16

Emma art

by umbertoecho in

dark were my thoughts when i drew these after losing emma.....she was so beautiful...i thought i might say more with art than complaining......

maksutov

umbertoecho: She was my daughter...she suicided...

Oh no, how terrible. I can't even imagine the pain of that.

You are very talented.

16

Emma art

by umbertoecho in

dark were my thoughts when i drew these after losing emma.....she was so beautiful...i thought i might say more with art than complaining......

maksutov

They look fascinating, but can we see bigger versions?

Forgive my ignorance, but who was Emma?

38

Hello

by Munster Abu in

jw
friends

new here but looking forward to joining in some of the discussions with you all.. a small bit about me: i'm shane.

was raised as a jw in the uk by my mum (single parent family) from about 2 years of age.

got baptised at 15 for all the wrong reasons.

Books by Former Witnesses

by GiftsinMen in

i am interested in reading books published by former jws which detail personal experiences of their time with the organisation.

i know of coc, exiting the jw cult, mamas club, 30yrs a wt slave, and told ones were written by otwo, punk and terry.

i'd like to spend some time making my way through them so titles, authors and links would be really useful.

maksutov

I also wrote one. It is free to download as an e-book from here: http://scepticalmusings.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/jehovahs-witnesses-reasons-for-leaving.html

Also available in paperback from Amazon. I don't get any royalties from it.

13

New Child Abuse Lawsuit

by maksutov in

can't see this having been mentioned already - forgive me if i missed it and it is old news.. velicia alston brings lawsuit against watchtower (irwin zalkin representing):.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=8nmgrvlmvxo.

maksutov

Sorry - didn't realise this was an old-ish case - the video was only uploaded yesterday and I hadn't heard of it, but I should've googled it before posting really.

13

New Child Abuse Lawsuit

by maksutov in

can't see this having been mentioned already - forgive me if i missed it and it is old news.. velicia alston brings lawsuit against watchtower (irwin zalkin representing):.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=8nmgrvlmvxo.

maksutov

Can't see this having been mentioned already - forgive me if I missed it and it is old news.

Velicia Alston brings lawsuit against Watchtower (Irwin Zalkin representing):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=8NmGrvLmVXo

26

Buddhism Anyone?

by LaurenM in

so, i have recently been delving in buddhism and i must say it all makes sense!

like, the philosophies and ideas are what i've always believed but could never put a name to.

for example, they don't believe in god, they teach acceptance of all faiths, that peace can be achieved - not by changing other people - but by changing yourself, that everyone has goodness in themselves, that happiness can be gained internally (not externally as a gift from god), and that life is temporary so we should enjoy it!

maksutov

Whether or not something "makes sense" is a poor indicator of its truthfulness. JW theology makes sense in a circular way, as long as you don't mind the fact that it cannot be tested. All sorts of pseudoscience makes sense to those who believe in it. Quantum mechanics on the other hand, does not make sense, but it is nevertheless something that can be tested and verified to be true (in so much as anything can be).

In favour of Buddhism is the fact that they have been practicing meditation for a long time, and have become quite good at it. There are elements of Buddhist philosophy and practice that probably have great value. But adopting a world view comes with the danger of filtering everything through that world view, rather than based on what can be observed, tested, and verified.

I would wager that Buddhism is probably generally less harmful than JWism though!

83

What woke you up?

by Israel Ricky Gonzales in

in march of 2014, i was a very active jw, a ministerial servant, gave a public talk, was an attendant for the memorial, and one of 4 cleaning captains for an international convention of 40,000+ attendees.

so what woke me up?

an innocent comment from a co-worker about the candice conti court case rang a bell that could not be unrung.

maksutov

I spent 10 years feeling uncomfortable at the lack of any strong evidence for the existence of God (if he is real, and all powerful why can't he just make it more obvious that he actually exists?), and found it increasingly difficult to believe that Armageddon was still really 'just around the corner'. It was only after I left that I started looking at what apostates had to say, and I was so shocked and offended by the GB's dishonesty that I became a full-fledged apostate myself.

17

" See ourselfs as others see us"

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

the membership rule is simple, you join the organisation for life and undertake to serve for life.. my o.p is based on the poet robert burns who talked about the gift to " see ourselfs as others see us".

i think maybe the hardest thing for me to leave, the jehovers witness " organisation" was to accept how my family and friends will now "see" me.. so my questions are how difficult was it to leave:-.

a) knowing the reaction of friends and family?.

maksutov

A) I don't really care how they see me. If they think less of me just because I don't believe the same things they do, they are not the kind of people I want to be friends with anyway.

B) Hell yeah.

Having said that, I think it does take either a very strong mind, or a certain type of personality (non-sentimental, more logical than emotional, or very easy going) to cope well with leaving. Even then, it is still hard. It must have been harder before the internet though.

18

what happens when one informs elders that one's baptism was invalid?

by quincemyles in

is it possible to move from baptized publisher to unbaptized status perpetually?

what do elders do when you inform them that your baptism was invalid?

maksutov

As far as I know, baptism annulment is never used as a means to leave without being disfellowshipped - it is only used to justify getting baptised a second time if the first one was not valid.