Posts by itsallgoodnow

26

Should ExJWs Be Given More Slack Here?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i am sincerely of the opinion that we need to recognize that this board is quite different from most internet boards.

i do not belong to other groups and i cannot say i know every one else's rules, but i do know that jws and exjws are of a different breed.

we have been battered and abused in so many ways as jws.

itsallgoodnow

I think I know what you mean, I've seen it get pretty harsh on this board sometimes, but it's usually pretty friendly. All kinds of people at different stages in their recovery, it's not surprising. I know I've been a real jerk too at times. Religion is such a touchy subject anyway, and especially this religion which has caused such overwhelming pain and frustration for so many of us. And then we have our new ideas about religion, that from what I've seen, span the whole spectrum and generate many heated debates. My guess is that members who may start out kind of angry eventually do chill out, well it's true in my case anyway.

I hope everything is going ok for you, minimus.

43

What little things used to excite you as a JW?

by doodle-v in

jw
friends

i would get excited when i was younger and would study the watchtower and see that this weeks study only had 19 paragraphs.

(made the study seem shorter,lol).

when a meeting would get canceled because of snow (which was rare) and i would get to stay home and watch a cheers or the cosby show.

itsallgoodnow

I used to get "excited" when the PO would go to the podium during announcements, it meant someone "made" servant or pioneer, ..... or disfellowhipped. I think that's sick, but I hope I am not the only one "excited" by that.

I always have a glass of champaigne when I hear of someone I know who has been disfellowshipped, or even if I don't know them, if I hear that announcement... sorry if that's cold, but I should be allowed to celebrate SOMETHING.

Sorry, Nosferatu, I can't work masturbation into this anywhere ... or not that I'm admitting to anyway...

26

The problem with ecstatic religious experiences...

by logansrun in

jw
friends

for skeptics, true believers and people like me.

i have heard or read, on this forum and in other mediums, of people who claim to have had experiences that can only be described as "ecstatic, mystical, spiritual, supernatural" etc.

they all claim that the experience was real, in fact, more real than reality itself.

itsallgoodnow

IMO There could be some physiological reason for this experience having to do with the stress he was under, making him suggestible to the idea or impression that he was having a mystical experience. I think it has something to do with the brain shutting down from the great stress he was under, which made it possible for him to think he was having this experience.

There's a lot scientists are discovering about our brain functioning that seem to explain this kind of thing as a physiological response.

8

how many days?

by itsallgoodnow in

jw
friends

ok, so we've probably all heard before that someone out there has done a study calculating about how much time we will have spent in our lives sitting at red lights and it comes to about a year?

try calculating about how many days you have spent at circuit/district conventions in your life, assuming there were 3 for circuit every year, and 3 or 4 for district every year.

i can't remember the year it switched to from 4 down to 3. this number is bigger than you might think, especially if you were raised as a jw.

itsallgoodnow

Ok, so we've probably all heard before that someone out there has done a study calculating about how much time we will have spent in our lives sitting at red lights and it comes to about a year? - well, I've got one for you.

Try calculating about how many days you have spent at circuit/district conventions in your life, assuming there were 3 for circuit every year, and 3 or 4 for district every year. I can't remember the year it switched to from 4 down to 3. This number is bigger than you might think, especially if you were raised as a JW.

Mine is more than 7 months, can you imagine? If this was all consecutive, I would be in a straight jacket somewhere.

20

The fall out of shunning

by unbeliever in

jw
friends

my mom has shunned my df'd sister for 10+ years.

my brothers and i are not baptised and she will have a relationship with us even though its very strained.

we have gotten together a few times over the years and had a meal together that mom cooked.

itsallgoodnow

I like runningman's idea.

It's no fun to be stuck in the middle of something like this, both sides should know what this is doing to you. Sure, your sister is upset and your mother is also upset (although more self righteous), but now they have dragged you into it and they have upset you. Even though your sister hasn't done this intentionally, she should probably know what's going on. You don't have to allow these two to use you as a weapon. I know too well what that's like.

The JWs specialize in creating unnecessarily uncomfortable situations, and what they deserve most is everyone being upfront about everything. If you stay quiet, you are just playing easily into their hands. Believe me, if you think you can stand it now, it only gets worse, and continually grows harder for you to say no.

Now if I could just take my own advice...

30

Zapped In Style By A Dubbie Lady!

by Englishman in

jw
friends

so there i was, slaving away in a customers front garden, cutting fascias and guttering to size prior to affixing them to his home.

like all window and gutter fixers, my clothes are covered with a hundred finger marks where i have used my forefinger to point in the mastic and then just wiped it on the nearest thing to hand, ie, me.

i look like i have been the victim of a 1000 seagull bomber raid.

itsallgoodnow

Almost royalty, so funny! Maybe she had her apostate radar up. They really don't care much about people, do they? I thought the game was to use tactful "reasoning". Even though we know she thinks she's god-like, we can tell she's only human.

38

Is the Devil making you happy, too?

by littletree in

jw
friends

this is my first post, and i'm so excited (i've been reading posts on this site for over a year now; i tried to register back in october 2003, but had some problems.

i decided to just go ahead and use my "real" work e-mail address, which seemed to have worked.

just for a short introduction- i got baptized at 14, on september 1, 2001. and on september 1, 2003, the last day of our district convention, i decided i was never going back.

itsallgoodnow

Welcome and good for you for getting out and being happier now.

It's frustrating to talk with people like the lady that called you. I get lots of pressure like that too, if they only knew they can never reach me again... oh well. I can only control what I believe, I can't worry about them.

Hope you enjoy it here!

37

Article, Can a Skeptic believe in God?

by Beans in

.

finally it is on line, this is a great read, enjoy!

http://www.skeptics.ca/newsletters/winter04.pdf

itsallgoodnow

That's great information. Thanks for posting the link.

27

kerry sucks

by kilroy2 in

well lets look at the other side.

kerry said he voted for the war just before he voted against it, and acted like this was a smart statment.

huh

itsallgoodnow

300 million Americans, and the best system available makes you choose between only two parties? I thought the logical falacy of false dichotomy was reserved for religous cults!

We can't have progress happen too fast now, can we? The 2 party idea has proven an effective way to keep things as they are. Neither "side" does much good and they leave social problems for religion to try to fix. I hate to be a negative complainer, but from where I stand, the US needs to wake up to reality or it could potentially face an embarrassing decline. The question is when will they see that focusing on money & power at the expense of everything else is not going to work in the long run?

19

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 6-6-04 WT Study (5-1-04)

by blondie in

indeed, in his name nations will hope.

paragraphs 10-12.

paragraphs 16-17.

itsallgoodnow

It's interesting they need to focus on how much "the world hates them". I think they wear this as a badge of honor, a proof they are on the right path, but I find it hard to really believe this is true. It's set up to seem this way - ie rules against birthdays & holidays which are simply a way to create friction between believers and their unbelieving family, workmates and other potential distractions. When it comes to real "persecutions", it's not because they are jehovah's witnesses, but because they dared to stand up to a government that wishes to make an example out of them. As if this never happens to non-Witnesses.

They are not the only conservative fundamentalist group out there using insidious tactics to maintain the status quo, in fact they really don't amount to much in the big picture compared to politically active fundamentalist groups that focus on changing social policy outside of their sphere of control, inflicting their backward beliefs onto the public in order to maintain the status quo.

They aren't hated, it's just that there is really no reason for the world to applaud some of their backward thinking, and why should they?