Posts by dubstepped

16

Will Charles Taze Russell be Resurrected With a Beard?

by Cold Steel in

the scriptures say all will be resurrected, some to eternal life, others to judgment.

so i wondered what's going to happen to those who wore beards during mortality?

picture if charles taze russell was resurrected and came face to face with joseph rutherford, second president of twt (the whole tamale) and the instigator of the beardless policy.

dubstepped

Have the Mormons baptized either of these men posthumously so that they can have hope? Now that's a question that really matters.

19

Hello again

by BlackWolf in

jw
friends

hello everyone, it's been a while since i've posted anything on here so i thought i might give an update.

next month i turn 18 and my mom is constantly berating me about getting baptized, so much so that my siblings have even told her to stop.

ive just been flat out telling her no which i know is irritating her.

dubstepped

Hi Blackwolf, so glad to see you around again!

You are a strong young lady. Keep resisting baptism, which you already know. I'm really glad that you got to talk to your siblings and I hope that you can continue a relationship with them over the years. Your parents will be gone someday but your siblings will likely be around much longer and be your longest relationships. With that said, do not beat yourself up for leaving. I know it puts your sister in a weird situation, but you can't afford to fall on the grenade here for her. You have to get out and start your life.

Hopefully you find family to take you in or your parents let up, but the latter is doubtful. I just want you do know that the offer my wife and I made still stands if you end up needing it.

Take care of yourself and keep in touch here with all of us. Feel free to pm me anytime or if you want to talk to my wife I'll give her my account.

24

Do WT Publications Make Us Feel Unworthy, Unlovable and Helpless?

by jp1692 in

it is my contention that the wtbts, (as do all high-control, authoritarian cults), deliberately cultivates dysfunctional beliefs among its members.

in particular, the most destructive of these beliefs are those that undermine one's feelings of self-worth.

for a research project i am doing, i am looking for direct quotes from wt publications that seem to be specifically designed to manipulate the readers into feeling: unworthy, unlovable, inadequate and/or helpless.

dubstepped

I wholeheartedly agree with your assertions. I'm not sure I can bring myself to search for specific quotes, but as mentioned above, the drumming of undeserved kindness into our heads was bad enough. "Not good enough" is the cry of the ex-JW, as we are free to express how they made us feel. No matter what one does, in the end, "PROBABLY they may be concealed in the day of Jehovah's burning anger". Basically, you can never feel okay. The constant encouragement to strive to simplify, give more, do more, be more, etc. is just them saying over and over again that you're not enough. The beatings will commence until morale improves.

66

How Knowledge is Dissipated in Talks

by Cold Steel in

londo111 » each congregation has a “talk coordinator”.

talk coordinators will coordinate with other talk coordinators in order to find speakers to give the public talk on sunday.

typically, they come from the general area: the circuit or a nearby circuit.

dubstepped

@Cold Steel - What is your connection with JWs? Why do you come here after all? It seems like it's just to join in the fray and to mock Jehovah's Witnesses while being a supporter of your own crazy cult. I would get it if you were an ex-Mormon and were finding similarities in the two, but you're not. Do you have relatives that are JWs that you're trying to understand or something?

41

Where do I go now?

by Libby in

jw
friends

so i thought my purpose was to serve jehovah and get baptised.

where do i go now to get baptised?

is baptism even a requirement for serving god or was that just for the disciples and people of that time.

dubstepped

Welcome Libby! I have a sister that we called Libby, and unfortunately she shuns me now, a byproduct of the love shown by JWs.

What I see from your posts is that you think we can give you answers. Some here will try to give you definitive answers from the Bible, but just like you scrutinized the JWs and found that they don't add up, sadly most of us have done the same with the Bible and it too is found lacking. Most of us didn't want that, it just happened when we put it through the same rigors as what we had previously believed to be the "truth". Most here are agnostics or atheists.

In the end, once I realized that it was all bull, not just the JWs but the Bible as well, the fear just went away. I realized that the only guarantee is what we have today. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed. Learn to be present, and some mindfulness meditation can help with that. Stop looking to the future or to a deity to cure your problems. You have the power to fix your life if it isn't what you want it to be. We only have one life that any of us us can prove. Anything beyond that is pure speculation. Live this one life to the full! Be a great person, do no harm, help others, pursue your dreams, and enjoy today because that is all we have.

Pascal's wager is a farse. If you don't know what it is, it is basically that he would rather serve god with potentially infinite blessings than to not serve him and find out that he exists later. That intimates that god is an idiot incapable of seeing where we came from, why we chose not to serve him anymore, etc. If he's not reasonable and can't see that he gave us a book full of contradictions and magical tales with riddles in it and then expected us to follow him, then he doesn't understand his creation very well now does he? What loving father would give their kids riddles and tell them to just believe and if they don't would kill them? And isn't god supposed to be the superlative example of such a father?

I don't know if there's a god. If there is that doesn't mean that he's benevolent. He could also be malevolent. The God of the Old Testament is a jerk that promotes raping women and bashing babies against rocks. That Jesus guy is pretty cool, but not a reflection of the god of the OT. As you look around life you start to see the yin and the yang, that things aren't all good or all bad. There's usually some of both. Creation is beautiful and magnificent, but it can also be cruel and horrifyingly ugly.

So I have no reason to fear. What happens when I die? Well, all that anyone knows is that we simply die. We decompose. There are natural processes that aid that. I told my wife just this morning after waking up that "I just died last night when I went to bed", because I slept so soundly and was so tired going in. When you think about it, there isn't much difference, except that I woke up. You've been dead before, we all have. I believe it was Mark Twain that said that he didn't fear death because he had been dead before being born and he had no recollection of it being bad. Ultimately, this is the one area that messes with me because the biggest fear of a JW is to die and never wake up again. Ultimately, this is one huge reason that religions exist, to give people hope over death and to control them, usually for their own benefit. People are afraid of dying. I've been reading books on it and trying to grasp my mortality since leaving the JWs. I wish I had never been given the idea of permanence. When you look around you, death is just as much a part of life as life itself. We should be comfortable with it, but religion has altered our reality.

Go fly and be free Libby! What you see is what you get in life.........and death. Nobody can tell you anything of certainty beyond that. Life is what you make it. We can't give you answers to everything, nobody can. You have to find your own way and to become your own enlightened self. Read and study new perspectives and see what makes sense to you. Learn critical thinking skills and apply them to what you read. Grow as a person and be the best Libby that you can be. Once your eyes are opened and you start seeing the world around you for what it is, you don't need people to tell you what to believe anymore. You'll have confidence in your own interpretation of life.

23

JUNE 2017 Watchtower - Lost a loved one? Go out in service!

by pale.emperor in

apparently going to the kingdom hall and getting out in the door to door ministry is the best way to get over the loss of a loved one.

who'dve thunk it?.

stash: /intesoft-inc.appspot.com/post/80e3cef960fd4eee9fd5cd757c438581.html

dubstepped

Whoa Millie!!! Is that whole name thing something that happens a lot? I've never noticed that......mind blown (again).

7

Did You Know You Can Have Seizures While You Sleep and Not Know It?

by David_Jay in

i have to take some time off even from some of my favorite activities for a while...that means here...until i can adjust to a new medical therapy.. i just learned today that i have nocturnal epilepsy and have been having seizures almost every night for several decades!

wow!

just started medication that will mess me up when it comes to processing my thinking and typing for a while, so until that straightens out i will just have to read for now.. but look it up.

dubstepped

Whoa, who knew? That's so crazy. Take care of yourself DJ.

How did you discover this? Sleep study? I wonder if most of us could benefit from one. Who knows what's going on then.

9

Legalities around summarising Ray Franz's book 'Crisis of Conscience'

by UnshackleTheChains in

just looking for some advice.

i know there has been a lot of discussion around the book 'crisis of conscience' and copyright infringement on this forum.

hence the reason for my question.. in 2004, i couldn't believe my luck in finding this book in the city library.

dubstepped

If the response time to your request is anything like waiting on the copyright holder to actually put the book out, you may die before getting a response. I'd just do it, following recommendations from people like Vienne above. It's actually great marketing for the book, too bad nobody can buy one.

29

Disfellowshipped for being complicit in someone else's sin - really?!

by Isambard Crater in

a close friend of mine who is pimo (only staying in for family reasons) in a neighboring congregation called me in tears tonight saying her dad (elder) is telling her he is seriously considering reporting her to her local elders and she could get disfellowshipped.. the reason?

because she is complicit in a gross sin, according to him, by going with her best friend (not a j.w.

) when the friend had an abortion.

dubstepped

Sounds like instead of PIMO she needs to just be OUT. Who wants relationships with family like that?

Like Cofty, I'm surprised that she's surprised by that. Of course she can't do that and be in good standing in the Borg.

22

Do You Have Any Indoctrinated Guilt Left Over?

by pale.emperor in

i voted this morning for the first time.

at 32yo i wondered in a church of england parish hall with no idea what i was doing.

everyone else knew how to do it.

dubstepped

I've had guilt over some things here and there the first time I did something, like celebrate a holiday, but it goes away real fast as I enjoy the celebration and never returns. I've been out not two years yet.

Sometimes something will come up unexpectedly that might strike me funny because I've never consciously thought about how I feel yet. It hits me when that happens. So I think about it and move on. There's never any guilt though.

Mostly I'm just proud of my new life and the stand I took. It feels amazing.