Posts by greendawn

51

Who Or What Influenced You The Most To Leave The Organization?

by minimus in

jw
friends

any person or situation ?.

greendawn

The whole thing didn't feel right. More specifically the leaders of this org sounded extremely arrogant, power hungry and authoritarian with very grandiose sounding airy fairy claims about their status while members operated along the wrong lines, they were operating about a self centred desire that is to survive a supposed end which seemed to be the immediate and apparently the only reason they were in the org and the way they related to God was based on fear and not on a free loving relationship. The org didn't have the feel of love about it and was instead dominated by the negative emotion of fear.

Having subsequently checked the history of these leaders I found they were just like all the others, people that lusted for power and glory for themselves and were quite ruthless towards anyone that challenged their position. Certainly not the picture of spiritual health.

37

Do Jehovah's Witnesses represent a less legitimate form of religious expression?

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

i am at a point where i tend to think all religions are rubbish.

the bible is not a book to lead one's life by and not deserving of much respect.

if jesus existed then the gospels are not an accurate picture of his life and even if the non-supernatural elements resembled a real person there is much to repudiate as there is to admire.. so what about comparing jehovah's witnesses to other faiths?

greendawn

Christianity as an ideology is good but the problem is with the religious institutions that claim to espouse and express that ideology. So Christianity remains for ever a concept rather than a realised state. On the other hand one should not compare an obviously cultic religion such as the JWs with more serious mainstream religions which despite their many faults have a far more reasonable behavioural pattern. Humans are as a rule corrupt financially, socially and sexually and the organisations made up of such corrupt material tend to be likewise eg authority can very quickly degenerate to authoritarianism. Perhaps the best way is to have no hierarchies, no authority structures.

The JWs are not just a less legitimate form of religion but in fact they belong to a category that is even worse, they are a business pretending to be a religion.

21

Is Another 1975 Possible?

by God_Delusion in

howdy,.

do you think the society has a planned campaign where they will state that armageddon will be upon us within the next 10 years and actually state that armageddon will definitely hit by 2020?

we all know that they have been drumming into us that "the end is just around the corner", but can you see them pulling another 1975 stunt in order to bring in additional members?.

greendawn

They have falsely cried out wolf too many times, too many false alarms, and by now the rank and file are unlikely to get excited about a new big alarm the big picture is that the watchtower considers the so called end to be close at hand or just round the corner for 130 years since 1880. The psychological manipulation involved has been obvious since long ago, the imminent end is always a major selling point for the JWs.

42

Why did the WTBS endorse 1975?

by jay88 in

is it not true that the leaders knew that it was a blatant lie when the 1975 teaching was propagated in the 60's?.

greendawn

The 1975 prophecy was just a clever trick to motivate the rank and file into giving more of their time to the org with a view to increasing sales and profits and the ruse succeeded greatly as they got taken in by it and many JWs made great sacrifices to preach. It was manipulation pure and simple to increase flagging sales, typical behaviour of the watchtower society which has been lying since its inception.

9

Old JW phonogragh used in door to door - in what years??

by Gayle in

http://cgi.ebay.com/portable-kameraphone-phonograph-jehovah-watchtower-/190467777187.

jehovahs witness kameraphone, a portable phonograph.

they were called kameraphones because they looked like box cameras, and were imported from europe and used by jehovas witnesses to play bible discourses while doing their rounds.

greendawn

They began using radio for preaching in 1924 and they basically pioneered the use of radio for this purpose. That was fast considering that the first radio transmissions were made in 1920 using AM waves.

38

Is there a such thing as a perfect weekend when you're a Jehovah's Witness?

by miseryloveselders in

jw
friends

i'm venting a little bit, just a smidgen anyway.

i might not remember this thread tommorrow, as i just popped the ambien, and i'm waiting for it kick in so i can hit the sack.

i wanted to post this before my brain goes haywire.

greendawn

They have to attend a two hour meeting plus one or two preaching sessions to complete their 10 hours for the month so they can't enjoy a care free weekend. Other religions do just one hour at church on Sunday and nobody cares if they don't attend.

12

How effective the internet is in preventing the spread of the Lie

by dgp in

jw
friends

i wonder if there is a way to know just how effective the internet has been in preventing people from joining the watchtower.

in my personal case, it did a lot; it was, i would say, crucial.

maybe i would have bought into this if i hadn't done some googling myself.

greendawn

It is hard to know this with accuracy since no large scale statistic was undertaken however there is no doubt that tens of thousands of people left the JWs and other cults or were informed in time not to get involved in them through information they found on the internet. The JWs or more specifically their leaders made numerous enemies due to their great arrogance and harshness towards their critics and that translated into hundreds of websites mercilessly exposing and attacking them and as we say the birds came home to roost.

9

Old JW phonogragh used in door to door - in what years??

by Gayle in

http://cgi.ebay.com/portable-kameraphone-phonograph-jehovah-watchtower-/190467777187.

jehovahs witness kameraphone, a portable phonograph.

they were called kameraphones because they looked like box cameras, and were imported from europe and used by jehovas witnesses to play bible discourses while doing their rounds.

greendawn

They began using them in 1934 to replace using radio stations to preach their message, apparently many of the radio station owners banned Rutherford's speeches because he was too critical of the mainstream religions, so he put them on phonograph records, about 4 - 5 minute speech on each one.

Their use must have stopped in the 1940's when Knorr began training the JWs in so called theocratic schools to make their own presentations. So they went from radio to phonograph to individual presentation to deliver their message which as we know looking back from the year 2010 it was a message of futility that never got anyone to anywhere good.

24

WHY? WHY? WHY?

by Reopened Mind in

jw
friends

thats the question i keep asking myself once i began learning the truth about the truth.

one definition according to merriam-websters collegiate dictionary is the body of real things, events, and facts.

another (often cap) is a transcendent, fundamental or spiritual reality.

greendawn

You and your family had the same experience as millions of other people as there are many deceivers in the world today the watchtower being just one of the many organisations that belong to this crooked religious club. At least your experience shows that you had an interest in finding the truth though this was abused. As long as you clear all the pointless religious clutter that numbs the mind and get on with life that's the best outcome at this time.

It's a process that goes on constantly tens of thousands of people get deceived and move in and tens of thousands realise they had been deceived previously and move out, it's like a revolving door.

42

Is the World really getting worse?

by Nickolas in

a fundamental platform of the watchtower bible and tract society, from which its fearsome prognostications are launched, is the inexorable deterioration of the world.

the world is becoming a less and less hospitable place in which to live.

it seems with news of every earthquake, every natural catastrophe, every epidemic, every atrocity, and every disaster manmade or otherwise, there is the inevitable shaking of the finger and stern proclamation, "see?

greendawn

The world always had its problems but today at least in the western world things are better than in the past, who would like to live in the medieval times to be the serf of some aristocrat in a world plagued by superstitions where everyone was illiterate and innumerate except the religious people and part of the ruling classes? Nowadays people are more educated and aware, medical science has advanced immensely, there is welfare for needy people. Surely not a perfect world but much better than before. On the other hand there has been a breakdown of the family high divorce rates. many single parent families, a very one sided materialistic society. Wars, famines and earthquakes had always existed and are no worse now than before.