Posts by fiddler

37

Jealous Murderous OT Yahweh Jehovah really is Satan?

by Shanagirl in

i would love to start a discussion (not a debate) with others that follow the gnostic writings from the nag hammadi library.

i am a believer that pretty much every belief has some truths and fallacies.

some say its a game of 'only taking what you like out of something'.....i say, its using discernment to find the 'pure nature' of what god would be and is.

fiddler

Shana, I don't post here often but your post caught my attention. It was reading up a little on the Gnostics among other things that put the Bible a bit more into perspective for me in the early days of my getting out of the JW beliefs. Also, the Book of Enoch. It is considered 'apocrapha' but if it is pseudo then so is the Genesis account (doh!) It's not that I believe these writings are 'gospel'........just that they clarify things that the ancients wrote. They round out the whole Middle Eastern religious mindset. I, too, believe that Jehovah/Yahweh is actually a description of evil. The Trickster of Native American mythos fits the bill of Yahweh as well........kind of.

As for the origin of humans being beings of light, well.....I can hold that thought. I'm OK with being a dreamer if it gets me through the day. Being only an accident and 'worm food' doesn't get me through the day. At the end of the day, it won't matter to anybody by me anyway.

6

Interesting view on JW's by UN legal

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

a recently deceased human right worker howard clark who worked for watchtower co rights, remembered..... "i knew howard basically on the c.o.

issues which had become an agenda item at the u.n. commission on human rights, which met in geneva.

however, as countries dropped conscription in favor of a professional military or developed alternatives to military service, the only c.o.s left were members of the watchtower society (jehovahs witnesses), whose theology seemed strange to howard, all the more so that in some watchtower publications, the returning jesus seems less nonviolent than the first time around!

fiddler

He saw it clearly it seems.........the JW's and their interpretation of Jesus and biblical 'revelations' about the future were anything BUT non-violent. JW's obviously didn't fit in with any peaceful movements as he saw them and so they were just an interesting inigma to him but not a belief system worth delving into any further.

Logical man! May HE RIP.

23

Were visiting briefly to try to clear up a misconception about Genesis 1:1

by suavojr in

this to me is simply unreal!

imagine having to answer the following:.

km 2014. awake march 2014. were visiting briefly to try to clear up a misconception that many have about this bible verse.

fiddler

Many have trouble believing in creation because religious leaders teach something that the Bible really doesn’t say. This magazine presents the Bible’s logical and credible explanation of the beginning of the universe.”

I don't know what the WT says THESE days but in all my years of growing up Jdub I was taught that the creative days were 7,000 years long so the earth would have been created 49,000 years ago give or take................That's what their magazines used to present. What do they 'logically' and 'Credidbly' teach now? Let's not even start about when Adam was supposedly created (6,000 years ago plus or minus a few).

Many Jdubs have this arrogance about what they believe is their supreme 'scientific knowlege' and in reality.......they are absolute fools when it comes to serious science. They know nothing.

25

My Mom Wanted To Know If I Would Ever Consider Going Back.... Guess what I said....

by minimus in

jw
friends

never!!!

!.

fiddler

I was asked that early on after leaving the religion by my aunt and that was after I'd already mentioned some inconsistencies I have found in the Bible itself. (That should have been 'nuff said!) So I just said: "That would be like going backwards." Didn't have to elaborate on what that meant but it didn't go over too well. I haven't spoken to that aunt in 12 years and yes..........I do miss her. I was just being honest but maybe a little too brutally honest. I'd probably change my approach if I had it to do over but in the end I think I'd still be being shunned.

54

Hello, its good to be back, seriously!

by AllTimeJeff in

jw
friends

for the last year or so, the opening lyrics to gloria estefan's "always tomorrow" have been howling at me.. i've been alone inside myself, far too long.

never really wanted it that way, but i let it happen..... .

(btw, the message in that song is great for former jw's, if you want to think about the lyrics that way....).

fiddler

I remember you from another board Jeff and I always enjoyed your post there. It is good to read your post here and know you are doing OK.

You see that it's been a process of growing and all and maybe feel bad about some of it but really..........the YOU I remember way back is still there. And that YOU is REAL. Your authentic self has always shone through.

I never read anything unkind from you and since I kind of avoid debate I guess I never heard you in that frame of reference but even so, I think I would still have had respect for you even then.

We all have a road ahead of us coming out of JW's. I'd lived half my life already when I woke up so I think in those first few years it was like being in infancy or maybe adolecence as far as emotional maturity went and so the lessons had to be learned in a very short time. I think it'd be fair to say a lot of us had some real a$$hole moments in the beginning. My JW relatives will of course ONLY remember those but Jeff..........WE (if I can be so bold to include the exJW community) remember the authentic you trying to get out.

It's a process.

PS: The Pacific NW has great craft brews!

34

Costco store label Bible as fiction. Minister outraged.

by jam in

jw
friends

minister walks into an costco store and saw labels on the.

bible $14.95, fiction.

the news media contacted the office of.

fiddler

Oh I LOVE it! Love Costco too!

52

What was your "Aha!" moment?

by Hortenzie in

for me it was when i learned that gb makes their decisions by 2/3 majority vote, not by direction of holy spirit..

fiddler

I think it was the way I felt after my JC....that of an errant child. I was 41 years old and not ignorant of my mistakes. I believed at the time that my mistakes were between myself and god and i viewed myself as an ADULT who could weigh this out with God. I guess I never believed that I needed a group of men to intercede for me. Where the f**k is THAT in the scriptures, reallly?+++++

It was all so tribal...........so patriarcal...............so wrong.

So I walked out never to return.

I didn't even think or know about things like the 'fade'. Boy do I wish I knew more then than I do now. Maybe I could have connected more with my JW family in a safer way but oh well.........it is what it is and my relying on just being honest in beliefs got me no where with my JW family.

They can't face honesty.

20

What if Jehovah's Witnesses were right about Armageddon...

by Comatose in

but god has changed his mind?

according to the bible god can and does change his mind.

the example of jonah comes to mind.

fiddler

What if Jehovah's Witnesses were right about Armageddon...

Well............they're not.

But if we entertain the idea that they once were???

..............that is exactly what I was thinking back when I first left the religion of my birth. The situation had definitly changed! There were too many good folks out there in ALL religions and also NO religious belief. The situation had truly changed.

It was sort of a bronze age mentality meets today.

As freedom loving humans we would not go back to tribal bronze age rules like stoning our children to death for being mouthy.......would we? So why accept that a loving god would kill billions of people simply because they weren't Jehovah's witnesses, a religious group that comprises less than .001% of the human population?

If you want to accept that it would be RIGHT to do the above, i.e. killing your mouthy teenagers and 7 billion + people then ask yourselves:

Would I even WANT to live in a world that is left to serve a deity like that?

19

Is JW Baptism the Only Valid Baptism?

by Cold Steel in

what is the watchtower bible and tract societys view on baptism?

is it absolutely essential that one be baptized to gain eternal life in gods kingdom?.

and can they tell you who you can and cant baptize?.

fiddler

As far as the JW and Watchtower society point of view goes, THEIR baptism is the ONLY baptism,

I had an interesting conversation just a week ago with a Christian friend and I was just telling her how the JW's have baptismal questions that one answers before getting dunked. I mentioned how the questions I answered so many years ago were basically affirming my dedication to God and Jesus but that now the person getting baptized as a JW must also confirm their complete loyalty to the Watchtower organization! My friends response was that I was at least BAPTIZED. To her it didn't matter what the religion as long as God and Christ were part of the dedication. I didn't tell her that to the average JW she was still an unbaptized heathen in their eyes..........thought it best to get on with another subject. Still, I found her response interesting.

17

The POWER of the PIVOT: MASTERING THE ART OF THE REVERSE SHUN

by Terry in

who owns the power to control outcome?

the answer is: authority.. who automatically has the right answers?.

the answer is: experts.. who can force automatic reactions of compliance?.

fiddler

Terry, thank you so much for what you've written. It has been very though provoking and I think I will be meditating on it tonight.

I have been in the habit of sending a once a month "I love you" text to my JW daughter who has been shunning me completely for the past 2 years.

I didn't send one this month.

I've been thinking how hard it's been these past few years and I think you have it right in that trying to reason with them or anything is like going into a den of criminals and thinking you can talk about straightening up. Yeah right! My pleas for normal human decency and family love are falling on deaf ears and it's only hurting me I think.

Before the ubber shunning thing started (and I liked your reasoning on WHY that is the main line of attack from the GB now) I felt a lot better in my life. I WAS standing tall and showing any passing 'witlesses' that I was thriving. I've allowed the extreme shunning to put me in a very depressed state and I cannot honestly stand tall these days. I am NOT happy and I am not happy ONLY because of the shunning.

I've been wanting to break free of this mental state and your words here about the 'PIVOT' may be just the thing I need to contemplate.

No, I probably won't be walking into a kingdom hall any time soon to make any statements but I do know that when I was standing tall no elders ever approached me or any body else even though I am in the same little town I have lived in since I was a JW. They were AFRAID of me and I knew they were! I am living testimony that what they say about apostates is a lie!

I plan to do a lot more 'standing tall' and I am not going to text my daughter anymore. It's been like throwing pebbles at a very strong brick wall and I don't need to be expending my energy like that.

Thank you again, Terry. Good post!