Posts by Daunt

18

Old and Sick JW's must be discouraged how slow the Kingdom is coming....

by JH in

jw
friends

.

i wonder what goes through the mind of old and sick jw' s who never thought the new system would be so far away....................................................................................

Daunt

People have extremely short attention spans. Couple that with a stagnant life that requires you to do the same repetitive tasks (ie. field service, meetings, praying and saying that Jehovah heals all all the time) will make each month, year, or even decade seem like a new month, year, or decade. Seems quite ingenious and quite menacing

11

Hard Headed.

by Daunt in

since i've opened up to my parents more about how i really feel and think, i feel that it has become somewhat easier in some areas yet harder in others.

now that i've totally said that i do not believe in their religion and their pressuring me to be a part of it, they have been somewhat afraid to make me too angry at them.

i have stayed out late a few times with friends (not that they know i was with friends) and have come home to nervous grins and standoffish gestures.

Daunt

Im planning on moving out before I graduate. The career I'm pursuing right after highschool requires me to be able to mingle with different people on a constant basis. And I'm still currently looking for a job.

11

Hard Headed.

by Daunt in

since i've opened up to my parents more about how i really feel and think, i feel that it has become somewhat easier in some areas yet harder in others.

now that i've totally said that i do not believe in their religion and their pressuring me to be a part of it, they have been somewhat afraid to make me too angry at them.

i have stayed out late a few times with friends (not that they know i was with friends) and have come home to nervous grins and standoffish gestures.

Daunt

Thanks everybody for your comments. When I wrote this I was somewhat, pissed off at their recent actions, but I understand that I just have to bear with it. Grind my teeth and smile I suppose. I will keep you guys updated on what's going on, thanks so much guys.

91

creationism in the us of a

by googlemagoogle in

just read in the newspaper that some 54% of americans favor creationism and diss darwin.

.

i know, never trust a stat you haven't faked yourself, but... is creationism (especially yec) really that wide spread in the us?

Daunt

I do not feel that something as specific as monotheistic God Worship or even polytheistic is neccessarily a genetic quality in us. However, I feel that with our superior cognitive abilities, we need to know to stay alive. It is genetic that if we feel that we are not contributing to a bigger cause than ourselves, we will essentially shrivel up and die. Depression takes years off of a person's life, and what is a convenient way to push depression away for a while and having yourself feel as if you know; religion. Religion is (in my opinon was) highly neccessary in the early advancement of human beings. We did not know why fire balls seemingly fell out of the sky, and we were scared shitless by it. We did not know why our great grandfather died when he was the leader of the tribe. So what did we do? We ascribed gods to the causes of these things. I have yet to see a more convinient way to temporarily subside the feeling of not understanding the world around you and not feeling a part of something.

However, though that this has helped in keeping us alive, it has also, in many areas, been our detriment. To identify yourself as a particular genetic group in early human life, they used simplistic things such as having the ability to throw rocks accurated, or making sharp knives. Word of mouth and demonstration spread this, giving groups of humans identity and a feeling of being a part of something. However, us being the sort of animals we are, we continually needed to advance mentally. There needed to be more tactics to seperate ourselves from our enemies. We started wearing clothes, identifying simplistic cultures, and made our own God's. Now, since God-thought is highly influential and can travel much quicker than say, showing another human how to throw a rock, it travelled like wild fire. Civilizations had reason to stay on top because they had God's on their sides. History shows this to be the case hundreds of times over. Religion helped us advanced, and helped us kill each other.

However, now in these days, religion still has the ability to help a human feel worthwhile and a part of something but we have other things to help us in this same way (Many times, safer ways and more reasonable ways). We can explain many of the phenomenon that surrounds our everyday life and we have applied sciences to help with those when God-Thought wouldn't suffice. We have careers, education, and a seemingly endless amount of existence to experience to keep ourselves feeling worthwhile and helping us feel like we have a purpose. But, religion is also still doing it's other job. Religion in the early days of humans essentially had no reasoning. Besides some simple sciences and observation that seemed to complement their belief in God (such as having certain God's do certain things at different seasons. After observing which God did the best at which time of harvest, they instilled this God thought to other individuals), however beyond that, Gods were nothing more than imaginary creatures.

In my deep, heartfelt opinion, I feel that religion is still doing this. Giving excuses for ignorance and impeding progress because us humans "Know" we are right. The atributes of religion have been observed since we began recording history. I see no difference in them that stands on a supernatural level.

We can do better, and everyday we prove to do better.

11

Hard Headed.

by Daunt in

since i've opened up to my parents more about how i really feel and think, i feel that it has become somewhat easier in some areas yet harder in others.

now that i've totally said that i do not believe in their religion and their pressuring me to be a part of it, they have been somewhat afraid to make me too angry at them.

i have stayed out late a few times with friends (not that they know i was with friends) and have come home to nervous grins and standoffish gestures.

Daunt

Since I've opened up to my parents more about how I really feel and think, I feel that it has become somewhat easier in some areas yet harder in others. Now that I've totally said that I do not believe in their religion and their pressuring me to be a part of it, they have been somewhat afraid to make me too angry at them. I have stayed out late a few times with friends (not that they know I was with friends) and have come home to nervous grins and standoffish gestures.

After a few "discussions" that my parents arranged they have proven themselves to be quite the stubborn bunch. After my first announcement to them about my stance on things, at first they seemed to understand by their usual silence towards me, however, now my parents seem to make up their own reality on how I feel. My dad sporatically comes to me to be fatherly and says JW rhetoric towards me as usual but now he's starting to use phrases such as, "I know you understand that this is the right way and I know you will make the RIGHT choice and come back to your family and Jehovah."

My parents still take me to the meeting like nothing as happened. If I squirm too much they nudge me slightly and give me a shrewd stare and purposely uses a whisper/audible voice so other people around where I'm sitting can hear, mostlikely, to make myself feel embarrassed. Their stubbornness ends up having me lie to myself and everybody at the congregation I go to by praying, singing, and keeping an overall silent and closed-minded demeanor that tears at my conscience every time.

Because of their inability to tear themselves away from their preconcived thoughts, things are going back to how they were before I told them how everything was. My soon to come exodus, I feel, will become harder on them if they believe that I love the truth and the organization which it seems that they are forcing themselves to believe. I would try to talk to them again, and try to reason with them, but when discussing things along these lines they are without reason. Hard Headed comes to mind.

Do anybody have any suggestions or experiences to share so I and others can learn better ways to get the fact that you don't believe through their heads? Or at least ease the pain that they will have when you leave? Thanks a ton folks.

40

Very few know even the basic doctrines of the Witnesses

by joelbear in

after 131 years of preaching around the world.

its a losing battle.

there are fewer people today in the us that know witness doctrine or what witnesses would call "the good news of the kingdom".

Daunt

I feel that the watchtower does not want to be a huge mainstream religion because, one, it would bring a lot of focus on them inwhich it would be easier to show their mess ups and two, because it's harder to control people when they are all around the world. The direct contact with POs, COs, DOs, Bethel and all of that keeps everybody on their toes. Would be drastic if they had say, 200 million people to keep track of?

22

Keep Your Eye Simple - Special Assembly Day

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

apparently, many of the dubs can't keep their eye simple, so they need an assembly to tell them how to do it.. youths, are you pursuing spiritual goals?

is one talk for the afternoon.

(education, careers).

Daunt

From when I turned about 8 years old, to now, I have yet to hear something new coming from all of these assembies and conventions and crap.

13

Watchtower deception about JW divorce rates.

by jwfacts in

there was a statement in a 1997 awake that i see people quoting on the internet that is trying to imply 4.9% of jws are divorced compared to half of worldly people.

i have found some statistics that prove that this is quite a deception.

awake 1997 september 8 p.11 a people taught to love.

Daunt

All of this dishonesty is crazy. Absolute truth coming from absolute idiots.

91

creationism in the us of a

by googlemagoogle in

just read in the newspaper that some 54% of americans favor creationism and diss darwin.

.

i know, never trust a stat you haven't faked yourself, but... is creationism (especially yec) really that wide spread in the us?

Daunt

It does not matter what title you subscribe yourself, a christian can be a murderer and an atheist can be a worse murderer and vice versa and I agree with you on that. I feel that reason and rationality is the only way we can come with a reasonable populace. I am not talking a bout perfection, that in itself is irrational because of our inherent ignorance being prevalent everywhere, not to dismiss natural disasters and such. However, I feel that reason leaves no room for unreasonable acts such as senseless murder or abuse whether it be mentally or physically.

And yes, at some level penalty does shape our morality, but it is not total. Our natural morality shaped the penal code and things of that nature. However, punishment isn't the only thing that keeps a man from killing another man, because many people do it anyways.

And I feel that that reasoning that science is self correcting should be taught also, however, many times that implies that science is essentially nothing. Today's facts are nothing because tommorrow it will be something else. That is entirely false. Can look at the applied sciences we use everyday to see this as being an incorrect assertion. However, I feel that objective science should be thaught over any sort of theory that still has yet to be proven. Objective science has a low chance of being totally debunked, however objective science has the tendacy to advance and progress, not totally dissappear. Infact, I feel that this is the way most of science works, however as I said before, Objective, provable science should be held over any seemingly intangible theory.

6

My life or love? do i deserve to choose?

by ConFuseDnStresSed05 in

i'm 18, my whole life i've been fed a lie that my whole family believes is true, they've done nothing but try to help me in what ever ways their religion will allow them, and now wfter being sheltered, confused, but taken care of physically and what my mother thinks is spiritually i'm ready to leave it all ebhind, friends, family and more because now i'm of age and can see the numerous flaws and problems in the orginization.

do i deserve to choose what to do.

i'm between a rock and a hardplace.

Daunt

They're irrationalities are the reason for the possibility of them leaving, not because of you. In all honesty, if they can not accept you for who you are, and still be the friend or family that loves you then it is their problem. Not to say that it is a heartwrenching expense, but the watchtower has drilled into people a self sacraficing attitude. Sacrafice your thoughts for God's thoughts. Sacrafice your experimentation and adventure for the honor of your parents. Do not lean on your own understanding, but from the utterance of God.

I am in the same situation as you in this. I'm 17 and I'm planning to move out in around 3-4 months. Over the past 3 years I have sorta, slipped away from my "friends" in the organization. Some are harder to slip away than others but they have expressed their contempt over the person that I am many times over. I have accepted this contempt, struggled with understanding a life without their conditional love and finally found steps to overcome and progress from that former state. It's tough, however life is progress and you have to progress or else stagnation will kill you mentally.

However, it is totally up to you dude. It will not be the end of the world for you or the people you hurt no matter what you do.