tetrapod.sapien

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Posts by tetrapod.sapien

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  27

  My second anti-witness...what a rush!

  by cheeseman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  oh my god...i am so f****** pumped.

  excuse my language.

  the two witnesses who came to my door a while ago to tell me how scientific the bible is came back.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  well done! let them have it! it is amazing the power we have being out of the org, and looking back in on occasions like this.

  Them: " We have read Behe"

  so, the JW's are ID'ers now? Behe holds evolution to be true, and supported. but he is an Intelligent Design advocate, who basically says 'yes evolution occured, but some god set it all in motion'.

  next time a witness says they are on Behe's side of the argument, say: "So, you believe in evolution then? Because Behe does. He is called and Intelligent Design advocate. Different from genesis creationism." I had an opportunity to call a witness out on Behe shortly before i left the truth. that was great. he was dumbfounded.

  you did a great job.
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  49

  The Money Is Drying Up In The Organization!

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my mother told me that the congregation has been pretty much begging for money for the local kingdom hall.

  after the presiding overseer expressed the state of debt and severe lack on contributions, he then asked the congregation to approve a resolution to send mor money to the society!!!

  i don't know how they are able to function.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  Good news. Let it be preached for a w... Ooops. Must be an engram old tape stuck in my brain.

  lol!

  this doesn't surprise me. maybe they think that by giving money to the society, jehovah will bless them with more money on their end. who knows!
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  35

  What Was Your Behavior Like Just Before You Left "The Truth"?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  were people shocked by your departure or was it pretty obvious you were on your way out?

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  tetrapod.sapien

  i had not gone in real service for a few months. the three times i did go, i had just convinced my car group to go for breakfast instead of service.

  i think it was more than obvious that i was totally bored at the meetings (but i went for my wife who dutifully takes notes). so bored that i would take out a pen and paper and note down all the non sequiturs coming from the platform or the WT. i even started bring cryptographic puzzles to the meetings, and writing python code on paper for fun. the microphone stoodges would stand close to me to see what i was playing at. lol. it probably got obvious a couple of times when i laughed out loud at something from the platform that no one else thought was funny.

  snoopy elders wives would ask if i had been sick or away (for missing so many meetings) with a nice big smile on their faces. i would say no, i had been fine, but at home watching movies or reading. the smile left their faces pretty fast! some brothers would approach me and say: "you okay? you look tired." and i would say: "on the contrary! i have never been better!", with a big smile on my face. this was weeks before i handed in my letter. i wanted everyone i talked to, to remember the last thing i had said to them as being really positive. i threw in the odd doctrinal jab in a humorous way to some dubs in the hall, but it mostly always went over their heads.

  i started dressing way more casual. and yet aparently when they made the announcement to the hall that i was "no longer one of jehovah's witnesses" it was a big shock. which i am glad it was. hopefully it made some people think for even just a minute.
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  13

  What went against your nature

  by Satanus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the dub life, some things that were against my nature that i did were giving talks, door to door selling, classroom debates, exclude myself from school activities, shunning dfd ones, not doing the pagan/christian celebrations, and um,, abstaining from sex.

  on the other hand, some stuff i liked was studying some of the ideas in the books, although my enjoyment of this tapered off.

  i sometimes enjoyed arguing doctrine and attacking evolution.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  "proving" points in talks with what i knew to be logical fallacies. non sequitur arguments really irked me. but they were all the society provided on many subjects.

  going in service even though i was a pioneer for three years.

  giving up evenings and weekends for "worship".

  ...you know, the usual stuff. ;)
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  40

  Attendant ever treat you like a child at convention?

  by avishai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the last straw for me was when an attendant grabbed 22 yr. old me at a cnvention and told me to come inside it was time for it to start.

  i said no, and he got in my face.

  anyone else get told what to do as an adult?

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  tetrapod.sapien

  yes. arrogant attendants are almost the worst. one time an attendant told me to clear an aisle whilst i was talking with a friend. he said people needed to get by. i looked up and down the aisle, literally no one coming toward me. looked at how much space i was taking: one body space out of four that made the width of the aisle. i said "no. i am not going anywhere as i am not blocking anyone." he looked at me incredulously and said "i beg your pardon? get out of the aisle". i looked at him in the eyes and said forcefully "no." he got really upset and took my name and cong from my badge and went to the convetion administration. my PO was the overseer of the convention. he was really upset by the time he got there to complain about me to my PO. my PO verbally thrashed me for it later. but i don't care. i am glad i stood up to that guy. jerk.
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  14

  The Apprentice - Watchtower version

  by catchthis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  being a fan of the tv show the apprentice, i love to "play along" to see if my ideas would work with what the teams are tasked to accomplish.

  many times, their ideas are totally off.

  other times, the executives they are tasked with providing a presentation to feel that they had 'hit a home run.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  • drop the pathetic "no blood" doctrine and save themselves the lawyer expenses.
  • start turning in pedophiles to the police and save themselves the lawyer expenses.
  • have dubs recycle their old books and unplaced mags (there has got to be a tonne) back to the WT, by making them feel that they are doing good to the environment (those ruining the earth...)... (okay, dumb idea...FIRED!!)
  • write a computer program that just recycles and recompiles old articles from the WT database and fire the writing dept. it wouldn't be that different from what they do now.
  • sell officially sanctioned wine and bread before the memorial to congregations.
  • roll all their computer systems over to opensource solutions like linux, and save themselves the huge operating and ROI cost of running windoze and macs.
  • fire the demons. their benefit packages are horrendous.
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  7

  I need advice about my studies with JWs

  by jaffacake in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hit my first real hurdle studying with an elder.

  i couldn't accept acts 15 as a basis for a governing body.

  instead of studying the chapter i was diverted to the fds, the 144,000. i couldn't see any link with the little flock.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  hi jaffacake,

  i see that you are a senior member here, so i will not with-hold my advice:

  IMHO, don't bother looking up any articles or scriptures. tell him not to bother you anymore, and close the door. this board is full of people who are emotionally and spiritually damaged as a result of coming into the org at a vulnerable time in their life. again, IMHO, don't let yourself go there.

  tetrapod.sapien
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  14

  Two Camps, always Two Camps!

  by Blueblades in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does god exist?

  camp one: yes!, camp two: no!.

  were we created, or, evolved, or, both?

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  tetrapod.sapien

  hey blueblades,

  i felt terribly confused about this for a while too. and although i am no longer that confused about it anymore, it doesn't mean that i will 'never' be confused again in the future. that would be presumtuous of me.

  as far as the theory of evolution is concerned, among scientists it is a solid theory, and rarely debated among them. however, with regards to the existence of gods, as you know, there is much debate among theologians, philosophers and logicians. i personally ended up falling on the side of "weak" atheism, which is basically just a lack of a belief in god. and knowing that others all hold their beliefs as dearly as i do mine, i do not spend much time debating something that it is impossible to have a 100% answer to. however, as far as the probability of gods is concerned, one tool of logic that helped me is Occam's Razor. perhaps you have heard about it. it basically says that in a situation where there is more than one argument for a given phenomenon, the argument that makes the fewest assumtions should be the preferred one. that is not to say that occams razor provides the truth on a matter, but it does help one with probability of truth in the absence of hard evidence. here is the wiki link. i personally decided that the probability of the existence god was less than the probability of non existence. again, the answer is not final, but it gives me some direction, IMHO. another related tool that helped me is the "god of the gaps" tool. it basically states that as our knowlege as a species increases, and science answers more and more for us, the gaps that we cannot explain, and that some people use to justify the existence of a supernatural power, become smaller and smaller. this follows a pattern down through history, where at one time we ascribed all things not understood to god, but science has been pushing him into smaller and smaller gaps ever since. this helped me to rationalize that we may not be able to explain all of gods gaps with science now, but if the pattern is to be continued, god will eventually have no place left to reside. therefore it is a likely probability that he may not exist.

  this was all very hard for me to rationalize after being a JW. but there are some very well written books that helped me along in this process. i would be happy to recommend them if you like. and i just want to say, that it is a good sign that you are restless. whatever you end up concluding, you will have concluded this yourself, and that is healthy.
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  4

  "The Lost Son" -- a shorter short story

  by AlmostAtheist in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we weren't good enough, i guess.

  ' that's not good enough, i guess.

  "i don't know, joe.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  that is really well written! it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up at the end.

  so this is a possible scenario, in a creative sense, of what might have transpired at a jewish tavern close to nazareth about 4 years after the so called "ransom sacrifice"?
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  76

  Leaving the Truth - Songs to Destroy Your Faith By

  by tetrapod.sapien in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  as some of you may know, i am a recently self-deconverted jw.

  the experience of deconversion was at times emotional.

  i have compiled a list of songs i would listen to on those emotionally turbulent occasions.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  awesome! thanks everyone. i am going to add some of these to my cd.