Posts by DannyBloem

99

Many Questions

by urstruly in

hi i'm new to this forum.

i've looked at other websites to and i see all this about the jw's, now i'm not one, i was raised a jw but made my own decision and my parents respected that.

i've read so many horror stories, but my life wasn't like that at all, as a matter of fact, when they first knocked on our door and my mother accepted a study our life changed for ever, it was for the best in many ways.

DannyBloem

Hi, and welcome.

First of all, I am still considered a witness by others, so I did not left yet, and know how the situation within the organization is.

I don't agree with there beliefs, but if it gives others hope why mess with that? I'm sorry for what some of you have gone through but it sounds like some of you are just upset for being "punished", if you knew the consequences why get into it in the first place? And if you weren't happy being there either in anyhow, why be upset now because you were DF and even appealing?

I am not DF-ed. I did not had much of a choice anyway. I grow up to be a witness, that makes it kind of hard to choice. (well for me at last).
I do mind to give people hope, if it is a false hope. I was happy in, until I get to know the truth behind the organization. I am not upset by the way.

Also, if you all are happy of being free, why hide behind nicknames or false pictures?

Not all do. I do, because I am not yet free...

The way I see it, (I don't remember exactly what scripture) but if I recall correctly God says "vengence is mine" so does he really need you all or this website to uncover what ever is wrong within the org.? If you all still believe in a God and his power, why don't you all leave it in his hands? Also, I see many harsh comments about JW's themselves and some JW's responding rudely, but how do you really know that it is one of them and not someone else passing as one just making them look worse?

I do agree that sometimes JW's are not given a lot of repect on this forum. This should be better. Individual JW's are mostly not to blame.

All religions have there skeletons and all have there rules to abide by so what makes the JW's so special? Mormons can't aren't supposed to drink coffee, Pentecostals aren't supposed to cut there hair, wear make-up, or jewelery are we going to condone them for their beliefs?

They are not much different then other fanatical christians or sects, that is true. I hope there are ex-mormon and ex-pentacostal sites also (I do not know, nor care to much, since I never been any of these)

What does being free to you all mean? Being able to swear and live inmoral life? Like I mentioned before, I don't agree with many of their beliefs I do however admire the high moral standards which SOME of them really do try to live by, and even though I'm not one of them I live by those morals thought to me and I can assure you I believe I've "saved" myself from so much hardship.

Some of their moral standards are okay of course. But the problem is that they are forced upon you.
Being free to me means, being able to think for myself. That is something highly discaourages in JW-ism.
By the way some of their moral standards are not good at all. For example their view on blood is exactly the opposite of healthy. You with your work should know this. This is not done because of what individual JW';s do believe but it is forced upon them.

About child mollestation in the org. I don't think there's any org. that's free of these cases. As a matter of fact, I know for a fact that in my mothers congregation there was someone acused of sexual abuse, and the authorities where notified and he was deported! This was about 4 years ago. I was mollested as a child also, and I have to be honest the elders really helped me, my mother would be the one saying I was lying, she couldn't believe her own brother my uncle would do such a thing. But the elders had a talk with her, this one family actually opened the doors to their home so that I would be safe until my mom did something about it. (By the way, my uncle is not a JW he is a dovout catholic) So, I can't say I've had any bad experiences within, I just don't agree with some of their beliefs. But again, if it makes some of them happy and they are sincere, then let them be. To each his own.

I am very sorry to hear this. problems with this are in all parts of society. I do not know if they are more in the WTS then other places. Personally do not think so. And yes they have quidelines against those things, and mostly the elders will help etc.
There are however some problems. Many times there is no legal concequence (kept in the congregation only). And elders are not specialized in this field, which sometimes causes wrong help. Then lot of times nothing is done, when things should be done, because of the two witness rules.
I know that most elders will try to help as good as they can. Sometimes this is not enough.

I do thing websites like this are needed, since God does not do it himself, we have to show to willing people that they are lied to. People have to get information, I think this is very important. (and who says God, does not use this board :)

Danny

12

Days of the week

by DannyBloem in

as jw's always believed that the days of the week came from god, this is probably not true.

the week is a pagan symbol.. that a week has seven days can best be explained by astronomy.

there are 7 heavenly bodies: sun, moon, and 5 visible planets.

DannyBloem

As JW's always believed that the days of the week came from God, this is probably not true. The week is a pagan symbol.

That a week has seven days can best be explained by astronomy. There are 7 heavenly bodies: sun, moon, and 5 visible planets. So "giving" a day to each of these heavenly bodies became a cycle of 7 days. That this cycle was a good appoximation of the lunar cycle also, made it a keeper. One week from new moon to half, one more to full moon etc.

Here is a systematic view:

each of those symbols represents the heavenly bodies:

These symbols represent the following days:

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Luminary & symbol	Sun	Moon	Mars	Mercury	Jupiter	Venus	Saturn
Latin	dies solis	dies lunae	dies Martis	dies Mercurii	dies Jovis	dies Veneris	dies Saturni
Italian	domenica (1)	lunedì	martedì	mercoledì	giovedì	venerdì	sabato (2)
Spanish	domingo (1)	lunes	martes	miércoles	jueves	viernes	sábado (2)
Romanian	duminica (1)	luni	marti	miercuri	joi	vineri	sâmbata (2)
French	dimanche (1)	lundi	mardi	mercredi	jeudi	vendredi	samedi (2)

We see that the names of the days still represent the names of the planets, sun and moon in some languages. In english, german and my language some of the names of the days were replaced by scandanavian gods.

So, the week a pagan symbol.

DannyB

21

Contorted Irony

by Farkel in

jw
friends

it pains me to see all these topics trying to figure out whether a god exists or not.. it is not possible to figure it out.

it's like taking chicken soup when one is sick: hey!

it won't hurt you!.

DannyBloem

It pains me to see all these topics trying to figure out whether a God exists or not.

I do not think a lot of us are trying to prove that there is no God. Some topics are more a prove that there is no need to a god. Which topics can be very important IMHO.

It is not possible to figure it out. It's like taking chicken soup when one is sick: Hey! It won't hurt you!
(Neither will believing in God)

I do agree with you that believing in God doe snot have to be harmfull. (we can not blame some extremists for using religion in a harmfull way. Politics and whatever is used in the same way)

But organised religion has the tendency to limit people very much. Limit people in different way, limit progress, limit free thinking, limit acceptance of other opinions etc.
mainstream JW is certainly is, mainstream islam, mainstream hinduism are certainly like this.

Christians were like then, now a lot less. For many people it has become much more individual. I do not see a lot of wrong with that

14

Apostate Desktops

by RichieRich in

jw
friends

.

cause i was bored one day, and y'all are awesome.. all in 1024x768 size.. .

.

DannyBloem

Ha ha very funny.

You should make a whole Windows Theme, including apostate icons, screensaver etc etc.

13

Do you fall back to blaming the "Wicked Sytem of Things" for everything?

by AK - Jeff in

as witnesses it was the 'catch all' phrase.

we blamed illness, crime, economic probs, job issues, marital probs, and whatever else came down the pike as the fault of the wicked old system.

recently a former friend of us, a long time witness had a stroke.

DannyBloem

No, I do now blame Satan for everything

34

Pagan Symbols

by I.O.C. in

jw
friends

.

why does the watchtower society use a pagan symbol as their logo?.

DannyBloem

I.O.C, and others

Welcome first.

I do not see really the watchtower as a pagan symbol. That it is used in the artemis statue does not prove anything. She is waring a dress too. Does that make a dress a pagan symbol.
The watchtower is a symbol of war. It must have been first created for this purpose only.
Can't really make anything bad for them out of this symbol, except that connection to war...

Danny

35

WHY I LEFT JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

by Carolina M in

why i left jehovah's witnesses

carol m

south africa

DannyBloem

Welcom to the board carolina,

you figured it out quite quickly. for most of us, it took much longer....

6

How responsible is Jesus' advice at Matthew 19:12?

by scout575 in

jw
friends

matthew 19:12 says: " for their are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and their are some eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom heaven's sake.

he that can make room for it, let him receive it.

" whilst these words of jesus have been taken figuratively by most christians, many, particularly in the past, have taken them all too literally and castrated themselves, thinking they were following jesus' advice.

DannyBloem

By following Jesus advice literary they are doing the society a big favour.

Darwin called it survival of the fittest.

138

Uses of The 4th Dimension (Einstein was wrong!)

by use4d in

since i discovered the 4th dimension, one of the conclusions i have reached is, the 4th dimension is an infinite access to the truth.

throughout this website, i use the term "i wish" - it is really a way to voice a person's desire - and from the work i have done - it really works.

from the saying: "ask and you shall receive", i have understood that any human being can make an infinity of "wishes" and receive the truth (the correct answer) to every question they may have, in the form of a dream - that same night.

DannyBloem

Flyphisher, you write

Thats not quite right, jgnat. Your message "that only the directly observable exists" is called "Mach’s sensualism". But, It is much worse;-) Actually - and this is verifiable by quantum theory, especially by the decoherence theory - the things come just into existence through observation! Without observation, there is no matter; even no TIME. Objectively! Observer can be any sort of biological, molecular or atomic structure having sufficient complexity btw certain minimal-configuration to sense time intervals (better said: to quantize elapse time sequences).

Can you explain to me plase why?

As I see it. Every observation can result in a collapse of the quantum wave function. A single photon can. That a more complex sturcture is needed to measure it, does not man anything in my opinion. Whould the collapse of the wave function not have happened if you did not measure this photon?
Even the probability function is QM have time and space properties in them, so does that not say the oppsoite?

Danny

p.s. I read that QM and elementary particles are weird. No, bt they are strange. The strange quark is a second-generation quark with a charge of -(1/3)e and a strangeness of -1.The strange quark is a second-generation quark with a charge of -(1/3)e and a strangeness of -1.

23

Just curious, How many Awakes do you read to get a college level education?

by PaNiCAtTaCk in

jw
friends

maybe pmj or another active witnesses can explain?

or do they still teach this?

DannyBloem

I do not think that awake can be equal to any kind of college education.

But I do think that the awake helps to educate people in certain ways. I did notice that in developping countries, people who did read the awake had some more general knowledge then others who did not. It was easier to talk with them about certain things.

I do hereby not place the awake on the same level as some other semi-scientific magazines. And yes, they only put in things that are neutral or pro their view, and yes every article has to end with stupid kingdom BS at the end.
But the general, neutral articles are not really that bad.