Posts by jwfacts

117

Lloyd’s new book

by jwfacts in

i see there has already been discussion over lloyd’s new book how to leave the jehovah's witnesses.

this includes discussion around his personality, motives and financial gains.

i have written a foreword for this book, because it is an important topic that has not been covered in such a complete format before.

jwfacts

I have found it helpful to acknowledge their perfect right to form their opinions about me

I agree. I have posted articles here before publishing them in order to get constructive criticism. It is not alway easy to take, and I don't always agree with others or take there advice, but am happy for them to comment, and at times will make changes.

There is a point when advice becomes a witch hunt. Six Screens, Zeb, Cedars all have a more forceful style of activism that may offend a greater portion of people, but they also get attention and have helped who knows how many tens of thousands of people. For instance, I was in two minds about the approach Zeb was taking with the I'm Worldly youtube channel, and he came in for a lot of criticism. Yet he shone on the W5 documentary. I was really moved by his admission that even he feels uncomfortable with what he does, but he cannot think of anything else where he can make a difference to help get his family back. It was quite heartbreaking. The discussions around these people have offered advice and I am sure some of it has been taken on board, but a lot becomes very unfair personal attacks. We all have our own opinions, and each opinion is only correct for a part of the population.

117

Lloyd’s new book

by jwfacts in

i see there has already been discussion over lloyd’s new book how to leave the jehovah's witnesses.

this includes discussion around his personality, motives and financial gains.

i have written a foreword for this book, because it is an important topic that has not been covered in such a complete format before.

jwfacts

Did you get the chance to read his book before you agreed to write a forward in his book?

I read most of it, except for the last couple of chapters that were not finished at the time. If people can read the book before doing anything, and make an educated exit, it will make a huge difference in a lot of lives. Unfortunately, as we all know, we were so afraid to research whilst still in, that we leave in ways that have bad consequences, and then learn what we should have done.

Just a thought, Paul, is there a section on your site explaining how to leave the JWs? If not, perhaps there should be.

There isn't, though I have wanted to write one for years. I am thinking of getting a friend to finish off some half written articles of mine, and that would be one of them.

Slimboyfat - I don't know how YouTube works but I reckon you should have got more money for your videos.

My first video had some creative commons music on it when I loaded the video. When the song became popular, they changed the copyright and filed a claim, so they get all the revenue from that video. The video that is most viewed of famous Jehovah's witnesses have a number of songs on it, all short samples from famous JWs, which I thought was acceptable under fair use. Just to be safe, I didn't have ads on it. Off all the songs, on George Benson (well not him personally) filed a claim, so he gets all the advertising revenue from that one. There is no real way to even fight against it with Google. For the other clips I have been more careful, but even then, 10,000 views may only generate $20. I seems that if the viewer clicks on skip, no revenue is earned, even though the advertiser has had 5 free seconds of marketing. It has made me wonder if it is even worth detracting from the video with ads.

117

Lloyd’s new book

by jwfacts in

i see there has already been discussion over lloyd’s new book how to leave the jehovah's witnesses.

this includes discussion around his personality, motives and financial gains.

i have written a foreword for this book, because it is an important topic that has not been covered in such a complete format before.

jwfacts

I see there has already been discussion over Lloyd’s new book How To Leave The Jehovah's Witnesses. This includes discussion around his personality, motives and financial gains.

I have written a foreword for this book, because it is an important topic that has not been covered in such a complete format before. In doing so, I was aware that I may also come under criticism, which I have mostly been able to avoid to this point.

People write books because they feel they have something to say in a way that has not been said before, or reach a community not reached before (among other reasons.) I created a website, not because there weren’t any others covering the topic, but because I didn’t think any collated the information in quite the same format that I had.

When it comes to financial gain, their is very little to be made out of the exJW community, so I find it disturbing that people keeping bringing this is as motivation. I make less per year from Google AdWords than it costs me for hosting and computer equipment. Not to mention that I receive nothing for the hours I spend every week maintaining and adding to it. My YouTube channel has over 1 million views and I have earnt less than $200 total. Not per month; in total.

Lloyd is earning far less from his JW activism than he could working full time in his business as a translator.

We all have different personalities, styles and approaches to how we move on from the past. Each approach reaches only some people.

It is my wish that we could support each other in our efforts, and not waste so much negative energy criticizing others. Support the efforts that you approve of, ignore the ones you don’t, but don’t second guess others motives or attack others, when most here are doing their best to move on and help where they can.

46

Memorial.. To go or not to go

by Emily1987 in

jw
friends

so, as some of you will know myself and my husband are in the process of fading.

haven't been to a meeting since beginning of 2017. .

we weren't planning on going to the memorial, but last week my mother broke down and said that we have to go to the memorial even if it's the only meeting i go to this year.

jwfacts

If you go you identify yourself to the community as still being in subjection to watchtower authority. That will make it harder if the elders ever start a judicial committee against you. A fade is more effective if you are not associating at all.

Whatever you do, you will be a disappointment to your mother for as long as she is a JW. You cannot blame yourself for a situation she put you in, it was not a life you chose to be bought up in.

49

How old's the human race?

by Freedom rocks in

hi does anyone know any good articles or videos about how old mankind and the earth are and carbon dating?

.

i've just started looking into it but there seems to be a lot of conflicting ideas over accuracy so i'm unsure what to think.

jwfacts

Australian aboriginals are worth researching. Several lines of science all arrive at similar dates for them arriving 50,000 years ago. They have a unique look and culture due to such a look period of isolation.

26

How soon is soon?

by Sour Grapes in

i guess if the jdubs have no clue how long a generation is they also wouldn't know how long a time period the word "soon" refers too.. 60 years ago my mother would hammer into my brain how soon the great tribulation was.

soon jehovah would destroy the wicked.

then a few years later there was no need to go to college because the end was so soon.

jwfacts

It is intriguing how a JW could be utterly convinced decades ago that the end was definitely within the next few years, and yet can still be equally passionate that it is soon, within a few years. How do they fail to remember that they were utterly convinced of the nearness of Armageddon decades ago and continue with the same level of conviction?

39

Sincere question to those who no longer believe in God

by nowwhat? in

i get it, not a fan of yahweh the desert god.

but what about jesus?

anything wrong with his teachings like the sermon on the mount and the example he set.

jwfacts

Not all that Jesus said is nice. He was still judgemental and spoke about causing divisions in families. Other New Testament writers took it even further with unnecessary rules, along with comments about judgement and destruction of non-believers. Christianity have been able to justify all sorts of atrocities based on the New Testament.

39

Clearly, undeniably, without doubt ... is there a term for introducing a thought in such a way.

by jwfacts in

watchtower article often introduce a point that has no merit with words such a "undeniably.".

for instance the watchtower 2014 august 15 page 10 says:.

"jehovah undeniably blesses the preaching work of christian women and supports them in times of trial.

jwfacts

Thanks for all the great answers.

Ipse Dixit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipse_dixit
It's a sort of appeal to a presupposed intrinsic authority of a statement.

Ipse Dixit seems to cover it well.

jp1692 It’s kind of a combination of “puffing” (in the legal sense), the common sense fallacy, making unfounded assertions and begging the question.

It seems these "weasel words" help lend support to a whole range of rhetorical fallacies. They work as a form of "appeal to authority." If the Watchtower/GB say something is clearly the case, then it must be, since they are the authority that know, regardless of whether or not any facts back up the statement.

They can be a subtle red herring, as the "evidently" statement hopes to prevent the reader examining that these is in fact evidence.

Interesting too that the legal profession and hypnotists recognise the power of using weasel words in a sentence.

39

Clearly, undeniably, without doubt ... is there a term for introducing a thought in such a way.

by jwfacts in

watchtower article often introduce a point that has no merit with words such a "undeniably.".

for instance the watchtower 2014 august 15 page 10 says:.

"jehovah undeniably blesses the preaching work of christian women and supports them in times of trial.

jwfacts

Watchtower article often introduce a point that has no merit with words such a "undeniably."

For instance the Watchtower 2014 August 15 page 10 says:

"Jehovah undeniably blesses the preaching work of Christian women and supports them in times of trial. With his help, for example, godly women maintained their integrity under Nazi and Communist rule when many of them suffered and some even lost their lives because of their obedience to God."

It is difficult to justify that someone who lost their life preaching had benefited from the blessing and support of Jehovah. These articles seem to throw in words like "undeniably" to throw the reader off from drawing the logical conclusion that Jehovah does not bless the preaching work.

Is there an official term for this type of fallacious reasoning?

30

Question is there any historical data on a women killing her entire

by poopie in

jw
friends

family including dog and then herself?.

jwfacts

Not quite the point you are after, but the Mosaic Law commanded parents to stone their wayward children to death. I always struggled to comprehend that any parent could kill their children, and wondered how often Jewish parents actually murdered their children due to this religious requirement. Almost every child is rebellious or disobedient at some point.