I was raised as a jw and never had faith to begin with. I was told it was true and didn't see why someone would lie about it, like when a teacher tells you that no two snowflakes are alike and you believe it just because they say it and they are a teacher so they should know. JW's are no more guilty of lying about having the truth than any other religion is guilty of lying about having the truth(at least any religion that claims to have it is guilty). My issue with them specifically is not their intrepretations of the bible (based upon fictional accounts anyhow) but the implementation of their doctrines, and the destructive force they have on many peoples lives.
riverofdeceit
JoinedPosts by riverofdeceit
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47
Has being a Jehova's witness totally shattered your faith?
by Silvia Plath injust because the watchtower society is wrong doesn't mean that there is no god, nor does it mean there is a god.
it would interesting to now how former members have adjusted thier cosmology, or whether they are now atheists and why.
i personally see religion as a more personal matter, rather than belonging to an organization.
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What Things Did You Hate About Being A Jehovah's Witness?
by minimus in.
anything in particular?
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riverofdeceit
"studying" the watchtower.
doing the stupid bible reading in the "school"
Getting dressed up. Wearing ties. I don't own any ties anymore.
tuesday thursday nights, and saturday and sunday mornings. I still have the stigma of Tuesday and Thursday being crappy days of the week even though they aren't anymore.
Praying before a meal at a restaurant. Praying in front of non JW's and having to start out with "Jeeeeehovah God our heavenly father."
"Going out in service."
Trying to explain wtf is wrong with Birthdays. People must have really thought I was a retard.
Not being able to be friends with kids in school.
Not being able to play sports in school. Not knowing much about the relatives on my Non JW dad's side.
Not knowing what real friends were until I was older and it was harder to make friends.
Not being encouraged to go to college or pursue some sort of career.
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riverofdeceit
He believed that once you know the "truth' you can never join another religion.
That is true actually. Well, it is true for me, not for everyone here. as in - I woke up to having been trained in a fairy tale with magic and goblins and demons and angels (ie- bible based religions).
I think some people go back because of the familiarity. You know the people, you know what is expected of you. People who don't even believe it anymore sometimes still go back because of this. They don't have the courage to step out into something new and leave behind that "familiarity". It is a haven. Like people who have been imprisoned for so long that when they get out of jail they don't know what to do anymore so they get in trouble just so they can go back to prison where they knew where they stood.
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Who would you like to be with, if there was to be an Armageddon
by JH inlets say that armageddon was imminent and you would deduce that you wouldn't be saved, who would you want to be with to enjoy your last moments alive?
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riverofdeceit
aghast!!! Shame on you all! I want to be with JEHOVAH. and Jesus and the holy ghost... and scooby and shaggy. Edit: Sorry, I only read the question in the title and didn't realize there was a chance I wouldn't survive. Well, I wouldn't want to be with anyone I cared about cuz that would mean that they would be going down too! Ahah, you selfish aposterites!
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Divorce for emotional abuse?
by somebodylovesme inbecause of a recent family situation (always a good time!
), i've been in a debate with a jw relative about whether the society permits divorce (without remarriage) where there is emotional abuse.
this relative swears the literature has said that a person can leave her spouse where there is emotional abuse, but that she cannot remarry.
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riverofdeceit
Of course, I've no idea why anyone would want to hang out in a religion that says that once her husband beats her (or emotionally torments her) and she leaves him, she is never allowed to get married or date anyone ever again.
People stay in stupid religions all the time. Some religions say it is ok to kill your wife if she embarrasses you. If you do not kill her then shame will stay upon your family.
I'm just tired of the hypocrisy of this group saying different things out of each side of its mouth and I'd like to know what the "official line" is supposed to be so that I can argue intelligently about it.
Yeah, we are all tired of it. Sorry I can't help you with official lines as I'm not privy to such things anymore, other than what is made available through this site and others of course.
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What religion are you... if any?
by Effervescent ininteresting little flashy thingie, toolie on usa today (see how professional i sound?).
http://www.usatoday.com/graphics/news/gra/gnoreligion/flash.htm.
interesting results in new york.... where the world wide headquarters of jws resides... .
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riverofdeceit
The question is pretty simple though people seem to be freaking out about it. I have no religion. I want no religion. I am no religion.
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Panhandlers piss me off!
by Nosferatu inyesterday, my brother and his son were in town visiting.
me and the wife decided to go out and get some pizza to bring back for supper.. when we pulled up to the pizza shop, a guy came up to the car window and gave us his sob story about how he had cancer removed, how he refused to stay in the homeless shelter, and presented a stack of papers stapled together along with his mb health card.
he asked for any change that we may have.
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riverofdeceit
Btw, sometimes I am guilted into giving some change, but I don't feel very good about it when I do. My wife on the otherhand.....she's more
of a suckerkindhearted than I. She balances me out I guess. -
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Panhandlers piss me off!
by Nosferatu inyesterday, my brother and his son were in town visiting.
me and the wife decided to go out and get some pizza to bring back for supper.. when we pulled up to the pizza shop, a guy came up to the car window and gave us his sob story about how he had cancer removed, how he refused to stay in the homeless shelter, and presented a stack of papers stapled together along with his mb health card.
he asked for any change that we may have.
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riverofdeceit
I have a simple rule. If you are doing nothing but begging you get nothing from me. Leeching off of kindharted people is disgusting. Standing there with a cup trying to make me feel guilty for not giving you what I have earned and you have not pisses me off as well. There are those who actually choose to live this way. No, not all of them, and there isn't really a way to tell which are and which aren't. Donate to charities, soup kitchens, etc., but honestly, giving money to these people does not really help them. It enables their lifestyle. It is a really big problem in Boston. Since I couldn't find the recent article they did about it I got a similar one from Denver.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/24/020301.php
Like a lot of other cities, Denver is strying to crack down on panhandling, largely because they have such a huge number of panhandlers. A substantial 61% of Denver merchants rated panhandling as the number one problem their business faced, and 72% of citizens agreed that it was one of the most serious problems in the city. As a result, the city is considering enacting harsh restrictions on vagrancy and camping, and is building over 3,000 new low income housing units for the homeless.
Of course, the main reason that there are so many panhandlers in Denver is that it's so lucrative. According to a recent survey conducted by the Downtown Denver Partnership, 42% of the population has given money to panhandlers in the past year and the average person there gives $1.84 each time he or she is approached by a panhandler, for a total of about $25 a year. This adds up to an awful lot of money - a total of over $4.6 million, divided among about a thousand panhandlers. That's an average of about $50,000 per active panhandler per year, with confidential interviews with panhandlers indicating that they make between $35,000 and $100,000 tax free per year and view panhandling as the equivalent of a job or a profession. Some even have homes and support families on their panhandling income.
One of the ironic aspects of this is that the survey shows that the most generous group to donate to the panhandlers are those who earn less than $25,000 per year, about half of what the average panhandler makes. This puts us in the strange position of having to look at street beggars as heartless exploiters of the working class, leeching off of the paltry income of hard working secretaries and bus boys.
At a cost of $174 per arrest the city has determined that it's not worth arresting panhandlers, because there are so many and if they arrested them all as often as they'd need to in order to discourage them, the cost would be so high it could never be justified. They wisely thought it made more sense to spend the money on building housing for the homeless. That's great, but it doesn't really address the panhandling issue, because professional panhandlers and those who are homeless and need inexpensive housing and a hand-up are not the same people at all. Nothing they do to reduce homelessness is going to help with the panhandling problem, because panhandlers make enough money that they don't need to be homeless unless it's a matter of lifestyle choice - which it actually is for a lot of them.
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What "Discipline" Did You Recieve While A Witness?
by minimus inwere you "disciplined" by the elders (or jehovah god) for anything while in the "truth"??
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riverofdeceit
P.S. As a kid my family was always treated differently because my dad was never an elder. I don't care if others don't think this happens, it absolutely does happen and you are absolutely given a harder time if you don't come from an "elite" JW family/background.
I've seen it and experienced it. I was brought downstairs because the hall girls liked me though I didn't do anything to encourage it. I was brought downstairs (downstairs was the place in the hall for second school and discipline by elders) because my suits (that my mother bought for me) were too colorful and innappropriate. I was brought downstairs because I had a bad attitude about something. When I asked what they meant or if they could explain that - in all sincerity - they said that asking that question was proof of my bad attitude!!!!!?????? I got counselled because my friend (an elder's stepson) went to visit his real dad and decided not to come back!!!!???? Apparently the dick told his mother and stepdad I encouraged it, which made no sense considering that he was my only friend and you don't generally encourage your only friend to move 800 miles away.
I got a tattoo and never got counseled about that but I was counseled when I got arrested for minor (19 yrs old) in possession of alcohol. later df'd for smoking pot. Ok, maybe I deserved the last two, but I didn't really have any respect for elders or the "religion" anymore at that point.
btw- counseled or counselled? neither looks right.
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the all knowing god?
by the dreamer dreaming indont know if this has been discussed or not...but.... it always bothered me when people claimed that god is all knowing... what exactly does that really mean or can mean?.
after all, according to all, there was some point when only god existed and so its pretty easy to be all knowing when there is nothing to know.. but why should we assume that a being who had no one teach him and nothing to learn from could be anything but insane?.
we should trust god, some have told me, because he made everything and therefore knows everything about what he made... sorry, but that does not follow at all.. my subconscious, apparently, seems to be able to manifest many dreams of very complex things which leaves me puzzled as to their workings not understanding them at all..... the bible shows god to be less than all knowing on many occasions, especially in genesis 18:20-21 where he is going to investigate a report that has come to him.... from where or who we are not told.... but it makes it clear he is desiring to find out if the report is accurate or not... .
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riverofdeceit
It would be great if everyone realized that all religions are mythological, and the only thing thats real is the experience of divine love and transcendence. There are a lot of LDS Christians who understand this. More so among those who were born into the Church.
whew! Everything was logical up until this. Sorry Miss Mormon, but I suspect the LDS christians do not understand this.