hi gang, .
here is part of an article i came across that defends the resurrection as historical.... .
from james patrick holding .
Rex, I sincerely appreciate your good wishes. But as I said, it can't happen for me. If something like that happened to me, I'd have myself checked in. I still might anyway. ;) I have before...
Believe me, there are times I really want to believe similar to your belief. I just can't.
aaaaaagggghhhhh!!!
thats how i feel at the mo!!!
why is it that no matter how hard you try life still sh**s on you!!!!!
Life is a series of disappointments... so said Kevin Smith in 1993. The best you can do is find people who won't judge you, and can empathize with your personal disappointments. Some actually find that in the JWs; the numbers seem to show that. But more and more there are those of us who think: there has to be something better than that simplistic explanation. And soon your brain starts to burn because every explanation is no better or worse than the other. Things are because they are. Why are we here? Because we're here. Why did it happen? Because it happened. So said Neil Peart in 1991. I believe Kevin Smith and Neil Peart to be two of the most "spiritual" people on this planet. Mainly because they find peace in the understanding that there can't be any real understanding. There's solace in acceptance that we will most likely die and never achieve what we want -- because nobody does, and nobody will. Become peaceful with that conclusion and the rest falls into place. And yes.... it most certainly does suck.
hi gang, .
here is part of an article i came across that defends the resurrection as historical.... .
from james patrick holding .
I don't have the energy to argue, I'm too sick, and overtired. And it's unprofitable, for me anyway, at this point, to argue one way or the other. All I can do is observe, and my observation, as mentioned in other posts of mine, is that I don't see any evidence of any gods' interference in anything's origin, lifecourse, or destiny, and if any interference appears, such as ID or ghost-sightings, that they cannot be rationally explained in ways that require no gods. Most everything we do and decisions we make we do so under the assumption no god or supernatural entity will be pleased, displeased, reward or forsake us. Those that do, such as Christian Scientists, or JWs that refuse blood, or Christians fed to lions, or Heaven's Gate members, or Buddhist monks, are just in denial, it seems to me.
I would never tell someone not to believe in Jesus, or even prevent someone from choosing JWism. It just cannot (not that it DOES not, it CANNOT) work for me.
some time back, i had a disagreement with my brother-in-law, who even though he has doubts about the witnesses, still wants to put on the cloak of being a believer for his mother's sake.
while he acknowledges the doctrinal errors and abysmal treatment of the flock by their elders, he doesn't want to assign a malicious, controlling motivation to it.
i told him that i believed the idea of not having windows in kingdom halls was part of the brain washing that occurs during meeting after meeting during the weeks, months and years.
Windowless Kingdom Halls contribute to the sterile, joyless atmosphere present in today's congregations. It also helps with climate control, lighting control, thus mood control. If security was an issue, why not glass block windows? One KH I attended removed the original windows in a remodeling. The next CO came in and said from the platform: "Where are the windows in this building?" So the windows were put back in. A few years later, they were removed again. The last KH I attended had a drop ceiling with cheap 2X4 ceiling tiles. The CO, Alan Hood, made no bones about his dislike. Again, from the platform, he told us our ceiling looked like someone's basement ceiling, and he couldn't even open the front door, and where the heck is the air conditioning? So the congo ponied up for all the changes. I always thought a stuffy building with open windows and fans made it more interesting. Closed doors, air conditioning, tinny sound, silly color schemes, poor lighting...... Kingdom Halls are awful places now.
almost every watchtower publication we've ever seen begins in the garden of eden.. we are told the earth was created for man.
we are told man was given a paradise and that his disobedience introduced to the world sin and death.
man ruined the wonderful, gentle and peaceful plan of god.. that is the story we are told.
I prefer to call myself an agnostic in the sense that it does not matter to me if gods exist or not. I consider myself a free moral agent regardless of whether gods exist, and I make my decisions under the assumption that none do, or if one or many do, they do not interfere for whatever reason. It is my observation that believers, people of faith, or theists, also do this at least 98% of the time.
hey everyone,.
as you can see im new here, and like every new person im trying to sort alll this jw stuff out.
i have no idea where to start, but here goes.. i first started questioning all this when 'a brother' in the congregation sexually abused one of my best friends family members, he did not get disfellowshipped, but he got publicly reproved?!
You're on the right track. It's okay to be confused. Life is confusing, and JW life becomes frustratingly confusing. The best thing you can do is find people who won't judge you for your feelings, your questions, your fears, and your joys. Center your life around them, and be confident doing so. You have a right to such companionship and support. If you don't find it in the JWs, and it's likely you won't knowing what you know now and the much more you'll learn if you keep knocking and asking, you will find it somewhere. Welcome to the board. :)
i've been out of the jws for the last 20 years.
i remember when...the wts prided its self on having khs that were humble, practical and were't a showy displaythe wts was as militant as they are now.the elders weren't as cruel to their ownthe wts wasn't always puttong their hands in the r&f's pocket and demanding money.the conventions actually cared about the needs of the r&f by providing food and not making a bunch of rules about where they could eat and what they could put under the seat.. am i remembering things differently?
has the society gotten worse?
stillajw is correct, the organization is no longer run by men who love God and love their neighbor, but is run by men who are becoming worried that God has been relatively silent for some 20 years regarding anything worth making a decent defense of the faith besides a web presence that barely resembles anything other than a slick presentation of their most infantile literature, a God that cares so less to even allowing Brother Franz to wither away and die and then have all his expectations turn to dust, and, men who care more about the bottom line and 'going by the book' rather than the spirit of the law.
the camaraderie, the sense of fun and accomplishment
Gone. Elders not long ago enjoyed this, even meeting socially and diving into deep study of the Bible for those feelings, and you never hear of that occuring any longer. Unless you're new and starved for sociality and structure, JWism has become boring and even a hardship. It's sad. For all its flaws, which have reached to heaven, it still had a brotherhood it could be proud of. Now people either fit the mold, or figure out ways to be a personality and get away with it via politics. The complaints of JWs who've been in it for more than 20 years are becoming more vocal, and less important. Their heritage is become unrecognizable and they're getting tired of the direction of the chariot. But the machine presses on with greater efficiency and enough money, invested wisely, to continue growth.
By 2025 this religion will be completely changed from how it was in 1985, in nearly every respect.
i miss 2 days on here and feel like i'm completely out of the loop.
i've been really sick and in a rough state of mind with everything in my life going down the drain, but i'm hanging in there best i can.
i miss you all; hopefully tomorrow i'll feel a little better and will read and post some more.
I miss 2 days on here and feel like I'm completely out of the loop. :(
I've been really sick and in a rough state of mind with everything in my life going down the drain, but I'm hanging in there best I can. I miss you all; hopefully tomorrow I'll feel a little better and will read and post some more.
Thank you to my friends for listening to my yakking and giving their support. It means everything to me.
Edit at 6:30am: well I stayed up all night watching Tv and posting here. I guess I feel a little better. Physically anyway.
im brand new here, just signed up today.
i have more questions than i can remember.
i was very excited to see that other witnesses have so many questions just as i do.
thanks. hang in there, if you have any questions this board has a lot of people who are pretty fair. you can PM me any time too. :)
im brand new here, just signed up today.
i have more questions than i can remember.
i was very excited to see that other witnesses have so many questions just as i do.
IMO is "in my opinion" and JWD is this board.
keep searching but do so skeptically. you'll soon find jws aren't that different from a lot of other religions and apart from the watchtower publications the average witness is a lot more worldly than they were 20 years ago. question everything and everyone, that's my best advice. the jw religion and paraphenalia is riddled with errors and deception. just make sure you don't end up falling for every anti-jw argument you find out there.
when you're ready, you can apply the same level of skepticism to christianity. and try to be cheerful about it. religion is a terrible thing to waste a mind on.
