Posts by under

7

Why do you believe what you believe?

by under_believer in

jw
friends

mom, .

let me ask you a question.

have you ever asked yourself why you believe what you believe?

under_believer

I apologize. I should have provided more context. This is an email that I sent to my mother in response to her questions as to whether I have "left Jehovah." I am waiting for a reply.

56

Are you still alive??? Please report!!!

by zagor in

because according to this guy today a third of us would no longer be around today!.

.

http://www.yisraylhawkins.com/.

under_believer

I bet that on the 13th he pulls the old "I was off by one year, it's actually Sept 12. 2007" trick.

181

TURN ON CNN: PLANE HIT WORLD TRADE CTR BLDG!!!

by MadApostate in

....

under_believer

I don't think that bumping this was a good idea.

7

Why do you believe what you believe?

by under_believer in

jw
friends

mom, .

let me ask you a question.

have you ever asked yourself why you believe what you believe?

Why do you believe what you believe?

by under_believer in

jw
friends

mom, .

let me ask you a question.

have you ever asked yourself why you believe what you believe?

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever asked yourself why you believe what you believe? Up until around the age of 28, I never did. Up until that time, I just went with the flow. I didn't question anything. My worship and my religion was a one-way street: I listened to what I was told by you and Dad, and by the Society. Everything they said, I automatically assumed to be true, because it was from God's Channel, right? The Faithful and Discreet Slave. If they said it, it literally was true to me, because if God was using them, he wouldn't use them to teach me something false. I wasn't following 1Thess 5:21 very well, was I? Sure, I'd read the scriptures attached to the paragraphs, but many religions use scriptures just that same way, so their presence wasn't (or shouldn't have been) an automatic badge of truth. But that is how I looked at it. I even thought to myself sometimes "I'm just going to take their word for it on that Scripture, it's Jehovah's Organization." I strongly believe that many other Witnesses, including you yourself, operate this way--we are so busy, we're willing to take their word for it. Up until recently, I hadn't sat down and done real Bible study (not the guided tours of the Watchtower studies) for years.

But at a certain point things started wearing thin for me and it became time for me to ask myself the question: Why do I believe what I believe? And you know what? Believe it or not, it was an article from the Society that made me start to ask that question. You can read it too, if you want, they posted it on the Watchtower web site. It's at http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2001/8/1/article_02.htm.

So there I was, asking myself that question. And the answer was "Because my parents told me it was the truth." You may say I never "made the truth my own." Perhaps that is true, but have you?

Why do YOU believe what you believe? Were you persuaded to believe it, or did you always? Perhaps you'll appeal to a lifetime of service to God, and the things you've seen as a Witness--but has anything you've seen been unique to the Witnesses?

To put it very simply--have you completely made up your mind? Are you beyond analysis, information, decisions, proof? Do you KNOW that it's "the truth," or are you 85% sure? Is there anything, anything at all, that could be shown to you, or that you could experience, that would convince you otherwise? And if the answer is "no," are you comfortable with that? If there's one thing that adherents to all religions have in common, it's that their religion is correct. Is it fair for you as a pioneer to ask those people to question their faiths, and to think about whether or not what they've always believed is true, if you're not willing to do it yourself?

Don't say "well if such-and-such happened, I'd believe that it wasn't God's Organization, but that will never happen." I don't want to hear the "that will never happen" comments. You know what I used to say in the 80's, when I was a tender young lad? I used to say "There is no way that this system could go on to the year 2000. If it goes on that long, I will know this isn't the truth. But that will never happen."

Here we are in 2006, though, and in many ways (certainly not all) the world is in much better shape than it was in the 50's and 60's and 70's. It certainly isn't worse. The main reason I used to look forward to the New Order coming was so that other kids would stop picking on me, and it would free me from my own private particular Hell that I went through in school. Only, it never came, and I lived through the Hell, and in fact that hope kept me from working on my problems and making changes that might have helped. It made me sit and "wait on Jehovah" to solve my problems, when in fact I should well have been solving them myself.

You probably think things like "This old system of Satan's is almost over and done with. I don't see how it could go on for another ten years." Witnesses were saying that in the early 70's, though--you probably remember that one. They were saying it in the 40's, during World War 2. Bible Students were definitely saying it in the 1900's and 1910's, because they thought that 1914 was the end (see your Proclaimers book). They were even saying it in the 1870's.

I'd like to know the answer. Why? Why do you believe? And what would convince you otherwise?

Love,

[name redacted]

65

What Were You Doing When You Found Out about 9-11 5 Years Ago??

by mama1119 in

jw
friends

everyone has a story about what they were doing and the emotions that followed after the twin towers were hit...what is your story?

?

under_believer

I was sleeping. I was working crazy hours at work, and had been at work until 2AM the night before. A friend from Los Angeles called me on the phone, and woke me up out of bed. It was right after the first plane hit.
I went in to work in a daze, but I got nothing done--I just kept refreshing cnn.com over and over and over again.
I went to lunch and while I was there I watched the towers falling on replay over and over and over again.
I worked with another Witness. On my way out I was really bummed, sad, red-eyed. He asked me what was wrong. I just stared at him for a second and then said, as though speaking to a child, that I was kinda bummed out over what was going on in New York.
He laughed. He laughed at me, and said "Seriously? WHY?"
I just walked away, crying. If that was where he was starting from, nothing I said would ever make him see.
That night at the Kingdom Hall there was an excited atmosphere. A couple of others there were depressed, like me, but everyone else fell into two camps: exultant, because the end was that much nearer, or worried, because they were afraid of religious persecution starting up.
One more Jenga stick pulled out of the tower of my faith in the Witnesses.

50

YORRW congregation - 'The Report'

by yaddayadda in

anyone read the report book on this website: .

http://www.livingwatersforum.com/bcommentary/index.php .

yadda

under_believer

I find this all fascinating, especially the question of the modern-day Messiah figure that our guest keeps failing to acknowledge. She knows that if she confirmed that, everyone would run for the hills. Because that's nuts.

28

Picture on book "You can live forever"

by Motema Bolingo in

jw
friends

i remember that a few months ago, a member gave the reproduction of a publicity corresponding exactly to the picture of a nice swimming girl appearing in the "you can live forever ..." book.. this image is on my website (the first one on the page) :.

http://www.aggelia.be/subliminal4b.html.

would it be possible to put again this publicity on the forum ?.

under_believer

Yeah be careful calling plagiarism. They have used stock photos before too--there was one Awake I remember in particular where I saw the Awake cover and then a few months later the exact same photo was in an ad in a magazine. Just stock photo usage. Still and all, it's a far cry from the proud old days when everything was done in house.

64

What top sientist say about 9/11

by jimbo in

jw
friends

interesting or not?

use your free thinking.

p;ease reply... .. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=403757&in_page_id=1770 .

under_believer

I see that not one of the conspiracy believers has answered that perennial, fundamental chestnut of a conspiracy question, raised by seeker and others:
Of the thousands of people who would have had to be in on the conspiracy, why has not a single one come forward and admitted their part in it? Why have there been no leaks?
The X-Files had nanomachines inside people's bodies, which could kill them in an instant. Therefore they kept quiet to keep from dying. How is the Bush administration pulling it off?
Until I see an objectively plausible answer to this question, I will continue to reject this conspiracy theory.

9

Do the members pay for the litterature?

by Hellrider in

i am discussing something on the "discussion"-part of wikipedia (on jehovahs witnesses) in my country.

a person there claims that the witnesses pays nothing for the litterature they receive from the watchtower.

is this true?

under_believer

Jeez blondie, you are moving in on 20K! Congrats!

under_believer

Posts by under_believer