hi, i am also a practicing jehovah's witness and very proud of it,to say the very-very least..!
i am a middle-aged man with many decades of being a witness of jehovah god in england.. this important letter is personally to you, just as many of the bible's 88 letters are to be taken personal by you the reader.
i am writing to you to urge you to take stock of your life, think what your future holds for you.
Bad news Sparks - you have broken direct guidance and direction from the FDS by being here.
I was an elder when I started coming here and tried defending the WTBTS at first but when all is considered the whole thing collapses.
I resigned as an elder - last meeting was March 2009 - Mrs Scotsman followed me out 6 months later and neither of us have looked back.
To be honest I am glad you are here - you are obviously questioning "something" about the whole JW/WTBTS belief structure.
The Scotsman.
so at the international convention 235 were baptized.
the attendance was 34k.
that's resents less than 1% its about .6%.
My wife was talking to one of her neice's the other week who still goes to meetings. She was part of a group of 6 young sisters who hung out together, went out in ministry together, sat next to each other at the assemblies etc etc.
Anyway it transpires that one of the 6 revealed that she had been doing external research of the org and was stopping attending meetings.
Fast forward 6 months - my wifes niece is the only one still attending - and even she is beginning to look like a free thinking adult.
I am cautious to get overly excited at the JW.ORG demise - but you know what - I think we may be at a turning point.
i'll start by saying, i'm a ministerial servant who is trapped in the religion.
my wife is hardcore...but i've slowly been getting her to lighten up, so i'll take it!
all my friends and family are jw's, and i am employed by a jw (who is actually a great boss).
Based on the facts around us - the existence of a creator makes perfect sense to me...
But no need to be in a religion though...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28166192.
mostly about the new preaching tactics - i.e.
- standing in the street holding up magazines.. i have seen them many times in and around glasgow..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28166192
Mostly about the new preaching tactics - i.e. - standing in the street holding up magazines.
I have seen them many times in and around Glasgow.
my best friend of 14 years and maid of honor passed away 2 months ago at age 32 after battling breast cancer for 6 years.
i haven't been the same since for many reasons.. as a jw kid i believed 144,000 chosen went to heaven, the good people would be resurrected including those who didn't have a chance to hear about jehovah, and the rest, which were of other religions and bad people, died and would cease to exist.
again, because i was a kid when i left, i never really understood the jw position on death and why they came to their conclusion.
We go somewhere - of this I am convinced. For me the evidence supports this conclusion.
my question basically is - why believe?.
now as a non believer i find it hard to understand how anyone in their right mind can believe in the supernatural and more to the point, live their lives according to an old book.
not just christians obviously.. my intention is not to offend people.
Plenty of evidence out there to support the existence of the supernatural - thats why I believe.
I have not read the bible in ages but still believe in the existence of God.
what do you do when you believe in your heart that your spouse is never going to wake up to the tatt?
when you're sick of the cherade of pretending you can deal with the spiritual division when you dont think you can anymore.
when you're convinced that your spouse is so decieved she is lost in a desert and is fine with living by the mirage.
My experience was similar though not exactly the same.
Look at some of my earlier posts / discussions.
My last meeting was March 2009 but my wife kept going.
But she attended her last meeting in July 2009.
Long story short - for me it got unbearable and I confronted my wife about TTATT. A deeply emotional moment, most stress our marriage had ever been under. She was shocked, fearful, but also agreed on some points.
Then in July 2009 the elders took her aside asking if I was apostate. That was the nail in the coffin for Mrs Scotsman - she never went back.
Its difficult with no easy answers but as I think you have already discovered - you cannot keep living in a dream world - things need to change.
I thought my wife would never leave, never understand - but she did.
good luck...
do you beleive our spirit lives on in other dimensions or are we really just dead?
?.
We survive death and continue on.... somewhere...
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229671.500-god-notbotherers-religious-apathy-reigns.html#.u2je8vco7mr.
god not-botherers: religious apathy reigns.
01 may 2014across the developed world, people are losing interest in god without becoming atheists.
It is not correct to paint all religion with one brush stroke.
Religion "can" be a good thing..
Unfortunately though, on many many occasions, it is not.
One point I would make - has the decline of religion in the UK made it a better place to live?
Absolutely not.
are their any former atheist/agnostic on here who reverted to christianity or a belief in god.
i became an atheist back in july and it was the most unfulfilling depressive period of my life.
i'm now starting to rebuild my relationship with god and i'm already starting to feel a lot better.
"My disbelief in magic and gods is based on a logical conclusion that there is no evidence of any such phenomemon"
"no" evidence? What - none at all? Are you sure?
You should broaden your mind.. it is there - you just need to find it...
