My last cong: Definately shrinking.
My previous cong: Was in a largely Spanish speaking area. The english cong .that I belonged to there did better than most in the circuit, but I believe it is even shrinking now. The Spanish congs. there are probably still growing.
j
if there was only one cd you could choose that helped you through the time you were fading from one set of choices to another, which one would it be?
just one now.. mine would be cheryl crow-wildflower.
of course there were others, but i limited this to just one.there are several songs on there that helped me express my feelings.. then, i also relistened to all my old music.
When I first started fading, "American Idiot" by Green Day just came out. Their best by far, and the anti-religious overtones of the record made for some damn good loud driving music!
j
<!-- .style1 { font-family: arial; font-size: 20px; color: #009999; } .style2 { font-family: arial; font-size: 17px; color: #009999; } .style3 { font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; } --> did anything in field service make you question the society?
an ex-jehovahs witnesses planted a seed of doubt by stating that she felt to be a good .
witness an individual had to be a conformist.
and if God wouldn't forgive all the ignorant masses out there
for never believing the message of these strange Jehovah's Witnesses that come to their door with nice printed
hand-outs?
I had that thought many times myself. Although, never actually had the conversation with anyone out in FS.
j
<!-- .style1 { font-family: arial; font-size: 20px; color: #009999; } .style2 { font-family: arial; font-size: 17px; color: #009999; } .style3 { font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; } --> did anything in field service make you question the society?
an ex-jehovahs witnesses planted a seed of doubt by stating that she felt to be a good .
witness an individual had to be a conformist.
If we're coming to THEIR door to talk to them about OUR religion, why is it so horrible to return the favor to them? If they come to our hall (in actuality, usually doesn't happen) to see what we believe and having an open mind to see what we believe, how can we not do the same for theM?!
I often thought the same thing many times out in the FS. We always believed interfaith was wrong, but what if the householder held to the same standard? It just seemed so hypocritical.
j
when i started a study with jw's, i was always amazed that they had a logical answer to everything.. here are some simple logic flaws that i wish i caught before baptism.
first, their own bible says:.
(revelation 20:4-6) 4 and i saw thrones, and there were those who sat down on them, and power of judging was given them.
And I didn't even get to the logic flaws in the discussion of the animal kingdom.
Animals were supposedly herbivores before Adam and Eve's sins changed all that.
I might be mistaken on this, but, just for clarity, I always thought the WT taught that it was at the time of the flood that animals became carnivors. Either way, it's dead wrong, and one of those things I always questioned when I was a dub.
j
in 1930 more than 34,000 people professed to be of the anointed.
they did not believe themselves to be the faithful and discreet slave, as a class; they believed c.t.
russell had been and that j.f.
You know A.S., I know the GB may be somewhat of "captives of a concept", but the more I look back and read what they believe/used to believe I have to believe at some point they really are just telling lies knowingly. This stuff just sounds so rediculous reading it after being out for a year and a half. What a fairy tale.
j
first time posting, long time lurking.. came upon this site on accident a few years ago and dismissed it as a site for disgruntled people; however, in the past months i actively searched for it as it stuck in my mind.
believe it or not, i practically read all of the topics.
i felt, wow, i wasn't alone in my thinking and feelings about some things.. it all started years ago in my last year in high school and then into college.
Welcome, Rethinking. Stick around!
j
lead singer brad delp died today of unknown causes.
boston was one of my all time favorite hard rock groups.
they were in the process of recording thier next album.
I played the first album to shreds back in the day.
Ditto. Too young to die.
j
we were just discussing the whole thing about how only those jw's that live through the big a will be able to still be sexual beings and pro-create.
he said that the society is useing our most natural desires to scare everyone into staying in the org and hoping, above all else to live through the big "a".
and i was saying to him that if i still believed what they taught, i would kill him and my baby to save them.
thank god that the wacko psycho JW's....are few.
You sure about that???
many of us who were once jehovah's witnesses had a measure of happiness in our lives.
for me, i had a hope in the future, i had answers as to why we are all here, i believed in a loving god who looked after me and cared about me, i had answers to all of lifes big questions.. when i found out the truth about the witnesses, i was lost in a great big world and now had no answers other than the fact that what i once believed was "the truth" in actuality wasn't the truth.i now had to start all over in my search for truth.
for me, it wasn't long before i found what i thought was the truth since i always believed in the bible.
this IS what separates the average person from the jws. Most people are content to just live life, read a little here and there, and learn these things on an academic level, as they go through life.I gotta say I totally disagree. I'm not a minority in this.
Gumby,
Sorry if that sentence sounded kinda pro jw, (after re-reading it it does read that way). I didn't mean it like that. The point I was making, is what many others have said here. Happiness is NOT dependant on knowing absolute truth. The closest thing we have to absolute truth is what science and history allow us to know. Kid-A makes a good point about self-actualization. That is what we really strive for. Not everyone gets to that level, though. For those that do not, the tendency is to find a level of satisfaction in whatever one's existence is.
Don't let fear of not "knowing" everything, or fear of no sky-god ruin your ability to find happiness. It's not a bad thing to not be satisfied with one's personal knowledge in this regard, (hence, the stiving for self actualization), just don't continue to look in the wrong places for it, if the pursuit matters to you. I know some of the more religious here would disagree with me on this, but there are times when my personal level of atheism does lend something to a discussion, even if it's not what is being debated here.
j
