done4good

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Posts by done4good

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  22

  Approximately how many JW have left permanently?

  by longgone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i did try a search before posting this question and found nothing current.

  pew research -2016 says approximately two thirds of those born into the religion in the united states alone, no longer consider themselves as members.

  (sorry, still don't know how to link, but it's an easy google search.).

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  done4good

  WRONG!

  An interested person studies first. After some 'progress' he/she then becomes a publisher. Said publisher is then assigned a publisher card, at which time they are considered a member of the congregation. Then later after further indoctrination the student/publisher gets baptized and is officially dubed a JDub. If said publisher (though not baptized) later decides to not go out in field service, fails to report time and not attend meetings...said unbaptized member is labeled inactive and could potentially be 'marked' as bad association. For all intense and purposes this once publisher, now inactive and never baptized individual is considered to have 'left' the organization...of which there are tons and tons of ex-publishers though unbaptized JWs! There are literally tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of JW children who were once non-baptized publishers, never baptized who have left the organization and treated like outcasts by family and fiends. Add to these ex-publisher, never baptized JW youth the amount of adult Bible studies who over the years also attended meetings, became publishers, were assigned publisher cards and became members of their congregation then got cold feet and stopped shy of baptism...your really getting into the millions and millions of "ex-JWs" who have left the organization!

  My comment was about pointing out how a research organization looks at data, not at all making excuses for the organization's practices, which most of us agree are abhorrent. Go back and read what I wrote, for starters, before you shoot your mouth off. Been on this forum 11 years and out for 12. Glad you got your rocks off...Next time, get a date...
  

  d4g
  
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  22

  Approximately how many JW have left permanently?

  by longgone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i did try a search before posting this question and found nothing current.

  pew research -2016 says approximately two thirds of those born into the religion in the united states alone, no longer consider themselves as members.

  (sorry, still don't know how to link, but it's an easy google search.).

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  done4good

  For perspective's sake, it is important to realize there is a difference in the way a neutral surveying organization like Pew Research defines "leaving", vs. how a JW might define it. Neutral organizations don't care about arbitrary distinctions with no external difference, (such as if a person is "baptized" or not). Many JWs would not consider a non-baptized person that leaves to have left the religion, since in their eyes they were never a member to begin with. Many, many leave without ever getting "baptized" formally, and this is counted toward the 66% figure.

  Pew makes this very simple, (and most meaningful in the practical sense). Anyone who was raised in or believed at some point then chose to stop believing later in life is considered to be a person that "left". They apply the same criteria to all religions, as they should.

  d4g
  
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  40

  How Many Here EVER Considered Going Back To Meetings?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  once i left ,i was done.

  in over 10 years i didn't return except for my mother's funeral.

  did you ever re enter the kh after you left?.

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  done4good

  To an actual meeting?? No. Never. Could not medicate myself enough to bear it.
  

  To a memorial talk for a family member or friend? It depends, but only for a select few.
  

  Earlier this year my inactive JW uncle passed away. The memorial talk was given by my BIL at the funeral home, (not KH). My wife and I did not stay for the talk, just the viewing. I had not seen any of my JW family in over 11 years prior. I had already been remarried for 10 years and while they treated me with unexpected warmth, they were noticeably cold towards my wife, even she commented on it after we left. It is the reason we left early. Never again.

  d4g
  
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  28

  Facial hair and Witnesses

  by Jules Saturn in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i never understood why the society was against beards or goatees but completely okay with mustaches.

  what's the difference?

  facial hair is facial hair, whether it's above your lip or around your cheeks or under your chin.

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  done4good

  Conservative groups never like beards - think cops, or the military for example. Mustaches have always been ok with these groups, mostly because it places a controlled limit on the style, (denoting conformity). Conservative groups don't like free thinkers and beards are associated with self-style, a big no-no. JWs are not completely unique in this.
  

  Conservative types tend to have certain personality characteristics that include a groupthink mentality. That mentality has much to do with evolutionary biological factors, and manifests itself psychologically within certain personality types, (Guardians in particular, according to Jungian theory). I remember reading somewhere that ISTJ men for example, have a much higher than average occurrence of wearing a mustache than the general population.
  
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  45

  in retrospect: RBCs vs LDCs / the hype about a lot of new construction and subsequent abrupt halt to construction

  by Magnum in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  so, now that some time has passed, i’d like some input/thoughts/analysis/etc.

  on the jw construction situation in the last few years.. first, why did they discontinue the rbc arrangement and institute the ldc arrangement?

  was it for more and/or better control?

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  done4good

  _Morpheus

  Appreciate the story. It really helps people understand the impact of the WTS shamelessly taking properties that never belonged to them in the first place. This in of itself, is very telling.
  

  As for the OP, while this construction stoppage and money grab took place years after I left, I would agree it is one of more significant happenings to the WTS, (in a decade with many changes that already make the religion look unrecognizable to me).

  When I first learned of the new hall design (there are almost none being built); the money grab (happened at about the same time); and the RBC disband, the pattern I immediately saw from afar was this was all related. There were money problems, no growth, and the organization needed to obfuscate those facts. The new design, the "apprenticeship" plans (remember those?), and the LDC were all a smokescreen for bigger problems afoot.
  

  Since then, many congregations (including the one I was a member of from the late '70s through mid '90s) have dissolved, meetings are barely attended, (according to a close friend I have that still attends for family reasons), and the JWs I know (I have one on my staff) could pretty much care less about JW stuff and are just biding their time.
  

  d4g
  
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  33

  What Simple Pleasures Do You Enjoy Since Leaving Watchtower?

  by pale.emperor in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  what simple pleasures do you enjoy since leaving watchtower?

  here's some of mine, in no particular order:.

  a cigar: i dont smoke cigarettes at all, but i do enjoy a good cigar from time to time.

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  done4good

  1. Thinking for myself

  2. Getting an advanced degree

  3. Excelling at career without guilt or needing to hide it

  4. Sex

  5. Whatever music I want to listen to

  6. Whatever books or other reading material I want to read

  7. Marijuana

  8. Wine

  9. Travel

  10. Thinking for myself
  
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  20

  North Korean Gift to "American Bastards" for Independence Day

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  nk has taken another important step towards having a viable nuclear arsenal with the successful trial of an icbm.. kim jong-un says new missile is 'gift' to 'american bastards' from north korea on independence day.. one major hurdle left for kim jong-un is working out how to make his nuclear bombs small enough to be delivered by the missile.

  that is not an insurmountable obstacle.. the us sate department have issued a statement stating that it "will never accept a nuclear-armed north korea".

  how exactly to prevent this outcome is not clear.

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  done4good

  SK does not have the same type of halo type system as Israel. Basically, they have to depend on THAAD, which works well for singular missile attacks, but not so much for a barrage of artillery. NK would for a certainty unload on Seoul if we made a preemptive attack.

  The options are not good and our "leadership" is useless, to put it mildly.

  Also, China will be of no help. The Chinese use NK as a buffer to limit US influence in the region, despite what they officially state. That will not change. They are the ultimate pragmatists, and see this crisis to their advantage, long-term.
  
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  60

  Who Do You Think Is HOTTTT?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what attracts you in a male or female?

  give me an example or better yet a pic to tell me what you like.😈.

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  done4good

  Sexiest woman alive for sure for all kinds of reasons...
  

  
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  59

  Evolutionist on their deathbed.

  by Nimble duck in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i would really like to read the thoughts of an evolutionist as they lie on their deathbed.

  their "honest to nogod" thoughts.

  their terrors.

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  done4good

  Well, I had a heart attack last year that had a 98% chance of killing me, (100% blockage of the LAD artery).

  Lying naked on the operating table during the angioplasty, I was watching a big 100" screen on the wall with my heart monitor on it. The heart surgeon performing the procedure said, "Oh shit..." then I watched the monitor stop. Fortunately, I lived to survive it.

  I had no moment when I rethought belief in a sky daddy. I had to accept it might be over. We learn to accept death when we have no choice.
  

  "No atheists in foxholes" is a myth...Just another of the many myths propagated by those not grounded in fact and reason.
  

  d4g
  
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  23

  Can halluciengins reveal what has been hidden from us and bring more answers?

  by Bad_Wolf in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  halluciengins, and several recent studies pointed out how we us only certain sections of our brain depending what is happening.

  but some of them, like acid, make your entire brain turn on.

  heightened senses.

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  done4good

  Psychedelics, (hallucinogens), and all psychoactives, (even THC), tend to clear filters in the neuropathways that allow subconscious thoughts to be processed consciously. This sometimes leads to the "bad trip" (or paranoia in the case of the milder psychoactives). On the other hand, if a person is acclimated to the effects, (much easier to do with LSD or psylocibin than THC, provided the drug itself is not "bad"), the effects are generally a deeper understanding and perception on many matters.

  LSD and psylocibin have been used from about 1950-1970 for treating addictions, OCD, etc, and have proven very effective. The Nixonian Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 made such substances schedule 1, (the most "dangerous", according to this draconian law) illegal, and treatments using them all but ceased, until recently. That law was mostly an anti-liberal attack on those opposing the Vietnam war. It made it easy to imprison those opposed to the US government's actions. Don't get me started...

  To answer Smiddy's question with all due respect, Steve Jobs, (and likely a good number of Silicon Valley), have used such substances to their creative merit. They are good way to bridge left/right brain thinking actually.

  I will neither confirm or deny any personal use, of course...;-)