Posts by LisaRose

15

Bad things happen in spiritual paradise

by wannaexit in

jw
friends

i bumped in this story this afternoon.

it's about a family of jw's.

it's an unbelievable story of murder that took place in 2014.. so much for spiritual paradise.. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dateline+tangled.

LisaRose

I think many JWs are convinced that "the truth" has the miraculous ability to change people. The reality is that JWs are no different than people in other religions, or even people in no religion. You can brainwash people into going to all the meetings, doing the study, going out in service, even earnestly praying to God, but it doesn't change what people are, not really.

Most people have a tendency to minimize their bad behavior and justify it in their own mind, but then there are some people who are just evil and it doesn't matter how many hours they spend at the Kingdom Hall, they are going to do what they are going to do. The sad part is they usually get away with it because most JWs live in denial and don't recognize evil when they see it because it wears a suit and says all the right things. That's why child molesters get away with it so often and for so long.

14

what era do you feel like your starting out from?

by sowhatnow in

jw
friends

anyone else feel like they were just woke up from a long coma?

or emerged from a time capsule?.

i mean seriously, its rather creepy and disturbing , some of us are at sea without a compass .. like an orphan, like someone said, , heres a birth certificate go find yourself.

LisaRose

Hi LisaRose
Missed you, good to see you back.

Well, I never really went away, but I've been busy with my business and haven't been commenting very much. I am astounded anyone missed me, so thank you, Mark of Cain, I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy now.

Lisa 🌹

31

No historical evidence for bronze age men living to 500yrs old?

by purrpurr in

the bible tells us that noah etc lived to 500yrs old as did many other characters who lived apparently to incredible years.. yet archaeological research tells us from looking at skeletons that have been dug up that the average lifespan was very short.

if a man got to the age of 50 they would have considered that quite an achievement.

when i was in i always wondered about this?

LisaRose

While many people died young due to disease, violence and poor nutrition, it was not impossible for someone to live to age seventy or more, and in a world where many died young the fact that some did live a long time was probably talked about. These stories were probably passed down by word of mouth for hundreds of years before being written down, no doubt they were embellished a bit in each retelling. If there a real Methuselah he probably only lived to be 85.

14

what era do you feel like your starting out from?

by sowhatnow in

jw
friends

anyone else feel like they were just woke up from a long coma?

or emerged from a time capsule?.

i mean seriously, its rather creepy and disturbing , some of us are at sea without a compass .. like an orphan, like someone said, , heres a birth certificate go find yourself.

LisaRose

It's a very valid comparison. When every decision is made for you and you are not allowed to develop your own personality, make your own mistakes and pursue your own dreams, it keeps you from growing and developing as a person. When every problem has a simplistic solution (pray, study, meetings, service) you don't learn to develop your own problem solving skills. In a way your life was stolen from you.

You will never get those years back, all you can do is take what lessons you have learned and apply them to the life you have now. As horrible as some of my experiences were, it did ultimately make me a stronger person, and I have used those strengths to build a better life. Just being able to see through the lies get up the courage to leave is an act of remarkable personal growth and a good start on becoming a whole person again.

22

A big thanks to all you good good people

by aboveusonlysky in

jw
friends

"when the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies" jefferson airplane.

until that is you find websites like this!

i want to say a big thank you to all of you for everything i've learned here, as well as jwfacts, jwsurvey, coc, isocf etc.. i'm a born in and i spent more than two decades of my adult life in full time 'service' for the (b)org.

LisaRose

Welcome!

I am glad you found us and woke up.

Lisa🌹

13

Awake no.3 praises Dr. Semmelweiss for discovering disease-causing germs

by Anders Andersen in

in awake!

3 2016, an article on dr. semmelweis states:.

semmelweis was eventually recognized as one of the fathers of the modern antiseptic technique.

LisaRose

Lots of JWs are taken in by medical quackery because it requires the same kind of thinking , so it's not surprising that the Watchtower published nonsense like this, just like they didn't believe in vaccines at one point and still do not accept blood transfusions.

The Watchtower teaches that mainstream religions are corrupt and that religious leaders are lying to you and keeping you from a better religion. They look down on any religious education, don't have trained clergy and believe only they have the answers.

Many who promote fringe alternative medicine believe mainstream medical is corrupt and that doctors and big pharmaceutical are deliberately lying to keep you sick and prevent you from finding better therapies. They look down on medical research, consult untrained or poorly practitioners who say they have all the answers.

In both cases there may be a kernel of truth to some of their thinking (big pharmaceutical does sometimes put profit ahead of patients, some religious leaders are corrupt) but they blow the issues out of proportion and blindly accept the alternative without questioning. In both cases people are fooled because they lack critical thinking skills, they accept these ideas because they intuitively feel right to them and they don't stop to question the faulty logic.

72

Waking up - introduction

by Dreamerdude in

i am a male, born into the jw cult(ure), baptized as a teen, now mid fifties.

most of my life i dreamed of hugging pandas and lions, punctuated at times by nightmares of armageddon or jw drama and politics.

still going through the motions for still-in wife.

LisaRose

Welcome dreamer dude.

Good to hear the tight pants Tony rant woke you up, there was a lot of speculation at the time that it would have that effect.

Good luck on waking your wife, it is possible, though no easy thing.

Lisa 🌹

34

Would we exist if Adam and Eve didn't sin?

by truth doubter in

my son asked me 40 years ago.

should we be glad adam sinned?

because if he hadn't, we would not be the person we are.. any opinions?

LisaRose

There are a million variables that resulted in each of us becoming who we are, change any of them and you wouldn't be you, you might not exist at all, we are all just accidents really. There is even a term for the idea that minor changes can result in a chain of events that can cause big impacts, the Butterfly Effect.

I don't believe in Adam and Eve, but by mapping the human genome we know that humans carry some Neanderthal DNA. We may all have increased immunity from the Neanderthals, but also may have inherited some genetic defects. So the question could be, what would we be like if we had no Neanderthal DNA? Would we be better off or worse off? Maybe if we didn't have that Neanderthal DNA the Spanish Influenza of 1918 would have wiped out the entire population of the earth, not just a good chunk of it.

Impossible to say, but interesting to think about.

19

Everyone is Equal in God's Loving Organization

by new boy in

jw
friends

they said we are all the same in god’s eyes.

that everyone is equal.

to prove this they call everyone “brother and sister.” sadly, this really isn’t the case.

LisaRose

I remember arriving early to the memorial only to be told that I could not park in the lot, they were "saving it for new people and visitors". It was puzzling because it was a really big lot, how many visitors could there be? I was by myself and had to walk in the dark back to my car afrerwards carrying a sleeping toddler, I slipped and fell, hurting my knee. I noticed as I was leaving that many elders had parked in the lot.

I guess some people are more equal than others.

16

Trump or Contested Convention?

by Coded Logic in

for those of us who are hillary and bernie fans, which is the better outcome - to have donald trump as the republican's nomination whose unpopular with most americans?

or are we better off watching the chaos of a contested convention and the party eventually putting up someone weak like john kasic or jeb bush?

LisaRose

I think Hilary is more likely to win against Trump, but I believe she will win against Cruz also and I think a Republican contested convention would be vastly entertaining, so I am kind of hoping for that. I just have this mental picture of Donald having a meltdown, laying on the floor with his shellac blond pouf and orange face, kicking and pounding his fists and screaming how unfair everyone is being.