Posts by LisaRose

40

What Religious Trajectory Are The JWs Following?

by millie210 in

i was reading another thread and the comments got me thinking.... https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5656910430732288/pictures-tell-thousand-words.

comments such as oldskools: more like digital colonialism channeled through one of the weaker and less important institutions western society has to offer.. .

some have compared the orgs future path to the world wide church of gods.

LisaRose

I see two possible futures for any small cult like religion like the JWs. . Either they move away from the doomsday ideology and become more mainstream in order to grow or they become even more cult like and crazy, driving away people who cannot tolerate the more negative aspects.

It appears to me that the GB is moving towards becoming even more cult like. They could have dropped the generation teaching and stopped insisting Armageddon is happening any day but they did not. They could have dropped the shunning, but they have not. They could have quietly dropped the ban on blood transfusions but they have not. They attempt to appear more mainstream by the website and videos, but the content of the videos is anything but mainstream.

Other things that indicate they are moving towards tighter control and more cult like behavior.

Obsession with tight pants and the fear of homosexuals

Continuing to encourage, even demand baptism of minors

Bunker mentality (Videos of people hiding in basements during the great tribulation)

Elevating the governing body to godlike status

Selling off property and drastic cost cutting

I think they will soon be facing a drop in membership. This will be hard to stop given that they don't appear willing to compromise or drop unsustainable policies, instead focusing on fear and control.

18

Scary Dream

by freemamaof3 in

a little background- i faded in august 2015. ive got to small kids and one on the way.

i dont believe the jw cult nonsense anymore.. .

ok so last night i had the scariest dream.

LisaRose

I always had weird dreams when pregnant, I think that's normal.

I think it's also normal to have some fears about Armageddon, even when you know, at least intellectually, that it's not really true. Cult Mind Control doesn't go away just because you realize it's all a lie, that's why it's so hard to overcome. I am sure there are a lot of people that are fed up with religion but are still in because they think "what if it is true?" That little bit of doubt keeps them stuck, because people tend to fear a negative outcome more than they want a better life. You have gotten past that, but may still have some tiny doubt in one corner of your mind. It will eventually go away as time goes on.

17

Gorby wishes you a happy convention! (picture)

by Gorbatchov in

gorby has been offline from jwd for some weeks, and it made my situation not better, have had some serious problems with the fading, much pressure, i have nothing new to say, it must be very similar to the situation of many faders here.. so, i had so much pressure, that we have had to change our holiday booking so we are able to visit the convention, due to family reasons, you all know what i mean.. please wish me (and us) much luck for this summer.

it is not my best summer season in life.. this is how i feel:.

.

LisaRose

I feel for anyone that has to attend the convention. To give you all something to do I have prepared a Convention Buzz Word Bingo game for you. Just listen for the JW buzzword, check off the box and try to get five in a row.

https://bingobaker.com/view/735674

This bingo card has the words: Undeserved Kindness, Jehovah's Chariot, The Last Days, Self Sacrificing Spirit, The Great Tribulation, Faithful and Discrete Slave, Spiritual Paradise, System Of Things, Worldwide Work, Dis- fellowship, Wait on Jehovah, Satan The Devil, Bad Association, Headship, Bible Trained Conscience, Reaching Out, The Light is Getting Brighter, Independent Thinking, Living Provision, Mental Regulating, Unconditional Love, Weak in The Truth, Apostate, Pioneer

12

The bigger picture

by Freeandclear in

jw
friends

i've been awake now for a good while.

about a year.

in that year i've done a lot of soul searching and thinking about god and religion etc.... as i'm sure most all of us have who've left this cult.

LisaRose

So true. This moment in time, right now, is all you have, all you've ever had, all you will have. Living in the moment and making the most of it is the only route to happiness.

70

Witness Carts - A Vehicle for Significant Decline

by slimboyfat in

i was stalking to a jw today about her recent experience on the carts and with being a jw generally.

until this conversation i considered the carts as just an ineffective preaching method and a harmless waste of time.

but now i wonder if the effect of the carts might be to produce noticeable decline in jw numbers.

LisaRose

Going door to door you might be rejected by only two or three people in an hour but with cart witnessing you could be rejected by hundreds. People rush by, refusing to make eye contact, nobody shows interest, it has to be at least a little bit discouraging. I don't know how people can do it, it must feel like a big fat waste of time.

As they say, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

42

Feeling Sad After Uncovering TTATT

by pale.emperor in

my initial pangs of unease and doubt led me to research some things.

well, a lot of things really.

i've never felt comfortable using the bible to try to calculate dates (1914).

LisaRose

Welcome. I think most of us experienced something similar, it is a blow to find out everything you believed is a lie. It does get easier with time, although you are right that there is no acceptable path to leave, at least to those who still believe. Don't rush anything or feel you have to take a stand right away, give yourself the gift of time to get used to this. How you leave can have repercussions, so make sure it's on your terms, it's not dishonest to hide your true thoughts from those who would use them to hurt you. You have been deceived and lied to, so think of it as using their tactics to protect yourself.

There is no need to rush to replace this religion with another belief system, people have struggled with these questions for centuries, you don't need to have the answers right away. As time goes on things will get easier and you will get some clarity on how to move forward. When I first left I wasn't sure if this religion was "the truth" or not, or even if I believed in God, I just knew I couldn't do it any more. I just didn't think about it for a while and focused on putting one foot in front of the other and eventually things came together.

Good luck on your journey out of the darkness.

Lisa🌹

26

Will Bro. Rogers be DF'd posthumously for drug addiction?

by ShirleyW in

jw
friends

some have been df'd for suspicion of smoking cigarettes, yet bro.

rogers death is because of an addiction, fentanyl is what they are saying is the drug that did him in which was reported on the news as being more potent than heroine.

why is it that some nosy sister can report you because someone who looked like you was in the parking lot the same time as she was, yet bro.

LisaRose

Seriously, what do you expect they would do at this point? He overdosed on painkillers, it happens. Yes, they probably are giving him a pass because of his celebrity, but it's hard to disfellowship a dead person anyway, so who knows what would have happened if he had been a regular person? Do you honestly expect the Watchtower to bring more attention to his tragic death by saying anything at this point?

Whatever his demons were it's obvious the religion didn't help him any. Maybe he had been struggling with this and was afraid to say anything knowing how judgemental the elders would be. To me he is just another victim of the Watchtower.

114

Evidence for a Young Earth

by Perry in

for additional information:.

LisaRose

This is another article that discusses this issue. Basically what they are saying is that while soft tissue usually degrades in a certain number of years, in some cases , under some conditions it does not.

Bottom line: Soft tissue in fossils do not prove that the fossilization happened quickly, it just means that tissue does not degrade quickly in certain environments.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Soft_tissue_preservation

The common thread in this claim is the great irony of creationists dogmatically adhering to the results of lab studies using uniformitarianpreconceptions of processes lasting millions of years which nobody has directly observed.

114

Evidence for a Young Earth

by Perry in

for additional information:.

LisaRose

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/27/t-rex-soft-tissue-discovery_n_4349214.html

This is an article from the Huffington post. It discusses how they figured out what happened. It appears the iron in the blood preserved the tissue.

Dinosaurs’ iron-rich blood, combined with a good environment for fossilization, may explain the amazing existence of soft tissue from the Cretaceous (a period that lasted from about 65.5 million to 145.5 million years ago) and even earlier. The specimens Schweitzer works with, including skin, show evidence of excellent preservation. The bones of these various specimens are articulated, not scattered, suggesting they were buried quickly. They’re also buried in sandstone, which is porous and may wick away bacteria and reactive enzymes that would otherwise degrade the bone.

114

Evidence for a Young Earth

by Perry in

for additional information:.

LisaRose

I admit I went through your post too quickly and didn't really understand what you were getting at, in my defence it was a bit confusing. I understand now about fossils and tissue, see my answer above.

But you aren't reading my posts either. I have already said if you have a pile of calcium carbonate you can form stalagtites very quickly. The problem is that in limestone caves you don't have a pile of carbonate, it gets extracted slowly.