Posts by LisaRose

45

Does Jehovah Intervene - JW Teaching

by thedepressedsoul in

i have been a jw my whole life and i have never been able to get a clear answer on this question.

jw's do not believe that jehovah will intervene if someone is sick, dying or stopping a car crash.

they feel that jehovah is letting "this world" play out before he solves all of these problems.

LisaRose

It's called confirmation bias, the tendency to look for and accept information that confirms our belief. From Wikipedia:

Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities

These people who think Jehovah gave them that extra five dollars for gas money to go out in service also no doubt had times when money didn't magically appear as needed, but they only remember the time it did, because it confirmed their belief.

25

Thanks GOD JW's don't have Beauty Pageants

by James Mixon in

i can see it now, we are the most beautiful and smartest people in the world.. steve harvey will never be the host of another beauty pageant.

lol.

i was thinking, don't you think it's time for our society to move on from beauty pageants?.

LisaRose

No, there is no large audience for child beauty pageants, the audience is comprised of the parents of the contestants, the whole thing is paid for by the entry fees. It's really pathetic. And practically everyone gets a trophy and a tiara, and a title, nobody wants to pay that much money and not have something to show for it, so it becomes kind of meaningless unless you are the super super ultimate grand supreme champion princess of the world.

And yes, it's time we did away with them. They are silly, like some sexist left over of the fifties. Little girls should not be taught that they are only valued for their looks and ability to entertain others.

38

Why do animals suffer?

by nicolaou in

bonnie is fourteen years old now and she's still fit and active, but she sleeps (and farts) a lot more and is definitely slowing down.. she loves us in her own dumb way and always comes to the door to greet me when i get home from work.

she doesn't 'sin' but yeah, she'll steal biscuits and feel shame afterwards.

she's loyal and intelligent and i dread the day when .

LisaRose

My cat usually prefers women also, although she is gradually becoming more comfortable with my husband. She now sometimes prefers his lap. She was a shelter kitty, I think her previous owner beat her with the newspaper, three years later she still flinches when you turn the page, even though we have never done that, it's like a form of PTSD. She also has a problem with being shut up in a room, or if we go outside in the yard and leave her in the house. In either case she will go ballistic, climbing the curtains and knocking things over, she has ripped the fabric and broken the rods. She has very strong opinions on things.

25

Thanks GOD JW's don't have Beauty Pageants

by James Mixon in

i can see it now, we are the most beautiful and smartest people in the world.. steve harvey will never be the host of another beauty pageant.

lol.

i was thinking, don't you think it's time for our society to move on from beauty pageants?.

LisaRose

If you watch an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras you will learn everything you need to about child beauty pageants, and yes, they are horrid. These parents will spend huge sums of money on costumes and entry fees so that their little darlings can compete in pageants. The parents are obviously living vicariously through the accomplishments of their children and are overly dependent on their child winning.The mothers will do anything so that their child can win, they give the girls spray tans, fake teeth, fake hair, fake eyelashes and costumes costing hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

Many of the girls act like spoiled brats, they know their mother will let them do anything as long as they perform. Pretty jealousies and fueds are common among the mothers, and some of them have a melt down if their child doesn't do as well as they hoped. Some of these parents are barely making ends meet, but will spend enough money to have put their child through college, in the end all they have to show for it is a room full of trophies and Tiaras.

I would love to see a follow-up in ten years to see how these girls end up.

38

Why do animals suffer?

by nicolaou in

bonnie is fourteen years old now and she's still fit and active, but she sleeps (and farts) a lot more and is definitely slowing down.. she loves us in her own dumb way and always comes to the door to greet me when i get home from work.

she doesn't 'sin' but yeah, she'll steal biscuits and feel shame afterwards.

she's loyal and intelligent and i dread the day when .

LisaRose

I just found this great collection of funny and heartwarming animal videos

http://www.pawmygosh.com

30

People keep sending me messages saying "what happened?"

by slimboyfat in

jw
friends

i am sorry i haven't replied and if it seems rude.

but people keep asking me what happened and i am not sure what to say.

thanks for writing anyway.

LisaRose

Well I am glad you are back, no matter the reason. We all say things we wish we hadn't from time to time, so don't worry about it. One of the reasons for this board is help and support, so sometimes part of that is being willing to overlook the occasional mistake, or at least that the way I think it should be, we are all only human after all.

4

Waking up with unsung songs...

by Tempest in a Teacup in

jw
friends

...trying hard not to forget them .

...not knowing how to write them down because i don't know musical notes .... ...postponing recording them .

...ending up forgetting them.

LisaRose

Have you considered learning how to read musical notes? It's a shame to not take advantage of such a gift.

40

What was your ''the last straw that broke the camels back'' moment

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

there is a limit to how much straw (long yellow grass) a camel can carry on its back.

if you keep putting more straw on top, it will finally break the camel's back.

when you are at the last straw you are finally angry and will not take any more.. my moment (to stop attending all watchtower meetings) was after the harsh treatment from the elders and fellow congregation members of my second cousin who was disfellowhipped as a teenager.

LisaRose

I remember thinking the same thing about that illustration, there they are, the holy governing body, just slightly lower than God, while Jesus is no where to be seen. How dare they elevate themselves to such an exalted status? There are just men who put their pants on one leg at a time, just like anyone else. They defend their failed date predictions and doctrine flip flops by saying they are just imperfect humans, but turn around and present themselves as God like beings who must be obeyed no matter what. They make me sick.

10

My experience with some ex-JW Christians

by opusdei1972 in

currently i can accept the existence of "god" if you say that "god" is a superior rational being.

i support the idea for the existence of superior beings living in other places.

it means to me that we, humans, are not the superior ones in the universe.

LisaRose

For me, losing my faith in the JW religion ultimately caused me to lose faith in God, although it took me a number of years to complete the process. Once you start questioning most of what you so ardently preached at one time, how do you stop at just the religion? Why would you? I felt I had to to look at everything, not just the Watchtower doctrine, and when you look at belief in God with the same critical thinking skills you used to determine the Watchtower was false I believe you can only conclude that belief in God is just as false.

I am not anti religion, as I believe it does fill a need for some people, and not all religions are as bad as the JWs, so it's fine by me if someone believes. But all major religions teach things that contradict known facts about science and the world, so don't pretend there is any logical, rational reason to believe in God, because there isn't. I look at posts by people who switch from the Watchtower to another fundamental, conservative religion and I wonder why they bothered to leave the Watchtower in the first place.

However, some of them became very aggressive against me. One of them, after leaving the Watchtower Society went to a divinity school to learn Christian theology. This guy was one of the most aggressive, which means that his Witness fanaticism remained in him. He thought that his Bible knowledge learnt from that divinity school turned him a superior Bible interpreter. In fact, what I realized is that those theological schools are schools of quackery, where you have to learn sophisms to defend the Bible contradictions.

I am currently reading a book about the Clergy Project. It's a program to help those clergy who have lost their faith in God. Some of what they go through is similar to leaving a cult like the JWs. They have a lot invested in their profession and most every one they know is of their faith. It can be very isolating and there can be a lot of criticism from the church hierarchy. Like any organization there is considerable pressure to maintain the status quo and hostility when they don't back down. Of course theological schools are full of quackery, how else do they convince otherwise intelligent adults to believe in fairy tales and teach them to others? But I think they are having a harder time of it these days.

38

Why do animals suffer?

by nicolaou in

bonnie is fourteen years old now and she's still fit and active, but she sleeps (and farts) a lot more and is definitely slowing down.. she loves us in her own dumb way and always comes to the door to greet me when i get home from work.

she doesn't 'sin' but yeah, she'll steal biscuits and feel shame afterwards.

she's loyal and intelligent and i dread the day when .

LisaRose

I have lost two beloved pets to old age, a petite tuxedo cat named Cleo, who lived to 17 and a 100 pound husky/golden/german Shepard mix named Allie who lived to age 14. I had them both put to sleep when they began to suffer, I held them both in my arms while it was done, it's as close as you can get to a painless death, I just wish they did this for people in more places.

Yes, nature can be cruel, to pretend otherwise is to be naive, but usually that death is quick, it's only when people get involved that real suffering happens. I have no tolerance for those who would adopt a pet and not take responsibility for it, or worse, deliberately make an animal suffer.

My current cat is a bit of a hellion, she has been known to steal things and will wake us up with body slams if the food dish gets low, not pleasant at 6:00 am.. But I love her just a much as the others, if not more. She is wicked smart and quite the character and makes me laugh every day, I think she knows that is her job. If she isn't sneaking up behind me to smack me on the head she is waiting under the bed to grab my ankles. She also makes up games to play to keep herself entertained. I kept seeing her drape herself over the back of the chair and wiggle around. It took me a year to figure out she was trying to grab her tail from between the slats, lol. I have found her at the top of the stairs swinging things in her mouth to build up momentum then flinging them down the stairs to chase.