Posts by OnTheWayOut

87

Why people don't believe in God

by pressman in

do you want to know why i think people don't believe in god?

well i believe people don't want to believe in god because they are scared.

they know that if they finally do gorge the confidence to believe in him, he might discipline them for their skepticism.

OnTheWayOut

I don't even want to read past the opening post to reply. I want to give a fresh answer.

I truly wanted to believe in God because he gave meaning to my life. Many here used to believe and didn't leave because they were sinners afraid of Him. That's a bunch of malarkey.

But you convinced me to abandon atheism with a simple couple of sentences: Now I would like to invite everyone on this forum to wake up and open your eyes to see that God is true and real. For he is God the Lord. The creator and ruler of all. As the scrolls say: "But as ye God is trueth, our wordeth toward you was not yea and nay."

Of course, I don't mean it. Nice try. A call to wake me up and a scripture won't do it. Will a call to make you read some science books and a Richard Dawkins quote wake you up to atheism? NO? Too bad.

Your generalization is quite insulting and wrong. My disbelief has nothing to do with a rough childhood or a fear to admit there is something greater than me. God simply has to demonstrate clearly that He is there. He has to do this for me, not in some way that YOU say happened already.

I am sure you are afraid to admit God might not be there. You are afraid all your prayers and time spent on serving/worshipping/praying/etc. was just wasted and you might as well have been doing something else.

And are children born in Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist families just as "selfish" as atheists if they don't suddenly accept YOUR LORD as THEIR LORD?

I will tell you one thing about the God you are so sure is there. Go to a childrens hospital and find some 4 to 8 year old little girl with a terrible ailment caused by birth defects or some terrible disease. If the God you worship were there, He would prevent that ailment/disease in that innocent little girl. But He doesn't, because He cannot, because He's not there.

19

Thoughts on "Going Clear," the Scientology Documentary

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

i managed to find a copy of "going clear" on the internet.

i won't post a link because most are loaded with pop-ups and you have to be careful about accidental downloads.

mine was no exception, but i managed to keep the computer clean.

OnTheWayOut

Finklestein from page 1, we know all about people who "got overwhelmed in power, control and financial greed." Thanks again.

talesin, thanks for trying but your link doesn't work in the USA. Glad ya saw it.

fedup, I wholeheartedly agree. I tend to think that JW stuff is really really whacky. But the stuff that a JW doesn't know about the inner workings are whacko also- the two/thirds majority to decide what God thinks about something, retroactive rules on disfellowshipping to nail Ray Franz. How about when they taught that Jehovah lived in some particular region of the known universe? .....or virtually anything from their REVELATION GRAND CLIMAX book about events in the 20th century fulfilling some strange prophecy from Revelation that was concerning Jehovah's Witnesses?

talesin, I suppose they didn't touch Isaac Hayes because he is dead and there's just a bunch of hearsay.

daringhart13, those parallels are definite.

19

Article: Five JWs Deported from Bali for Conducting Door-to-Door Religious Ministry

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?id=11719.

dismantling the watchtower .

five jehovah witnesses deported from bali for conducting door-to-door religious ministry .

OnTheWayOut

It's already been said how JW's should wonder where the Holy Spirit and/or angels were for this.

It's already been said that they are lucky deportation was all they got. They were violating a law and I bet they knew it. I think there are different visas for tourists and for preachers. Bali probably doesn't issue the preacher visa.

42

she passed faithful to the end to them!

by jookbeard in

just found out (second hand of course) and by someone on here that my faithful jw mum passed away within the last couple of days, dont know the exact day, and what cause, she spent the last few years living with my fanatical sister, she was 65 and survived my father by 10 years, bitter, angry and hateful till the end and never as so much enquired or asked how her 2 grandchildren ever were , they are 5 and 7!

feeling a mixture of emotions right now, they were lousy parents in all honesty, she suffered health wise so maybe its for the best, dont even know when the funeral is!

OnTheWayOut

So sorry to read how you lost your mother to the cult and lost her recently in death and were not immediately informed.

4

SNAP calls out JW leadership over child abuse case

by defender of truth in

http://jehovahswitnessreport.com/court-actions/snap-calls-out-jw-leadership-over-child-abuse-case.

snap calls out jw leadership over child abuse case.

posted on april 3, 2015 by susannah.

OnTheWayOut

Costello could very well achieve his dismissal based on statues of limitation. It may seem like a fair compromise that the state has allowed this to go to so many years past eighteen, but it really isn't in my opinion. I could see reducing the reward because of decades of waiting, but it would seem better that a jury of people who are not legal experts could rule of statues of limitations. That way, they could consider why it took so long to file. Often, cult members are continually discouraged/intimidated long after reaching adulthood or they are so disturbed by what happened to them that it takes that long to get up the courage.

A jury would be able to see that, or judge that these people just waited until there was more money to be won.

Certainly, I could not be on that jury. I would award these kids.

19

Thoughts on "Going Clear," the Scientology Documentary

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

i managed to find a copy of "going clear" on the internet.

i won't post a link because most are loaded with pop-ups and you have to be careful about accidental downloads.

mine was no exception, but i managed to keep the computer clean.

OnTheWayOut

Bohm, your mentioned particular instances were in the flim. Thanks for more insight. Personally, I think Hubbard definitely knew it was all nonsense, but power may have gone to his head. Miscavige, I think he's like Rutherford in seizing power.

Tapioca, what a waste of years indeed. In Scientology, people with decades of faithful service could be tossed aside because of the whims of the leader on some new agenda.

Witness My Fury, take it in segments. I left it on the laptop and stopped it to do other things. Thanks for sharing.

Agape.Love, I have to agree on how it qualifies for a religion. Anyone reading this without having viewed the film should know that Scientology went to war with the IRS in the United States, digging up any kind of problems they could find in private investigations to make life difficult for the people at IRS, and they ended the war by having IRS cave in to them, calling the Scientology dogs off by declaring Scientology a tax-exempt religion and wiping out a billion dollars in back taxes. John Travolta seems just like any of us who were caught by a cult while naive and now doesn't know how to make changes, so just keeps his mouth shut. They've really played with Tom Cruise's mind. I feel just as sorry for him- a highly active victim of a cult.

OneEyedJoe, thanks for that. I am confident that my JW wife (and many other JW's) would blank out on the important similarities and just focus on the serious differences between the cults. Sorry to hear your future prediction.

Finkelstein, that was just as I saw it also.

Violias, thanks for the link for anyone hoping to catch it.

19

Thoughts on "Going Clear," the Scientology Documentary

by OnTheWayOut in

jw
friends

i managed to find a copy of "going clear" on the internet.

i won't post a link because most are loaded with pop-ups and you have to be careful about accidental downloads.

mine was no exception, but i managed to keep the computer clean.

OnTheWayOut

I managed to find a copy of "Going Clear" on the internet. I won't post a link because most are loaded with pop-ups and you have to be careful about accidental downloads. Mine was no exception, but I managed to keep the computer clean. It was a link from putlocker, so they are out there now. Just be careful. If I could have found a trusted link that just charged a couple bucks, I would have paid it.

Anyway, people really need to understand that when someone is sucked into a dangerous mind-control cult, they are not exposed to all the information that would cause an intelligent person to avoid the group. Scientology doesn't tell new members about the Zenu and the spaceships dropping creatures into volcanoes and all that nonsense. You have to be intertwined with the life and the lies before you can learn that garbage.

I think it is highly possible that John Travolta is just keeping quiet because of all the things they know about him.

I say these things because I have heard over the years, many comments about being too intelligent to become a JW and how my coworkers or family members would never have gotten suckered into the Jehovah's Witnesses (or other cults). I could similarly say I would never have been suckered into Scientology because of all their weird doctrines, but I know better. When some group offers you all the answers to all the questions and/or all the solutions to all your problems, you might apply the old saying "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." JW's did that for me. Scientology did that for many of it's members.

The best usable quote from the documentary, in my opinion, was:

"People are so indoctrinated and have been in Scientology a really long long time or they've grown up in it, they don't know anything else. It's so scary to them to have to start all over, and it takes a really strong person to stand up to them and say NO !"

The same woman, Sara, who makes the above statement near the end of the show also presents the saddest moment. In her turmoil over the church, her adult daughter, with a family and a daughter of her own, says to Sara, "Mom, I love you but I have to disconnect from you." That would be the equivalent to JW shunning.

A guy named Tom, 10 minutes from the end says, "When you're out, you look at it and go 'WHAT THE....CRAP WAS I THINKING?'" He indicates that it is easy to see the problem with it, but only from the outside.

At the very end, they mention that membership is way down to 50 thousand people but that church assets (worldwide properties) are valued at over 3 Billion Dollars. The documentary seems to indicate that they don't really need to recruit or retain members anymore because they have what they want- money. I actually look forward to the day when Jehovah's Witnesses don't try to retain members and all they want to do is run away with the money. While I might not like that outcome, I would gladly settle for "the leaders" taking the money and running away without the people.

Overall, I would say that I have heard virtually everything about Scientology said in this work, except for the personal stories and the information about celebrities. That is because I have a vested interest in learning about cults. But in this heavily talked about new release, the putting together of all the information AND THE CELEBRITY STUFF is many nails in the coffin of this dangerous cult. I gotta believe this will seriously hurt their membership drives and retention and their pockets.

12

The witnesses got away with covering up another molestation case

by recovering in

http://www.webpronews.com/jehovahs-witnesses-get-only-partial-dismissal-in-child-molesting-case-2015-04.

i find it extremely interesting the comment of one of the posters who is studying with the witnesses.. frank j karasienski 3 days ago .

individuals are flawed..... looking at this article it really makes it look like an organization is hiding the situation.

OnTheWayOut

I don't know specific details for this (or any individual) circumstance, but lawyers for pedophile victims are not saying that a particular religion has failed because it hasn't done background checks on "members" before allowing them into the group. They are saying that the organization was aware of the guilt or accusations against members and withheld that information from other members, so that the organization contributed to the unsafe condition in a very problematic way.

Why is it that Jehovah's Witnesses can see the problem with the Catholic Church knowing about problems with priests, but the same JW's can give their own organization a free pass in similar circumstances?

80

In a nutshell, what is the wackiest jw thing?

by stuckinarut2 in

what is the wackiest...strangest....most unusual jw teaching or practice?

OnTheWayOut

I would like to say the blood issue or shunning or their non-action/non-reporting of crimes because of the two-witness rule. I would like to say one of those because they have done so much harm to so many victims.

But the greatest harm has come from their ever-changing "generation." All JW's and those who care about JW's are held victim to a group that thinks the end is so ever imminent because of the "generation." For so many Witnesses, the end was coming when "generation" meant one thing. They string those members along now because they don't want to be faithful for so long and then lose faith right as "generation" changes but still may indicate the end is near.

You could also skip using any official definition of "generation" or any doctrine and just say the wackiest JW thing is that they have been and still are a Doomsday Cult.

15

I've decided to officially disassociate myself

by Garrett in

jw
friends

hey guys, .

i just wanted to thank you all for all of your input, support and help over the past few months.

i've decided to officially disassociate myself from the organization and move on with my life.

OnTheWayOut

Congratulations are in order.

We may all differ in what we would do, but I think most of us agree that moving forward is of utmost importance, so your decisions will definitely do that for you. You are still young, so go ahead and put this JW stuff in your rear-view mirror. Good luck.