OnTheWayOut

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Posts by OnTheWayOut

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  40

  Wife is Awake

  by freemindfade in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  following the news of stuckinarut2, over the past few months my wife has completely mentally woken up.

  i've been meaning to post but haven't had the time.

  i saw stuckins post and i figured i'd add my news too.

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  OnTheWayOut

  
  
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  63

  Life is changing for me: no pioneering, got a job!

  by Skepsis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a month ago i decided to register in this board.

  i had decided to step down pioneering but was frightened about the consequences.

  i had finished my university degree some months before (despite disaproval from brothers in my congregation) and i had to choose: continue pioneering and working in jobs with no future or starting a career, working full-time.. i was thinking to postpone the decisiton but... i was fed up with preaching.

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  OnTheWayOut

  Hey, great that you have a career-oriented future. Congratulations on leaving pioneering.

  If it were me where you are now, I would tell the brothers that so many well-intentioned people have said such negative things about my resigning that I insist that I can no longer be an MS....then refuse to remain no matter what they say.
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  35

  How long did people like Methuselah really live?

  by dubstepped in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i was working today and my brain was working in circles like it often does and i started wondering about what i was always told about people like methuselah in bible times, and their incredibly claims of longevity.

  i've tried researching things but have a hard time getting through all of the bible thumpers to some real evidence, and figured that some here may be more informed or have done the research previously.

  so, did people really live longer way back when?

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  OnTheWayOut

  I believe that the writer of Genesis tried to bolster the thought found in Psalm 90:10 (both Genesis and that Psalm alledged to be written by Moses who supposedly lived over 120 years) that our lives can only reach 70 to 80 years unless God blessed us with extra life. And then the writer shows that God did that for the men of their fictional history. That way, such men could be viewed as "larger than life." But because it was fiction that could not be matched in the days of the reader, those lives were shown to be getting shorter and shorter.

  There is no way the stories are based on real people counting years in a different manner. Everyone knows what a year is- going thru one summer and one winter, or going from one fall harvest to the next fall harvest.
  
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  123

  Why do some Jehovah's Witnesses choose to be atheist or agnostic?

  by Cassaruby in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  "traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .

  .. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .

  from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.

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  OnTheWayOut

  I haven't read the other answers, but I can say that I did not choose to be an atheist like one might choose the beef over the chicken at a restaurant.

  Jehovah's Witnesses were wrong. I finally figured that out via investigation. I did not stop investigating until I figured out that the Bible was wrong also. That led to so much more until it was inescapable to realize that none of the gods of man's beliefs exist.

  Jehovah's Witnesses were taught to reject mythologies, so many ex-JW's are just doing that.
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  14

  elders are leaving me alone. what to make of this?

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am a born in that goes back to the 1960's i am in a very zealous congregation with super dub elders.

  i have been inactive for 3 years and only go to about 2 meetings a month.

  i made my displeasure known about the overlapping generation b.s.

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  OnTheWayOut

  You do what you need to un your situation, but I managed a complete fade with no contact from the elders in something like 8 years, and that is with absolutely no meeting attendance while my wife is still very active.

  My point is, they still see you, they still assume you are a loyal (but douting) minion. And as mentioned, they have no good answers for you. I suppose luck plays in most cases whether the elders let someone leave in peace or not, but to see if you are lucky, you might try dropping the twice-a-month meetings.
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  5

  The pen is sharper than the sword.

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  and when as a family we celebrated my first ex j.w birthday, my sons present to me was a " pen".

  that pen i am now searching for.

  i had it 2 hours ago and for the hundredth time i have lost it again, but i always find it.

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  OnTheWayOut

  I celebrated birthdays before becoming a JW, but my first ex-JW birthday was special, too.

  In my family, only my dad and his wife (never JW) were aware of my fade that year. They sent me a sweatshirt. It could have been a rock and it still would have been the best ever. I had my birthday back.
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  32

  Irregular to meetings, can I partake in memorial?

  by Squekylive in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hi friends .

  i don't believe in jw doctrines anymore but because of family i have to be a jw for now.. i am not regular to meetings, and don't answer in meeting, but i report some hours so i remain as active jw now.. .

  congregation knows that i am not spiritual and i don't talk to people and i don't care what they think about me.. now, i believe it's important to observe lord's supper as a christian as per john 6:53, so in the coming memorial if i attend i want to partake in the communion,.. i believe it is a sin to pass the bread and wine inspite of knowing it's flesh and blood of jesus.. it's like rejecting jesus.. so i want to partake.. but i dont consider i am anointed etc.

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  OnTheWayOut

  You have to be a JW for now???????

  You believe it is a sin to pass the bread and wine???????

  Okay. Answering the best I can while taking your thoughts into consideration:
  You are only there for family apparently. You do not believe their nonsense. So consider their entire Memorial as invalid and do not partake. You are only skipping an invalid observance.

  If you must insist that passing on the bread and wine is a sin, then make sure you are not in the seats during both parts. Go to the washroom or just stand in the back. When offered the glass or the plate, don't even touch it, just shake your head no. You have not passed. You just did not participate in their invalid observance. Even better would be to be seen at the beginning of the meeting and then slip out the door and go home before the passing of emblems. If you must be a JW, JW's will see you in attendance. Then you were covered. Or tell your people that you went to a different Memorial- and don't mention that you slipped out the door.

  So many options beyond partaking and being labeled for that. Because if you must be a JW for someone else, partaking when that someone else thinks you should not- that is not helping your cause.
  
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  201

  I am glad to have found the true religion

  by A Believer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it really is great.

  i remember browsing this forum the day after i had joined it, and their was a knock on the door.

  i thought it was one of my package from ups but instead it was two sisters.

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  OnTheWayOut

  Either you believe in coincidences or you accept that when it comes to pedophiles among the brothers, "Clearly Jehovahs angels sent them" or at least have no interest in protecting those children from them.
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  53

  My Dad wants to study with me

  by BlackWolf in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so my parents continue to pester me about getting baptized.

  the other day my dad told me that i was old enough to make a decision, and was wondering why i wasn't ready (assembly is in a few weeks) so i told him calmly that i have many doubts and if i were to get baptized it has to be 100 percent my idea.

  he was a little annoyed by this, and now wants to study the "is there a creator that cares about you" book (which is complete bs) with me.

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  OnTheWayOut

  Your dad should want to study with you if he is a good minion JW. But I would say it it time to show him quite a bit of your problem with blind obedience. As "Never a JW" says on page 1, always prepare tough questions in advance.

  You know you should not get baptized. There has to be a rough period preceding your eventual cessation of JW stuff. Help him get used to the idea.
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  19

  My Thoughts on the Subject of Faith

  by Saethydd in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've had several discussion about the basis for faith in an all powerful creator for the universe, and it seems as if the conversation often comes back to, "well, either way, you have to have faith either in a creator or in the process of evolution because you can't observe that either.

  " setting aside the issue of creation and evolution (where i currently sit at undecided), i was also troubled by the tendency to treat faith as a static or absolute concept when in reality it is far more complex.. to begin with, faith isn't just about belief, it combines the concepts of belief and trust.

  for the purposes of this discussion, i will be focusing primarily on the second attribute.

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  OnTheWayOut

  I no longer allow the thoughts on "faith in people" that leads to trust to enter into the debate with me on "religious faith."

  They are just not the same thing. Faith is confidence or trust in someone or something.

  Faith in your spouse or your mother, faith in your best friend- all based on a track record. You don't have faith in your spouse if you know they are a lying cheater. Faith that (from our point of view) the sun will rise tomorrow is based on knowing a bit about how that happens everyday so the odds on it happening again tomorrow are pretty strong.

  Religion has stolen that word, faith, and made it a virtue when applying it their way. Their way is not based on a track record. Religious faith is "pretending to know what you do not know." Or to put it milder, religious faith is believing something in the absence of, or even in contradiction to evidence, while non-religious faith is built upon evidence.

  Most religious faith is a pretending in the existence of a convenient and satisfying version of the universe which suits the faithful one's desire to live forever in one way or another.