once upon a time i started a thread who is your favorite thinker and got many responses.
however revisiting that thread i noted we were to modest to name ourselves or fellow posters.
i therefore think we are either complete idiots, or modesty aside we should now name names, and restrict our answers to posters on the board.. so who on this board is your favorite thinker and why?.
I love so many thinkers here. But sticking to one, I will go with one that best fits the subject matter. When it comes to understanding all things JW, and getting that the only thing that matters in doctrine is what is written in the Watchtower articles, then the lady who finds those things is Blondie.
Barbara Anderson also understands all things JW very well and has excellent thinking on the subject.
I won't go on and on but there are tons of good debaters here.
i was raised as a jw and 1975 expectations were pretty intense.
as i recall, most people did not leave after the failed expectations but many s l o w e d down.
now, i think most of the 1975 witnesses are gone or barely in.. is the older generation still around in the kingdom halls or are they much gone?.
My mother is still an active JW. But she seems to be at a point where, even though she is very familiar with the doctrine, she is discouraged to even attempt to recruit people.
a quick summary of my situation: i have known ttatt since at least 2010. my wife and teenage son are still in.
i only mention that because it is relevant in this situation.
you can see some of my previous posts for additional details.
Thanks for the update. Hope all goes well with the boy (and with you).
a quick summary of my situation: i have known ttatt since at least 2010. my wife and teenage son are still in.
i only mention that because it is relevant in this situation.
you can see some of my previous posts for additional details.
Well, if some of the advice is beyond your desires to follow, at least consider- if you can't talk to him in private, talk to him openly in front of her. Say what needs to be said.
What's she going to do? - stop having sex with you?
warning of a long boring post ahead.
i feel like i need to vent my story out, as i feel quite helpless at the moment.. i'm 31 year old, married, father of toddler with another one on the way, due later this month.
i've been serving as elder for about 4 years now in a south florida congregation.
Thanks for the update, Sanchy. If you can get to it this year, enjoy your first Christmas.
i'm wondering why believers remain members of this forum which is clearly hostile to believers.
as one member said, nonbelievers pounce on any semblance of belief like piranhas on prey.
as former jws we should have had our fill of judgmental know-it-alls, but here we are.
Oh, I could add- Believer, aren't you just the reincarnation of some old poster who was over the top as a believer and got banned from this forum? You know, as if they were waving "it" around too much.
i'm wondering why believers remain members of this forum which is clearly hostile to believers.
as one member said, nonbelievers pounce on any semblance of belief like piranhas on prey.
as former jws we should have had our fill of judgmental know-it-alls, but here we are.
I'm wondering why believers remain members of this forum which is clearly hostile to believers.
Once again, I find one of these threads when there's just so many pages. So I will just go right to answering the first post.
If you keep your penis in your pants, nobody is "hostile" to you. If you take it out in public and wave it around, the reaction you receive will seem "hostile" to you. That's what many believers do with their beliefs- take it out in public and wave it around, then act surprised when people react negatively to their beliefs.
Let me answer for Perry, clearly a believer. He posts stuff here about his undying devotion to Christianity and he scoffs at evolution and science. His main reason is not to convert us, but for us to convert him. He knows he went so far in getting out of the Jehovah's Witnesses and their false beliefs, but that he stops short of fully waking up to the facts about the Bible and Christianity. So he provokes arguments in the hopes that someone will finally say something to allow him to shake his faith. (Faith being defined as pretending to know something that you really don't know)
I am confident that this will prove to be true with "Believer" also.
so it has been a couple of months since me and my family have attended a meeting.
we have received a few calls and visits.
but what do you say when people ask "where have you been"?
To "drift away" you still have to make some kind of statements here and there. You can say "I don't wish to discuss it." You can say "Thanks for your encouragement." You can give the impression that you will be back soon (and then don't be back soon) or give the impression that you will not be back soon.
I pushed back a bit more and said "I have doubts I need to work out." I scared the body of elders enough with that type of talk that they wanted to avoid me. That won't typically work for others. But you never know. Now, you can say how you read about the Australian Royal Commission or that you have to meditate upon overlapping generations or even how the Governing Body asks us to obey directions without questioning them. You can say you have been disturbed ever since "they" took congregation funds away yet ceased the worldwide building.
Many who fade away simply say "We are fine, we know how to reach you if we need to." That's a non-answer that indicates you probably won't be back soon.
jesus taught that we must die unto ourselves, and allow the holy spirit to take up residence within us.
some people get saved by simply inviting jesus into their hearts, to be the lord of their life.
this serves as a countering force within the born-again christian to counterbalance the will of the flesh, which is still unsaved in this life and destined for destruction in imitation of our lord himself.. attempting to live the christian life without having this spirit within you is a waste of time at the minimum, and dangerous on the downside.
An interpretation of the fictional account of Jesus says that he "taught that we must die unto ourselves, and allow the Holy Spirit to take up residence within us."
People fool themselves into believing that they "get saved by simply inviting Jesus into their hearts, to be the lord of their life." They allow ancient fiction to dictate their morality as they think obedience to ancient fiction is "a countering force within" them "to counterbalance the will of the flesh." You know- normal desires of normal people.
To ensure that Christian churches maintain membership and monetary gain, the churches of various beliefs have this in common- They teach that:
Attempting to live the Christian life without having this spirit within you is a waste of time at the minimum, and dangerous on the downside.
Most folks would agree that the New Testament claims that the resurrection of Jesus is "a well attested fact of history," and that most Christians accept it without a shred of proof.
i’ve been reading it for a few of years off and on, but have been a little too ... maybe ... timid to join.
i left the watchtower organization almost 20 years ago but never abandoned my faith and belief in god.
i knew the gb/organization didn’t represent god, so when i lost my faith in them, i managed to keep my faith in an all wise benevolent creator.
I have only read the opening post, so I don't know how this thread has probably morphed into some kind of huge argument about beliefs and logic and all that.
I will say that the reason "the Watchtower organization simply churns out atheists" is that so many start proper research into the flawed doctrine and keep going beyond dismissing Watchtower. They get to a point where they can, just as a JW dismisses Islam or Buddhism, dismiss the flood and the young earth and, somehow they discover that science is more correct than blind faith.
I must say that even if you are sure that a "God" is "the only logical explanation for why we are here," have you defaulted to the "God" of Christianity? Why? Why do you say "He" is "an all wise benevolent Creator" ? Are you ready to defend that in the face of birth defects, tsunamis, earthquakes, mass killings?
And I believe in God because God is the only concept that opens the possibility of more life after our physical bodies no longer work for us. I can’t subscribe to the idea that this life is all there is.
I just want to say on that subject, the truth is the truth no matter what we can or cannot subscribe to. The limitations or hopes of your beliefs does not dictate what reality really is. No more on that.
So as a believer, is the Bible literal? Did we evolve or were we created in the Garden? Was there a flood so many thousands of years ago despite science screaming how many ways that it could not have been?
