humbled

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Posts by humbled

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  35

  I'm going back.

  by dazed but not confused in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  to hawaii!!

  what were you thinking?.

  ive been to the big island twice when i was a 11 and 13. my sister lived there and flew me out.

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  humbled

  Not nice--I didn't have my coffee yet.

  Hawaii!
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  19

  Finally free of JWs!

  by Julia Orwell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we moved house and no active jw knows we live there.

  it's in another congregation territory too so when they finally come knocking, they won't know i'm a dirty apostate when i tell them to put me on the do not call list.

  problem is, the local discount supermarket across the highway is frequented by jws from my previous previous congregation!.

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  humbled

  Your story from long time back til now has made me feel sort of ...happy. Lots of tough obstacles. I like thinking of you and your husband in your house, you home, Julia.

  It is great to here your life is going over around and through the obstacles. Home.

  You sound so happy. I'm glad for you and your husband--and Birds?

  Maeve

  w

  thanks
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  55

  A medieval question for you, if you believe in god....

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many ancient believers of god used cognition to 'think' their way from belief to atheism.

  what initially seems a silly question to reason over, can actually destroy a whole theology.. here is a question made famous by 'saint' thomas aquinas, believers in a almighty god with unlimited ability, please have a think about this..... the omnipotence paradox:.

  "could an omnipotent being create a stone so heavy that even he could not lift it?

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  humbled

  It is a mind game to no purpose if WE are the ones posing such questions--"can God make something that is entirely white and entirely black?"

  But the Christian religion has invented a God whose story demands we entertain this non-sense. They creat this nutty scenarios.

  The story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac is a gross violation of three key biblical restrictions God put on himself: He can't lie, He never tries/tempts us with evil, and the sacrificial burning of humans as worship is abhorrent to Him.

  But we have to read Genesis 22 and believe that god didn't lie, tempt his friend with an evil that he condemns. The all loving, all knowing , all powerful god.

  I grant that believers don't discuss this stuff to examine their faith. Theologians spin ever more tangled webs to hold us--prwtty much expecting us to belief black is white---or to say "He could make a thing all black and all white at the same time--if he wants to. He's God."

  Love is what gets god in trouble. He has all that power--he got rid of Mary's ability to sin from the get-go (according to the Immaculate Conception), so why didn't do that for Eve? for us?

  Christianity made these impossible claims, posed these dilemmas,told these cock-and-bull stories. We didn't.
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  55

  A medieval question for you, if you believe in god....

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many ancient believers of god used cognition to 'think' their way from belief to atheism.

  what initially seems a silly question to reason over, can actually destroy a whole theology.. here is a question made famous by 'saint' thomas aquinas, believers in a almighty god with unlimited ability, please have a think about this..... the omnipotence paradox:.

  "could an omnipotent being create a stone so heavy that even he could not lift it?

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  humbled

  HotDamn ! mebbie the Jesuits will take me now that I got some stuff figured out!

  But seriously.

  It takes a long time to unwind from deep, long indoctrination.

  I was raised Catholic before I up/down-graded to the Organization. (7 children show how indoctrinated a Catholic I was) I am grateful for the large (cofty's) and strange-seeming(like this one, snare) questions that have made me pull back from the trees to discover what forest I am really in .

  I think there is plenty of meat left to pick on this bone, snare. At least for me. I talked to my husband about it--this thread that is. He has wonder how a person such as myself could have been so deluded by a religion like the JWs for so long--I told him --hey-Thomas A. studied Aristotle and all those folk were spinning webs long before I was born. It is hard to get free.

  I would so like to know what Thomas A. was thinking when he said of his theological writing "It is all straw". He died not long after.
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  54

  Hello, I am new

  by LillyC in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am not a jehovah's witness but i am very interested, i have many questions and hope they can be answered here.. i do believe in god, privately.

  i do say my prayers daily and do believe god helps me in countless ways.

  but i don't go to any church.. i have always been impressed at how smart, polite and nice jehovah's witnesses are and i always make time to speak to them when they call at my door.

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  humbled

  Hello, LillyC--glad you are looking before you leap!

  The powerful introduction I had to the WT religion was at age 35 and married. Disillusioned with other churches their stand against war was impressive to me.

  The certainty you speak of was definitely there. I learned as I was taken in and participated in the Theocratic Ministry that JWs are carefully groomed for their door-to-door ministry. They speak with one voice.

  These things may seem less like deterents and more like attractive, well-conceived effects of people in God's Kingdom.

  Read Jesus' words only--not the doctrines in even the epistles--Just Jesus. He said "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." There is none of that when you become a Jehovah'sWitness.

  Research first--they do not allow that freedom once you are baptised.

  Maeve in Arkansas
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  36

  Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses Wisconsin and Midwest

  by Watchtower-Free in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so who's from wisconsin and the midwest usa.

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  humbled

  For 5 years from 1989-1994, just after I was baptised we lived in Jewell, Iowa between Ames and Webster City. Kingdom Hall in a cornfield. I was the only of the family a JW. Husband and 6 children. and another child 2 years later.(Ex-catholic too)

  Scott (and Sarah) Schofner was the CO mostly. I liked them.
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  41

  Discussion with some elders

  by GoUnion in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hello everyone just wanted to relate a situation that occurred a few days ago.

  so i have quit going to meetings for a few months now based on some issues i have with the explanations of current doctrines.

  my wife is none too happy with this but over the last few months we have had some date nights and have tentitively agreed to disagree.

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  humbled

  Ask yourself why you can talk to the elders about this stuff but they won't "allow" you to talk to your wife in the same way?

  On a different tack, while they personally may be genial with you as you talk to them, they will have to talk to the CO about this. This is a forbidden quest you are on.
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  55

  A medieval question for you, if you believe in god....

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many ancient believers of god used cognition to 'think' their way from belief to atheism.

  what initially seems a silly question to reason over, can actually destroy a whole theology.. here is a question made famous by 'saint' thomas aquinas, believers in a almighty god with unlimited ability, please have a think about this..... the omnipotence paradox:.

  "could an omnipotent being create a stone so heavy that even he could not lift it?

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  humbled

  This discussion has taken my wondering/wandering about the God question into a different conceptual space in the same way cofty's thread did...

  The idea of a God who is omnipotent creates irresoluable problems for me. For that god to create so vast a universe and who puts creatures so frail as ourselves as the axis for the sucess or failure of it???? It is ridiculous.

  The entire program of universal sovereignty is the stone too big for God to move.

  Once god a is styled all-powerfull and all-loving that god is screwed.

  Thomas Aquinas may have sensed that the God-theology he was teaching (he was a 13 century theologian, famous then, sanctified by Rome later) was being driven less by reason and truth than by fantasy. (See above^^^^ the problem of the Immaculate Conception.)

  Really--If God could have solved the problem of original sin by doing a great job of creation in the first place there would not have been the anguish on earth caused by the Fall. It is not credible that Thomas, forced by papal pressure to fall in with the popular feast of Mary's Conception in St. Ann, didn't see that the only way to assure a clean human was for god to do a retrofit in the womb. Thomas had God clean up the mess in Mary before she was born and before she could think or will to sin.

  WTF! (I believe) Thomas thought--If God did that for her then Jesus would not have to die for her sins because--- even if she had given birth to him--(which she hadn't yet because she born herself) she wouldn't have any inherited sin to die FOR.

  So Thomas had to tinker with it. And he had it that Ann and Joachim(Mary's ma and pa) did the deed and for only the briefest interval Mary existed in need of redemption before God operated on her sose she'd be perfectly sinless......for ever and ever.

  And so on.. and on...

  Thomas must have wondered ('Cause I am now) If God had that power AND he had love AND he was all-knowng ---in equal measure--why didn't he retro fit the kids in Eve's womb after she had sinned. Or better yet--why didn't he do that good a job on Eve to begin with?

  If God is all-powerful then he really is between a rock and a hard place.

  Maeve

  Can someone link Snare's thread to the Epic Thread? I don't know how.
• 
  10

  Advice, TTATT or Bible

  by Crazyguy in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i really starting to see the problems with the bible and it being influenced by other cultures, religions and also the fact that many of the books or letter were written after the fact or so called prophecy.

  so i am wondering would it work better to try to wake my children to ttatt about the jw cult or work on destroying the bible and its credibility?

  which do you think would work better??

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  humbled

  Show the truth about the LIES of the WTBTS.

  I didn't let go of God by following a leader.

  Others knew the tools that I had dug my way out of the WT with had been put down too soon. They showed me how they still were needed. But it was not something I could have handle all at once. Be careful.

  Good advice above^^^^^^.
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  27

  So how many of us had guilt pangs because our WT was not highlighted?

  by cultBgone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we attended several different congregations in different states, and the one common thread among them all was...if you had your study article highlighted, you were a good jw.. honestly, how often did you cover over your magazine when the attendant walked by handing out copies to visitors?.

  sheesh.

  would anyone believe how weird this organization really is?.

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  humbled

  It ticked me off that anyone cared! Highlighting was so grade-school easy to do!

  And --YES--I hated to feel judged by the mic guy or a long-necked snoop.

  If I had read and looked up stuff I got royally pissed if I grabbed the wrong(unmarked) WT and knew how ridiculously these concerns could creep up on you.

  Kind of like having lunch in public with any of my fleshly brothers(NON-s). I felt I'd be judged if any JDubs saw me and didn't know my brother was not just some worldly guy.

  SO-Glad-I'm-OUT!

  Maeve