This is a good thread. Of books I have read lately, are Crisis of Conscience, Virus of the Mind, by Richard Brodie, The Demon-Haunted World--Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan (most excellent) and an now reading a book by Steve Allen about the Bible, and morality. (Can't remember the name offhand).
Flowerpetal
JoinedPosts by Flowerpetal
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Your Top Ten Books
by GinnyTosken ini love the book lists on amazon; i get lost in them for hours.
recently someone asked me for book recommendations, and i thought it would be fun if we shared our lists of top ten books that helped us think our way out of the jw dogma.
im putting aside the obvious ones, like crisis of conscience and apocalypse delayed.. heres my list, in the order i discovered them as best i can recall.. ginny.
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I need Help.............
by rollercoaster inokay hi.
i'm new here and i kinda like it but i do have some question have any of you grown up in the truth and then some were along the line stop going to meeting well i did i found out about some stuff the organization was doing and it really disapointed me and also the congregations i have been in haven't been very confornting so if any of you have some you want to talk about or you have been through the same i would really like to hear from you .
discombobulatedgirl
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Flowerpetal
I Just want to let ya'll know that considering Jehovah my refuge did not involve attending meetings, and going in field service, etc.,etc. He is my refuge because I pray to Him and depend on Him for help and guidance, FIRST.
I have tried to be balanced all my life. I have always had a few non-JW friends, and I have a really good one now and she is atheist. Her hubby was raised by JW parents, but never got baptized. So it's funny to hear when she tells me about some of her and her hubby's deep, philosophical and religious discussions. He still believes most of our beliefs and teachings, but when he is around his parents, he is just the opposite. Maybe because he feels like they are trying to push him back to the org. Anyway, his mother is baffled that I go visit her--seeing that JWs are encouraged not to form friendships outside the org.
I have seen and know that there are decent people who are not JWs, and have come to the conclusion that people can be ethical and moral without being spiritual or religious. OF course, you would get an argument from the born-agains about that!
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hi am new
by tiffani inhi my name is tanya and hi just found out about this forum.
i think it's great to have a site where witnesses could meet new brothers and new sisters all over the world.
well as for me i believe that jehovah god should be the first priority in once life.
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Flowerpetal
Hi Tanya,
I am a fairly new member having signed on last week. I am still a JW and have been baptized for almost 42 yrs. I am 53, my hubby is a witness, was an elder but was removed, no doubt because we weren't reporting a Bible study with our family. My daughter is 22 and not baptized and my son is almost 16 and says he will get baptized when he gets out of high school. I'm not sweating it though. If they do, they do; if they don't they don't. It takes time to decide what one really wants to do with their life.My hubby has family that is inactive, and has been for about 5 years or more, because of a bad experience with one of their daughters and an elder's son. They just visited us a few weeks ago, and we had a good time.
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Flowerpetal
I thought feral cats were ones who weren't tame but weren't wild either.
Anyway, my tame cat swishes her tail when she's hungry and knows soon she is going to be fed. She is also the lovingest kitty I ever had. Her litter mate, is my alarm clock in the mornings!
I give them canned food and dry food mixed together.
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JW attitudes on women - why beneficial
by tergiversator inmy secret wish, when i was about 10 years old and we were going through the revelation book for the second time, was that one day we would show up at the book study and all the baptized brothers would be missing and they would let me read.
i was pretty sure that i wouldn't mangle words like thyatira and laodicea nearly as badly as some of the poor brothers they roped into reading at times, who looked like they were being tortured during particularly difficult lessons.. i liked to read, i thought.
my older brother got to read a lot, even when he wasn't baptized.
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Flowerpetal
I have decided to let my grayheadedness continue for a while--till I have enough to be blonde without my hair turning red when I try a blonde hair color! LOL
And before I become blonde, and if anyone is disrespectful of me (brothers included) I will point to my hair and say, how many gray hairs do you see? If he says "a lot" then I will say "I earned every one of them so I have a right to speak my mind, kid."
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JW Practices
by patio34 inmaybe this irked you in the past?
i had a hard time convincing--nay, believing--that we lived in such baaaad times.
jws have the belief that times are bad, so we had the task of convincing the householders of that.
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Flowerpetal
Hey Patio!
I'd be interested to see that reference about the last days possibly being a million years. I must have missed that one! -
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JUDGEMENT DAY
by RR inthe society has condemned just about everyone to second death, especially those who have been jusged in the past by jehovah [adam, sodom, flood victims, etc.
what do you friends say, does the society have an argument?
are those judged in the past to stay judged and dead?.
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Flowerpetal
Rolando,
I do have another question for you though. I have been reading your thread about the Ekklesia, etc. Do you feel or believe that only baptized ones should receive a heavenly calling?And those that you do believe will live on earth, do they survive Armageddon to be on that new earth under Christ's adminstration?
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JW attitudes on women - why beneficial
by tergiversator inmy secret wish, when i was about 10 years old and we were going through the revelation book for the second time, was that one day we would show up at the book study and all the baptized brothers would be missing and they would let me read.
i was pretty sure that i wouldn't mangle words like thyatira and laodicea nearly as badly as some of the poor brothers they roped into reading at times, who looked like they were being tortured during particularly difficult lessons.. i liked to read, i thought.
my older brother got to read a lot, even when he wasn't baptized.
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Flowerpetal
Well there are some men who have very strong egos. I was shocked that an elder I like very much as a brother behaved strangely about directing how a territory and who was going to work with who was done, when the territory did belong to a sister. I thought to myself, what difference does it make who does what?
But I have been reminded of some articles from in the Wt magazines in past years which have implied that it is the woman who doesn't know how to handle money, is a spendthrift, and must be curtailed in expenditures. Well the opposite is true in my house. I am the conservative spender.
But now I see articles and in public talks about marriage relationships, that lots of times it's the woman that can handle household money and bill paying a lot better than a man. Maybe some angry sisters wrote to the society to protest! I was ready to write them until I saw the attitude starting to change.
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JUDGEMENT DAY
by RR inthe society has condemned just about everyone to second death, especially those who have been jusged in the past by jehovah [adam, sodom, flood victims, etc.
what do you friends say, does the society have an argument?
are those judged in the past to stay judged and dead?.
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Flowerpetal
RR, the society has been stating for quite a while now, that billions of dead will be resurrected. I suppose they mean all those nations who were enemies of the Israelites, up till now who have died.
I don't remember the last time they had a discussion on whether or not the people of Sodom and Gomorrah will be resurrected. I rather believe Jesus' words about it anyway. The people of Noah's day? I have been re-thinking that myself. They were, you could say, victims, since the sons of the true God came down, put on fleshly bodies, and wreaked havoc with humankind. So while I won't say they will get a resurrection, I won't say they won't either. It's entirely up to God.
I am also re-thinking Adam's position as well, as you might already know.
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Flowerpetal
Hi fp,
You missed my point. It was that after being in a group that stifled ones feelings and autonomy, such as the wts,that one indeed needs to have time for oneself first,to sort thru issues,clean out all the wts garbage that's in their heads(ESPECIALLY women) I still believe not doing that first,is a form of denial - Time is needed (and no its not at all selfish to put ones recovery first) to learn how to re-socialize-new social skills,communication skills,support groups,or theraputic intervention if needed .
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You must have been in a really suppressed cong! Whew!---
In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.
Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare)