Posts by marmot

81

i found a pice of sublimnal art as a dubbie i'm shocked!

by XOCO in

you guys this has really freaked me out so much tonight as i was looking though my revelation book climax at hand i was looking to see where we had left off and i usually do this by seeing where i have stopped highlighting in the book.. so i started at pg 156 & 157 of the book so there were a bunch of marks on those two pages their are pics nothing special there.. but on page 159 their is a pic of jesus in the heavens where he is extending his handout to get a piece of paper and that's where i notice on the hand that were the wrinkles are supposed to be there is a face like a fetusnow i mean anybody can tell you that is a face of a baby.

i don't know why a baby on jesus hand or what it suppose to mean.

i guess it really shows how the control tower (watchtower) make me a jw feel really shitty.

marmot

Do Rorschach tests similarly freak you out? Does the shape of clouds disturb you? (I'm not kidding, there's a guy on here who thinks he's Jesus because he saw a sign in the clouds, coincidentally it happens to be the same hand with two fingers outstretched that you posted)

You're giving the Bethel art department way too much credit, besides what's the significance of a fetus palm anyway? Do you really think that would affect people?

29

Wanting to just FREAKIN run away....I think I know why now...

by oompa in

jw
friends

the past year or so was year was really, really bad as i came to realize the waking up experience.

once i knew for sure wt was a sham, (although maybe sincere), i had this immediate feeling i would have to leave.....everything.

of course my wife was already going nuts from all my study, questions, doubts, letters to society, meetings with elders....but once i really knew and felt i would have to leave.... i did leave several times.

marmot

Definitely wait a while man, I know my experience can't amount to a hill of beans compared to yours (after all you've got a wife and kid, a motorcycle and, well, a life - whereas I'm a 25-year-old virgin living alone in a basement apartment with no remaining friends within 2000 kilometers except for my dog) but it's been getting easier.

I told my mom that I'm out of the Watchtower and she took it hard at first but now she's back to normal with me. My Dad is sort of "don't ask don't tell" but he treats me as well as he ever did. I even told my one remaining friend who now lives in Sweden and he said that he's fine with whatever I choose in life, that he would never shun me.

I think if you just stay yourself and ease into the new non-witness you around your family that it won't be so hard or so painful as you imagine it to be. You've got a family that loves you, and I'm sure they'll still love you no matter what you choose. Your wife is right about one thing, though, you've got to be around for them, too.

136

If you dont believe in God...according to the bible you are a fool!

by Blackboo in

the fool has said in his heart there is no "god" how can this?

why do non-believers jump to such a conclusion?

i have notice many former witnesses have lost faith in god because of a a "religion" who didnt measure up to what it claims.

marmot

I believe I asked you a question a while back that you neglected to acknowledge. Here, I'll rephrase it:

You claim to believe in one Jesus of Nazareth, who descended from the line of David, who descended from the line of Abraham, who descended from Noah, who descended from Adam, the first man. Adam was created, according to the bible's own detailed chronology, around roughly 4026 BC.

Why is it that there is evidence all over the earth of human activity preceding that date? I'm not talking about hominid ancestors, but of modern tool-making pottery-glazing agriculturally-skilled humans. The dating methodologies are sound and have been verified and cross-verified by scientists for well over half a century and have been referenced against tree-ring chronologies that go back 9,000 years. That's what they call absolute dating, where scientists can count the individual rings on trees (both living and fossilized) and create a timeline.

I also asked you about Islam. What do you think of it? Muslims recognize Jesus as a prophet, and they even worship the god of the bible, except they refer to him as Al'Lah "the one true god." They say that the prophet Muhammad was directed by god to spread the true interpretation of his will. They don't view themselves as "fools" according to the scripture you cited because they actually believe in the bible and its god and, obviously, in that scripture itself.

Don't you see the path of hatred you're on? I say believe what you want, but realize that nobody, not science not religion NOBODY has a 100% answer on what happens after we die yet death is the only thing we're all 100% sure to experience. In the little time we have on this earth, why not make it a pleasant experience for everyone? Enjoy your beliefs, thrill in the experience of faith, but don't push those views on others and expect to be taken seriously.

Keep an open mind and realize that we are just specks in a vast universe.

136

If you dont believe in God...according to the bible you are a fool!

by Blackboo in

the fool has said in his heart there is no "god" how can this?

why do non-believers jump to such a conclusion?

i have notice many former witnesses have lost faith in god because of a a "religion" who didnt measure up to what it claims.

marmot

The thing is, Mr. BlackBoo, that you're not so much intent on condemning people who don't believe in God as you are on condemning people who don't believe in YOUR god.

I assume that since you hold the bible in high authority that you're some form of Christian, right? What are your views on the thousands of different sects of Christianity? Is only the particular form you espouse the correct one? According to Islam, only Muhammad the prophet has the correct interpretation of the sayings of god. Did you know Muslims worship Jehovah? They just refer to him as Allah, a contraction of the Arabic saying Al'Lah meaning "The one and only God." Yet I feel pretty safe in assuming you feel they fall under the "fools" category, right?

That form of intolerance is what has made religion such a repugnant thing.

And when I asked to to disprove evidence of human existence long before biblical Adam I was being very serious. In North America there have been discovered mammoth skeletons with embedded spear points. These were dated (by different forms of absolute dating methods) to around 13,000 years old. Adam supposedly was created a little over 6,000 years ago according to the bible. Who made those spear points and hunted those mammoths? There are even older examples of human activity found in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Why did these people exist before the time god (at least your god) says he created the first couple?

136

If you dont believe in God...according to the bible you are a fool!

by Blackboo in

the fool has said in his heart there is no "god" how can this?

why do non-believers jump to such a conclusion?

i have notice many former witnesses have lost faith in god because of a a "religion" who didnt measure up to what it claims.

marmot

You can believe in religion and God if that's what suits you, but you seem to be on slippery slope of belligerence over what the RIGHT religion and God is.

History seems to have proved how well that succeeded.

If people told you that they believe in the million and one gods of Hinduism, would you stop attacking them? I think we both know the answer to that.

I'd love for you to disprove the numerous archaeological discoveries that show man has been around for much longer that Genesis would indicate. I'm not even talking about hominid ancestors, I'm talking about modern humans who have been around producing tools, pottery and culture for the past 35,000 years.

Go ahead.

4

Foreign Fighters in Iraq Are Tied to Allies of U.S.

by nvrgnbk in

jw
friends

foreign fighters in iraq are tied to allies of u.s. by richard a. oppel jr.published: november 22, 2007baghdad saudi arabia and libya, both considered allies by the united states in its fight against terrorism, were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters who came to iraq in the past year to serve as suicide bombers or to facilitate other attacks, according to senior american military officials.. the data come largely from a trove of documents and computers discovered in september, when american forces raided a tent camp in the desert near sinjar, close to the syrian border.

the raids target was an insurgent cell believed to be responsible for smuggling the vast majority of foreign fighters into iraq.. the most significant discovery was a collection of biographical sketches that listed hometowns and other details for more than 700 fighters brought into iraq since august 2006.. the records also underscore how the insurgency in iraq remains both overwhelmingly iraqi and sunni.

american officials now estimate that the flow of foreign fighters was 80 to 110 per month during the first half of this year and about 60 per month during the summer.

marmot

Religion, ya gotta love it.

Oops, was I being insensitive?

7

Engagement parties...is this becoming more prevalent?

by marmot in

i don't know if this is a witness thing or if it's just becoming more common everywhere, but what's the deal with engagement parties?

it seemed like all the young couples getting engaged were throwing these elaborate bashes that seemed just like a real wedding, and my former roommate even had a freaking gift registry for his.

totally crass, in my opinion, and they never even ended up getting married.

marmot

I don't know if this is a witness thing or if it's just becoming more common everywhere, but what's the deal with engagement parties?

It seemed like all the young couples getting engaged were throwing these elaborate bashes that seemed just like a real wedding, and my former roommate even had a freaking GIFT REGISTRY for his. Totally crass, in my opinion, and they never even ended up getting married.

The only other engagement party that I went to the couple got divorced three years later.

45

get rich quick schemes, multilevel marketing, pyramid schemes and JWs

by marmot in

from my experience growing up in the jws there were two big recurring themes when it came to making money: .

1 - window washing or other janitorial work .

2 - cheezy "get rich quick" schemes and other cult-like sales practices .

marmot

Somebody mentioned Aloette, that just triggered a hidden childhood memory of accidentally taking a big gulp of that foul-tasting aloe vera juice from the fridge when I thought it was a jug of water. Yep, mom was into that too.

You also mentioned water filters and tupperware, ditto. She also sold Electrolux.

One that she was also trying to get me into was some sort of computer data back-up MLM scheme. This was at the beginning of the internet and the gist was that you would set up a home computer with tape drive back ups (or, if you could afford one, a CD burner) and do remote information storage for business who didn't want to lose their data in case of a disaster or computer failure. Of course, the claims of potential income were vastly exaggerated and the service itself wasn't an easy sell, especially at the rates you would have to charge to cover your costs.

Then there was one that my dad tried really hard to get me into that I can't remember the name of. It was some telecommunications re-selling service that was based around you pressuring your family members and acquaintances to switch to their long distance service and you would get a cut every time they made a phone call. I remember being dragged to one of their meetings and sitting through a terrible motivational speaker and being told that I, too, could become a "regional manager" for just $400.

Gah, there are probably more that I've suppressed over the years.

30

Is Smoking the practice of Spiritism?

by freedomfighter in

hi guys,.

i was raised as a jw and was baptised when i was 16. i am now 35 and have finally realised that "the truth" is actually the opposite.. my family has a long history of mental illness and i am "lucky" to only suffer deppression and panic attacks.i believe what i was taught as truth has effected me adversely.

e.g " you won't have to go to school son, armageddon will be here before then.

marmot

Actually, gesundheit is fine but "bless you" isn't according to the talmud...I mean the witnesses. Gesundheit is just German for "good health to you" (roughly translated, as per my German teacher in college) As for smoking, they equate it with spiritism because tobacco leaves were once used in religious ceremonies and the nicotine has a bit of an effect on the nervous system. Bunch of baloney if you ask me, because coffee has WAY more of an effect yet it's a-ok. Dancing is also used to enter trance-states in shamanism, yet dancing is okay too - just so long as you're not doing one of those demonic dances like the twist (look this one up on your watchtower CD library for some hilarity). I tell ya, those witnesses see the Devil around every corner.

45

get rich quick schemes, multilevel marketing, pyramid schemes and JWs

by marmot in

from my experience growing up in the jws there were two big recurring themes when it came to making money: .

1 - window washing or other janitorial work .

2 - cheezy "get rich quick" schemes and other cult-like sales practices .

marmot

If you notice I didn't say they were scams. I just said that this sort of cult-like sales thing is very common among witnesses.