if i thought there was a magnificent spiritual being who cared for me, i would pray every day, not just if i felt low and had no one else to talk to.
we don't spend time with friends only when the going gets tough.
we share the good as well as the bad.
JWD:24, GOD:nil
I'm more of a lurker than a poster here, but since I began posting here I've not talked to God at all. When I was younger I was a bit obsessive-compulsive about praying, I HAD to pray CONTINUOUSLY every night till I fell asleep or someone would die. Wasn't a JW then, so it was the Lords Prayer, over and over again.
So I suppose in the overall score, God wins. I'll have to start posting more, even it up a bit.
i don't mean the ones we know about already - things people wouldn't think you did or enjoyed to look at you.. i love watching ray mears extreme survival and learning about how to survive and find food and shelter in extreme climates even though there is a strong possibility that i shall never try and escape naked from a japanese prisoner of war camp, or crash without a flagon of water into the sahara, or come stuck in my ship in a freezing ice plateau in deepest antartica.
.
what's your guilty geeky pleasure?.
Was anyone else into the British comedy "Red Dwarf?"
I love Red Dwarf!
Also Star Trek, Stargate, Dr Who and the wonderful Buffy the Vampire Slayer - just started reading the season 8 comic books.
...in all fiction:jealous and proud of it; petty, unjust, unforgiving, control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevent bully.
", says richard dawkins in the god delusion p51.
he goes on to say, "those of us schooled from infancy in his ways can become desensitized to their horror".. would you agree?.
I was just struck my what this reminds me of....
An abused wife defending her alcoholic husband
I've been thinking this too, throughout reading this thread.
I think all the logical arguements and bible background and interpretations of whether the Canaanites deserved it or not mean nothing.
It's all about love.
Like cog says:
It won't matter if God himself rapes and murders every single man, woman, child and animal on this planet and tortures them all for eternity.
I think someone deeply in love can justify anything, and someone's love of God can go deeper than any other love. People still kill for God today.
To quote one of my favourite people "We can love quite well. If not wisely."
...in all fiction:jealous and proud of it; petty, unjust, unforgiving, control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevent bully.
", says richard dawkins in the god delusion p51.
he goes on to say, "those of us schooled from infancy in his ways can become desensitized to their horror".. would you agree?.
Sorry to butt in, don't really have anything to add just wanted to mark the thread for future reference.
I'm really kind of appalled at how people can justify some of the things done in the OT. I suppose a lot of people have a real deep love for their God, and they do say love is blind.
I can't really get involved in this discussion as I don't have the eloquence of funkyderek and AlmostAtheist, but keep it up guys you're brilliant!
this was in the 70s , im sure the kids parents wud have been delighted , what a "bad witness" they could have been "stumbled" did any of you do that?
it is so sad that it wase ven put in a 5 year olds head
It's terrible really how JW kids suffer, thinking their 'worldy' classmates are going to be killed
some kids were picking on my brother and I for being witnesses. As we were so bravely running away (per my mother's strict orders "If you fight Jehovah will be angry and you won't be in paradise") I apparently turned around and hollered that God is going to kill them all for persecuting us.
but that's just brilliant!!!! serves the little buggers right for picking on you!
has anybody still got copies of the old "truth" book, the "live forever " book, and "bible teach" book?.
i threw them out, and regret it now because a sudden chilling realization came to me posting on another thread:.
do you remember how in the 70s we were told to encourage the new study to compare what the nwt says with what is in his own bible?
This takes me back to when I was a fresh new bible study. I was started on the Knowledge book.
I remember how they used to say how the NWT was so much better than the other translations, that historians and scholars prefer to use the NWT. I always preferred the poetic flowery language of my old King James to be honest, but I did as I was told and studied with the NWT, because it was a 'better' translation.
I thought every tiny thing coming from the Society sparkled like a diamond - it was so clearly Truth and nothin' but.(why couldn't EVERYone see that? lol) I thought I was smart to have chosen the 'correct' religion "...oh yes, you are really studying 'berean-style' and finding out The Truth for yourself! You are progressing nicely and so intelligent, why, you pick-up on these Truths right away!" Stroke, stroke and you have a new baptism candidate that's just swallowed all the lies without a burp! I can still barely believe I believed some of it - was not born into it - I chose it.
lol that's me, that's EXACTLY me! I can't believe I was so gullible.
i thought it would be interesting to see just how many people have climbed aboard jwd within the last 6 months.
it will give us an indication on how many people are actually coming away from the borg.. i may not be replying all the time but will pop in every day of so.. lets keep this thread going and use it to welcome new ones.
may i be the first to say welcome.
Hiya
I started in Sept 07, I don't post a lot, still find posting on here a bit scary to be honest.
if you're here, it's likely you were once fooled by what the jws believe.. back then, i expect you thought you were smart.
you thought you could tell if you were being lied to.
yet, they got past your mental defenses and sucked you in.. knowing this, how can you be sure your current religious beliefs are true?.
Back then, I expect you thought you were smart. You thought you could tell if you were being lied to. Yet, they got past your mental defenses and sucked you in.
oooh yes, thats me. I don't have the defense of being brought up in the 'truth', I was completely sucked in. It's scary now to think how easily my mind was taken over, and I did think I was smart to be honest.
Mental defenses are now firmly UP and staying like that. I still like studying the bible, strangely, but I know without a doubt that I will never be a Christian again.
Vinny, if these threads are a waste of time to read, why waste your time replying?
I'm a 'poor little atheist' and proud of it.
gen. 3:5 for god knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like god, knowing good and bad.".
(genesis 3:22) 22 and jehovah god went on to say: "here the man has become like one of us in knowing good and bad, and now in order that he may not put his hand out and actually take [fruit] also from the tree of life and eat and live to time indefinite,".
gen 3:22and the lord god said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:i awoke this morning and had an epiphiny.
Thanks Lore, wow there really is nothing saying the people building the tower were evil. I vaguely remember my study on this and i asked what was so wrong with making the tower, they told me (don't know if this is official WT teachings or just these witnesses) that each level of the tower was dedicated to some sort of sin, getting worse and worse as you go upwards, levels dedicated to the worship of pagan gods, levels for indecent sex practises, baby eating etc.
Anyone else get told this, or is it just me?
i decided enough was enough and had a no holds barred conversation with a room of around a dozen 'believers'.
a number of things had been troubling me all night, but the final straw was when my brother-in-law said 'isn't it funny how the acronym std can stand for both, sexually transmitted disease and satan the devil.'.
i couldn't stand the frustration anymore so i pointed out how irrelevant that fact was, and how if we spoke a different language the same conclusion could probably not be made.
Nice one. I'm always way to scared to actually speak up when people say stupid stuff like that. I just nod and smile, I'm such a wimp. You have my total admiration.
