what do you fear most?.
when a witness i was afraid of dying at the big a. now i just fear dying.
I don't fear death. I do fear my daughter and wife dying before me though. I believe that when I die no one will sit in judgement of me except myself. Hence, no one can sit in judgement of me now. The energy in my body will disperse into the universe and become a part of it. Whether I remain conscious of that remains to be seen.
Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
how left or right are you?
are you a libertarian or an authoritarian?
which political party comes closest to your views?
Kind of what I thought they would be. I would be more Republican if they would stop associating themselves with the Nazi par.....christian coalition. Democrats on the other hand just feel the need to hand carry everyone through life.
Labour (32)
Liberal Democrat (41)
Conservative (27)
on the left/right scale I'm a little to the left but just about center.
Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
growing up as a witness can do strange things to people, especially in a sexual sense.
i'd be embarraassed to recount some of the stories and experiences about sex that i've seen and heard dealing with young witnesses.. it seems that there are quite a few marriages that have taken place with younger witnesses simply to satisfy sexual urges.
after the inital curiosity has been satisfied a lot times young couples realize that they made a terrible mistake which often leads to a variety of different problems.. currently i find myself in a similar situation.
Another good question. I know from my own experience and from what all my friends told me the only reason to get married was so you could finally get laid. Just before my Df'ing in 1990 everyone I knew was getting married at age 18. I mean everyone. We all knew what it was about and so did the rest of the KH but it was not socially acceptable to discuss sexual matters. They just passed it of as the impulse (impulse being horny) of youth. I know when I first committed fornication I was hooked. 20 years old, a guy, and never had sex, I was like an atom bomb ready to explode. Well explode I did as you can read my DF hearing in on the personal exp. page.
I believe most religious views on sexuality and youth to be unhealthy. You can CHOOSE to remain a virgin which is very commendable. But if you are forced to remain a virgin through programming and guilt then you're setting yourself up for a fall.
Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
of course, we all know what genesis says.
and god went on to say: "let us make man in our image, according to our likeness..." - genesis 1:26. but let's imagine for a moment that there really is no god, and that human curiosity about how things work and happen caused this writer and his contemporaries to "invent" the concept of "god".. the genesis quote, then, becomes a projection of the writer's own beliefs.
rather than having god make man in his own image, mankind has created gods in their image.. we can look back on history and see the pantheon of various gods whose characteristics seem to mirror the culture and practices of those who worship them.
Very good post indeed. My current faith proposes that we put certain traits on different Gods/Goddesses for us to better relate and understand the divine. Thus Odin, Shiva, Isis, Diane and to an extent Jehovah are all relevent Gods/Goddesses. They are simply a vehicle to divine understanding. The problem comes in when you create an egocentric God based on your own lust for power. The greatest height of arrogance to me is to assume that you know the one true path to the higher power. To reach a full understanding of the Great Spirit we must be near Gods ourselves and this is where dillusion comes into play.
Since (I believe) we are all part of the same whole no one of us can claim to know the one true "way" because there is no one true "way". Each of us make our own "way" and we use different Gods/Goddesses to help us on our journey. I hope that made some kind of sense.
Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
i was talking to my jw sister the other night, long distance.
she, like me, was raised a jw.
she is a sweet, sincere and wonderful woman.
We always had talks on how wordly folks could not keep their marriages together with citing divorce rates and such. JW held those divorce rates up like proof that we were better than everyone else. Well from what my mother tells me divorce is exploding within the JW community up here in WA. Now she should have left my step father 20 years ago as his only interest in being a JW was to control my mother and the household. Since all the kids have moved out she is taking a more serious look at divorce. I agree with Seedy on the point that the bible is not even remotely needed for a happy marriage. Since I've dropped the JW baggage and put down the rule that no bible enter my home my marriage has been great.
I live in a christian nation yet the divorce rate is unreal so what does that say about the bible? Nothing, because the bible is only relevent if you make it so. There is a ton of misogyny throughout the bible so I think that other than common sense it is not a good guide.
Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
not only did i have the fortune of being raised a dub, but i also live in the heart of mormonism, good old slc.
my wife went to lds church today and says she is going to start going every week.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggghh.
Sorry to hear it. I wonder if mormons have the same thing as DF'ing. Most mormons I've known are pretty cool people but that could be just for show. Looks like you'll have to be the voice of reason from now on.
Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
i'd like to make a few points which i know i will be eaten alive for, but here goes...... is there really a devil?.
history of religion has always believed in the devil, but has portrayed him in different lights....he himself transforms into an angel of light, making something that is evil seem innocent and fun.
his best ploy: having people believe he don't exist...this is to his own advantage.. he is a malignant enemy of god and man!
One thing you can rely on a JW for is sweeping generalizations about everyone else but them. Listen to Seedy, not all religions have a version of Satan in them. This is fairly unique to judahism, christianity, and islam. While other religions had their evil and trickster gods they were never the embodyment of pure evil. I just think Satan is a people person. Adam and Eve never had the same knowledge as god of good and evil so basically they were gods robots. Which perfectly portrays a JW only difference is they are the WTS robots.
Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
i don't know if this q has been brought up on the forum, if so i apoligize, but i was just thinking about this today, and wondered how many here left or are thinking about or trying to leave the b-org as result of the un fiasco?
how many do you know of that left due to this?.
seedy
Well I can say that because of the programming by the WTS I was deeply depressed for 5 years (on the verge of suicide). It has been 12 years now and I can honestly say that I am more happy now than ever. It took awhile to get over all of the teachings but I am by far a better person now. I don't lie to myself that I'm happy while living in fear of the elders and what others in the KH think. The hardest part is trying to put the feeling of being free into words. I choose who I am and how I act others do not do that for me.
Not being a JW allows you to concentrate on your happiness and the happiness of those around you. Be with your family, be with yourself, and most of all be happy.
Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
i don't know if this q has been brought up on the forum, if so i apoligize, but i was just thinking about this today, and wondered how many here left or are thinking about or trying to leave the b-org as result of the un fiasco?
how many do you know of that left due to this?.
seedy
Was it really that big of a deal? I just saw it on the internet last week. Do many JW's even know about that incident? Of course I've been out of the loop for awhile so perhaps this issue is bigger than I think it is.
Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
jesus was a nice guy most of the time, but don't you think hes a bit rude and thoughtless sometimes?.
the watchtower today discussed the supposedly marvelous example that jesus showed to youths today, citing his escapade at 12 at the temple.
what hit home to me was that he was missing for three days - three days!
I much prefer the Jesus in the Book of Thomas. Oh wait the book of Thomas was removed from the bible. I guess we're stuck with what the church wants to give us and on that note Jesus seems very annoying. I'm surprised it took so long for them to get around to killing him.
Dear Lord, please save me from your followers.
