Posts by reniaa

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

reniaa

hi crusoe

Renniaa,
As far as religion goes I have to conced you and I are on different wavelengths!

I'm struggling with this thread because I'm getting christian, atheist, anti-witness viewpoints all coming at me at once /Ducks , I'mma run back to the atheist forums they are simpler just "All religion is insanity and delusion" but I won't, it's proving enjoyable to talk to people that do accept we can believe in God without becoming insane :)

Maybe I am an apostate to your subconscious?
Good luck on your journey!
If you ever desire a chat feel free - I sense something about you genuinely searching but I half sense the stacks of WT circles and spirals of reasoning/emotions/guilt/judgement I finally unwound and got back to zero from!
Lots of love to your family and I wish you a fun time ahead compared to the one many religions offer! Just chilling and maybe finding regular people with an interest in Biblical/religious introspection isn't easy but its what I think you feel is missing from life and why sites like this are unique - unless you live near some of us it hard to have it in reality!
Best ~~wishes~~ erm, of health (not sure if you're over that bit yet)

Hehe your right in many ways but the occasional Good luck pops out occasionally, on a side point it's easier to go back to swearing/bad language than saying 'Good luck' etc

I am genuinely searching though! but I'm not ready to give up on the bible yet, I just find the confounding christian religions coming from it pains in the asses for not actually practising what it says and thats inc the witnesses :) lol

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

reniaa

hi sirona thankyou for replying,

I also understand (a little) how it must feel to be heavily pregnant and alone. You are looking for support and you remember how the JWs used to be nice to you.
I am pregnant myself. I am not married, but I have a partner who posts on this board (Gary - Diamondblue1974) and we are 100% committed to each other. Gary is a moral person and so am I. It does upset me that you can speak of "worldly" people in the way that you do.

I have to admit there is a bit of wanting those friendships again, but the second I still have problems with, yes people can be good or bad, I don't actually think of people as wordly but I do think the world is worldly if that makes any sense, I think we are encourage currently to be very selfish and disconnected from each other by TV, governments etc etc but I'm not firm on this because I do recognise my emotional pregnant state has maybe me more negative.

OK sorry I stand corrected. Leolaia will respond perhaps to your comments on the cross / stake argument. She really is impressive....click on her profile and post history and you'll find someone who is amazingly knowledgeable about scripture and both Hebrew and Greek.

I will i would be very interested in her answers to my question but one thing I've learned from trawling on atheists site is especially on science and scholars, You can have many experts that disagree with each other you end having to choice one yourself anyway so back to square One, I would introduce her to someone called Roger Pierce he's a greek scholar who proved a good friend, he handles a lot of the original manuscripts.

http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/member.php?find=lastposter&t=239142

Believe me, there are nice people out there! Moral people, loving people, charitable people.

but I also know there are a lot more of the alternative to these loving, charitable people :(

Now you might want to say that the story of the flood relates to a local flooding in that region or some other explanation, but saying that less than 4000 years ago the whole globe was deluged and 99.9999% of humankind were killed along with most animals, is simply proven to NOT be true. No amount of wishing will change that fact.

With this you have possibly the biggest argument against the Bible because we are thrown into the appologist viewpoints to explain if it did happen, there are 2 points in a global floods favour though, first the thousands of ancient flood stories talking of a global flood to the point were you can argue racial memory, these are not made up and exist in reality of archaeology. Secondly "Absence of evidence is not evidence of lack" (did I quote that right) Science cannot physically go back in time and say for definate a flood didn't happen and so they are basing opinion on evidence that is taking from strong facts so still room for argument, Although I will say they have the stronger case atm.

I weigh up the evidence based on what qualified people have found.

Me too but I find these guys don't always agree and as I said above you end up having to weigh one qualified persons opinions against another using your own judgement, square one again.

You, by comparison, appear to be completely disinterested in any other faiths. For you, its either JWs or the EVIL world. For you, it appears to be the bible or nothing (atheism). Don't you realise that there is other spirituality out there? This is what I meant by lack of education. Sorry you feel offended but I suppose the truth hurts.

You do me an injustice here assuming I haven't done research on other religions besides Christianity, I just haven't mentioned them so far, I checked most other ancient writings but found of those I researched they lacked the archaeological heretage of the bible, very different in fact, not much on peoples places and happenings like the bible but more on words of wisdom etc much like what you quoted. I hope you see I want to believe in something that has some reality to it to hinge on? otherwise I may as well just believe in UFO's like some I met on the doors once who they were waiting to be collected :S

Are you christian or atheist yourself? you words on have me wondering?

I really am inclined to agree with Rayzorblade and say Blah blah blah Ginger. Because no matter what the evidence you are given, you choose to ignore it because in your heart you want to believe the JWs are right.
Sirona

You have apoint but I am not an unquestioning accept the statement type as the witnesses would find out if I started asking questions of them again. :)

reniaa

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

reniaa

Hey there jgnat can you give me a few links to leolaiaa studies that i may have missed on this thread, I'll be honest I'd have 2 questions to ask here

firstly I'd ask her if in both greek and hebrew is there a word for cross other than stauros and xylon that could have been used as an alternative, a definate word that only means Cross?

Secondly with the cross being so central to the Christian Doctrine why use a wishy washy words for something that not only describes jesus's death but a whole belief because of the 3=1 God thing, making sign of cross etc to represent them. Surely for something so central it would have been definately put down and described in detail?

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

reniaa

Thankyou to those prepared to read all 9 pages lol I am not quite are sure at going back as you would have me be:) lol I'm at the toe in water stage, I did come on this site at my sisters request because she said I should see what was against the witnesses and such a lot of info has been thrown at me on this thread alone as well as researching back info on this site i'm still wading through it :s.

Every religion has a weak point biblically! with witnesses for me it's the Blood issue ( icertainly think jesus talk of saving lifes on the sabbath does make a good argument against it) and conclusions of future prophecies which I haven't researched yet. But with christianity outside of witnesses their Weakest arguement is the Cross because it fails on 2 fronts, stauros/stake issue which we are currently discussing and the fact it is by bible definition and usage an idol, and anyone who isn't a JW might not realise the first stauros issue because we are not bible scholars and so JW's pointing that out does bring the stauros to our attention, but any normal person reading about golden calf etc in any bible can come to the conclusion the cross is an idol. If the ark still existed would we start wearing miniture arks round our necks?

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

reniaa

Thank you sirona hmmm very honest! I can you are not a little unhappy with JW's, I have been very honest too and if you check my sources in all cases I was careful not to quote Witness sites or scripture using other bibles and sites, the one i used on stauros is not a witness one and indeed condemns them using 'Torture Stake' saying it is incorrect you would not get that on a witness site. I think the points it makes are valid, after 1800 years (your source itself admits this only from 2nd century) surely making stauros become cross is a chicken and egg situation from her arguments, did it become a meaning for cross as well as stake because they wanted it to fit the Cross doctrine and used as such?

Sirona you can't just say I'm spouting JW propaganda because in the end if stuff wasn't outside of the organisation we wouldn't be even having this discussion, I'd be agreeing with you, I've been honest from the start saying I was tempted to go back therefore I will be more in favour than against,

I do resent you saying "We know more than you so shut up we are right," trust me that makes you more like the witnesses than you accuse me of.

I may not be a great scientist but I reserve the rght of any person to do my own research and come to my own conclusions, Aren't you falling into the trap of hating them and trying to disprove them from that point of view, doesn't that make you more predjudiced than I am? who at least is trying to step back and be in less of a mindset either way for or against?

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

reniaa

In one sense r;crusoe I agree with you a part of me still hopes to find a soul mate even after all my mistakes lol i say all there were only 3, but they have made me very cynical and bitter at myself and the world (I can't think of a better word to put here than 'World')

Because you say JW's are taking away our "freedom" but isn't the socalled "freedom" of the world an illusion too? (this is were I have been in a very dark place my councilor is helping me not be so negative about people) The world has it's own rules even if the rules are "Do what you want! treat people as you want! as long as it's not illegal it doesn't matter" you no longer have a choice about sex with men I find, they tend to see it as a right to "Try before they buy" attitude to commitment, and if i'm then left holding the baby (literatually in my case) with only child support to try and get from him, is it really my fault? surely some blame can be placed at this "free and easy worlds" door?

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

reniaa

hi there krist, in my defence these guys didn't have big pointers over their heads saying "Alcoholic, Gambler. Womaniser", If i'd been more experienced at 18 I could have realised there was something wrong with first hubby and always been taken out and wined and dined by the man courting me, like with some alcoholics he had and still has an ability to hold a massive amount of boose without it effecting him after years of practise, It was only after our marriage that It slowly dawned on me I was playing second fiddle to a bottle of beer.

As for other Two I do plead a certain level of guilt with them I discovered how much we can self-delude when thinking ourselves "in-love" it's very hard to step back and say this persons has a bad habit you may not be able to live with.

This is where I am a little in favour of DF if a person is publically acknowledge to have done something detrimental especially like maybe sleeping with another man's wife etc then you are protecting the congregation unfortunately where it falls down is as you can see with many examples, it can be wrongly or overtly harshly applied by overzealous BOE and if one person is charassmatic defender and the other is a young teen unable to fluently give their side, things can go badly wrong :( but then again to allow a person to go into a repentance booth and confess in complete anonymity say a few 'hail mary's' then go on to do what they are doing without any redress /shrug, Can there even be a middle road?

hi Quietlyleaving, I hope you find a workable government organization. I thought religions were scary to explore but governments have me running in terror lol, they are two real, the responsibility of wars and life and death decisions woah tooo much, I do agree with you that religions do make females supportive to men but I'm not sure governments don't as well, a woman in the political arena has to be twice as able as a man to get anywhere (personnally I find Hillary Clinton quite scary too!)

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

reniaa

thx quietlyleaving :)

I think you have to call them all man-made, Jesus may have started Christianity but implementing it and making it into a owkable organisation has always been our own responsibility. So I've always tried to look at christianity in all it's forms without predjudice or experience influencing! in the end I came to the conclusion that the only thing to really distinguish them was how they represent the bible and it's teachings.

If I became a witness again which to be honest would not be an easy thing for me, being tempted is one thing but they would face a barrage of questions from the newer maturer me :) I would leave this site if I became a witness, it's not fair to continue using it and though informative in some ways, a lot of what I've been shown I have come across before on atheist forums but they tend to say negative things on religion as a whole, lumping them all together saying they are all controlling etc.

Here's an example my horrible ex-partner church are called Harvest churches

http://www.partners-in-harvest.org/

They are nice and friendly believe in Cross but like witnesses also believe we are living in end of days. Unlike witness they can just prayer and repent apparently to get past any wrong-doing.

Like witnesses they have 3 meetings a week also something called 'cell-groups' either all boys or all girls (same sexes don't mix at the cell-group meetings) but the girls one aren't very well supported, my partner can confess in a cell-group making repentance in front of whole group and it never goes any further certainly no female member would hear of it, so if he is like mine and was unreliable with women no females of congregation would be warned (I found out recently i was 4th female to get pregnant to him all the other had abortions after he left them :S). I do get the impression men are more favoured in this organisation, women are always behind them supporting, They only have men doing the talks and don't even lets females have the small talks witnesses do, They do take up a lot of your live beside the meetings they encourage you to goto regular seminars (more male talkers) that tend to fill your whole weekends and some week nights too.

but research for yourself they do have bands at each meeting that are fun and do lots and lots of singing :) which i think is pity witnesses don't do more live music that way.

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

reniaa

Well that cut and post went a bit wrong but the link to article is interesting :)

I'm having much trepidation about baby, 3 kids and single parenthood again, one severely disabled eeek people think i'm mad and that could be right but I think we don't have much choice in this reality lol I think i'd welcome a few delusions..I have a lot of reality in my life :s

On the stauros/stake point also word xylon used which also translates as upright piece of wood/tree not cross

The Classic Greek Dictionary, Greek-English and English-Greek, With an Appendix of Proper and Geographical Names prepared by George Ricker Berry reads under "stauros": "..an upright pale, stake or pole; in plu. a palisade. II. the Cross.(p.648). Although this lexicon seems to give "the Cross" as a meaning for "stauros" it seems rather as a reference than a meaning("theCross" rather than "a cross")and to that of Jesus Christ. Hence definition II is somewhat 'suspect' and may only reflect the lexicons belief that the stauros in the NT was cross-shaped or it may be giving it as a reference, that is, that when we read in the English Bibles "cross" this is from the Greek stauros and no indication it was actually cross-shaped. In its definition 1 though there is no doubt the meaning of stauros and anything other than that stauros meant more than one piece of wood, whether it was a "pale, stake or pole" is not mentioned and certainly none of which were 'cross-shaped.' This is its meaning in all the Greek classics such as Homer. There is no evidence that the from or shape of the stauros in Jesus Christ's case was any different.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/newworldtranslation/stauros.htm

Thankyou for your info guys I have read all 8 pages with interest, I liked the graph too :) cheers r, crusoe for your comments.

383

Thinking of becoming a Witness again and my reasons for doing so :(

by reniaa in

i've been a faded jw for 10 years i left because of my failed first marriage, i'm no hypocrite and realised i had left completely so i embraced the world and dived in, only christmas and birthdays i could not get into, they were too foreign to me having never celebrated them, like if i suddenly tried to do ramadan or something like that.. 1/ all the criticisms of the people in the truth you say on here, i've found in the world, warts and all only in the world nothing holds them back from being utterly horrible to you.. 2/ i got stabbed by a worldly boyfriend, i got married 2 times of my own choosing to men outside the truth, the first smoked and was an alcoholic, the second gambled every penny we had and defrauded me out of money after we separated, 2 divorces later i am currently pregnant and a single mum since current boyfriend decided kids was to much of a responsibility and he needed his freedom and i was 'too selfish to expect him to give up his life'.. 3/ parents-in-law!

i have been shunned by them as equal to anything you accuse witness families of and for the silliest of reasons, i had a disabled son and his grandparents said they wanted nothing to do with him because they didn't want to become attached in case he died.. 4/ i miss the honest friendships of the truth, i had friends of all ages from 14 to 80 years old and they genuinely cared for me, many trying to keep me in the faith a long time after i left but i was determined to fade so moved away completely, but i find friendships in the world so shallow in comparison and very hard to sustain :( i've never been a drinker and sometimes thats what friendship means you being a companion for them to goto pub with.. 5/ my recent boyfriend was in a christian religion, i thought why not find out about it, harvest churches if you ever heard of them, unfortunately it still hasn't stop him leaving me pregnant and alone and when i said to him how does he clear that with god, he replies "as long as i repent it doesn't matter" it's like he has a "get out of jail free card" for any wrong-doing in the bible, this is so alien to me and my witness trained conscience.. 6/ i recently out of frustration tried looking into atheism and joined their forums, it wasn't fun, they are as bombastic and arrogant as their religious counterparts can be from any religion, they make a religion out of not believing in god, it's very weird they talk of saving people from believing in god and offer nothing to replace it.

they said to me "be happy you are in reality now and enjoy it" and i thought "well if this is reality i've had enough of it".

reniaa

Good morning peeps :)

Here's like for the mammal find....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6817636/?GT1=6065

A second mammal fossil found at the same site claims the distinction of being the largest early mammal ever found. It's about the size of a modern dog, a breathtaking 20 times larger than most mammals living in the early Cretaceous Period.
Wei Gao / Chinese Academy of Sciences The skeleton of Repenomamus giganticus, about the size of a modern dog, is seen here compared with skeleton of an extant tree shrew.
Considering the specimens in tandem, scientists suggest the period in which these animals lived may have been much different than is commonly understood as the Age of Dinosaurs -- a time dominated by long-necked, 85-ton plant-eaters and the emergence of terrifying theropod hunters with bladelike teeth and sickle claws.
It appears that at least some smaller dinosaurs had to look over their shoulders for snarling, meat-eating mammals claiming the same turf.