Posts by cliff

34

For those who are athest, or non-christian, how did you come to this decision?

by Tameria2001 in

i'm not asking this question to cause an argument or accuse, but i am honestly just wondering?

for those of you who are now atheist or non-christian, how did you come to this decision?

i hadn't given this much thought until about a year ago.

cliff

I was never more than just a flirt with JWism during impressionable youth years (and a really cute GF!)

GF asked one day if I really believed in the virgin birth. To that point I had been a floppy Anglican and had never really thought about such things. I realised I did not believe.

In my early 20s I travelled a lot and an afternoon at St Peters in Rome opened the floodgates to the realisation that all these people genuflecting to something in their imagination were just in love with the idea of faith. I have observed the same throughout the world in every religion.

Pascal's Wager terrifies mankind.

I cannot imagine being anything but a confirmed atheist, but there are an awful lot of things I do not understand or cannot explain.

51

What are your favorite musical scores in film?

by LoveUniHateExams in

hi guys!.

this thread is at least partly inspired by blondie's classical music thread.. i'm not particularly a musical person but i do appreciate good scores in film.. what are your favorites?.

here's a well-known movie score i like .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btdleusg9ew .

cliff

The Godfather.

I am surprised this has not been mentioned! Very integral to the plot, drama and atmosphere.. Try watching the baptism/murder sequence in G1 - nothing without the music!

(Pull a veil over Godfather 111!)

19

Alone

by Deleteandrestart in

since i woke up one year ago , i've been doing a somewhat controlled fade , the experience i've had has been a very solitary one , i don't mean by not seeing anyone i know because i know hundreds in several congregations and i was an elder .

but just coming to terms with the fact that this was no longer the solution to life's problems, that i'd wasted so much time, that as i sat in the kh and heard everyone comment, my heart was no longer in it , i no longer fitted in ..... i felt that they were in the congregation all under the spell or some form of hypnosis from the wtbts,.

it was like for the first time in my experience at the kh , that i was the only one to see what was actually going on , the indoctrination, the guilt tripping, i could see it all as clear as day , and yet i had as it where a metal gag over my mouth, i couldn't speak to anyone about it for fear of them turning me into the spiritual police.

cliff

@talesin:

The Elvera Madegan - sublime Mozart!

45

What Are Your "Senior Moments" Like?

by compound complex in

jw
friends

dear friends:.

i imagine by now we old timers have adjusted to the fact that we are getting older and, one day, will make our exit.

are your "senior moments" ever a cause for worry to you?

cliff

I recently agreed, with pleasure, to help out a local family with some difficulties by collecting the 12 year old daughter from a village school a few miles away at about 15.30.

I am a 72 year old retired, with a car, and not doing much at all in this really crappy weather. so hardly an imposition.

For the last two days I received frantic phone calls at 15.45 from mum wondering where was everybody! I was happily reading, dozing and not doing a crossword in my sun lounge!

How feeble and embarrassing is that?!

49

"If I wasn't born a JW, I would never have become one."

by OneEyedJoe in

i've seen it mentioned by a few on the forum that at some point there was a realization that had they not been born a jw, they never would've converted no matter how many times the jws tried to study with them.

this was my experience too, and i'm wondering how universal it is for those that were born-in but eventually left.

i think i started having this thought (more specifically that if i were not born a jw, i would surely have become an atheist by now) in my late teens.

cliff

I don't know why this in not more generally observed with ALL religions!

Most folks follow the parental and local culture, all over the world.

Imagine, if you can, a world without faiths. Would the next generations suddenly (re-)invent them all?

78

January jw-tv broadcast with Lett

by bohm in

jw
friends

lett is back with a vengance!.

* the last money-begging effort increased donations by 15% for two months; a letter by a 13 year old who donated is read out loud.

* since last may "so many good things have happened".

cliff

Never having been a witness I can only comment as an outsider.

But having been involved in professional marketing communications using all the modern tools such as video and internet since their inception, I do feel qualified to judge that Lett is a total buffoon and will alienate most of his intended audience.

From the JW point of view he is a disaster! Doesn't JAH have better discretion than that?

22

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn"

by Simon in

if you've never come across the above title before, it's considered to be the shortest novel possible.

a story, possibly a moving one, in just 6 words attributed to earnest hemingway.. it started a genre called "flash fiction" which is a memoir in six-words.. what would yours be?.

indoctrinated child found freedom, love, family.

cliff

Epitaph: I said I was ill!

17

Jehovah's Witness meets a Born Again Christian on a Train. Oh and a Muslim

by passwordprotected in

a couple of saturdays ago i and my girlfriend (who happens to be baptised into the greek orthodox religion, but practises greek catholic...no, she's not greek) were on the virgin train from glasgow to london.. we had reserved seats on the quiet zone of the train, because y'know, a 5 hour train journey shouldn't be sullied by mobile phones ringing and noisy conversations.. somewhere around the lake district a very tall woman sits at the table across the carriage from us, a table already occupied by a very chatty, bearded man in his late 50s, along with his wife.

this man was directing people where to stow their luggage and asking random travellers questions about their journey to the point where i sent my girlfriend a text message (easier to communicate that way without others overhearing us) asking if he was the "train boss".. he struck up a conversation with this new passenger about his travels, but i wasn't really paying attention as i was watching a movie on my ipad, wearing noise cancelling headphones.

after a little while i noticed they'd stopped chatting and the woman was now reading.

cliff

"VIRGIN" is the brand name of a string of companies started and owned by Richard Branson.

Virgin Atlantic airline, Virgin music, trains, banking etc etc

6

Cropping the Side of My Post

by BluesBrother in

yesterday i posted a topic :.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/209140001/watchtower-june-15-2015-misleading-reference-past-statement.

the right side of the post was chopped off, in my computer anyway , using google chrome.

cliff

In general, Ctrl-(mouse)_scroll_wheel controls the size of the text and therefore frame in a Windows webpage.

I find this helps reduce the text size so that the frames can fit in the screen without cropping or worse.

7

Life On Mars!!!

by apostrate in

i first heard of this a couple of years ago, i think it is nasa that is sending people to mars to begin a colony on the red planet.

they will never be allowed to return to earth.

i just saw on the morning news that they have 100 people narrowed down who have volunteered.

cliff

"They may actually leave sometime this Fall .... "

Yeah, Right!

This editor is weird - how to do the "quote" thing? And edit emoticons?