lifelong humanist

Joined

• started 26 topics
• posted 214 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by lifelong humanist

• 
  10

  Would there have been a funeral for Jesus?

  by lifelong humanist in

  1. jw
  2. friends
  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  lifelong humanist

  I was just about to post the question, but it just went straight to posting! I'm sorry about that.

  I'd never thought about it before, but what do you think happened with the family of the man known as Jesus - would his mother, brothers and sisters (Roman Catholics, I'm sorry but that's what the Bible says) have arranged and had a normal Jewish funeral ceremony? If, as the story says, a few days later the individual was then pronounced to be alive, what action do you think the family would have taken? Would the funeral service be annulled? Had there been life-insurance back then, would the family have had to repay it?

  Just curious if any poster has ever given this any consideration?
• 
  10

  Would there have been a funeral for Jesus?

  by lifelong humanist in

  1. jw
  2. friends
  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  lifelong humanist
• 
  10

  What are the current rules to have a JW funeral?

  by JWoods in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in light of the mj debacle clogging up almost all channels of communications today, i began wondering: what does it take to be told that you cannot have a proper jw burial service?.

  in the case of jackson, we suspect that he was either da'd or dissasociated at some point in the late 80s.

  i can remember rumors before i left in the early 80s of a rift with the elders over that thriller album...and that he was either privately or publicly reproved over it.. he is known to have married a scientologist, divorced her, and later married another woman to have kids by arrangement, then divorcing her, and possibly getting into a third marriage.. he is known to have dabbled in both islam, the kabala, and possibly other religions.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  lifelong humanist

  The person in question must be confirmed to be dead!
• 
  18

  unusual KH - part 1

  by Albert Einstein in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this time from armenia..... if you ever thought, your kh was not comfortable enough, what about this one...?.

  in case you dont have a car, you can use a public transport..... .

  do you want to sign up?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  lifelong humanist

  Unlike most quick-build KHs in the UK, at least it does have at least one window that I can see!
• 
  93

  what is best evidence against noah's flood?......

  by oompa in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  keep it simple if possible........i like the ice core samples.........thanks, this was not my big issue but i may be able to use it.......oompa.

  feel free to direct me to another thread btw...... or maybe i should read the second page of olins thread!.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  lifelong humanist

  oompa

  How would 2 very elderly people - Mr & Mrs Noah, their slightly younger 3 sons and respective wives have possibly been able to get down from the seriously high Turkish mountains that the massive wooden structure is said to have rested on? Today, only skilled climbers with ropes can do it! Most of the time the summits are covered in snow!

  If it would have been virtually impossible for them, without complex mountaineering equipment, how on earth would the animals have fared in their attempts to get down to the lowlands? Very little edible material is up there at that altitude.

  Also, any ark that came on Mt Ararat would still be there - decomposition wouldn't be fully over yet - after all it was said to be 4K years ago! Despite massive efforts and huge expense, none of the massive search parties wanting to find it has found any factual evidence of having done so.

  Apart from JWs, very few people believe it is a true story, meant to be taken literally.

  In fact, when I was a JW, I had a BS with a geology lecturer at Glasgow University, Scotland. He said to me that if the flood was true, the evidence all around us would be overwhelming, and every geology student would believe it happenned because it would be so self-evident that even amateur geologists, far less those studying the subject in depth would believe in it. I wrote to the WTS on the subject, looking for modern writings from eminent geologists. Imagine my shock, when all that I got back was a list of old WT and Awake! articles that I already was fully aware of! Why, oh why did I not realize that the reason they could not help me find reliable source material was because there is no evidence! However, I was only 18 at the time and my mind was more on other things...
• 
  15

  New Website, Watchtower Search

  by DT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just started a new website.

  http://sites.google.com/site/watchtowersearch.

  it centers around a customized search engine for doing research on jehovah's witnesses.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  lifelong humanist

  Many congratulations!

  I've just tried it with 1914 and 1975 - it really works!

  This will assist many looking for empirical evidence that much of what the WTS now write and teach is not an accurate version of what they previously stated. as being true.
• 
  54

  Apostate Artwork

  by sacolton in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for use on any jw discussion/website .... .

  .

  (insert your captions here).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  lifelong humanist

  Many of the examples posted are excellently conceived - incredibly witty, funny, and absolutely spot on!

  So good in fact, that, were they produced, many JWs would actually start reading, become ingrossed and wake up to the real truth!

  Start buying the printing presses now, (maybe the WTS have a few at knock-down prices), start distributing and free millions now living from years of boring nonsense!

  Bring it on!
• 
  31

  Your thoughtful opinion is requested, please, on a possible proposal to free my wife from JWs

  by lifelong humanist in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  six years 'jw free', my wife is still in, although she's now nowhere neary as zealous as i was when in.

  for this i'm grateful.. please take a moment to review my current situation as far as my wife's involvement is concerned with our 4, adult male children:.

  my wife regularly contacts my dfd son, invites him and his wife to visit us, along with their 4 year old son, and thinks absolutely nothing of it!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  lifelong humanist

  My sincere thanks to all posters - with few exceptions, the response has been pretty damning! I can clearly see that my thinking has needed a bit of readjusting!

  Steve Hassan's highly recommended second book, 'Releasing the Bonds' (via Amazon.UK) arrived. His earlier work should appear today. Skimming through it, it looks like there are a lot of helpful suggestions that Ill be able to utilise to help her - I know that my wife has already glanced through it herself.

  It has been interesting, and heartening, to pick up on several of your suggestions that my wife is 'almost already out by her own attitude towards rules that she clearly disobeys, or choses to ignore. I really hadn't fully appreciated the significance of this fact.

  Let me clarify a few points, though, to some posters of what I thought I'd clearly conveyed in posting the original request for comments. Perhaps my wording wasn't too clear - if so, I wholeheartedly apologize:

  • It would never ever be my intention to write to the local elders behind my wife's back - I'd show her a draft of any letter first. This would be bound to spark an interesting, 'what if I was to actually go ahead and submit something like this' moment?
  • I'd never dream of resorting to write incognito - that's nasty! As I chose the difficult option to DA and not fade, you can probably guess that I'm not the type of person that is afraid to speak out in an open, frank manner!

  It might surprise a few of you to know, that in the case of my DA letter, I asked my wife to read the draft over and provide any constructive comments - which she willingly did, making a few good suggestions - prior to submitting it.

  Just for the record, it had ocurred to me that any JC action taken against my wife to try and compel her to never speak with the boys again might be a dangerous, alienating move, however, I just know that that would be a futile exercise on their part - she'd never go along with that! So, this factor was never going to be an issue. On the other hand, as far as JWs pressure tactics are concerned, maybe this just could blow up and cause serious difficulties that I've never factored in to my suggestion. However, this is purely academic, as on balance, I propose not write any letter.

  I'll 'simmer down', rely on common sense, and start implementing the advice Steve Hasan has to offer - I haven't heard any negative comments about his ideas on this, or any other, websites designed to help former JWs free their loved ones from the tyranny of the WTS!

  Thank you all!
• 
  31

  Your thoughtful opinion is requested, please, on a possible proposal to free my wife from JWs

  by lifelong humanist in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  six years 'jw free', my wife is still in, although she's now nowhere neary as zealous as i was when in.

  for this i'm grateful.. please take a moment to review my current situation as far as my wife's involvement is concerned with our 4, adult male children:.

  my wife regularly contacts my dfd son, invites him and his wife to visit us, along with their 4 year old son, and thinks absolutely nothing of it!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  lifelong humanist

  Six years 'JW free', my wife is still in, although she's now nowhere neary as zealous as I was when in. For this I'm grateful.

  Please take a moment to review my current situation as far as my wife's involvement is concerned with our 4, adult male children:

  1. My wife regularly contacts my DFd son, invites him and his wife to visit us, along with their 4 year old son, and thinks absolutely nothing of it! This son is a musician in the Scots Guards, based in London, England. In fact, she's not long back from staying at the army barracks, while attending several military concerts that he was participating in. Naturally, all of this is perfectly fine with me, and represents typical, 'proud parent' behaviour.
  2. She also regularly contacts my other DAd son and invites him to visit, stay over for weekends, etc. Contact is even more regular whenever he engages in his extreme sports activities - i.e., free climbing in some of Scotland's most challenging mountains, ice-climbing, etc. This, too, is fine with me, and I share her concerns over his safety.
  3. Contact for our inactive, eldest non-baptized (though he was an unbaptized minister) son has always been regular, especially after the arrival of our first grandchild.
  4. My youngest son abandoned attending and associating with JWs when I DAd myself 6 years ago, so there are no issues there as to what behaviour the JW should adopt.

  As I continue in my struggle with my attempt to free my wife from the JW cult, it occured to me that she may have inadvertently provided me with an opportunity to speed up the process (please refer to points 1 and 2 above - some might ven say that pont 3 goes too far!). How? By writing to her local congregation and informing the elders that as a DAd person, I can't understand why my wife can do these things and yet remain in good standing within her congragation. I'd imagine that they'd question her, she'd admit she does these things, they'd convene a JC, she'd (probably) not agree with their findings, and they'd have to DF her. Job done!

  While this sounds a drastic step to take, and I don't feel particularly happy about following through with it, it just might be a solution to a very difficult problem.

  What do you think - is this a totally crazy idea? Do you think that it'd work, i.e., have the desired effect so she has to either stop assosciating with 2 of our 4 sons, which she won't accept, and lead to her being DFd?

  Any comments would be appreciated.
• 
  43

  WT Society Makes JW's Feel Bad about Themselves - No Self Worth

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have noticed this a lot in attitudes of witness relatives i've talked with over the last few years , as well as other former witness friends i have talked to.

  many witnesses feel bad about themselves due to having it drilled into them that we are all " sinners " who allegedly inherited " sin and imperfection " from adam and eve .

  that essentially humans are " born dead " or in a " dying " condition due to alleged " inherited sin " .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  lifelong humanist

  flipper,

  I agree with leavingwt - all extreme religions, or cults, if you want to define them as such, do this - it is a necessary evil.

  JWs go one step further, in maintaining that a person has no self-worth whatsoever for as long as they remain confined within their own narrow version of Christianity. In fact, the more you 'do' for them - sharing zealously in their preaching activities, giving talks, assisting as an elder or MS, helping others, the more worthless you feel! In comparison, that rat in the cage turning his wheel has an easy life...

  I've never personally met or spoken with anyone 'at the top' of the organizational hierarchy, but I suspect that these men (women need not apply) feel entirely different - possible feeling superior to others not in the limelight.

  Personally, I feel much better about myself and others around me as a result of abandoning 50 years of captivity within the JW world!