Posts by lifelong humanist

14

Swiss TV Program My reaction to the TV forum participants

by Nick! in

jw
friends

swiss tv program my reaction to the tv forum participants.

this afternoon, william heinzer, the journalist who, together with florence, were responsible for the swiss tv program called me and confirmed that, although this program on jehovahs witnesses has been the one which had the highest number of interventions in the tv forum, they had to withdraw the forum, because of the atrocious allegations made against myself and my two kids, fulvio and amanda.. i planned to copy and publish on my site, a selection of the jw and ex.jw posts, just to show the low moral of these people, who pretend to worship the true god.

even ex-jw, whom i know pretty well, and who were expelled for immorality, but still believe the jw are jehovahs only people, have spit their venom against us.

lifelong humanist

Buon giorno Roberto

You, and your family have done an admirable thing - taken on the JW cult in such an organized and public manner and factually expose them for the frauds that they are. I respect what you've done and applaud your courage and determination not to be sidetracked in the pursuit of truth. Your 2 children have also been brave and unafraid of reprisals.

The venom that you and your family have had to endure just underlines the nastiness of this religious cult. Perhaps the intensity of bad feeling surpassed even your expectations? Be assured, thinking people will be left in no doubt just how dangerous the JW religion is, and certainly prevent them from ever wanting to join their movement.

Well done Roberto, and please know that I fully support your endeavours in this regard.

Please pass on my kind regards to Rosie. Do you think that you'll be back in Scotland some time next year? It would be great to meet up with you again and enjoy another fine meal in Edinburgh, or, here in Crieff!

lifelong humanist

John

12

Any Petrolheads Here?

by lifelong humanist in

jw
friends

my still-in jw wife thinks that i'm crazy to have just bought a new top-of-the-range mazda mx-5 2l roadster (miata, eunos for other countries).. i'm 58 years old.

too old for a 'fun car', i'm told!

i used to sell subaru's, so i've driven a lot of very fast, responsive 4 wheel drive cars.

lifelong humanist

When I was 'still-in', I once spoke with (what I thought was) a reasonable CO that was staying in our house during his visit that I really wanted to buy a used Porsche turbo. The CO was quick to point out that this was not a 'suitable' car to even contemplate buying for a JW - just think of the people who would be seriously stumbled by such a purchase from an ELDER? I declined to enter into an argument.

Sad to say, I listened and bought something more boring and serious - my mistake!

lifelong humanist

12

Any Petrolheads Here?

by lifelong humanist in

jw
friends

my still-in jw wife thinks that i'm crazy to have just bought a new top-of-the-range mazda mx-5 2l roadster (miata, eunos for other countries).. i'm 58 years old.

too old for a 'fun car', i'm told!

i used to sell subaru's, so i've driven a lot of very fast, responsive 4 wheel drive cars.

lifelong humanist

sorry guys! I meant to write, 'air-cooled' not water cooled Porsches - sorry for my careless mistake. To me, adding a radiator was not an improvement . The air-cooled engine not only sounds absolutely fantastic, but the engine really howls in the top-range!

56

How many of you atheists, agnostics, deists are celebrating Xmas??

by SweetBabyCheezits in

jw
friends

we are celebrating xmas this year for the first time.

it's kinda weird because, even though we're doing a xmas tree, decorations, gifts, we're more or less taking the christ out of christmas.

so how about the rest of you non-christian heathens?.

lifelong humanist

SweetBabyCheezits

I'm not celebrating anything to do with any Christian Christmas. As a JW this was off-limits. However, since realizing I was a natural born Humanist, I'm sending friends and family a card to celebrate the arrival of the Winter solstice as our ancestors observed thousands of years ago (long before the Jesus character).

I look forward to enjoying some fantastic meals, enjoying quality wines and fantastic whiskies along with some great conversation around the table - with non-JW family and friends. As I'll be cooking all the meals, I'll need to be on top form to deliver! I've already started ordering in some of the expensive, quality ingredients.

I find this both stimulating and logical, given our long history on planet earth. To me, celebrating Humanism is a natural place to be at a crazy, confused time of year - and not just for JW's!

lifelong humanist

12

Any Petrolheads Here?

by lifelong humanist in

jw
friends

my still-in jw wife thinks that i'm crazy to have just bought a new top-of-the-range mazda mx-5 2l roadster (miata, eunos for other countries).. i'm 58 years old.

too old for a 'fun car', i'm told!

i used to sell subaru's, so i've driven a lot of very fast, responsive 4 wheel drive cars.

lifelong humanist

james_woods

Thanks for your reply. That's quite a car collection that you are so lucky to have!

Ferrari's are jaw-droppingly fantastic, but totally out of my price range. I've only ever sat in one as a passenger, and that was a Mondial (the worst Ferrari ever?).

Porsche's are great driver's cars, especially water-cooled 911's - the noise just enthralls you! My oldest son was working in Germany when he treated me to a trip to their factory about 10 years ago - it was a fascinating visit. The tour guide fairly trashed Maranello throughout the duration, though (good-humoured, tongue in cheek). We weren't allowed to see the about-to-be-launched Cayenne, I recall.

I once had to drive around in a Mason's Black Bentley in the mid-70s to take customers out for 'hospitality'. Naturaly, with only an automatic gearbox, I wasn't over impressed! Other drivers moved out of the way, though. The car had such a lot of presence.

I've had over 15 Alfas, 20 Fiats, a few fast VWs and a Saab (turbo blew up). This is my first Japanese car - the build quality is superb!

lifelong humanist

12

Any Petrolheads Here?

by lifelong humanist in

jw
friends

my still-in jw wife thinks that i'm crazy to have just bought a new top-of-the-range mazda mx-5 2l roadster (miata, eunos for other countries).. i'm 58 years old.

too old for a 'fun car', i'm told!

i used to sell subaru's, so i've driven a lot of very fast, responsive 4 wheel drive cars.

lifelong humanist

Oh, just in case anyone is thinking 'green' issues here, this fun car returns around 45mpg and the mileage will probably not exceed 2K miles per year!

lifelong humanist

12

Any Petrolheads Here?

by lifelong humanist in

jw
friends

my still-in jw wife thinks that i'm crazy to have just bought a new top-of-the-range mazda mx-5 2l roadster (miata, eunos for other countries).. i'm 58 years old.

too old for a 'fun car', i'm told!

i used to sell subaru's, so i've driven a lot of very fast, responsive 4 wheel drive cars.

lifelong humanist

My still-in JW wife thinks that I'm crazy to have just bought a new top-of-the-range Mazda MX-5 2L roadster (Miata, Eunos for other countries).

I'm 58 years old. Too old for a 'fun car', I'm told! I used to sell Subaru's, so I've driven a lot of very fast, responsive 4 wheel drive cars. My wife prefers practical saloon cars with 4 doors and a hatchback - yet she didn't really enjoy driving cars from the Subaru range enough to make me consider buying one.

With rear wheel drive, perfect 50-50 weight distribution, Japanese build quality, the Mazda offers a sublime driving experience. It doesn't have the stunning looks of Italian sports cars though.

Maybe I should have known better - I got the same grief when I bought a used lemon yellow Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider 2.0L in the early 70's and had a complete, expensive paint respray to Alfa red. When I sold this iconic Alfa a few years later, I actually made a small profit!

I had the same reaction when I was the first Fiat customer in Scotland to buy a new Fiat Barchetta not long after it was released in LHD only in the early 90's - front wheel drive and only a 1.6 L engine - but still a stunning looking car and a lot of fun to drive - though not especially quick.

Is this just a JW revulsion of fun 2 seater sports cars?

lifelong humanist

4

How Many Humanists in your country?

by lifelong humanist in

jw
friends

many on this forum already know that i'm a member of the humanist society scotland.. at our annual conference last month, i was happy to collect a bumper sticker that had been produced for a special capaign earlier this year to raise awareness of humanism issues within scotland.

our population is very small - just over 5 million people, so the simple message was bound to create quite a stir:.

two million scots are good without god.

lifelong humanist

alanv

Interested in reading about your family's humanist links - thanks for responding. My mum (93 years old) had a humanist funeral earlier this year - she didn't believe in god any longer and asked me if she could have a non-religious funeral, which I was happy to arrange via The Humanist Society Scotland's website of celebrants. Almost all of my family commented favourably on how sensitive and personal the celebration of my mum's life turned out. Quite a few of my cousins commented that they'd prefer a non-religious send-off when their turn comes. My mum's younger brother (93, also) has his funeral this Friday - his family have arranged for a high-profile Church of Scotland service of remembrance. I'll be going along with my still-in JW wife.

wobble

Thanks for your comments - my new car is a new Mazda MX-5. I'm still considering sticking it on the rear windscrren, regardless of how my wife will feel. She doesn't approve of my choice of motor! Maybe once she drives it she'll see just how dynamic this car is, though. She's finally agreed that she doesn't want to relocate to Turkey or Italy - so that's why I decided to buy a rather impractical, but huge fun car to cheer myself up!

lifelong humanist

90

Did you Fade Gradually or Stop Attending Meetings Quickly ? Reasons ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

been thinking about this and curious about what makes us all come to the decisions we came to in our fade/exiting the jw organization.. i think for myself having been born-in & raised a jw my doubts about the generation doctrine had simmered for years within me quietly and by the time i finally left in 2003 i had reached my breaking point.

also seeing unjust treatment of rank & file witness ( myself included ) just propelled me into my decision even quicker.

so - one day after meeting with 3 elders in a back room before a meeting and seeing their judgmental aggression towards me - i just told myself " enough is enough ".

lifelong humanist

flipper

Another interesting thread, as usual from your own good self.

Like you, 2003 was a special year for me - the year I suddenly resigned as an elder and quit the cult. I simply wrote a leter to the local elders and told them that I wanted to DA myself as I no longer believed in any god, far less the WatchTower god, and no longer wanted to be known as one of their cult followers.

Coming to this conclusion was quite a quick process only after I started to use the critical thinking facility that I'd learned during my MBA university degree course in the mid 90's - I never read any of Hassan's or Ray Franz's books or looked online around this time. Looking back now, I just wish that I'd started out discovering how life began, how 'holy books' and religions were invented, etc., a whole lot sooner.

I then realized that I was just a Humanist at heart. It was a difficult time for me, a real challenge - I was a third generation born-in JW. For over 20 years I tried to be an understanding, liberal, approachable elder. What a total waste of time and effort that was!

I now know now that I'd possibly have been smarter just to fade - an elder friend and now ex-JW kindly took the time to try and persuade me to simply fade. Indeed, this would have been easier for my still-in JW wife (I mistakenly thought that she'd join me and do the same). My JW in-laws would still be speaking with me, and former acquaintances and the few friends I had at the KH would probably still speak with me and not do the unnatural strange shunning stuff. However, that would have been against my own principles and open honesty - fading would have been a 'cowards' way out. I can understand why many opt for the fade, though, and don't belittle their decision in any way.

Now, having read Hassan's books and bits of Franz's story I'm better prepared to continue to help free my wife from the clutches of the cult. Seven years and counting...

Here in Scotland winter's now here, with sub-zero temperatures and snow on the hills - how I envy you and Mrs Flipper in sunny California!

lifelong humanist

4

How Many Humanists in your country?

by lifelong humanist in

jw
friends

many on this forum already know that i'm a member of the humanist society scotland.. at our annual conference last month, i was happy to collect a bumper sticker that had been produced for a special capaign earlier this year to raise awareness of humanism issues within scotland.

our population is very small - just over 5 million people, so the simple message was bound to create quite a stir:.

two million scots are good without god.

lifelong humanist

Many on this forum already know that I'm a member of the Humanist Society Scotland.

At our annual conference last month, I was happy to collect a bumper sticker that had been produced for a special capaign earlier this year to raise awareness of Humanism issues within Scotland. Our population is very small - just over 5 million people, so the simple message was bound to create quite a stir:

TWO MILLION SCOTS ARE GOOD WITHOUT GOD

How many people, or what percentage of people in your country do you think have quite openly gone on record as stating that they don't believe in any god? I'd be very interested to hear from any posters on this.

I haven't had the guts to stick the sticker on my car yet, as I don't think my still-in JW wife would want to be seen either in it as a passenger or driving it with such a message proudly being displayed. I can just imagine the outrage from other cult members in the KH car park!

lifelong humanist