It's kind of hard to define weird, isn't it? What if I told you that a spaceman made the earth, the dinosaurs, and of course humans, then a while later came down from outer space onto the world he made, implanted himself inside a virgin, grew up as a human but maneuvered events so he would be executed (you see, even though he came down from outer space, there is really 3 of him, even though it's all just the one guy, so the other 2 could still maneuver events.. even though they don't exist separately), then went back to outer space. But before he died he left instructions on how everyone can worship him forever so they can come up to space too someday. And the ones who worship him the best wear strange pointy hats and/or cloth habits if they are a woman, and can never have sex or get married to show the guy from space how much they like him. This is the story of the mainstream Catholic Church, isn't it? If you never heard a story like that before, how would that sound?
Chaserious
JoinedPosts by Chaserious
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16
Why do all religions have to have really stupid beliefs that are an embarrassment.
by mP ini cant understand why some people want to start a new religion and they have to invent new stories, but why oh why do they have to be so stupid and why do people fall for them.
so many religions like the mormons, jw etc all have such down right nutty stupid beliefs its a wonder why they couldnt simply be more realistic... i dont get it..
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First Ex-JW Experience with XMas Spirit
by simon17 inso obviously as a recently parting jw, i've never had the hastle, the annoyance or the joy of experiencing christmas.
this year in our office was the first time that we did a secret santa, so i would joke with a few of the people looking for advice because i had never really celebrated christmas.
it was kind of a fun running joke for the past month or two, as they laughed and pitied over my past with me, which they pried about and i explained.
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Chaserious
Wow, what an awesome experience! Merry Christmas!
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Does Anyone View You As A "Prodigal Son" With The Hope You Will Come Back To Jehovah?
by minimus ini know some have thought that about me.
my family used to but i think that hope is dwindling now..
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Chaserious
Probably my mom. A while back she sent my wife a copy of the WT article in the mail about 607 BCE (addressed to my wife since she's only faded, not DF'd like me - apparently good ol' Mom might jeopardize her everlasting life ™ if she wrote her own son's name on the envelope) since she knows that's one of the things that "stumbled" me.
I used to hear various witnesses say that 90% of DF'd witnesses come back. I specifically remember the 90% figure used. I wonder where they got it from or if they just made it up. I don't think it's ever been in print, and I doubt it's true, although just based on my own personal experience it seemed like people were always getting reinstated and at any given time there were always a couple of DF'd people at my hall who attended.
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What was it about Bethel that woke you up?
by cognisonance inone the how many exbethelites thread it was mentioned that some think one either leaves down the path towards apostasy or as a 100% true believer.
i'm curious what experiences did you face at bethel that woke you up (or started to at least)?.
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Chaserious
Awesome thread. Thanks to all who posted - I didn't know a lot of these things about Bethel. My father was at Brooklyn in the 70's before my siblings and I were born, and now that I think about it, I always asked him what it was like at Bethel, and he never really had anything substantive to say. He would say it was a good experience, and he would talk about some of his friends from Bethel, but I can't remember a single thing that he ever said he enjoyed other than (in my words) being the closest he came to getting the college dorm experience.
I also lived in Cobble Hill this past summer and I would go jogging in Brooklyn in the morning and would usually run through the promenade. A few times a saw young Bethel-looking guys walking all alone along the promenade, kind of sad looking, gazing out over the river. I wondered if maybe they were new Bethellites from somewhere far from Brooklyn talking a walk before or after morning worship, wondering what they had gotten themselves into.
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10 things that happened in 2012 - my review
by cedars inlast year i did a review of 2011 for the forum.
this was more of a review that focussed on some of the awful stuff that was printed in the literature that year - the first year of my awakening.. 2012 has been more interesting from the point of view of things actually happening outside the literature.
i thought it might be nice to take a look back and put some of these events in chronological order.... .
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Chaserious
The deaf masturbation video just isn't the same after you gave it away earlier.
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If Cash Flow Ends, What Then?
by metatron init's worth thinking about - what will they do if their cash flow virtually dries up?
would they "turn on" the friends and try to "punish" them by threatening to close assembly halls and drop the awake completely?.
could witnesses in western nations fade away from the "ministry" if there is almost nothing left to offer at the doors?.
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Chaserious
I wonder how smart they are with organizational planning and investing. If they are smart, I would imagine they'd have something like $2 Billion in investible assets, from the sale of real-estate and surpluses in WWW donations. I imagine, well invested, they could get around a 10% return, tax free. If they're that well prepared, and refuse to spend money they don't have coming in, I would think that no matter how much contributions dry up in wealthy countries, they could shrink HQ to a small size, cut back on global projects, and run everything almost in perpetuity on $200 Mil a year in investment income plus whatever donations they are still getting.
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Circuit Accounts Servants Confesses how the SCAM WORKS!!
by JT inyes, i too have wondered how an assembly that is held in a fully paid for assembly hall, with no food service, could possibly have $10,000 in expenses.
i suppose the bethel speakers have transportation expenses - maybe $1000 or so.
as for rent on the assembly hall, well you have already paid for it once, why pay again?
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Chaserious
They might not be rolling around in a Rolls Royce, but someone has to pay for those Bethel heavies' trips to Bora Bora so they can write an article for the Awake about the local customs, the flora and fauna and how it's all a marvel of creation.
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It`s hard to comprehend most of my peers still beleive this religion is the truth
by smiddy ini have from time to time attempted to contact former" freinds" in the truth ,sometimes the initial contact was excellent ,great to hear from you / good to catch up etc.
and even some who couldn`t even remember me .
some of these people i would have thought had a greater iq than what i gave them credit for ,otherwise why would you stick to this religion .ok i appreciate some may want to hold on to family so keep their mouth shut , but i have opened up to them and they cut me off.
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Chaserious
We were all in the religion at one time... did we all have a tiny IQ? I second what leaving said.
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Circuit Assemblies - Do they make money? Convince Chas
by Chaserious ini have seen a number of posts here stating that the wts turns a profit off cas (and das for that matter) as if it is an established fact.
i tried searching for prior threads on this, in case maybe there is evidence i'm not aware of (such as inside sources), but the search function is not too advanced so i didn't find anything.
in any event, about 4 years ago when i used to attend them it seemed that the expenses they would announce for a 2-day ca would be around $10k, and for a 1-day it would be $5k.
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Chaserious
Well, I still do think that all of the things in my OP do cost money, not just utilities and repairs. And I would guess just utilities cost somewhere from $50k-100k per year. I would imagine it costs $50k a year to support the caretaker couple, and I think that's legitimate to pass on. But I see now how the WTS skims some money off the top, so thanks to all for explaining how it works.
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Is The Book of Revelation All About Me & My Generation?
by ClubSandwich injws believe the book of revelation offers an account of what is to come in their lifetime.
but the problem is that every generation for the last 1900 years has thought the same thing.
and, every generation has been wrong, even though each new one thinks it will be about me and my generation this time.. most reputable bible scholars believe that revelation, also called the apocalypse of john, was not written to describe the future for people living today.
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Chaserious
Is The Book of Revelation All About Me & My Generation?
Well, obviously the answer depends on what you mean by "generation." Do you mean the era including the people living when you were alive, overlapping with the last people who were alive at the same time, overlapping with the people before that, and so on back to the Apostle John? It's got to be for somebody in that generation, right?