Giordano

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Posts by Giordano

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  24

  Any Tourettes syndrome in your congregation?

  by fade_away in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  a huge number of jws have mental illnesses.

  i knew someone with a schizophrenic disorder and he would occasionally forget/refuse to take his pills which made for some very embarassing moments at the meetings and on service.

  he would come to our house claiming he is jesus christ in the flesh and would get upset with anyone that didn't believe him.

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  Giordano

  I'm loving misunderestimate............ Thats when congress doesn't get how pissed off the American population is with them.
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  17

  What Changed? I Did. You Did. (or, there is a reason Apostates are angry)

  by AllTimeJeff in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  (for the purposes of this post, i want to say that being angry, though a real emotion, is not healthy if it continues to fester inside you.

  i think anger is reasonable if it helps you to move on from point a to point b. in addition, because of the real issues anger can bring, if you feel that after many years you are still angry over your jw experience, i strongly encourage therapy.

  long term anger is destructive to the individual).

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  Giordano

  Getting angry sure But there are things I should remember to thank them for.

  Thank you WT for driving me to drink....I have enjoyed my Martini each evening followed by a nice wine and I never think about you while i drink.

  Thank you for encouraging me to become a reader by Showing me the difference between your wretched publications and those with well thought out critical thinking such as a great post on this forum compared of the utter stupidity of your WT publications.

  Thank you WT for your kingdom hall music which is to music as .............................well nothing. WT I endured your music for years before discovering how great jazz really is, and classical music and............. Rock. Thanks.

  Thanks for not encourageing higher education, my kids didn't have to compete with your kids for a good job.

  Because of you I have learned to sit still when I attend a JW family members funeral. I have even learned to look interested at such events. Not because of your words...... my interested expression is how you morons get away with your crap.

  I'd love to continue but it's martini time on the east coast.
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  7

  Do you think that the JW religion will die out?

  by i_drank_the_wine in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  while the number of jw's reported every year is still growing, it doesn't seem to really be growing as fast as they once did.. do you think that they will eventually level off and then decline?

  some of this was based on the stats on this page i was reading: http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php granted, statistics can be presented in whatever light the author is trying to represent (look at the way the jw's massage their statistics to always be favorable).. of particular interest was their deductive math to find the number of people leaving yearly, which is pretty considerable.. a popular pew research study that lots of you probably heard about a couple years ago stated that jw's have the lowest family retention rate of any other mainstream religion.. combine the aging jw populace, the number of people leaving every year, the slowing growth rate numbers, the mindset held by many to "not have children in this system", the children that are had are only staying jw's roughly 1/3rd of the time according to statistics, the end never coming... add 20, 30 years?

  could the jw's actually, for all intents and purposes, die out?.

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  Giordano

  We have two KHs in our small city (Pop 7,000) Now one is up for sale and the plan is to share space with other. We have had a very stable population for 20 years now so they are losing support. Either because of an aging population vs lack of converts, or too many DF & DA. Or too many born-ins leaving.

  They will linger on for a while yet but one serious mistep and the great sumbling may be on them.
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  18

  What would it take for the JWs to spell "Jehovah's Witness" correctly on Facebook?!?

  by Kudra in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i mean, come on.. it's a damn religion that you would die for.. you call yourself a "minister".. and i bet you believe that you could debate like, a harvard-educated theologian under the table or something.... .

  so, jwn-ers, how many "jehova witness", "jehova witneses", or "jehovas' witness"es are you friends with on fb?.

  any other unique spellings i missed?.

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  Giordano

  JWs have always been particular about certain expressions and references and over the years they have evolved. One can even tell on this forum what era a person came from when they talk about their experiences.

  But this intentional misspelling surprises me. And it may be code for those looking for a looser casual witness connection. It also occurs to me that these might be born-ins who have a totaly different take on being a witness. That their disrespect is rebellion lite. I also wonder if the 67% of born-ins who are leaving do so when the fun social life ends usually in young adulthood with the growing realization that they need to get out from under or only socialize with others who feel the same way.

  That's a lot of speculation for a mis-spelled name. But something is going on.
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  78

  Science TV Show - AGuest and bohm please jump in

  by EntirelyPossible in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i started this thread to get a fresh start.

  i know, there is another thread, but it was all over the place.

  to that end, i would am going to paste a quote of shelby's from the other thread and try to stick to hashing that out.

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  Giordano

  Science functions in an entirely different way then religion. Religion is in the business of providing their believers with answers. Religion doesn't teach you how to think it teaches you what to think, as has been noted elsewhere. Because of this off center ability to reason and understand no one religion has succeeded in becoming the One religion. But in many respects science has succeeded in become the One science. Which leaves science to be the most durable and nondivisisive way of thinking about the heavens and the earth and humankind. Science now transcends all cultural, national and political boundaries. If science at times is seen to be the enemy of religion, it isn't. It is simply the enemy of ignorance. Unfortunately every religion promotes ignorance in one form or another. For science to function in a meaningful way it must have proof that something, some process, some form of energy exists which in turn provides the next bridge to the next discovery.

  Whether one accepts evolution or not is not as important as accepting that our knowledge of the heavens and the earth is evolving. Here's some good advice ......put down that bible, Koran etc .......and pick up a science book.
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  14

  Is there anyone here with a meeting on Tuesday or Monday? Need some help.

  by garbonzo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  doubt there will be a monday meeting, but i know there are tuesday meetings.

  obviously this is for people who are still in, or at least have the phone number for the phone hook up.. .

  anyway, i was wondering if someone could help me out.

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  Giordano

  Neither is typing skills
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  41

  How did you tell your mate that .....

  by stuckinamovement in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  you no longer believed that the watchtower organization was the truth, and that you were no longer going to go to the meetings or service?.

  and a followup question... what was the response?.

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  Giordano

  Another approach is to use a book that she might be more comfortable with.

  The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. Google it and read some of the quotes to get an idea about it's content. You'll see that it never mentions JW's at all, nor cults. Your wife may not be ready for that at this time. Hoffer was a plain speaking philosopher and longshoreman. What it talks about can be readily applied to the WTBTS.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer

  "The book analyzes and attempts to explain the motives of the various types of personalities that give rise to mass movements; why and how mass movements start, progress and end; and the similarities between them, whether religious, political, radical or reactionary. As examples, the book often refers to Communism, Fascism, National Socialism, Christianity, Protestantism and Islam. Hoffer believes that mass movements are interchangeable, that adherents will often flip from one movement to another, and that the motivations for mass movements are interchangeable; that religious, nationalist and social movements, whether radical or reactionary, tend to attract the same type of followers, behave in the same way and use the same tactics, even when their stated goals or values differed."
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  96

  The New World Translation Quote from an Elder

  by howdidtihappen in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  you've probably heard this before, but at a meeting last night the elder called the nwt the "rolls royce" of bibles.

  i'm new to the jw bs (and as soon as i can break away, will do so.

  ) but do they also believe they have a superior bible to anyone elses outside the religion?

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  Giordano

  Howdidithappen? Love bombing. Warm strokes from nice folks. You opened yourself up and they walked in. It's like being slightly possessed or beguiled. You've got Ozzy and Harriett types studying with you and it's starting to make your skin crawl.

  The thing that you need to know is that they are the ones that need You....... to validate their delusions. When you stop doing that they really can't handle the friendship part of your relationship.

  But you need to keep in mind what they actually believe and teach......... that god loves us so much that he/she intends to violently kill just about everyone on this planet in the near future. Does that sound logical or reasonable to you? Does it matter which bible is quoted which scripture is cherry picked?

  Being a JW means you are a believer in a19th century mind set trying to be relevant in the 21st century, where no science exists if it contradicts the Bible and no other religion is acceptable.

  They are a complete waste of time.
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  25

  Hello

  by Coxy1970 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences
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  Giordano

  Good for you Coxy. Even a short term ex witness still understands what others with more years in and experiences are talking about and I've found that those on this forum don't place extra value on more years spent in. In fact the reverse is often expressed.....good for you for getting out and managing to do that so early in life. I'd be interested in what took place at age 16 - 18, and what you've done in the following years.

  I spent 6 adult years in before I got out at 23. And finding this site helped me fill in what has been happening within the JW world (since no relative still in would dream of dishing the dirt with the likes of me) for the past 40 years. It's great knowing how screwed up it has gotten and how many are dropping out or being forced out.

  Interesting to note that a Pew survey of religions in the states found that 67% of born-ins drop out. I thought that amazing.

  Welcome to the forum!
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  25

  Hello

  by Coxy1970 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences
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  Giordano

  Hello back at you. Is there anything else you'd like to say?