i was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
It is an acceptable explanation for sure; but it doesn't explain it for me. If you came on this forum and wrote out a similar experience I might be giving you the same advice.
If I had a similar experience I would have posted about it as a remarkable coincidence and your advice might be that it could be construed as a religious experience.
i was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
I think something happened to me that is rare and possibly a miracle.
A miracle cannot be explained, but this experience can be, sab. However improbable it might seem, it is clearly within the realm of the mathematically and statistically possible. And for that reason it must be dismissed from the possibility. When you see someone you love raised from the dead, now *that* would be a miracle nobody's going to snicker at.
i was a junior borgite in 1975. i remeber looking at the calendar at work in october and thinking: 'armageddon isn't here yet.....and it doesn't feel like it will be here anytime soon either!'.
i was surprised that jehovah hadn't obeyed the superior command to bring the big 'a' as instructed to him by fred franz.
how dare god disobey the jw leader!!!!!.
While natural for the Watchtower to play down the significance of 1975, it's own yearbooks tell the tale. There was a great infux of baptisms in the years leading up to and including 1975. 1976 was another growth year as a consequence of so many bible students being in the queu for baptism who went through with it even after the 1975 disappointment. One of them would have been me, if I had not awakened in time. But this growth was followed by three years of declines. By 1979, there were almost 52,000 fewer Jehovah's Witnesses than there were in 1976. 1975 was real. I was there, and the indelible evidence of its affect on the Watchtower is there for all to see.
| Year | Ave. Publishers | % growth | 5 year growth |
| 1970 | 1,384,782 | 10% | |
| 1971 | 1,510,245 | 9% | |
| 1972 | 1,596,442 | 6% | |
| 1973 | 1,656,673 | 4% | |
| 1974 | 1,880,713 | 14% | |
| 1975 | 2,062,449 | 10% | 37% |
| 1976 | 2,138,537 | 4% | . |
| 1977 | 2,117,194 | -1% | |
| 1978 | 2,086,698 | -1% | |
| 1979 | 2,097,070 | 0% | |
| 1980 | 2,175,403 | 4% | 2% |
i was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
Thank you, cyberjesus. Shall I expect you to provide British English spellings as a courtesy, too?
We need to give people some space sometimes. Brotherdan's just making his escape from the Watchtower and it still pulls hard on his psyche. He would be a freak if it was otherwise. The transition is difficult enough without losing opportunities to maintain a rational discourse and having a few more lights come on. Understanding goes a long way toward believing. Back in the day I thought I understood the Watchtower message so clearly that I believed it all to be true and I was considering baptism. It was only after I started not being able to figure stuff out, and being told I must stop trying to figure stuff out, that I began to doubt and broke away. It took decades more before I understood the really serious problems with theism. But if you're a theist who thinks maybe he's got a chance to live forever, it would scare hell out of you to be an atheist, and therefore the prospect of actually starting to understand atheism is frightening to you. It's liberating, actually, to base what you believe on what is demonstrable with evidence, however imperfect, instead of assertions completely without evidence. But I understand how it is for some people a frightening realisation.
i was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
My experience has been that rational conversations break down at the moment one of the participants gets emotional. At that point the part of the brain that processes emotion takes over and the part that processes rational thought is pushed aside. The emotions reinforce the intellectual perspective of the individual and he feels threatened, gets aggressive and defensive. The conversation stops. Nobody makes any progress.
i was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
I didn't think the thread lacked for humour. (Or humor, as you American folks like to type.). I think sab asked a question about an experience he perceived through his current paradigm and he's getting answers from other people as they perceive it through theirs. Looks like some feathers got ruffled in the process.
i was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
Mockery never contributes much to a conversation, in my experience.
i was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
brotherdan, here we haven't spoken in months and you're picking a fight. I am mocking no-one, you included, and there is no heat in my words. My questions to sab were serious, and he has responded seriously. What's with the pent up anger, son?
Yes, I know all about Jehovah's witnesses. I've been married to one for 34 years, and studied with them myself for a few years more than that. which probably makes my Jehovah's Witness experience more involved than your own. However, as an atheist I would never presume to believe that I am somehow superior to another human being because I have been somehow chosen and they were not. Remember, no heat in these words. You perceive me as inferior and you betray your animosity toward those you perceive as inferior. That's the image I'm getting, anyway.
i was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
Hey brotherdan. Seems everyone changed his avatar while I was away. Anyway, please correct me if I am wrong. What you are saying is that you are special. You are saying you are different from those of us who don't believe as you do. You are saying that God's Holy Spirit used you to do things. Are you saying that you are somehow superior to the rest of us, because God has chosen you, and not us? Curious.
It reminds me of a group I used to be a part of. Atheists are basically Jehovah's Witnesses minus God.
Pardon me, but that statement is really screwed up. You don't understand atheism, it is clear.
i was sitting in my garage, as i often do, to chill out and i actually ended up becoming angry.. so here i am, in my garage, kicking it on the stool for the drum set that is in there (i am a pianist/composer, not a drummer).
i start to think about all the crazy stuff that transpires on this planet.
we have all seen shows and heard stories or maybe even witnessed events that don't add up.
Question, sab. Deep down, do you really want to believe in mystical experiences to help you make sense of the world? One thing I learned when I first joined this board is that many who contribute here either believe deeply in God or would prefer believing in God than be agnostic. Where's your head at? The Dawkins scale might be helpful:
1 Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C. G. Jung, 'I do not believe, I know.'
2 Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. 'I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there.
3 Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. 'I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.'
4 Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. 'God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.'
5 Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. 'I don't know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be sceptical.'
6 Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. 'I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.'
7 Strong atheist. 'I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung "knows" there is one.'
Which are you? It might help you understand why you perceived your experience as so unusual. I generally count myself as a 6. I am not absolutely convinced that there is no god, although I believe the probability to be exceedingly small, but I am absolutely convinced he isn't that puny and psychotic Yahweh god depicted in the OT. It makes sense to believe that man created god in his own image, and not the other way around. Anything I or anyone else experiences that can simply be explained to be mathematically possible is not spooky under any circumstances. You can relax.
