the greatest mistake and the greatest harm i ever did to myself as a jehovah's witness is lying to myself.
about everyone else secondly.. i believe in very few constants in life.
i think we all are on journey's and it takes a lot to get to where we are going.
But until we stop pretending to be who we are not, until we stop justifying our weaknesses and bad points, until we come to a place where we can accept ourselves for who we are and being a work in progress, our development as people, post JW, will be slower then it needs to be.
This was a really thought-provoking paragraph. Think I've been still thinking of myself as a work in progress, even now.
Seriously, did you pinch some of it from confucius?
sam harris' new book has been released.
i really enjoyed his first book, 'the end of faith'.
harris: morality must relate, at some level, to the well-being of conscious creatures.
"The problem with religious morality is that it often causes people to care about the wrong things, leading them to make choices that needlessly perpetuate human suffering"
"We are the guarantors of the wisdom we find in scripture, such as it is. And we are the ones who must ignore God when he tells us to kill people for working on the Sabbath."
Somebody should make a redacted version of the Bible, which would stop all the hate and bad moral decisions. It'll be good for the environment too, coz less effin trees would get cut down to make it!
This sounds like it's going to be a very good read, from my totally biased view.
i thought it would be an interesting exercise to ask everybody on here what their 'top 10 reasons why jws don't have the truth' actually were.
maybe we can see some correlating views/patterns/ideas that may help us de-programme the newbies that come on this site.
if eventually most people have an outstanding gripe/concern it'll help everybody understand the ex-jw mindset a little better.
So far I'm hearing a liiiiiittle bit of negativity towards the Gibbering Baddy. Quite interesting. It's totally different to the first things that came off the top of my head, which was a lack of love. I'm talking with reference to the main over-riding feeling that pushed me over the edge TO START WITH when the niggling little doubts set in. All the other stuff on the list I had, came later a bit with a little more thought.
Is this still the same answer for you guys? I'm kind of referring to the very seed, germ, or spark of doubt which manifested itself in your mind in the very beginning while you were a practising J-W.
Of course, where I am RIGHT NOW is exactly the same as you lot. The whole nub of the argument can be boiled down to that one single problem, a bunch of senile old guys with no balls who can't admit they were wrong, and that they're not inspired by god.
Makes you realise that Ray Franz was really rather special.
i thought it would be an interesting exercise to ask everybody on here what their 'top 10 reasons why jws don't have the truth' actually were.
maybe we can see some correlating views/patterns/ideas that may help us de-programme the newbies that come on this site.
if eventually most people have an outstanding gripe/concern it'll help everybody understand the ex-jw mindset a little better.
Reniaa, you make some salient points....I might be persuaded to agree with you IF I were wearing one of these....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdZP1LYIXZs
Seriously, I think the thread is going like a shopping trolley with a busted wheel. All I wanted everyone to do was list their reasons, in order of importance, so as to see what was important to everybody in general...(Ex-JWs that is)
Thanks for the comments, even the crazy ones
i thought it would be an interesting exercise to ask everybody on here what their 'top 10 reasons why jws don't have the truth' actually were.
maybe we can see some correlating views/patterns/ideas that may help us de-programme the newbies that come on this site.
if eventually most people have an outstanding gripe/concern it'll help everybody understand the ex-jw mindset a little better.
I thought it would be an interesting exercise to ask everybody on here what their 'top 10 reasons why JWs don't have the truth' actually were. Maybe we can see some correlating views/patterns/ideas that may help us de-programme the newbies that come on this site. If eventually most people have an outstanding gripe/concern it'll help everybody understand the Ex-JW mindset a little better. If you could list, in order of importance, the things that convinced you most strongly....from 1 to 10. (1 being the most important) Everybody must be able to compile their own list... it should be revealing...
Here's mine:
Thanks!
i stopped whilst still an active witness, just cancelled my direct debit and told myself i would put money in the box to cover things like literatrash and heat and light sometimes, and sometimes i did , but that dropped off.. the thing is, i cannot really pin down what my motive was at the time, i still thought then that it was god's org.. but i just stopped giving them money.
why ?
i dunno.. when and why did you stop giving them money ?.
For a few years I gave in the box, then I did a direct debit for a few, then I did a big donation at once when we had a pitiful building fund, (which I could really do with right now). I stopped giving about 2 years before leaving. Reason for stopping?... for one, I actually took notice of what was coming in during the accounts report, instead of counting the rabbits in my head. It turned out the bulk of our money came from a bequeathment after a sister died, so not many people were donating anything. 2, I wised up that most people were probably using our literature to light the stove/cigars, get up dogshyte in their garden or line their trash cans.
If I write a real nice letter to Brooklyn, d'ya think they'll reimburse me?
of the congregation i spent my life in i would say a good 75% had nervous breakdowns at some point.
and often there was never really a obivous reason for it.
well not that we jw's could understand at the time.. even the queen bee's/ elderettes were not immune to this.. what about you?.
It's best not to eat daffodils:
Sorry chaps. I knew somebody who ate a whole flowerbed once (just the heads) and was very poorly. Although we thought it was the bottle of bacardi and vodka he'd consumed.
x
why has it been passed down to us that the word 'armageddon' refers to meggido?
who came up with that and stamped and approved it as a translation?
i am not sure if jws buy into that same interpretation...so maybe you all can fill me in.. .
Intersting thread cameo-d. He's right. In greek it's 'topon kaloumenon hebraisti', which reads as 'place being called in hebrew'.
definitely a place NOT an event.
Mary? Dagobah System? So does Yoda allude to Jova'?
any body ever heard of the wt$ backing down on a contested will or bequeathment?
seen a similar thread, but thought a more direct headline would get more responses.. cheers x.
Any body ever heard of the WT$ backing down on a contested will or bequeathment? Seen a similar thread, but thought a more direct headline would get more responses.
Cheers x
of the congregation i spent my life in i would say a good 75% had nervous breakdowns at some point.
and often there was never really a obivous reason for it.
well not that we jw's could understand at the time.. even the queen bee's/ elderettes were not immune to this.. what about you?.
I know 4 off the top of my head... there's probably more. All are now free because of it.
To any lurkers reading this, just sit in the KH car park eating the daffodils and remark how everything's shiny.
You won't regret it.
