Metatron,
This is an extremely interesting subject to expand on, and also a matter of critical importance. However, it is something properly for discussion on another thread, not on this one (lest we get accused by snare&racket of "bumping"!).
Bill.
this saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.
despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.
i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!
Metatron,
This is an extremely interesting subject to expand on, and also a matter of critical importance. However, it is something properly for discussion on another thread, not on this one (lest we get accused by snare&racket of "bumping"!).
Bill.
this saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.
despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.
i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!
The matter of energy sources is completely off-topic, and deserves a thread of its own.
Suffice, though, to quote a common saying in Western Colorado (the site of major deposits of oil shale) "Oil shale is the fuel of the future - and always will be."
As for controlled nuclear fusion, this had already been achieved before I started high school (which wasn't exactly yesterday!). The problem was then - and still is now - that the process used more energy than it released. (Uncontrolled nuclear fusion, in the form of the Hydrogen Bomb, has of course been around since the early 1950s).
No more of this, though, unless somebody wants to kick off a separate thread on the topic of energy sources!
Bill.
most meetings i went to, children were brought to the washrooms in the back to be disciplined.
often i could hear a child yell or cry due to the spanking given by the parent.
people in the hall would have that look on their face meaning that it was alright to discipline a child by spanking him.
It is a big enough ask to expect an adult to sit still for two hours through one of their mind-numbing meetings. To demand that small children do the same is as inhumane as it is just plain bloody stupid!
Yet they still had the gall to print a book in the late 1970s entitled "Making your Family Life Happy."
I suddenly feel very sick - got to hastily leave my PC now and make a bee line for the bathroom!
Bill.
PS: Puke!
this saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.
despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.
i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!
snare&racket,
Your whole experience - and the conclusions that you arrived at - are very similar to mine on this matter. The only major difference was in the order that those conclusions were arrived at;
i.e. Before contact with the JWs, I had seriously questioned the relevance of religion, but thought that the Witnesses were somehow different.
Bill.
just curious .
smiddy.
The same thing also applies to the media:
- which is why I seldom watch the TV news, and long ago gave up reading newspapers.
Bill.
john 3:16. i'll just say that the way i understand it is i am existing in it, it is not existing in me.. 166 (ai?nios) does not focus on the future per se, but rather on the quality of the age (165 /ai?n) it relates to.
thus believers live in "eternal (166 /ai?nios) life" right now, experiencing this quality of god's life now as a present possession.
(note the gk present tense of having eternal life in jn 3:36, 5:24, 6:47; cf.
Vanderhoven7,
My use of the expression "too late" referred to the Methodist minister's intervention;
- i.e. this proved to be a little too late to prevent me from becoming ensnared by the JW religion.
Bill.
john 3:16. i'll just say that the way i understand it is i am existing in it, it is not existing in me.. 166 (ai?nios) does not focus on the future per se, but rather on the quality of the age (165 /ai?n) it relates to.
thus believers live in "eternal (166 /ai?nios) life" right now, experiencing this quality of god's life now as a present possession.
(note the gk present tense of having eternal life in jn 3:36, 5:24, 6:47; cf.
I seem to remember some Bible translations rendering the term as "abundant life."
When I first entered into the JW Indoctrination Program that they like to call a "Free Home Bible Study", a Methodist Minister came around to try and talk some sense into me. One of the things he emphasized was this:
- upon "taking Jesus Christ into ones life", a person there and then receives abundant life.
Unfortunately for me, it was already to late to register!
Bill.
i found this site hoping to read topics submitted by jw's so i could learn more, but it just seems to be everyone else here except them.
just about every topic and member is just bashing jw's and their teachings.
this site should be renamed "jwbashertrolls.net".
Truthseeker,
From this discussion board, I have learned things about JWs that I never learned during the 28 years that I was with them;- many things that the JWs would like to either cover up, or just quietly forget about. (Yet nothing that can't be confirmed by simply reading the Watchtower Society's own publications).
Lies have been told alright - that part you did at least get correct - they just did not get told in quite the way in which you would have us believe!
You, too, can learn much about the JWs from this site;
- providing you approach it with an open mind; i.e. not automatically writing off as "lies" anything you would rather not hear!
Bill.
there were 11,202 partakers in 2010. and 11,824 partakers in 2011.. there was an increase of 622 or 5.5% in one year.. your thoughts?.
source: 2012 yearbook (in spanish).
From my experience of being married to one who believed she was of "the heavenly calling" (plus recent comments by the WTS to the same effect), I would offer the following explanation:
- during the 2011 service year, there were 622 more people experiencing psychiatric disorders than there were in 2010.
Bill.
what saying made it all around the country?.
the ones that were passed around, word of mouth.. for example.
"donations basis proves jehovah is behind the work!".
"Immature"
and
"Worldly"
- both are JW swearwords.
Bill.