"Why did we waste our time and our lives believing all those lies?
I wish I knew."
My sentiments, exactly!!!!!
Bill.
i am from the era of the babylon book, and all the wt predictions that the churches of christendom would "dry up".
the book babylone the great has fallen god's kingdom rules, said people would leave the churches of christendom, in droves and the ministers would have no more people in their churches while "god's organization" would see a tremendous increase, a huge overflowing great crowd, all streaming into the watchtower and coming to the "faithful and discreet slave" for instructions.
thirty years ago there were six million jw's , today after the "great increase", and " great crowd" is now ?
"Why did we waste our time and our lives believing all those lies?
I wish I knew."
My sentiments, exactly!!!!!
Bill.
earlier this morning, i posted off to the the institute of engineers an application for membership as an "engineering associate":.
- today being just over 40 years since the congregation's retards elders made me abandon my apprenticeship.. (in this part of the world, the pre-1975 hype was taken to that level.
not being content to prevent young persons attending university, they went one step further and treated with hostility any youngster who would "tie up five years of their lives" by entering into an apprenticeship.
Thanking everyone for their messages of support.
My application is now with the Competency Assessment Committee of the Institute of Engineers. They typically take 5 - 6 weeks to complete their review. If the verdict is favorable, you are then able to apply for membership.
It is a rather drawn out process - but if successful, more than worth it!
I will let everyone know how it all turns out.
Bill.
PS:
Ding - you are very correct in your observation that the WTS / GB bible chronology craziness goes much further than mere " failed expectations." The hardships that this has inflicted on the lives of those that took heed of that "food at the proper time" would almost fill a book - and one that didn't make for very pleasant reading!
earlier this morning, i posted off to the the institute of engineers an application for membership as an "engineering associate":.
- today being just over 40 years since the congregation's retards elders made me abandon my apprenticeship.. (in this part of the world, the pre-1975 hype was taken to that level.
not being content to prevent young persons attending university, they went one step further and treated with hostility any youngster who would "tie up five years of their lives" by entering into an apprenticeship.
Earlier this morning, I posted off to the the Institute of Engineers an application for membership as an "Engineering Associate":
- Today being just over 40 years since the congregation's retards elders made me abandon my apprenticeship.
(In this part of the world, the pre-1975 hype was taken to that level. Not being content to prevent young persons attending university, they went one step further and treated with hostility any youngster who would "tie up five years of their lives" by entering into an apprenticeship.)
Engineering Associate is about the highest level a busted-@$$ electrician like me can now aspire to achieve.
Even then, I don't actually have the minimum academic qualifications (an Advanced Diploma) to gaurantee automatic entry at that level.
However, the Institute of Engineers does make provision for the likes of myself:
- i.e. persons who can demonstrate from their employment record that they have acquired the necessary level of skills and knowledge to match those provided by the Advanced Diploma course. (They are, though, rather particular about how you obtained that knowledge - looking for evidence of a systematic program of study, rather than haphazard "on the job" type training).
I am hopeful that they will accept how I obtained my engineering knowledge - Electrical Trade , Advanced Trade Studies, followed by Specialist employer provided Technical Training, plus that provided by the various manufacturers of electrical plant - to be proof of a systematic study program.
Here goes anyway! Does anybody want to wish me luck?
Bill.
PS: To any young JWs lurking here, don't repeat what I did. Go for the degree course, and enter into it straight from high school. It is, of course, possible to pick it up later on - but, putting it very mildly, a bloody sight harder to do! You will save yourselves a huge amount of grief by entering the degree course directly from high school. More and more, the emphasis is on academic qualifications - and less on those like me, who have much industry experience, but lack those formal qualifications.
since the early 1800's in america a number of new religions have appeared.. the church of jesus christ of latter day saints (mormons), christian science, jehovah's witnesses, scientology, etc.. there are elements in common.. some individual makes unprovable claims, untestable assertions and crafts unusual doctrines which dovetail in some ways with established beliefs while.
simultaneously and radically replacing them.. mormons produce a better and purer revelation in their book of mormon.. scientologists piggy-back off of psychiatry and gnosticism while inventing a new technology which eliminates infestations by alien beings trapped inside humans.. jehovah's witnesses claim leadership by a governing body as a sole channel of communicating escape plans from the imminent war of god on humans.. and so forth.... .
practioners of these religions must sooner or later grapple with disproofs which include discoveries made public of lies, misrepresentations and duplicity.. yet, the majority of adherents selectively dismiss such revelations as a test of their own faith and an opportunity to demonstrate solidarity.. a close examination of this self-reinforced refusal to confront disputatious rebuttal of doctrine i choose to call stupidology.. .
For those who like to claim that reading Awake and Watchtower gives one the equivalent of a university degree, Terry has just identified which field of science that degree covers - i.e. Stupidology!
Bill.
at the meetings i hear from time to time that everlasting life is a free gift from jehovah, but from a jehovahs witness point of view is it really?.
you will not receive the "gift" if:.
you miss meetings.
So little is this emphasized that most JWs are totally unware that the bible does indeed describe salvation as a free gift from God.
While the WTS occassionally pays lip service to what the bible has to say on this matter, the idea comes over very strongly that it is instead Salvation by Report Card.
Bill.
i'm really interested in this question because i've heard for years that if you forgo further education and go pioneering, when you have a family down the track you will get a good job because jehovah will provide for you because you pioneered.
as long as i was a kool-aid drinker, even then, i thought, "how does pioneering pay your bills?
surely education should come first.
I plead guilty to that.
In our part of the world, the JWs took the pre-1975 hype even further, and tended to condemn any of their young people who even entered into a trade in during years. I was firstly prevented from going to university (even though a large company had offered to sponsor me), and then 12 months later was made to pull out of the apprenticeship that I had just entered in the telecommunications industry.
With the assistance of some contacts my father had in the industry, I was later able to complete an apprenticeship in a related field (electrician). At the conclusion of this, my employer wanted to put me through the diploma course at polytech. However, my wife of the time strenuously objected , claiming that the "children now needed a father". She was quite correct about that, of course - a trade apprenticeship while you are an adult is murder on family life. I did, though, manage to complete a paper in Advanced Trade studies. That was enough to at least get me into the branch of the electrical trade (i.e. test work) that I was most interested in. Some in the congregation had the daggers out for me for even doing this. However, by that time I knew enough about what was what to (mentally, at least) give them the good old two-fingered salute!
These days, I have the good fortune to be working at a site where they are prepared to employ me as an engineer: - regarding my advanced trade qualifications to be adequate, when coupled together with my extensive industry experience. To buttress this further, I am presently in the process of applying for membership of the Institute of Engineers as an Engineering Associate.
This is not a course, though, that I would recommend to anyone. If I had my time over again, I would have without hesitation undertaken the degree course.
At 58 years of age, I shudder to think of what my lot would now be if I had not at least managed to get into a trade while still a young adult:
- the temperatures outside have been up to 48 Degrees Celsius this summer, and dragging a jack hammer around all day for a living in those conditions is definitely work for young men!
Of course, the real victims in all this tomfoolery were my three children. For that, the WTS should be collectively shot with a ball of their own $h*t!
Bill.
it takes a b.a.
to find a job as a file clerk.
by catherine rampell | new york times wed, feb 20, 2013 10:52 am est.
As the economy begins to worsen (in this part of the world, at least) and workers are made redundant, I see this happening a lot:
- Persons like me, who are abundant in straight-out practical experience (having done just about everything it is possible to do in the industry) but who are weak on academic qualifications, get retrenched.
- While they retain those with high academic qualifications, but whose practical experience with anything ranges from the meagre to the non-existent.
Ironically, at the same time as this pattern has been developing over the last 25 years, the skills base (particularly that now-endangered species, Common Sense!) has deteriorated at about the same pace.
We witnessed an example of this here in yesterday's lightning storm, which threatened to shut the whole operation down for up to 12 hours. In earlier times, if a point was supplied through several different high voltage power lines, these would be routed in different directions, so that the same lightning storm would be unlikely to take out both. However, the hot-shot characters who designed this power system saw fit to run the two high voltage lines side by side - almost gauranteeing that both will be tripped out by the same lightning hit.
This is just one example of the near-extinction of common sense that I could cite:
- the rest would nearly fill a volume.
(The observations of a grumpy old man!)
Bill.
if witnesses believe that we truly are in the end of the end of the last days, and they believe the work they do will really save lives, and most can just make a few adjustments and get 30 hours, why dont they do this more often??
without the title?.
to me if you really care about people you would not wait until you have a special title or badge to wear of look at me im pioneering, you would do the most you can every month and not care about recognition from men.
Taking what BU2B says one step further;
- if a major catastrophe such as the End of the World was really "just around the corner", and the JWs were genuinely interested in warning people about this, they would surely be using much more effective means of sounding that warning.
Around where I live, there have recently been a series of disastrous bushfires. Luckily for us, the Emergency Services didn't send a group of volunteers walking from door to door to warn people to evacuate:
- more like broadcasts by TV and radio; then finally, warnings sounded through the loud-hailers on the Emergency Service vehicles.
If "The End" was indeed as close as the JWs try to have you believe (or indeed, if there is even an "End" coming at all) then they would surely need to use more effective means of warning people. (On the other hand, if matters are not so urgent that effective means of sounding a warning are not required, then that is an admission that everything they have been preaching for the last 130 years is just 24-carat nonsense!)
Bill.
i wonder whether any of you took note of the article in the 12/15 study edition wt "the simplified watchtower .. why introduced" i couldn't believe they actually had the temerity to put such tripe into print and onto the record.. i was flat-out astonished with its put-down of vocabulary building and self-improvement:.
one egregious example: " the time spent looking up words and explaining expressions (ostensibly from the "smart people's" watchtower) is now spent gaining an understanding of the scriptures and how they fit into the lesson.".
one jw cited in the article actually blames her college education for causing her to fall into the bad habit of "speaking and thinking a way that was more complicated than necessary.
All I can say is that things have altered immensely from the days of F.W. Franz, when (like in a 1972 Awake) words such as "revivify" often appeared:
- I can well remember having to consult a dictionary over that one, just to confirm that there was such a word in the English language!
What Rocketman says is quite correct - and a sad commentary on the (only) type of persons attracted by WTS sales techniques.
Bill.
so i'm sure some of you have seen this already...but read this crap that was sent to me this morning, while i was sleeping in.
it was sent to me by an uber dub in my former congregation....i think it's a chain message:.
if someone asks about your educational background, proclaim boldly that:.
"Receiving Everlasting Life is my Degree"
I would have thought the only degree attainable from the Kingdom Hall College is a Bachelor of Stupidity!
Bill.