hey, this thread is nothing new so i don't wanna get too personal but i'm happy to announce that i am apart of the 33% club!!
i sent in my da letter this past wednesday (again actually, i sent it in the week before but i got hit with the old 'return to sender') and i sent the letter up to the hq instead.
i did courteously mark it as re: disassociation for whatever lackey got it, but i did request in the letter not be contacted.
Well done thoughtless, but actually you sound more thoughtful to have the need to declare your departure from the cult.
I do suggest you make the best of your education... not only can it be a meal ticket for life but a satisfaction that you can know you are dealing with the real world and bringing reason to all you do...(unless you are studying frisbee decoration!)
hello brothers and sisters and truth seekers,.
i am an active jehovah's witness.
i don't believe in 1914 and i'm tototally against their way of dealing with abuse cases.
Welcome to the site and congratulations in having the courage to post here and think independently. I also enjoyed your last point!
I agree with Diogenesister to keep researching. Like you Andromeda, I never in my twenty five year run as a JW believed that the scriptures pinpointed 1914, it just did not gel. I also had to rationalise that the Biblical flood was just a story or world myth and not a factual event...it could not possibly have happened since there is not a trace of evidence for a global flood at that time or at anytime for that matter. And so it went on... yet Jesus believed in the flood but it could not have happened? Adam and eve are clearly mythical since according to scientific evidence Homo sapiens have been walking the Earth for at least one hundred and fifty thousand years having descended from yet earlier kinds of human.
So however much you read the Bible, neither can you nor anyone else make a coherent or watertight explanation of it all let alone making a case to keep one day a week holy.
So Andromeda, like your namesake, don't be tied to that terrible rock forever but get rescued by understanding that we are not bound to anything written in the Bible, both it and religion is a human practice devised to keep the superstitious under control.
Become yourself and learn the truth about "the truth".
so i was reading genesis chapter 10 and 11 to see how it explains the man who supposedly is the offspring of noah and he and his offspring become the nation known as egypt.
in some bibles they actually call him egypt.
well as i was reading chapter 10 i noticed something.
Which ever way you look at it it's a fantasy since Noah is only a character in a tall story. He and his sons never existed just like Romulus and Remus the founders of Rome never existed.
It does seem that folk tales were written down which formed the basis of many Bible texts and that very process in itself elevated the tale to a mystical or even sacred status because to illiterate people, written inscriptions were lofty truths.
Both peasants and priests were subject to the magic power of written language.
good morning i hope everyone is having a wonderful day.
there has been a lot of talk about the "new light" concerning the generation teaching.
it's been a major part of the prophecy concerning the last days and of course since jws are the only ones able to decipher and understand prophecy it is of great importance to get this main prophecy right.
Get used to the fact that the Bible is completely useless in predicting anything.
It was a piece of cult propaganda in the first place and was only ever only useful in manipulating the uneducated and superstitious.
you know how when your asked to talk about something your not interested in how annoying it is, or difficult to debate something from the opposite side of your view.
after learning ttatt i've come to regard the nonsense the org spouts as quite evil then to have to give parts about how great it is makes me hate it that much more.. story aside, what might you say to the elders to get them to dismiss it or get off your back if you told them your heart's not in it any more?.
not the obvious it's a stupid hypocritical cult that needs to be wiped from the face of the earth..
I like the chuckle bit Tiki...
After six weeks of not attending meetings, what I said to the sole elder who came round to find out whether I had turned rabid apostate or not was, "It's just not for me".
In truth of course I had become a rabid apostate and was full of loathing for the Watchtower and anything associated with it and I was so glad to have no further truck with the slimy organisation.
It was then announced at the KH that I was no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses which in retrospect was like a denunciation of my character to my children; that I was now on the devil's side. Also I have no doubt that the announcement served as vindication of my wife's triumph as a brain dead believer and martyr to the cause; which would gain her a lot of sympathy from the faithful. (insert vomit icon)
So WIT, I think that "my heart is not in it" is an honest and rational response and it does not play along with the JW game of blind, unthinking obedience. You are not obliged to elaborate on your reason to the elders.
Eventually it could also start a message which when repeated, will reach the GB and inform them that their religion is useless garbage.
It is very much to the point that millions of JW's hearts are not in their religion.
i think this would be a great question to ask active jws.
they love to say how the world would be so different if everyone was a jw.
however, what if we flip the question and ask, would the world really be much different if the jw faith never came into existence?
Yes if JWs GB were God's organisation and there was such a thing as a God and he had an organisation; then they would be a vital force ........................ but as it is, if they sank without a trace, no one would spot even the slightest difference to the running of the world .
so i was reading genesis chapter 10 and 11 to see how it explains the man who supposedly is the offspring of noah and he and his offspring become the nation known as egypt.
in some bibles they actually call him egypt.
well as i was reading chapter 10 i noticed something.
It's just a story of explanation for the illiterate, it has little bearing on reality!
Mizraim, the son of Ham is usually understood to refer to Upper and lower Egypt, drawn from the Heb. and Aramaic noun Mizr.
Bible writers like all their contemporaries had no clue as to the remoteness of human history, and neither did they read transcripts of the well documented chronicles of Egypt to find out. Researched history is a relatively recent thing if you think of the Enlightenment as recent. Hence the flood myth was placed at a date plausible to the uninformed listeners of the Hebrew writings.
What fools we were to believe not only that it was true but divine in origin. We are late developers...
time to take a break from debating religion.
take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?
how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?
Ye gods! I tried to post two pics at one posting and failed...now they come tumbling out...
I have to admit an advantage in gardening since I am a landscape designer, which means that every day, I have been thinking about art and nature for many years.
What is true is the pleasure we can all get from the simplest things in the natural world which cost us nothing, observing the seasons, birds animals insects trees and plants.
I like Bonsai's comment that the Swallowtail butterflies swarm in his garden! They are rare in England, they only live in one location in the low lying fen country of Norfolk over here. Where actually do you live Bonsai? (I assume Japan)
i just read the scripture then went and checked in thier older bible and it read the same so i check the greek interlinear and yes they changed john 3:16 .
the verse reads "all who believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life" the cult version says "exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life".. so not only do they say one must exercise faith meaning having to work for it but also they changed should not perish but having everlasting life to might not be destroyed again making a caveat where one does not exist.
just to add to the point verse 18 in both bibles says the one having faith is not judged, totally blowing up thier version of 16 but of course they change 18 to say exercising faith too but it makes little difference, since it says not judged.
Martin Luther was wrong! It is perfectly easy to distinguish faith from the works associated with faith.
In the absence of other translators rendering the text in question as “exercising faith” as opposed to “believe,” I conclude that in this instance the JW org have doctored the translation to suit their own interests. It thereby becomes a snub to the “just believe in Jesus” movements. JWs very much want to tell you that they have the works to show that they are doing a worldwide preaching work.
The whole of the Bible was written before the Enlightenment. That meant that the holders of power used any text or provocation, deceit or privilege to keep down the powerless. The motivation for enlightenment values was driven by the urge to destroy corrupt authority by the monarchy and Church. In a sense the western world woke up although it has taken a century or two to realize the application of Enlightenment ideals.
My point is that Bible values are not congruent with modern ethics. The notion of believing as far as the scriptures are concerned, is the primitive tribal one of loyalty to a group with which one can identify. In the same way that loyalty, before the coming of the nation state, was to one's tribal lord. You supported him and he defended you from your enemies. You "believed" in your lord. This was the familiar basis to the Biblical application of belief and faith, the religious notion being drawn from the tribal politics of the masses from countless past generations.
So “belief” was and remains a religious marker or token for both loyalty and personal identity within any religious community. Religious “belief” like tribal loyalty was a matter of pride, it was not supported by reason or evidence, more by a factor of human geography.
Beliefs were for primitives,"knowledge" is the infinitely better modern approach for the benefit of all.
i have been out and away from that cult since 2001. back then there were 12 members of the governing body, and now i'm learning that number has come down to 7. when did this change take place, and what was their reason for dropping the number?.
At this stage of the decline of the JW org it would make sense to have as few GB members as possible.
First, in answer to the why of your question; the old guard; the generation of 1914 who would "never die in this system of things"... have all now died. This is completely in keeping with the historical truthfulness of the Watchtower predictions and has left a team of seven zombies who are determined to keep alive the sacred cow which was the Watchtower organisation.
Second, it is easier to control and reach agreement with seven minds than it would be for twelve.
Third, the chances now of new untested members awakening to TTATT are very high. Such a situation would rapidly destabilise the already weakened organisation and be a trigger for the rank and file to follow suite.
Fourth, why share the privileges and financial perks with more freeloaders and thereby dilute the benefits?
Having said that it is clear from the collection of 'Santa's little helpers' that in the event of the death of the present crew there is no shortage of wannabees.