Posts by Half banana

23

Facing up to the reality of the world

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

since becoming atheist i have been paying more attention to world events and issues.

this is giving me some worry's when i see what's going on.

as a jw i could just dismiss stuff saying "armageddon is coming, jehovah will look after us" etc etc now of course i can't do that.

Half banana

Purrpurr, congrats on arriving at reality! Yes the old publishing religion gave a sense of security which was a false comfort but real life has to be negotiated with rational values and common sense... and of course there are horrible things around us not the least of which are those caused by religious fundamentalism.

My own experience was to realise that there is no god even before I left the org. The meetings became unbearable, the crassness of the preaching from the platform made me squirm inside, I felt even though I was forty years old I was being treated like a child. I had an overwhelming feeling that I was not flourishing under the WT regime, I was getting nowhere quickly I was being stifled mentally and intellectually. I wanted to shout out at the meeting and say, stop this is madness! But sensibly I didn’t as I had planned to fade asap.

In answer to your situation ”how do atheists cope?” I would say firstly that atheist people (who are not a homogeneous group) get along fine just as religious people do. It’s true that True Believers like JWs put all their emotional eggs into the one basket of spiritual hope, take that away and they are floundering...and that is what I think you are talking about.

What characterises the human animal is their active intelligence in understanding situations and I think that to leave the depressing cult allows for a wonderful opportunity for personal growth. I was told on leaving school that I shouldn’t go to college, so, fool that I was, I became a window cleaner. (If you want to fail in life---join Jehovah’s Witnesses!)

Upon leaving the org, I began to study hard and started on my first college course at the Open University (UK). I love learning at uni level, it has given me the broad view of the power play in history and in society and illuminated for me more detailed information on my favourite subjects some of which relevant to my work as a designer. Good education gives a person confidence, or rather shall I say it gave me confidence and great pleasure... which are the very things taken from you as a JW drone.

So I’m suggesting that to counter years of religious indoctrination; firstly gain an understanding of what life is actually about; read and know why the org is wrong, catch up on education and secondly develop your own talents, make your own objectives...and really enjoy achieving them ‘cos the world is actually a wonderful place and full of lovely people!

45

People should learn more about the Bible flaws

by opusdei1972 in

i have noted that the main problem for those who are seduced by the watchtower society is their ignorance about the bible itself.

people who believe that the bible is the word of god usually ignore the studies on textual criticism and how scientific criteria forbid absurd stories like that of the global flood.

so, i strongly believe that students in schools need at least an obligatory course on "the bible" through the point of view of science and the textual criticism.

Half banana

What planet do you come from Lorenzo Smith? You want your cake and eat it as well.

Education means being led out to where you would not be otherwise able to travel intellectually. To have, or even need faith, is the reverse of education, it is the blinkered, inward looking cultural impulse to appear acceptable to others in your chosen community and it is based on nothing other than wishful thinking. The contrast between faith and knowledge must first be fully understood and then faith removed from the discussion if one is to get a proper education. Faith is whimsy, only knowledge from evidential and testable (disprovable) sources make for useable information. This fundamental cornerstone of the western intellectual discourse dismisses at a stroke the whole shebang of religion with its faith and other holy drivel. Religion and mythology were the socially unifying tools which enabled mankind to hobble along before the clarity of the scientific method for determining realities. Times have changed.

The Bible is nearly all drawn from paganism...Surface reading of the texts ignores the primitive and universal folk myths from which the Bible finds its origins. Its stories are these much older stories bent around Jewish and later Greek ideas dressed up and as holy imperatives and delivered for political cohesion. To imagine that it is God’s inerrant word is just ignorance, to believe so was socially acceptable in the past but today it no longer stands up to scientific scrutiny. It remains a very important collection of historical texts but to believe that it is from God is naive.

Forget the edicts of the past, move forward and base your judgement on knowable things...the Bible is on a par with fairy stories.

42

How much damage has internet done against the The Watchtower Society ?

by opusdei1972 in

in the beginning of internet the society was worried about the information published exposing its falsehood.

so, i wonder how many people lost the society on account of forums and web sites like this.

.

Half banana

I agree Brokeback, it’s a bit early to determine the real cause for the decline in expansion of the WT but surely the proliferation of negative information on the internet must be involved. With few new members coming in, the rot will start showing and discourage the existing members who will be mainly “born-ins”.

The folly of the governing body is imagining that Big J is going to bless their work whatever medium they use...”God is richly blessing his people, just look at all the honest hearted ones coming to his holy organisation” (pause for vomit). I hope the internet with its openness and ready access to universal information will demonstrate this to be a myth. I hope that the internet will be the death of them and the sooner the better.

28

Was It Designed? Rabies Purposeful Mode of Transmission.

by Island Man in

was it designed?.

rabies' purposeful mode of transmissionrabies is caused by a number of lyssaviruses that attack the cells of the nervous system disrupting their normal function.

symptoms include painful spasms in the muscles of the throat and larynx of patients, accompanied by a strong aversion to drinking liquids - hydrophobia.

Half banana

Here's something I posted on the Yuku forum a while back which belatedly answers disposable heros request:

Was it chance or intelligent design?

The wonderful ichneumon wasp is a marvel of God’s creation. In her effort to give her offspring the very best chance in life, the female seeks out a grub, caterpillar or pupa, often already buried in the safety of a log. By tapping and sensing the vibrations from a suitable host, she drills down to her victim through the wood. This is no small feat for a wasp but her ovipositor has metal molecules in its tip and ably performs the task. Next she lovingly paralyses her victim and then lays her eggs within its still living flesh. This gives the grubs hatching from the eggs a chance to devour fresh meat as they grow. Only the best for the ichneumon grubs! However, not quite so much fun for the paralysed caterpillar being eaten alive from the inside. Ah! The wonders of intelligent design by a loving and thoughtful Creator.

But, you might think that this is cruel? How could a loving God, who has given mankind in these very last days a loving organization to direct people to the truth, do such a thing? Of course nothing in intelligent design is without a divine purpose. The ichneumon wasp in all its glory is nothing other than a prefiguring of the feeding activities as directed by the ‘faithful and discreet slave’.

Firstly they find a victim then lovingly paralyse their minds so they cannot move away and whilst held in this state they are effectively bled to death mentally and emotionally and often financially as well, so as to give up all their gifts and their very lives for the furtherance of the kingdom interests. (This means in practise the enrichment of the earthly organization and the aggrandisement of its chief officers in Brooklyn). So what might appear on the surface to be mindless cruelty in the natural world... is in reality just plain mindless cruelty.

Chance or by design? The cunning way the WTBTS gains wealth, property, mass mesmerisation of its followers, and authority over the minds of its paralysed victims---all tend towards the inescapable conclusion that they are using-------INTELLIGENT DESIGN.

6

New Light! - Old bulb was getting dim.

by The_Doctor10 in

'this old bulb is about to go out, let's just unscrew this old light, screw this fresh one in, new light, we have new light!'.

it's always bugged me how you only see big doctrinal changes, "new light," happen right around the same time the "old light," is about to blow out.. this "over-lapping generation," teaching is the perfect example, "old light" was about to be extinguished as being impossible to maintain, "new light brothers, we have new light!

" and everyone is amazed, when all it is is a stop-gap fix.. "new light," is synonymous with, "buying time.

Half banana

Yes Faye, this is the classic new light. How could you take the 144k number literally and find yourself with 150k believers all going heavenwards at death let alone all the supposed faithful in antiquity?

New light is just a miserable confidence trick where the tricksters have to think on their feet because the dim-witted believers will believe anything they are told so long as it is faintly plausible. One hundred and fifty thousand JWs was going to get the leadership busted so with sleight of hand a new idea would distract them from the contradiction.

Actually the idea of the “little flock” was stolen by the Judge from the pen of another Bible Student called Alexander Freytag who opposed Rutherford on the death of Russell and who was consequently banished from the Watchtower. He began his own Russellite based adventist religion which is still active in mainland Europe today. It prescribed clean living, not smoking, vegetarianism and pure air breathing in anticipation of life in a new world. Sigh!

58

My introduction and confession

by elderINewton in

jw
friends

well another big bad elder here just wanting to say sorry.. i'm sorry that so many were treated like crap, and shown that god's love is not to be found around jehovah's witnesses.

i'm sorry that inadvertently i've likely taught many to judge and as such see that racism permeates every corner of the jw world, else why else would someone be of the world, or even inactive.

i'm sorry i sat in on a jc, and voted to df.

Half banana

Greetings and welcome to the real world Newton.(Isaac Newton was a genius but not actually a very pleasant individual to have met!) This stupid old religion truly messes with the mind.Living an honest life directed by common sense and proper information is infinitely better than the tripe the Watchtower produced. So glad for you that the other half can see it too.

Do tell us more on how you are coping...

22

Master piece!

by coalize in

what we can read in the wt 10/15/2015... they have really no shame!.

.

Half banana

What wise words the Watchtower want to encourage ”If in doubt throw it out”. So all doubting JWs are you listening? If you have any doubts about the JW organisation (and the majority do so) then throw THEM out!

5

Possible reasons why the WTBTS is more irrelevant than ever

by JakeM2012 in

jw
friends

this short video has interesting statistics (without any citations or references available) i.e.

"there are 5.9 billion searches on google",...."to whom were these questions asked bg (before google)?".

"time it took to reach a market audience of 50 million?

Half banana

Good information Jake, statistically they are losing in the God market.

Punky you’re right... it’s not god’s will, it’s spiritual pig-swill.

With the information age flooding realities on to our screens, the JW feeding trough will be as attractive as pig food and only blind beggars who have lost their sense of smell and taste will ever want go there. (even the slimy texture is off-putting!)

9

Annual JW Pride Day

by Esse quam videri in

what would be jw's reaction if the governing body, in all seriousness, announced a new jw pride day to be celebrated in the congregation every year?.

Half banana

What about an annual JW Gay Pride day?

2

Pay now - Live later. The True Price of the Christian Reward.

by fulltimestudent in

i apologise for not being able to refrain from making a joke out of this thread, but the topic is rather humourous.. i've just bought peter brown's (the illustrious historian) latest book, "the ransom of the soul - afterlife and wealth in early western christianity," and am in the process of reading it.

its quite amazing how soon money entered into the early churches relationship with individual christians,.

may i recommend it for those who may still harbour illusions about jesus and his church.

Half banana

Thanks for information FTS. Money and power always appear together in human institutions....and that is why the faithful and discreet slave illustration was relevant in the early church; to keep the punters coming to the religion which could afford to give them a meal.