Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  9

  Scientific reason why it's hard to get someone to change their beliefs.

  by LisaRose in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many of us have had the experience of trying to share our knowledge of the dark side of the watchtower with those we love, only to have it end badly with the person getting deeply upset and refusing to believe any of it.

  a new study might shed some light on the problem.

  this brain study looked at what happens when someone's belief system is challenged.

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  Half banana

  An excellent find LisaRose.

  What we do is culturally bound; dependant on which culture we find ourselves in.

  Neuroscientists detect the brain reacting electrochemically to cultural situations and here we are shown the brain saying “my view of myself and the world is being challenged so I’ve got to put my foot down!” Indeed it describes the existential crisis in a JW’s mind when “belief” is questioned.

  Without too much speculation on this point, surely it has to do with our identity, which is how privately we see ourselves and how this self constructed notion relates to the society we live in, i.e. who we think we are and how we think we should relate to others.

  In the case of JWs, it is not surprising they bridle at the slightest challenge to their belief because their happiness depends on belief in what the JW org has granted them. It has fostered a heroic identity for all members based on a tenuous but aristocratic belief of associating with those effectively chosen by God to do his work. Once this absurdity is swallowed the bearer of the belief is drawn to fellow believers because only they reinforce the JW identity.

  Significantly the JW world is held at odds with the normal world of humankind believing these to be under “Satanic influence” and soon to be exterminated... This us-and-them stance is yet another defining and heightening of the JW membership values.

  To challenge the validity of this fragile identity as a privileged believer is naturally alarming since it undermines both their sense of self and also their most cherished hopes. Too much to lose!

  Neuroscience tells us then that the brain closes the shutters and tightens its grip on existing belief if one’s worldview and identity are challenged, so it’s a good heads-up on how we talk to believers.
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  41

  Anyone read the latest Awake (on the supernatural)?

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just read some of this latest awake on the org's webshite.. it begins by talking about the 'supernatural' - wizards, witches, vampires, etc.

  - their popularity and why they might appeal to people.

  then it goes on to state the wt belief that someone is 'behind it'.. now, i like a few horror/scary films - when i was a kid, i always actually liked being a bit scared by them, tbh.. the silence of the lambs, a nightmare on elm street (1984), the ring, the witch, the thing (1982) and a few others are all great, imo.. they are just genres and subgenres of film, that's all.

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  Half banana

  How's this for a Satanic horror story:

  A freaky divine being wreaks revenge on all of mankind because they refused to listen to his slaves on planet Earth.

  With his supernatural powers he murders the lot of them, except his slaves, it's a grisly scene with the majority of mankind, rotting and putrefying everywhere you look. Birds peck out the eyes of the dead and wild animals feast on their flesh. Clouds of flies darken the heavens while the corpses heave with maggots. The stench is overpowering but the demented slaves dance about in triumphant joy, their god hero has brought retribution to their enemies-- even though the death roll includes children, parents, family and neighbours.

  So this is ok is it? But film fantasy is suspect!
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  46

  Circuit Assemblies in the "Good Old Days"

  by BluesBrother in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just been reminiscing about how c/a's have changed since we were young.

  i remember when they started friday night in some rented hall , as well as the two weekend days.

  saturday morning was a brief session then field ministry (which only a few performed ) and sunday sessions.. in the free time around the venue we just used to hang out socialising and eyeing up the girls.

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  Half banana

  Jook, I imagine he died a disillusioned JW like many COs must have.

  There they are telling stupid stories to keep the rank and file keen as mustard and nothing ever happens. The organisational heavies keep parroting the Watchtower rubbish and they all die off, like the generation of 1914 did. Wasting their own lives and everyone else's.
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  8

  New "Become Jehovah's Friend" Video - The Ransom

  by pale.emperor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  : https://www.jw.org/en/publications/videos/#mediaitems/allvideos/pub-pk_e_26_video.

  sickening propaganda for our young ones.

  they've laid off on the "armageddon will be here soon" angle and now it's all about "hope".

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  Half banana

  I agree with you Pale Emperor, nauseating propaganda.

  The old certainty of the imminence of Big A has gone, the generation who saw 1914-- dodos, the lot of them, “overlapping generations”-- laughable!

  ‘Certainty’ was stronger than hope, but if you’re not a deep thinker and you’ve put all of your eggs into the Watchtower basket, you might carry on cherishing ‘hope’ just in case it’s true.

  Also true are the old timers now dying with their hopes not realised. I know of one particular life-long Witness, the patriarch of a zombie-zealous family who on his death bed told his son that the org is not true.
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  46

  Circuit Assemblies in the "Good Old Days"

  by BluesBrother in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just been reminiscing about how c/a's have changed since we were young.

  i remember when they started friday night in some rented hall , as well as the two weekend days.

  saturday morning was a brief session then field ministry (which only a few performed ) and sunday sessions.. in the free time around the venue we just used to hang out socialising and eyeing up the girls.

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  Half banana

  Blues Bro, I do remember Albert Broad. I remember him informing us from the circuit assembly that he was a London cockney sparrow (pron. sparrah). He was straightforward, humble and put his faith in the Watchtower org. But the best part was that from the platform at the circuit assembly in autumn 1974 he said to the assembled idiots present, that if Armageddon doesn’t come by the end of 1975 then Jehovah’s Witnesses will be the laughing stock of the world..................

  I never knew what became of him but the lesson is clear; never trust anything that the JW org says.
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  31

  Endure or Enjoy??

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  have we ever noticed how witnesses are constantly being told that life is something that needs to be "endured", rather that "enjoyed"?.

  life is always so tough, so hard, so difficult in "these last days".

  "persecution and trials abound".

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  Half banana

  You make a very good distinction Stuck.

  The thrust of Jw-ism is that the world is terrible, to which the GB’s indoctrination makes a mechanical rejoinder; “In these last days”. This repeated catch phrase reinforces the delusion of the time of the end so that the JW doesn’t even think about what is really going on; that in fact the JW org is constantly brainwashing them into believing that it's Satan's world but they will win the jackpot in the end.

  Sorry chaps! Instead you get the Watchtower double whammy booby prize; misery today and nothing later on since paradise is forever postponed.
  

  Message for JWs reading this: Please escape now while you still have your sanity!
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  45

  put youir thinking caps on.

  by zeb in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this was sent to me from doug shields blog.

  for those who like stats and numbers may find this of interest.. 1914 – recognizing the ”the elephant in the room”.

  the problem with the date ”1914 ad” lays with the two calendars that are involved – jewish and gregorian.

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  Half banana

  So many assumptions! Who says there would be a complicated calculation for Christians to work out when Jesus was returning? I'll tell you who it was; it was those idiots who imagined that the Bible was sacred and unable to err and said that God would be unkind if he didn't leave a clue in the Bible. Thank you very much Charles Taze Russell and company!

  But what did Jesus say with reference to the signs of the times? Mark 13,31 "I tell you this, the present generation will live to see it all". NEB (I threw away my NWT)

  Jesus and therefore the Bible got it completely wrong. The Jesus story was another in a long line of false prophecies playing on the tender hopes of the desperately poor two millennia ago.

  There was no get out clause like the Watchtower make out to say that if it didn't come in Jesus' generation it will come when the WTBTS says so. No! there is no mention of such a possibility. The Bible is rubbish for prophecy and is no yardstick for truth of any sort.

  What it is good for however, is for beating the living daylights out of people and getting them to jump through hoops and making them believe that fairytales are real.
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  8

  Hypocrisy Overload! "When Loved Ones Do Not Share Your Faith: Awake!—2003"

  by pale.emperor in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  came across this article regarding non jw relatives.

  the hypocrisy in this article is astounding.. http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102003808#h=10.

  my comments are in yellow.. .

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  Half banana

  So we obey the scriptures to honour our parents unless the Watchtower tells us otherwise?
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  22

  Hi I'm new to the site

  by Raque Invierno in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hi everyone, i've just registered and thought i might introduce myself and tell my experience.

  my name's raquel.. i was born into a jw family.

  i started leading a double life around 14y/o and got caught drinking by another sister when i was 15 and saw that as my opportunity to quit the panthomime and stopped going to the meetings.

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  Half banana

  Good to have you here Raquel and welcome to TTATT (The Truth About The Truth).

  You mention having the clarity to see who you are as an individual. I think this is an important step in our development since JWs see themselves as pathetic sheep corralled by the organisation. Getting rid of their imposition of the burden of guilt is a happy relief .

  Thanks for posting!
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  26

  My Story

  by WeatherLover in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm a 4th generation jw.

  i started to realize it wasn't the truth over 2 years ago in late october/early november 2014. i don't know how exactly it happened.

  i remember i had just heard about confirmation bias, and it hit me: i realized that i would be guilty of confirmation bias if i didn't look at the other side.

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  Half banana

  Welcome WeatherlLover, glad you came here. Real life does not fit the Watchtower template does it? It is far more interesting for a start! It's more fulfilling, richer and satisfying than the ever-future hope of non existent paradise. What a con trick!

  Do go for education, it is one way to make sure you can look after yourself whatever happens. I have been looking at the surface pressure charts myself today because we have in the British Isles an interesting pattern with a south flowing jet stream and very large high pressure anticyclone(1050mb) over Western Siberia and Scandinavia blocking the westerly Atlantic systems. A situation which characterises an Arctic freeze by drawing in the continental cold originating in Siberia and similar to the epic 1962/3 winter. Damn it, I find weather interesting too!