Hi Phoebe, lots of us here have also wasted far too many years on this pretending-to-be-happy cult. Just enjoy the freedom of not allowing yourself to be controlled by the JW org. A weight has fallen from your shoulders, enjoy the experience and as it seems you are already doing, take pleasure in living each day on this beautiful planet. You have friends here.
Half banana
JoinedPosts by Half banana
-
50
Jehovah's people are not happy people
by Phoebe ini finally stopped attending the meetings about 4 months go.
i won't be going back - ever.. but i've decided the best reply to the watchtower is to be happy and i do try to be happy every day even thought i wasted my entire life on this religion.
i cherish every day, practice mindfulness and do my best to be content with the life i have.. it is only now that i see that most jws i know are deeply unhappy people.
-
-
-
3
The Legend of the Death of Arius – Imagination and Propaganda in the Development of Early Christianity.
by fulltimestudent inthe legend of the death of arius – imagination and propaganda in the development of early christianity.. .
as a jw, i, of course, soon learnt the standard jw belief that there was no such thing as a triune god.
whereas most other christians believe in a triune god.
-
-
Half banana
Its interesting that the development of the doctrine supported by Athanasius, became so dependent on imagined stories that reflected other bible stories.
Thanks for this FTS. (Incidentally it was also said that Henry VIII of England burst open upon his death but I cannot readily find good evidence for it).
Two thousand years ago In the absence of concrete records such as film or photography, voice recording or even first hand verbal evidence recorded from reliable witnesses; it is not surprising that hearsay becomes a rumour and rumours can become Truth with a capital T when in contact with religion.On top of this there was no printed word so any written idea could be changed in a new handwritten text copy and the originals destroyed if it suited the bishop's purpose.
You also touch upon a subject which I think very important and which gets so little exposure: the " co-option, even merger, of Christian and imperial ritual" into the Church. The post Constantine hierarchy had every reason not to disclose the pagan foundations of Christianity.
-
10
My awakening and concern
by Issa ingood evening everyone, i go by issa.
as many former ex-witnesses, i "woke up" from believing that the jw org is the "truth".
this happened during this month thanks to information from jw-facts and youtube videos about ex-witnesses' experience in this org.
-
-
Half banana
Welcome Issa, both to this site and the real world!
You can give yourself a big pat on the back for waking up from the Watchtower deception and having the courage to do something about it. Very well done!
-
17
How does the WTS explain away THIS scripture?
by Searching ini'm honestly in awe about this particular scripture (and honestly i can't keep thanking jwfacts enough for providing biblical contradictions to the jw doctrine!).
"john said to him: "teacher, we saw a certain man expelling demons by the use of your name and we tried to prevent him, because he was not accompanying us.
" but jesus said: "do not try to prevent him, for there is no one that will do a powerful work on the basis of my name that will quickly be able to revile me; for he that is not against us is for us.
-
-
Half banana
I don't know how the WT explains this but in line with Joe Grundy's information I think what is evident in this text is the competitive nature of early Christianity. The scripture hints at the competition going on for establishing an orthodoxy, in effect the claim for the 'true' Christ story and the 'true' church. This was only resolved in the fourth century with the Roman Church taking total control through the will of the emperor.
No one ever wrote down what Jesus said (there is no contemporary documentary evidence that he existed outside of the Bible) and if he did exist, none of the gospel writers heard him. At best what Jesus said was second or third hand, forty year old memories and human memory is very capricious. Try remembering verbatim a conversation from five years back or even five days!
So the text is clearly the work of a writer connected to one of the Christ cults seeking prime position in the territory. Who is not against us is with us the writer says, in other words get as much support from wherever you can.
The more members; the more powerful the bishop and the bigger the funds. It was always about power and control.
Incidentally early Christianity continued using the same clerical orders, bishop (overseer) presbyter (elder) deacon etc, that existed in the other established temples with their own christs, notably the in the mithraeum.
-
2
Truth versus Holiness
by Half banana intruth, that is verifiable facts as opposed to belief, is a vital part of the cultural narrative and operation of modern humanity.
truth does not require a lot of defending because it can stand happily on its own two feet.
it takes little effort or money to be spent in affirming it.
-
-
Half banana
Yes Average Joe, it does lose its magic if you analyse what is going on and perhaps that is one reason why people worship without inquiring about what they are doing--they seem to want to be associated with "special", "set apart", holy things.
It resembles having possession of a magic object, being able to encounter something beyond the normal mundane realm. Surely this was the charm to become a JW; a special, set apart, God guided religion. All of it a hoax of course but convincing for someone looking for 'true religion'.
Millions are driven to worship something they cannot possibly know. Everything connected to this thing they cannot know; the organisation which promotes the worship, the big compilation of sacred texts and the leaders of the worship are also made holy simply by association with the invisible thing they cannot know.
But try suggesting that what they think is holy is actually a fraud...shock horror! Religious people must have a fix of "holy". What did Karl Marx say?
-
41
Watchtower Doctrines JWs most commonly don't believe
by Diogenesister inthere was a recent thread on another site where posters maintained that many of the *most* long-standing jw's don't believe at least one official watchtower doctrine.
i've even read reports from bethelites saying they've heard bethel overseers say they don't believe some watchtower theology.
this made me think - i believe there are a few official doctrines that are common for many jw's to be either in denial about or simply not really believe ( often one and the same thing).. i'd say these are pretty high in the ranking:.
-
-
Half banana
I think this is an important factor Waton that as you say, many JWs are partially awake. They enjoy their group of friends, don't dare to rock the boat and don't take the doctrines too seriously anymore. It has become a social club with rather demanding membership rules.
-
40
Some Good News About Me (Although Anthony Morris Will Be Furious)
by pale.emperor injust wanted to share with you some good news i'm really excited about.
i have been accepted for university to study psychology and counseling.
my goal is to become a counselor and, in time, to specialize on treating those who have left high control relationships/groups like we all did.. it'll take a few years before im qualified but studying in university has been a dream of mine since i was 12, which was systematically dashed to pieces by watchtower.. .
-
-
Half banana
Well done PE! ver is nuffink lyk edjacashun.
-
2
Truth versus Holiness
by Half banana intruth, that is verifiable facts as opposed to belief, is a vital part of the cultural narrative and operation of modern humanity.
truth does not require a lot of defending because it can stand happily on its own two feet.
it takes little effort or money to be spent in affirming it.
-
-
Half banana
Truth, that is verifiable facts as opposed to belief, is a vital part of the cultural narrative and operation of modern humanity. Truth does not require a lot of defending because it can stand happily on its own two feet. It takes little effort or money to be spent in affirming it. Truth is not sustained by propaganda but evidence. There are physical absolutes determined by science, absolute zero temperature springs to mind. You can build on a truth such as this one.
Religious belief however does not enjoy this simple status. Being of a nebulous and elusive nature it requires a vast apparatus of propaganda and good will to keep its flimsy body from fading into oblivion. Faith and religious belief do not have the academic respectability that evidence based observations have, instead their existence depends completely on the cultivation of a primitive superstition called “holiness”.
What then is holy? Can you walk through a field and stumble on something that you can tell is obviously holy? If a thing is holy to you, why not for everyone? How can you determine if a thing is holy? If something is made holy only by someone else’s opinion; does that make it holy? Is anything holy?
Through centuries of unchallenged assumption, there is a collective reverence and plenty of good will for religious faith and also for the moral stance of believers. Most people have acknowledged that faith and holiness have contributed something positive to the welfare of most societies across the world. This common focus of venerating holy things has proved to be useful in persuading the masses to conform within a community. It is on this same ticket by assumptions of holiness and of unquestioned reverence for the Bible that the Watchtower religion has gained converts. However you cannot build progressive ideas from holiness, all you can do with it is enjoy a fuzzy feeling inside and find new believers to share your emotional experience.
Whenever I hear the Watchtower propaganda, which by the way is mainly from this site, I am revolted by the endless repetition of cult 'trigger language’ such as “God’s people”, expressions which tie true-believers into their exclusive community. These are patronizing words which soothe troubled minds and hearts and give readers a warm glow from a sense of belonging to a ‘divinely ordained’ organisation.
Yet there is nothing objective about the language of the Watchtower, it constantly talks about “truth” but never dares to analyse the basis for any statement it ever makes other than the superficial given; that it originates in the Bible, it is "Bible based" and you need a "Bible based conscience" etc, etc. It is like a constant barrage of mental rivets endeavouring to hold a monstrous alien creation in one piece.
The JW organisation never questions the validity of the Bible’s viewpoint because its income and existence is based squarely on the false belief that the Bible is a book of prophecy and is incapable of error. Conversely the Bible has no useful prophecy and is riven through with contradictions and errors. On this fundamental misconception the whole output of JW rhetoric falls down.
Humans are suckers for holiness and the Watchtower knows it. Relentless propaganda is directed at the faithful in an attempt to support its holy lies and false promises.Truth is easy, it is only falsehoods which continually require propaganda to make them credible.
After leaving the JW world, is it this which now makes reading the Watchtower so nauseating?
-
10
More than 75% of the human genome may be 'junk' DNA.
by fulltimestudent inmaking little or no difference to our daily lives, comes the claim that most of our human genome is not functional.. dan graur an (evolutionary) biologist at the university of houston and other academics made the claim in a paper published in an online journal, genome biology and evolution.. the group's calculations suggest that not more than 25% of the human genome is functional - the rest is seen as 'junk' dna,.
see science dailys coverage of the report at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170714140234.htm .
coverage of similar research at the uk's oxford university (reported in the guardian aust.
-
-
Half banana
Perry, I looked at one of your recommended references, it was highly misleading since the information was placed firmly in the context of creationism, not with the objective analysis of demonstrable fact and provable pre-history in mind.
If you were to attempt to see clearly, being scientific means making an honest and disinterested evaluation, not coming at it with a religious dogma all guns blazing to prove your point at any cost.
Get real man
-
19
Starting To Wake Up
by Searching ini suppose after lurking around for a few weeks i thought i might share my own personal story, as i think it would probably be a very freeing experience for me right now.
to start off, at 23 years old i'm actually a third-generation jw, my grandparents were baptized (my grandfather is actually an elder) when my mother was only a toddler, she was raised as a witness, then of course, married a witness and thus myself and my two brothers were born-in's.
growing up my mother was always very careful about what she taught me, all the good things for sure, about how we would live in a paradise earth and i could pet all the animals that i wanted and not worry about growing old, and she'd ask me who in the bible i'd love to see and talk with - my grandparents however, were a different story and the cause of i think, most of my childhood trauma.. they really drilled home the fact that we were the only people who were going to be saved, we were the only people that were going to survive and that everyone else was going to die horribly - that i shouldn't try to make that many friends in school because they would never be "real" friends unless they were fellow jw's and they would die anyway.
-
-
Half banana
Hi Searching, great to have you here. Searching and lurking are good words for JWs, they are exactly the opposite of what a cult demands. Cults want closed minds and absolutist beliefs so they can control their flock without resistance.
How can any human fulfill their potential under such a regime as the JW org dictates? Everyone who dies as a JW is either disappointed or deluded. . . it is so cruel to give false hopes of a paradise and obnoxious to stifle the minds innocent people and steal their very lives, because that is what the JW org does.
Although as a long time ex-JW I have no fondness left for spiritual uplift from the Bible but I do like your reference quote in John to test the "inspired expression". If every JW was encouraged to understand the full meaning of this, after a while there would be very few of them left!
Thanks for writing and do keep posting and searching..........