Posts by Half banana

18

I'm considering putting off my leaving

by paradiseseeker in

jw
friends

i just wanted to share with you the thoughts that i've had lately.. my plan was to get a job, become independent and then leaving the org throughout this year 2018. i'm going to achieve the first step in a matter of weeks, the second one soon afterwards but maybe i will wait a little longer for the last one.. one year ago a friend of mine was reinstated.

we weren't very close friends back then, although we got along well.

but, since no many jws in my town want to hang out with him (because of his being a former disfellowshipped), we started to talk and go out more often and in a matter of half a year we've become very close friends, like brothers.

Half banana

Paradiseseeker, your posting name indicates something-- something JWs want and that is a great life with very little effort.

It's tough trying to get a handle on work and life if you have been brought up with JW rules imposed on you but dreaming about paradise and using a friendship as an excuse for remaining in a harmful cult ahead of getting and education or a career, will not work in the long run.

I'm being hard on you because I wish someone had done so with me when I was your age. What you may lack is a vision of yourself in the future as a responsible self-sufficient individual. This is completely normal for JWs since the cult leaders want their followers to be totally dependent on them.

Please allow me to tell you what real life means: it means you have to work very hard to get a degree or at least a qualification and a job to get off the bottom rung of the ladder. Otherwise you might remain stuck in a god-forsaken cult or be forever dreaming. Am I right?

6

Wake up America!

by zeb in

jw
friends

https://www.revealnews.org/topic/jehovahs-witnesses/.

Half banana

Very revealing.............

113

EU Court Ruling Against WT on Data-Protection

by cofty in

today's london times reports on the july ruling of the eu court that forces the organisation country to comply with data protection.. the action originated in finland but the ruling will affect every eu country.

the cult tried unsuccessfully to argue that the notes taken by jws in the door-to-door work were personal and not accessed by the congregation.

the court ruled that they are acting under the auspices of the congregation and therefore they must comply with data-protection laws.. keeping lists of do-not-calls also falls under this ruling.. why does the cult always feel that it is above the law?.

Half banana

Doubter, your JW brainwashing is showing. The Bible is all sorts of things but it is not a deliberate record about people.

It contains evidence from the late Bronze age of the polytheistic world view. It is the dreams and worldly ambition of an impoverished alliance of peasants scratching a living in the highland desert. The Bible reflects the worst possible projection of what a loving father could be:-- a misogynistic, homophobic tyrant who will kill you if you don't believe in him. The Bible began as the handbook of the Roman Catholic religion modified to keep the church in power and the little people grovelling to it.

I might conclude that you are perhaps dissatisfied with your lot in life by the way you post but do remember that we here have had enough of JW teachings. I can say that it has been the source of the greatest grief in my life and I am sure I'm not the only one...so will you please stop defending the heartless and delusional cult of Jehovah's Witnesses?

50

Overwhelmed

by Freedom rocks in

does anyone else feel overwhelmed on what to believe?.

i've been doing lots of research on beliefs, evolution, creationism but i feel no further forward about what i truly believe.

for example i looked at the fossil record and tiktaalic and thought great it proves a lot but then i've seen counter arguments on youtube of people basically saying its a load of rubbish and doesn't prove anything.

Half banana

A fascinating experience you have had Caves and I concur with your conclusion as to where to start. The safest way not to be misled is to stick with things which are provable and not the speculative or dreamy religious hype material.

113

EU Court Ruling Against WT on Data-Protection

by cofty in

today's london times reports on the july ruling of the eu court that forces the organisation country to comply with data protection.. the action originated in finland but the ruling will affect every eu country.

the cult tried unsuccessfully to argue that the notes taken by jws in the door-to-door work were personal and not accessed by the congregation.

the court ruled that they are acting under the auspices of the congregation and therefore they must comply with data-protection laws.. keeping lists of do-not-calls also falls under this ruling.. why does the cult always feel that it is above the law?.

Half banana

It could be suggested that publishers make a private note on a scrap of paper seen only by themselves and return an other time. But hell who are we to tell JWs how to waste their time more effectively!

Going door to door is only a JW custom, hardly anyone in the Western World responds anymore, except the desparate, friendless and mentally unstable. The real reason for going door to door is no longer to find the mythical sheep but is to comply with HQ's demand that you obediently spend a certain time performing this particular ritual.

Get a proper life JWs!

44

Study Watchtower confirms shunning spiritually weak. How nice!

by Isambard Crater in

it really hurt to hear brothers and sisters commenting about this at the meeting yesterday.. "as in solomon’s case, one of the greatest threats to spirituality is friendship with those who do not understand or respect jehovah’s standards.

some may be associated with the congregation but may be spiritually weak.

others could be relatives, neighbors, coworkers, or schoolmates who are not worshippers of jehovah.

Half banana

This is going to backfire. The GB are looking for scapegoats to blame their decline on. "Why? It is all those weak ones who just attend meetings and don't contribute anything who are the problem".

The fact of the matter is that many JWs are held captive and stuck there by the cult's own threats of dividing the family.

This directive will sadden more people than it encourages. I hope it will be the last straw for those whose family or marriage is under strain from the instructions of the cult leaders. The doctrines are looking less and less likely to ever come true anyway, so why not leave now!

50

Overwhelmed

by Freedom rocks in

does anyone else feel overwhelmed on what to believe?.

i've been doing lots of research on beliefs, evolution, creationism but i feel no further forward about what i truly believe.

for example i looked at the fossil record and tiktaalic and thought great it proves a lot but then i've seen counter arguments on youtube of people basically saying its a load of rubbish and doesn't prove anything.

Half banana

Freedom rocks, your situation is very familiar to all those of us who have left the JW cult. There is anxiety that all our precious foundational religious beliefs are being dispensed with and we are left with a void.

As JWs we were robbed! Robbed of our human right to know and understand according to factual evidence. Instead our whole life was the product of what we let the Watchtower impose on our minds and hearts as to what reality was. They were so very wrong-- and we were led up the garden path.

I think then that the first determination we should make is to be able to assess is whether a belief is based on a stories or based on fact and evidence. There are other things going on in our minds as we get rid of JW nonsense but from the point of getting a proper grip on reality we have to start somewhere and this is it.

Understand what is "belief" and what is testable fact and be ruthless about it. Understand the difference.

For example although many people have forever believed in a spirit world there is no concrete evidence for things which are invisible and cannot be measured in any way. Their existence is only in people's minds as the result of wishing to believe.This is the essence of belief.

Humans are however not logic machines we have a strong emotional component, it created our many cultures and is drawn from our earliest experiences in life, the warmth and security of being cared for as an infant. . . but don't get snagged in this mode because the normal human grows up (not JWs!) and works things out for him or herself.

As we work things out after JW life we must ask a new set of questions. Not "Does the religion approve?" but "Is this or that idea based on solid evidence?". Evolution for example is based on solid evidence but if you live in the United States there exists a movement to stem the loss of Biblical authority and is creating its own defensive culture to support the indefensible claim that God created the world. Look at the evidence. You looked at the internet and heard "others" said there were arguments against evolution. Look at the evidence for yourself.

5

An interesting explanation for the sale of India Branch property

by Ireneus in

yesterday i was talking to a witness who has some connections with witnesses in india.

when i mentioned about the plan of selling the branch property, he was saying ‘this is a clever move as they fear a ban in that country as recently happened in russia.’.

this shows what type of trust they have in jehovah!.

Half banana

Fear works wonders in religious circles.

61

Simple introduction to the theory of evolution

by Diogenesister in

forum
links

hi new folks, lurkers and trolls.

i thought i would post this simple but interesting video which shows how scientists bring multiple lines of evidence together to prove evolution is true; for example:.

comparative anatomy.

Half banana

Thanks Diogenesister for posting this, like Cofty's brilliant examples on the subject the video is simple clear and factual. Once you are out of the religious mindset you can get a much better handle on the workings of the living world.

If you believe in the Bible instead of science you are bemired in a pit in a fog at night..............

Yeah but I like being bemired in a pit in the fog at night with my other dinosaur friends!

23

Anyone know the significance of the three days and nights Jesus is dead?

by Crazyguy in

in my studies i’ve come to realize that most dying and rising gods such as inanna, jesus and others all were dead three days and nights.

the moon is dead as far as man not being able to see it in the sky three days and nights but many of these gods are not associated with the moon, osiris maybe being the only exception.

have any of you in your research come up with a plausible idea on why there all dead just threes days and three nights?.

Half banana

@WTWizard, I agree with you about the perception of the Sun 'dying' at the winter solstice but it is the son of the sun god who dies on the 'cross' at the spring equinox. In the Mithraic cult at least four hundred years before Jesus, the saviour Mithra (or Mithras in the Latin tongue) was crucified at Easter because that was the time of "the cross" i.e when the sun appears to cross the equator relative to the plane of the earth's travel around the sun (the ecliptic) on its journey northwards, which culminates in high summer for the northern hemisphere. It is the earth always being at an angle of 23.5 degrees from the vertical in its solar orbit that gives us the seasonal variations. The calendar of the ancients was marked by the birth, rising strength and decline of the sun which in turn was relative to its sunrise and sunset locations on the local horizon.

I will be studying the groundwork for some of these things starting in two weeks time in the context of the British Neolithic on a course at Oxford University.