Half banana

Joined

• started 79 topics
• posted 3,096 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Half banana

• 
  22

  This Is It...

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just finished watching the talk by tony morris on john cedars channel.

  sounded to me that he was hedging his bets.

  on the one hand he says "this is it" and out of the other he says prophecies are best understood after they are fulfilled.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Half banana

  Bible prophecy is completely useless-- and I stress completely. Since when has it ever helped individuals?

  But GB interpretation of useless Bible prophecy is worse than useless, it actually harms people and wastes their lives.
• 
  10

  JW trolleys - London

  by HB in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  thought you might like to know that during a visit to london yesterday, the jw's were conspicuous by their complete absence.

  admittedly it was a tuesday in february, but myself and my ex jw friend thought we would see at least one or two trolleys in their usual haunts, but nothing.

  we checked out the area around westminster station where we have talked to jws before, but there was no sign.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Half banana

  Yes HB, I noticed that the West End of London no longer has a trolley presence like it did about four years ago.

  I used to enjoy what I call witness baiting and had some useful discussions not always revealing that I had been a JW. At the start of the trolley business perhaps the org wasn't so aware of the 'danger' of apostate interest in them.

  One problem which demonstrates how ineffective they are is from the fact that where they have been standing, it has been my experience that they are usually talking to other passing JWs who have stopped to socialise, preventing either a spread of JW gloom or our apostate enlightenment.

  I think this also emphasises as Redvip alludes, that a key element of jwism is membership of an exclusive but deluded social club--and people feel very safe in their own club.
• 
  20

  Life as a Perfect Human in the New System of Things

  by RubaDub in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have always wondered how basic things that we do to ourselves will be handled as "perfect" human beings.. i recall someone here had a quote from an old wt that said that if we fall off a roof or something that there will be some "force" to soften the fall and we will not be injured.. but, as a perfect human, if we travel to mexico and drink water from the tap, will we get the squirts, flying shits, montezuma's revenge, or whatever you wish to call it?

  maybe we will be protected as perfect human beings and have colons that also are perfect.

  but who knows.. just pondering these common things that we take for granted.. rub a dub.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Half banana

  The idea of perfection is a strictly religious notion, only religious people consider the possibility. The average common sense thinking intelligent individual knows that there is no such thing as perfection. The more it is talked about the sillier it seems.

  Life is unpredictable, we can't know our own future and we are all susceptible to accident and sickness. Religious hope is the only escape but it never delivers. Better to enjoy what we have and appreciate the that the life we have now is precious.
• 
  8

  Awake 1990 "I'm Afraid I'll Get Disfellowshipped.

  by Fabian in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  again cleaning/organizing my huge collection of jws books, i happened to go now pick up the 1990 awake and stumbled on this march 22, 1990 page 27. .

  it is true that one cannot back out of a dedication to god.

  (compare ecclesiastes 5:4.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Half banana

  Yes it's a common event among JWs, you dedicate yourself to God but later you realise that God is a fiction.

  I reckon that cancels the dedication and means you can be yourself again.
• 
  32

  Great Announcement

  by Tiana in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  am a newcomer.

  had a starnge metting in local news last night.. check it out.

  actual info starts at 50;12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plxdjs13l0k.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Half banana

  Well some of them look like they have been eating as if there is no tomorrow.......
• 
  31

  Part II: it's time

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  earlier i posted about the call from close family about that the end is expected in very short time.. today i had the opportunity to speak in person.. this is what is told to me:.

  - the gb speaks to us personality through broadcasting;.

  - the annual meeting was a very clear message from the gb;.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Half banana

  Thank the gods for Novocaine!

  For me one of the best improvements over the last century has been the great increase in life expectancy. In the nineteenth century you could expect a life of say 18 years as a youngster and 30 or so years as an adult if you were lucky-- and didn't get consumption or some other incurable ailment. Today most people in the western world reach 65 and if you do there is also a statistical likelihood that you will reach your late seventies or eighties which is now the average age for death.

  That means that we have doubled our adult life span since 1914, i.e.18+60 years. Longevity is by no means the only improvement, the quality of life has vastly altered much of it through improvements in medicine and technology. Not forgetting the dramatic drop in numbers of death by infectious diseases, child mortality rates dropping, education becoming universal, number of deaths from wars and murder also having declined and extreme poverty now speedily being eradicated worldwide.

  OK its not paradise, there is a dark shadow on the horizon namely by threats from Muslim fanatics who sacrifice themselves for their Islamic theocracy and refuse to see life from a human perspective.

  Overall, it has to be reckoned that the world is nevertheless a far happier and healthier and a more equitable place than in the past and JW curmudgeons have their twisted "theocratic" reasons why they refuse to recognise it.
• 
  31

  Part II: it's time

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  earlier i posted about the call from close family about that the end is expected in very short time.. today i had the opportunity to speak in person.. this is what is told to me:.

  - the gb speaks to us personality through broadcasting;.

  - the annual meeting was a very clear message from the gb;.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Half banana

  Jehovah's Witnesses live in a paranoid bubble. The end is always imminent for JWs-- that's how the scam works.

  After each successive end-time failure the GB shift focus and now: (bugle blast) it's persecution time folks!

  A sense of persecution is the significant marker for paranoia. Paranoia is characterised by an intense mistrust of others, (which in the JW case this means the whole world), a sense of being persecuted, being fearful and angry-- and there is no complete cure. It's no wonder so many JWs are on medication.

  After 140 years of failure what have the GB got left to play with? They have one big trick-- they hold all the cards in the propaganda game with their captive following who are trained through guilt to remain loyal.

  So they are just left with spin, warnings, hype and hope for the imminent end. "Prophecies are being fulfilled" they announce as if they never said it before for an earlier non event. They must be joking! The GB are reduced to cynically using worn out stratagems which have helped, them in the past.

  As we on this site know, their promises haven't a snowball's chance in Gehenna of coming true (but for that matter the R+F should have realised it too) so what will happen after a handful more years when the latest white-hot hype fails? I think a big exodus should take place.

  HQ will eventually lose all credibility except by the aberrant few uneducated dreamers who actually enjoy the security of a life in a straight jacket.

  JWs are already on the bottom rung of the income and education ladder, how much lower can they get?
• 
  46

  Halls closing

  by iknowthetruth in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in my city philadelphia they closed many kingdom halls.

  my hall was desolved and most of the publishers were added to a congregation that only had 50 publishers.

  .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Half banana

  I think they are doing a fine job of killing off their religion!

  True eyeused, but as Slimboy said they don't have much choice.

  Firstly the GB have never shown any true humanity to the flock, all they were ever interested in were having obedient and loyal followers. They always felt that if you did what they told you to do, you would be blissfully happy and problem free so forget the welfare thing, that's what worldly organisations do. More to the point they have demonstrated historically that they do not care for the well-being of individuals.

  Donations are down, I think because JWs are disappointed about everything in the JW org except their friends, they are reacting by not contributing. So all the GB accountants can now do is harvest the capital from KHs to pay their debts and mounting court cases.

  Let it be remembered that the KHs used to belong to the individual congregations otherwise they could not rail against those sects called "organised religions" that is religions described as having a centralised control over everything. However with the increasing membership numbers in third quarter of the 20th century things changed. Independent congregations could start to think independently and use their congregation assets as they wished. Cult religions hate heresy above all things because it takes away their authority and therefore the money.

  So the Watchtower, reversing long held principles, became an "organised religion" around 1990(?) which meant that they took control world wide of all the KHs and later skimmed off (date anyone?) each congregation's surplus finances. Had they remained with congregation finances operating at the local level, it would have been the "servant body" of the local congregation which would have been financially responsible for child sexual abuse cases and not HQ.

  The WT became very wealthy by the 1990s and had confidence to smooth the path of their future growth in politically resistant countries by joining their favourite Aunt Sally the UN. Again treacherously reversing a long held viewpoint.

  A lot of Watchtower success rode on the hope of the "1914 generation", like all JW promises it failed miserably. The whole organisation accordingly is failing, intellectually, morally and financially, whatever spin they put on it.
  

  It's come-uppance time for the governing body of JWs.
• 
  7

  What do you think about this?

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i find the approach, the reasoning, the dialectic rather fascinating.https://www.jpost.com/opinion/op-ed-contributors/the-exodus-does-archaeology-have-a-say-348464a religion, basically, wrestles with science____did slaves build the pyramids?http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8451538.stm.

  ____the only reason i bring this up is because i have dear close evangelical friends who are--how shall i say it---.

  rather opinionated beyond their pay grade :).

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Half banana

  There is from a scientific and academic perspective something very wrong with much of Biblical archaeology and Biblical scholarship: the conclusion is already present before the evidence begins.

  The notion that the Bible stands alone as a divine creation is at the bottom of both of these areas of 'learning'. To discover contrary evidence would dismiss the whole religious experience whereas that is the very purpose of Biblical research; to prove to one and all that God is behind it.

  The real solution in overcoming these defects of bias which is now pursued by the academic researchers, is a deliberately non-partisan investigation of the archaeology and text (epigraphy) evidence but does not use myth as part of that evidence. The archaeologists Silberman and Finkelstein (mentioned above) have done a sterling job in not only demonstrating that there was no exodus but have given a cogent explanation how the myth came about.

  I'm sure we are aware that the rewards religious people grant themselves is the pride in their faith. Pride of course is a dubious quality and faith is inherently misapplied to the imagined author of the Bible and its magic stories.

  There are two bubble bursters, both historians and epigraphists who to my (limited) knowledge stand out as significant in separating "Bible faith" momentum from the historical viewpoint, they are Thomas L Thompson and John van Seters. I have read extensively Thompson's works on the Levantine inscriptions and early Jewish history, and van Seters was very important in overturning time honoured Biblical assumptions.

  Israel today is a secular state, however most Jews still enjoy being emotionally and culturally bound up with its foundation myths justifying its existence. True or not, the stories are given a function in everyday life in Israel.
• 
  19

  Introducing myself

  by Leopold theseconed in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i have been introduced to this site by my new friends that are helping me navigate through the reality of waking up and finding out that i have been lied to my whole life.

  i grew up in the truth and have given over thirty years to this organization and the few years i wasn’t there my mind was certainly trapped.

  the more i think about it i am really not that surprised there was a lot along the way that should have woken me up but it took till recently.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Half banana

  Welcome to the site Leopold II, and well done for waking up even if it did take awhile.

  I think many of us here share your regret of not allowing the foibles, follies and crass rules of the org flag up an alarm a lot sooner. This is the way the cult has worked by constant propaganda which developed a loyalty culture among the flock. To disagree was virtually impossible without social punishment.

  Anyway all the best to you as you come to terms with the real life outside of the JW madness.