JamesS

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Posts by JamesS

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  19

  ~Close to Others..Close to My Self~

  by freeflyingfaerie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am using this as my very own personal therapy session to express some of what has been swimming around in my head~.

  it may not take much shape, i'll be letting it flow.... there is nothing like feeling understood and accepted and loved for who you are.

  but that's a difficult thing to really feel when there is little or no history with a person.

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  JamesS

  freeflyingfaerie,

  I've not been on this site for a while but happened to get directed here whilst looking at some other things.

  Your post was beautiful, and has literally made me feel less alone in this world today.

  Love,

  James
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  8

  The Worldwide Recession

  by JamesS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as we read everyday in every paper and website, and hear in every tv programme, we are in a recession.

  now, i understand that house prices have dived, stock prices have fallen, production has gone down, various financial crisis have occured, and currencies have devalued slightly due to inflation etc, but, here is a question i'd like to ask all you members:.

  if there is the same amount of money* in the world now as there was before everything suddenly went to the wall, who the hell has got it?.

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  JamesS

  But our banks and governments are claiming they are broke?

  I think some super rich bugger has got it all stashed under their matress......
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  7

  May 2011 Awake quotes a moron! Not that it surprises...

  by Pika_Chu in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  your amazing brain.

  how does your brain feel, hear, see, and.

  smell?

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  JamesS

  Ian Stewart > quotes

  
  See if your friends have read any of Ian Stewart's books. Sign up »
  
  

  "There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary numerals, and those who don't."
  — Ian Stewart (Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities) 8 people liked it like

  "Religion hinges upon faith, politics hinges upon who can tell the most convincing lies or maybe just shout the loudest, but science hinges upon whether its conclusions resembe what actually happens."
  — Ian Stewart 5 people liked it like

  "If our brains were simple enough for us to understand them, we'd be so simple that we couldn't."
  — Ian Stewart (The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World)
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  8

  The Worldwide Recession

  by JamesS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as we read everyday in every paper and website, and hear in every tv programme, we are in a recession.

  now, i understand that house prices have dived, stock prices have fallen, production has gone down, various financial crisis have occured, and currencies have devalued slightly due to inflation etc, but, here is a question i'd like to ask all you members:.

  if there is the same amount of money* in the world now as there was before everything suddenly went to the wall, who the hell has got it?.

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  JamesS

  Hi Everyone,

  As we read everyday in every paper and website, and hear in every TV programme, we are in a recession. Now, I understand that house prices have dived, stock prices have fallen, production has gone down, various financial crisis have occured, and currencies have devalued slightly due to inflation etc, but, here is a question I'd like to ask all you members:

  If there is the same amount of money* in the world now as there was before everything suddenly went to the wall, who the hell has got it?

  Regards,

  James

  *in fact there is more since we've printed more....
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  103

  Jan. 15th WT- Go to Meetings to Fight the Blues- Eliminate other Activities

  by flipper in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  our jw contact sent us the " witness only " wt's again and i just had to make a thread on this mind numbing article.

  starting on pg.22 in the jan.15th it deals with " coping with discouragement ".

  it seems lots of jw's are under intense stress these days ( can you blame them ?

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  JamesS

  Hi all, do they have "Witness Only" watchtowers now then?
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  27

  Reasons for disbelief: The top ten reasons I am an atheist

  by whereami in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  many people ask why someone like me, who came from a christian home, went to a christian high school and then went on to spend five years in seminary and become a pastor, a missionary, and an evangelist, would turn his back on the god he spent a lifetime worshiping and serving and give up all faith in the supernatural.

  the answer is very simple, and im about to give it.

  first, however, let me tell you what the reason is not.. most people, upon hearing my story, all unanimously decide regardless of their own spiritual beliefs or religious affiliations that i must be mad at god.

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  JamesS

  I agree with much of that original post, but I'm not sure about the statement "you can’t disprove something you don’t have proof of".

  If you do have actual proof of it, then you won't be able to disprove it. I think what he is saying is "You can't disprove something that somebody has not offered their alleged proof of. If you have their alleged proof, you can produce a logically sound counter-argument".

  What he is actually referring to is the principle that states the grounds for the acceptance of an idea being a theory by the scientific community, rather than an idea being a pure speculation, or work of imagination without basis. The difference between a "scientific theory", and a "pure speculation", is simple: A theory is testable, a groundless speculation is not.

  Issac Newton said "I think the planets have an attractive force that I have calculated and my calculations SAY SOMETHING about the workings of the Solar System and you can go and TEST them". People did, and his theory was proved correct (in all practical day-to-day matters).

  If I say to you "I think that all the galaxies and systems and planets throughout the entire universe are all connected by an invisble and ENTIRELY UNDETECTABLE chewing gum", it is groundless speculation because it cannot be tested.

  I think that is what this guy is saying about God. There is no logical test that can prove or disprove God. And we should never expect there will be because humanity's definition of God is that he is supernatural. Something is either logically deconstructable, and is thus not supernatural, or it is supernatural and thus not logically deconstructable.

  No answer as to whether God exists can be derived logically.
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  7

  THE ANALOGY OF LEAVING THE ORGANIZATION OF JWs

  by PublishingCult in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  can you give an analogy of what it was like (for you personally) leaving the organization of jehovahs witnesses?.

  for me, it was very much like the story of mountain climber aron ralston.

  the canyon wall of the narrow passage was the watchtower bible & tract society.

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  JamesS

  Hmm, thats really an interesting analogy.

  I think maybe leaving the witnesses is like leaving the earth's atmosphere - it takes an awful lot of energy to escape its gravity, and if I go back I'll burn up on re-entry!! :-)
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  45

  How far are you on your journey away from the JW Org?

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i mentally left the org in march 2010. i stepped down as an elder after my lad got into trouble.

  i researched the publications to make myself 'spiritually strong' but it backfired.. i was in mental and emotional turmoil, still on fs, the platform and meetings etc.

  i had to force myself to conform to ever failing jw doctrine.. i announced to my family that i was not going back to meetings in august 2010 after the 'overlapping' joke of 'new light'.. i told the elders not to call.

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  JamesS

  Hi Guys I'm new to this web-site but I've been out of the JW's for 15 years. All I can tell you is that it gets easier and easier the longer you are out. There are two things that need to adjust: you, and your family that are still in it. Both take time.

  But at the end of the day, you either stay in against your own better judgement and live for your family and not yourself, or you live your own life. Neither option will be easy, but I can only recommend to you my own experience, which has been that I've been happier since not doing something I don't want to do!!

  Good luck to you all!
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  48

  Hello to everyone.... and could I ask a really basic question here please...

  by JamesS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm james i'm new to this forum as of today and i'm a ex-jw who was "born into the truth" and then left it officially at the age of twenty after "drifting out" of it for some time.

  i'm now 34 and whilst i'm not exactly happy with the world i'm living in, i'm largely happy with my own life.. one question i've got about this forum - i didn't join for a long time because i thought it was for active jw's (based on the web-site url), not ex jw's, but then looking at the threads, it seems it is more for ex-jw's!

  what is the demographic for the membership?

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  JamesS

  No I didn't go to any cong whilst in Carshalton that has been post the witnesses 15 years ago now, but I lived round the corner from the one in Wallington! I knew some people in that cong, but never stepped foot in the KH. I also lived just up the road from one in Australia and never stepped foot in it! I now live 100 yards from a KH and have never stepped foot in that one either!
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  33

  Do You Feel Somewhat Liberated When You Talk About Your JW Past?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i do.. when i tell people that i was a witness, nobody can believe it!

  i enjoy telling them why i left the religion, the harm they cause, and the benefits of being out of it.. do you express yourself in this way too or is it only me?.

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  JamesS

  I agree it is liberating but also I understand that many on here have to be careful who you talk to about it.

  I do tell people about it, but I don't often bring it up, not because I'm embarrassed, but because people are usually so fascinated by it I end up being questioned solidly for ages! I've been out in a bar with a group of people all talking about various things and then all of a sudden they have stopped what they are talking about and they are all listening to me and asking me questions!!

  And a lot of it is really difficult to explain unless you have been there!