Posts by snare&racket

17

I finally did it

by paradiseseeker in

jw
friends

it's done.. during the last month i've been talking with my closest friends about leaving the org and yesterday i finally talked with my parents.. it's been almost 5 months after i said that i would do it, but i think that this extra time has been beneficial.

i've said several times that i would opt for sending a resignation letter, but after talking to my best friends some of them suggested me becoming inactive and blocking my congregation's elders.

i've changed my mind and i will do that because the people that i care the most now know what's going on so they won't be worrying about me not attending the meetings.

snare&racket

Good work!

Fading is the best approach. Well done for being a rare, smart, brave, moral, ethical human.

21

Take a Moment and Think About How Awesome You Are

by Simon in

jw
friends

it's easy to get bogged down with life and think you're not getting ahead or progressing.

but regardless of where we think things may be going, pretty much everyone who's come through this site is an achiever who's done an amazing thing in one way or another even if they may not think about it.. so think about it!.

you got past and over your programming and indoctrination.

snare&racket

With so much loss and cost to leaving the WT society, it is difficult ro remain positive at times.

The decades of constant guilt is a potent emotional bedrock, rooted deep in the psyche, difficult to deconstruct and remove. I notice myself and others naturally shift the reason for guilt rather than battle it, because it is so immensely ingrained.

The guilt, sadness and fears are not healthy. We lost so much time to an empty and selfish endeavor that serves good to nobody. It is vital to gain control of our life back as time is our most precious possession, With that time our purpose becomes evident, to be happy, fulfilled and willing to share that happiness with others. To have a family and instill the value or being a good human, seeking and sharing happiness when we can.

Simon, you are so right....... to have even reached this forum is an act of stunning bravery and makes evident a hunger for truth, not comforting lies promising the world 'one day' in exchange for your life now. It is such a successful con, millions, billions fall for it. Few that were raised or coerced into such beliefs escape......

I feel so proud to get to share this forum with such incredible and brave human beings. We all have our differences on politics, faith, grammar (lol), but nobody else on planet earth can understand what we have been through....... I have immense respect for you all.

No matter how much we left behind, we all know we have done the right and moral thing DESPITE the institutional organised loss. The loss was out of our hands. Our loved ones and friends have made the choice to shun, we simply chose the truth.

For every day of survival post your JW exit, a huge well done and deserved celebration.

Once again, thank you Simon for the forum.

Snare

10

JW.Org data

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

to think they have hung the blue and white sign on every building they own in the world and that this was a publicity campaign with the presumed backing of the god of the universe....... it's not going well.. despite the 8.5 million followers, who through design have to visit the site......it isn't even in the top ten..... top fifty..... top one hundred ......top two hundred visited sites globally.. users on average click through 7 pages per visit and don't stay long, averaging about a minute a page.. as for the data on its search over time 'jw.org' is now googled globally at a rate less than 25% of its peak and is usually associated for a search for the daily text.. .

between this and the carts, the only message getting through to real people is 'child abuse' and that woman from king of queens taking an interest!.

i sincerely think we are seeing evidence of what has been anecdotal decline...... waited long enough for it!.

snare&racket

"I tend to agree with SBF. What is shown in the graph is the number of times jw.org was searched for on google, not the the number of views.."

I added those statistics in also, they are 212th on the internet for daily visits.

The point I was making, was the JW's would have you believe that with God's power, JW.ORG is dominating the internet space and a technological marvel, envied by all....

It simply isn't true.

In my opinion, the JW.ORG has dated them already, there is something quite unfashionable, clinical and unnecessary to name yourself a ".org"

Anyway, the data shows a huge lack of interest despite all their spending and efforts......

10

JW.Org data

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

to think they have hung the blue and white sign on every building they own in the world and that this was a publicity campaign with the presumed backing of the god of the universe....... it's not going well.. despite the 8.5 million followers, who through design have to visit the site......it isn't even in the top ten..... top fifty..... top one hundred ......top two hundred visited sites globally.. users on average click through 7 pages per visit and don't stay long, averaging about a minute a page.. as for the data on its search over time 'jw.org' is now googled globally at a rate less than 25% of its peak and is usually associated for a search for the daily text.. .

between this and the carts, the only message getting through to real people is 'child abuse' and that woman from king of queens taking an interest!.

i sincerely think we are seeing evidence of what has been anecdotal decline...... waited long enough for it!.

snare&racket

To think they have hung the blue and white sign on every building they own in the world and that this was a publicity campaign with the presumed backing of the god of the universe....... it's not going well.

Despite the 8.5 million followers, who through design have to visit the site......It isn't even in the top ten..... top fifty..... top one hundred ......top two hundred visited sites globally.

Users on average click through 7 pages per visit and don't stay long, averaging about a minute a page.

As for the data on its search over time 'JW.org' is now googled globally at a rate less than 25% of its peak and is usually associated for a search for the daily text.

Between this and the carts, the only message getting through to real people is 'Child Abuse' and that woman from King Of Queens taking an interest!

I sincerely think we are seeing evidence of what has been anecdotal decline...... waited long enough for it!

Snare x

23

Need help in finding some information regarding the Adam and Eve tale.

by Tameria2001 in

i am finally at the point in my life i no longer believe in the tales of the bible.

my husband feels for the most part that it too is stuff made up.

there are just a few things that he wants to get cleared up, and one of those being the story of adam and eve.

snare&racket

Something I considered when leaving the JW’s.

The doctrine basically states that option A... a perfect Adam and Eve could live by God’s commands and judgment and live in paradise. Option B they make their own decisions and suffer the consequences. The free will they had was portrayed by a tree of knowledge and eating of it would declare independence from God.

The JW’s and Christians claim that God provided free will and choice and that he is letting Adam and Eve’s choices play out. They state in the doctrine that this will undoubtedly prove that God’s sovereignty will be made evident by the results of mankind’s decision to exercise free will.

However.......... Option A had Adam and Eve perfect with animals and land in subjection to them. Option A came with first person contact with a deity and that deity’s support. It is in no way comparable to Option B .... an imperfect pair, who are forced to have a compulsion to sin, with earth and animals fighting their attempts to survive and abandonment from their deity.

Adam and Eve being left to live out their decision does not provide evidence of the God of the bibles sovereignty.... it is not a valid proposal to compar option A and Option B. Option B was doomed to fail..... nothing has been proven by 6000 years of suffering.

The origin story of Adam and Eve was to be an explanation for suffering, for a gods sovereignty and an introduction of free will to a god that demanded robot followers. Did a little deeper than the surface and it provides no foundation for any of this.

16

AP Article: Jehovah's Witnesses ask court to reverse $35M abuse verdict

by AndersonsInfo in

jehovah's witnesses ask court to reverse $35m abuse verdict.

by the associated press.

posted sep 13, 2019 12:34 pm pdt.

snare&racket

The irony....

Child abuse.... the law and it's courts are not appropriate, so as to protect Jehovah's name from tarnish.

Hefty financial punishments for not protecting children........ worthy of a court case, no matter how it looks.

13

Looking for Podcast recommendations.

by nicolaou in

jw
friends

i'm a postman so i get 4 to 5 hours every day with my headphones on and i'm really chewing through some stuff.

i'm after science (evolutionary biology and anthropology especially), history of religion and comedy.

old sci-fi audio books are also a favourite.

snare&racket

Interesting Guests /stories:

Joe Rogan

Adam Buxton

Serial (season 1-3)

The Shrink next door

Mark Maron

Science:

13 minutes to the Moon

Infinite Monkey Cage

Skeptoid

The Life Scientific

Comedy:

This Past Weekend

Joey Diaz

Bill Burr

The MagicTavern

Richard Herring

XFM Karl Pilington Ricky Gervais Steve Merchant (archived online)

Howard Stern radio (via youtube)

Not for the faint Hearted:

There are hours and hours ...literally weeks worth of comedy/interesting discussions via the radio show from New York called "The Opie & Anthony Show" . It's run by comics and they have no restrictions on what they say or discuss, It is literally the best/funniest radio of all time but it is not for the faint hearted......at all!

Start with anything that has Patrice O'Neil in it, he has so much charisma, street wisdom and humor in every cell of his body. It is just hilarious! All on youtube...be warned once you start, you will be addicted.

62

Evolution - A Conversation with Alex Williams

by cofty in

alex - thank you for your offer to have a conversation about evolution.. i accept the scientific evidence that all life - including humans - evolved from a common ancestor through unguided evolution over millions of years.

this isn't even a controversial position in the scientific community.. the evidence rests on the data from many interconnected fields including paleontology, comparative anatomy, geology and especially genetics.

it is no exaggeration to say that the evidence for your own non-human ancestry is contained in every cell in your body.. it is my experience that jws are generally quite ignorant (not in a pejorative sense) of the scientific case.

snare&racket

Nice to see you here, still doing a grand job cofty x

62

Evolution - A Conversation with Alex Williams

by cofty in

alex - thank you for your offer to have a conversation about evolution.. i accept the scientific evidence that all life - including humans - evolved from a common ancestor through unguided evolution over millions of years.

this isn't even a controversial position in the scientific community.. the evidence rests on the data from many interconnected fields including paleontology, comparative anatomy, geology and especially genetics.

it is no exaggeration to say that the evidence for your own non-human ancestry is contained in every cell in your body.. it is my experience that jws are generally quite ignorant (not in a pejorative sense) of the scientific case.

snare&racket

As someone that used to be a JW, defending creation and rejecting science, you need to start from scratch Alex.

Ypu wouldn't take an honest approach to learning how satellites worked by copy snd pasting all the flat earth reasoning for why satellites don't really exist,

Don't trust anyone but yourself, everyone has bias and agendas. You can monitor your motivations and bias however, so, if you REALLY want to know the real truth about science and evolution, take the effort to teach yourself. Currently you are just borrowing other peoples arguments and the majority of informed people will tell you, you have been deceived. But don't take their word for it.... learn all the facts and decide for yourself.

This is what I did snd it took years to decipher what I felt was true, I did it via the library and science classes. I am very confident spesking for myself that we have a very thorough understanding of abiogenesis and undeniable clarity on evolution. The big bang is also not just well understood but photographed in real-time, it is an exciting time to have genuine questions however the answers will take time.

Keep in mind what you are attempting to achieve. Abiogeneis is the study of the genesis of living cells and would require years of study in biology, physics and chemistry and advanced degrees is microbiology to fully understand.

The study of evolution, and the progression of genetics over time requires study in biology and chemistry and advanced degrees in biology.

The study of the big bang rewuires study in chemistry and physics and advanced degrees in astro-physics.

The fact that there are people here willing to help guide you through years/ decades of study that they have accomplished means you should firstly be very appreciative, but secondly respect the effort and learning they/we have done and do likewise. Don't just copy and paste what several non academic watchtower writers have written for you to consume. Nobody outside of cults or religious organisations like the JW's likes, needs or wants other people to do their learning and researching for them.

if you are serious about knowing truth..... go find it yourself and put the literature away, if they are right, you will come to the same conclusion as them, so nothing to lose.....

Snare x

17

I'm just so sad and now I'm mad

by KimD in

i'm just so sad and i'm so angry at myself for believing and living a lie.

i hurt so many people in my family by becoming a jw....why didn't i listen to my sweet grandfather when he cried and begged me not to become a jw...i truly thought it was the truth...my grandfather cried...he was so hurt....my bible study teacher told me that satan would test me and my grandfather's pleas were my first test...he's gone now...years before i left the religion....i so wish that i could tell him that i am sorry and how very much i loved him...

snare&racket

Think of what your motives were....... no need for guilt or self punishment.

You are one of the rare few that leave, your Grandad would be so proud!