Posts by stuffwotifink

hi, everyonei not new new... i have been here before under a different user, i just forgot my log-in info after a long time...so i created a new one.i from time to time post something.

usually i just like reading post, cuz you guys are great.i consider myself a atheist.

i came to this conclusion a few years ago, but i think i have always been skeptical about god's existence.i dont ever remember having experiencing the holy spirit, or anything supernatural good or evil, so i cannot relate to people who have.i always thought i was good person (never steal, fornicated or hurt anyone), yet never felt blessed by god.

stuffwotifink

There is a difference between you wanting him to go to hell and you thinking he actually might.
It seems more like you are wishing for a moment that it was true - rather than thinking it actually is true.

56

If Jehovah's Witnesses were a cereal, what would they be?

by Zoos in

cult flakes?.

.

(welcome to the height of intellectual thread topics.

stuffwotifink

13

(Bible's) God will do whatever he wants

by Cota Samuel in

hello and excuse my not perfect knowledge of english.

when i've started studying the bible when i was 13 one of the first subjects i was teached was about genesis.

the first two humans were supposedly perfect which by bible's means it meant that they couldn't die nor get ill. this meant that at least humans couldn't get diseases.

stuffwotifink

in case THEY DARED TO DO ANYTHING ELSE THAN LISTEN TO HIM

Even better. He knows everything... So when He made Adam and Eve - and when He decided to use the tree as a test - He knew they would fail.
He didn't just make "the most disturbing, horrifying and disgusting diseases especially for his beloved creatures in case" they failed the test. He made those diseases knowing He would unleash them on humanity, for failing the test he knew they would fail before He even set it.

Yeah, the bible is fun, when it's not sickening.

The idea of an omniscient and self aware first cause, playing the blame game, is laughable.

20

TTATT is a process, and it’s going to take time. There are no Short-Cuts.

by John Aquila in

i talked to a close friend that served with me as an elder for a few years.

he allowed me about an hour to explain why 607 is not the correct date for the destruction of ancient jerusalem.

i showed him all the scriptures needed and i showed him the wt magazines that proved it.

stuffwotifink

Just as I was at my most "Tell everyone you know that they are wrong"ist, a woman I'd known my whole life (the mother of a close friend) started to take the bOrg seriously.
She'd been one of those "Lifelong study who never gets dunked" types, she'd come and go over the years, but never liked the meetings because of all the clique-ish behavior and pressures to conform to standards she couldn't find in her bible.
The kingdom hall was her only option, so far as she was aware, to avoid the trinity - and since some JWs she knew had convinced her this was "pagan"... She lingered on the outskirts of the herd.

Anyway, she was diagnosed with cancer and started to really "lean on jehovah" as a result. All her reservations about the legalism of the JWs were thrown out the window. I could see the fear in her eyes. [And that's obviously not just WT doctrine, most biblical theologies leave people open to this kind of fear "was I lukewarm, will I be found wanting?"]

She knew what my "new and improved" position was on the WT and asked me not to talk to her about it.

As she became more ill she would often try to speak to me about the bible and her hopes for the new system (I had preached at her for hours over the years, most times we spoke; we spoke about biblical stuff). I really stuggled with the conversation and avoided her a little, but when I couldn't dodge her... I lied. And she knew I was lying.
She needed the lie.

I would blabber on about all the scriptural nonesense that used to fill me with hope when I believed - and quote every last damned bit of empty scripture I could think of, to support the pretty pictures she wanted to paint of her resurrection.
My eisegesis was epic. CTR himself would have been impressed with my bullshit.

She died thinking that the very next thing she'd see would be Paradise. I did nothing to attempt to change that. I played right into what I believe to have been a false hope on her part, and solidified it as best I could for her: as True.

I'm a stinking hypocrite. I'll be buggered if I feel bad about it though. I would lie again if I was faced with the same situation. Those were some of the sweetest lies that ever passed my lips, I'd take none back.
Sometimes TTATT is flat out the worst thing that you can offer a JW, sad but true, imo.

I figured I'd add that. It is a minefield of a problem, who knows where it's best to tread?
Not I.

20

TTATT is a process, and it’s going to take time. There are no Short-Cuts.

by John Aquila in

i talked to a close friend that served with me as an elder for a few years.

he allowed me about an hour to explain why 607 is not the correct date for the destruction of ancient jerusalem.

i showed him all the scriptures needed and i showed him the wt magazines that proved it.

stuffwotifink

I had to bite down on my frustration many times, over this.

Dubs who listen to what you say and respond with "I've gotta look that up"... But never do. It would be easier to understand and accept, if they looked it up and just swallowed the WT spin - But, no. Many seem to "forget" everything, until next they see you.

Confused the life out of me.

As my nana used to say "There's none so blind as them that won't see".

26

WT opinion about anointed Christians

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

jesus said "look to the fruits" of real christians.. it is unbelievable that the wt says that new anointed christians are merely false.

how can humans decide who is anointed and who's not?.

how can the watchtower society say these unchristian statements?

stuffwotifink

I never under stood that. The Bible very clearly spells it out. 144,000. 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. Are there a lot of Israel descendants, or Jews, in the WT/JW?

I always thought that was just about the best example of shoddy (or dishonest) interpretation, by the WT. Symbolic and literal, side by side, in the same verse... Sure.

9

what is truth - Pilate asked Jesus

by Ruby456 in

jw
friends

i think pilate was being socratic when he asked jesus - what is truth?.

my question is to do with whether or not jesus was also being socratic when he said he had come to bear witness to the truth.

my idea is that both pilate and jesus were talking about a kind of ethics to live.

stuffwotifink

Nope.

He asked a rhetorical question. Not the same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_questioning

*edit. as SIAR2 already said.

5

Just me?

by stuffwotifink in

my family are no longer in the shadow of the watchtower.

(2nd generation born in, but only a small family)for that i have to offer my thanks to simon and everyone on this forum whose posts helped expose me to ttatt (i struggle to say quite how much it actually means to me, so i won't say more than, thank you).it all took a year or two, but i've read enough to know that i'm incredibly lucky and that it all happened for me in a very short time.although time turns to syrup when you have to wait.

"expectation postponed..." will the platitudinous catchphrase scriptures ever stop coming to mind?when i started to tell my family some of the things i'd been learning online, they looked at me with no little fear and trepidation.

stuffwotifink

On a side note: I'm a doxastic non-voluntarist.
But dubs certainly do seem to choose their beliefs, I may need to consider my position.