it seems britain has voted to leave the eu in a move of total madness!
the markets are already in free fall and the moronic bigots who campaigned for this are celebrating the demise of our country .. i can't see how a 49-51% split can be democratic?
there is still the postal vote to come in, maybe there's hope in that?
Anyone else want to claim Sweden is as rapist as f***ing India? What is more probable? That Sweden actually has 3 times more rapes than Norway (a country which is its political and demographic doppelganger) or that Swedes are just more meticulous, hair-splitting statisticians?
But what this has to do with Brexit I don't know.
it seems britain has voted to leave the eu in a move of total madness!
the markets are already in free fall and the moronic bigots who campaigned for this are celebrating the demise of our country .. i can't see how a 49-51% split can be democratic?
there is still the postal vote to come in, maybe there's hope in that?
On the subject of sweden being the second most sexually violent country in the world, this BBC report might be interesting:
The Swedish police recorded the highest number of offences - about 63 per 100,000 inhabitants - of any force in Europe, in 2010. The second-highest in the world.
This was three times higher than the number of cases in the same year in Sweden's next-door neighbour, Norway, and twice the rate in the United States and the UK. It was more than 30 times the number in India, which recorded about two offences per 100,000 people.
On the face of it, it would seem Sweden is a much more dangerous place than these other countries.
But that is a misconception, according to Klara Selin, a sociologist at the National Council for Crime Prevention in Stockholm. She says you cannot compare countries' records, because police procedures and legal definitions vary widely.
"In Sweden there has been this ambition explicitly to record every case of sexual violence separately, to make it visible in the statistics," she says.
"So, for instance, when a woman comes to the police and she says my husband or my fiance raped me almost every day during the last year, the police have to record each of these events, which might be more than 300 events. In many other countries it would just be one record - one victim, one type of crime, one record."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgiqaabx3_o.
Great video. I love kurtzgesagt!
i was asked to view the video “dear believer, why do you believe?” i said i would and i would publish my comments about it.
so here are my comments.
after my post, i hope other believers will post theirs comments about it.
Believer,
Just want you to know that I think that if belief is what helps you get over the ex-jw issues, I'm happy for you. Like you say, it's not for everyone and I fall into that category. Thanks for a link to this video, it's very succinct and well edited, a great summary of the argument.
I know this thread you've started is ostensibly for believers, but as you said, discussions between both sides are often very informative and help push understanding forward.
So in that spirit, I'm interested in your statement that:
"I have no problem with the idea that religion was created by our ancestors as their expression of a need to worship something greater than themselves."
And I wonder how that squares with faith in a loving, personal God. My question is, why would a personal God not reveal himself and his principles in a clearer and more consistent way across cultures?
In light of your last comment "God only requires we have faith... and he will do the rest," I wonder how you come to your assesment of the character of God and what he requires outside of a religious system.
Please don't mistake the intent of my question. If there was evidence to support the existence of a loving, personal God, I would not be in a position to deny it and nor would I wish to.
CI
it seems britain has voted to leave the eu in a move of total madness!
the markets are already in free fall and the moronic bigots who campaigned for this are celebrating the demise of our country .. i can't see how a 49-51% split can be democratic?
there is still the postal vote to come in, maybe there's hope in that?
I'm pretty deflated about Brexit. Seems to me that the slim margin of victory for the Leave camp was achieved by appealing to the biases of an aging electorate. The Baby Boomers voted us out with a nostaligic ideal of a glorious past that never was. The vote was also strong among people marginalised by a shifting modern economy who were taught by irresponsible politicians such as Farage that their problems were due to an influx of Polish people. Their vote was a rejection of people across europe who share our democratic values and cultural heritage. Europe was growing stronger through interdependence between nations, but will possibly now crumble into factions.
It's true the EU governance system needs reform, and I hope that it will see Brexit as a symptom of its problems and pay attention to people's concerns about beureaucratic croneyism. But we will not now be part of that reform, and I think that's a shame. Hopefully we will be able to negotiate strong trade deals and possibly remain part of the EEC. A 2% majority is hardly a mandate to shut the borders and deport everyone. I hope Europe will remember that the will of many British people was not represented in the result, and that many of us are still open to the idea of being Europeans and Britons, and not the latter exclusively.
But most importantly for me, it was the first time I broke Watchtower's shackles and went to the Ballot. As you can tell, I backed the loser, but being part of democracy in action was thrilling.
Just a bit disappointed. I'm blaming the Remain campaigners for not putting a stronger case to the public and resorting to threats instead of championing the co-operation and interdependence so vital for peace and continued economic growth.
And by the way, I'll be emigrating soon to Europe.
in case you read my other thread regarding my existential crisis and how it was making my life miserable and left me feeling hopeless, purposeless and joyless i though i'd share what's recently happened to me and my way of thinking and have i've for the time being resolved my existential crisis.
i write every day in a journal.
i've been doing this for years.
Glad you've found an answer to your crisis! Keeping a journal is a great idea, and something I've been doing for a while. Would recommend everyone do it. It's a place you can properly explore your feelings and get some clarity.
jws very much believe that there is an absolute truth and of course, they are the only ones who have it lol.
how about now though do you still believe that absolute truths exist?
or is everything subjective?
Ultimately, we are islands of thought seperated from everything. We can't be sure that all of what we know and experience isn't just a computer signal stimulating our brain, which is stored in a vat somewhere beyond our the world we are conscious of.
But once you get over this rather self-centered view of the world and admit the existence of other beings, then you understand we all have a distinct perspective that can only be shared imperfectly.
The only method we have to compare notes about the world we experience is by language, which itself has no universal rules, is vague and imprecise, and changes all the time. What does it even mean to say something is true?
Some things are true because we all agree on them, like: Elizabeth is the Queen of England, or that bar of chocolate is worth £1. And some things are true by definition: points on a circle are all equidistant from the centre, etc. Some things are true because they always follow testable theories we've made up to describe them: the earth is drawn to the sun by gravity.
It's human to ask what is true or not, and we do it to survive in an uncertain world. We're only usually interested in as much truth as is useful; a vast amount of knowledge is considered Trivia. And, ultimately our understanding of reality is limited by our short range biology. We look at truth like goldfish in a pond trying to make out the clouds.
JWs claim they can see everything clearly, but it is humbler, and much more interesting to consider how little we actually know.
so is anyone else having an existential crisis after becoming fully awake?
let me explain.
about 2 years ago i read coc, still believed and tried to get back in da troof.
Hi. I really feel for you in that situation. Though I can't relate to alcoholism, and I'm at a bit of a loss on what to say about it exactly, I can really relate to the existensial crisis.
My waking up faced me with the same questions, and I've been through some pretty dark times with it.
I can't answer the question of how you can deal with it, just tell you what is helping me. I've come to believe that the lack of a grand purpose for the universe and us is actually quite liberating. We are free to follow our own set of values and do what makes us happy.
In paradise, I was just hoping I'd get to do what I really want anyway. That wouldn't have any objective purpose either. Even if I lived forever, it wouldn't give my life purpose or direction. God should have an existensial crisis, because after all, what's he for?
And I don't want there to be a state of complete satisfaction. If there was a universal purpose, all our endevours could one day be achieved, and then what? Then we'd be at the anticlimax with nothing to live for after that.
Being human, I think, is about longing, and striving, jumping from one goal to the next. It's just the way we're wired. So I like to trick my mind by giving myself targets and goals and purposes. Another good tactic is to form friendships and help people out. I am trying to do what I would have done in paradise had it been true. But I have less time, so I am only doing what I really think is important and enjoyable.
That's what gets me through. Also some great YouTube channels like Alain De Botton's School of Life, introducing great thinkers in a relevant, understandable way:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebt0X5ybm9Y
Or Crash Course Philosophy:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mjQwedC1WzI
And other channels, like Kurzgesagt, which has this great video on addiction below:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg
Maybe these will help.
hey y'all.
i just wanted to officially make my debut on https://www.jehovahs-witness.com and introduce myself.
i'm an old jwrer, and it looks like i'll be dropping in on here now for cult updates and friendly conversation.. a little about myself:.
Hi. An intro from me too:
Woke up about half a year ago, and it was a big shock. Used to be regular pioneer, Bethelite, ministerial servant, from a devout family. Married in the org.
Realised God wasn't having any affect on my life, that science made the Bible and the JWs look a bit silly and I couldn't believe it any more. Got sick with anxiety and faded, much to distress of wife.
Told my whole family one evening I didn't believe it anymore. No shunning as yet, though we live quite far away. I call it my "licence to fade."
A few months on, anxiety passed, moving on with life. Wife and me get on fine if we don't discuss religion! Found solace in philosophy and painting.
From Britain, late 20's. Still anonymous and undercover for my parents sake.
Thanks for welcoming us here!
i just tried to go to the site and there is a goodbye message.
i was a member there since 2010. i was really surprised.
i had just started posting there again after being away for a while.
Hi, another refugee from JWR.
Thanks to Designer Stubble, Palimpsest and Rifter, and everyone who worked on it.
Shame to see it go though! Would be great to have one last opportunity to swap details etc! It came as quite a shock.
I understand the need to move on and the amount of work the upkeep must be. I just wish things didn't have to be so summary. Lots of links and relationships will be lost! That will be pretty devastating for some users.
The forum was an invaluable release valve for me to let off steam about my situation - and a way to offer some support to people experiencing the same things.
A sad goodbye to it. Hopefully jw.com will accept some of us waifs and strays who still need a good place to vent!
