Posts by notjustyet

68

need to talk/vent. wifey wt problems

by unstopableravens in

my wife ask me if im going to make up the assmebly, i reminder her that i in clean conscience can not go anymore,as soon as the word anymore came out the tears started flooding.

it hurts me to see her like this.

i talked to her calm trying to explain why i cant worship with doctrine that is so clearly wrong.

i'm a big derren brown fan & enjoyed these episodes - interesting from an ex-jw perspective ( where essentially all of us were fooled , consciously or subconsciously by the society ).. especially interesting is ( in part 2 ) where he convinces a totally atheistic stem cell scientist to have a religious conversion in 15 minutes.

presumably this is the same mechanism where jws become "anointed" ( or where evangelicals become born again etc.

he also touches on subliminal images ( larsinger please note!).

notjustyet

I am a huge Derren Brown fan, I think it is some of his work and showing how the mind cna be tricked that got me to thinkiing about the idea that I could have ben being decieved by the BORG.

Those links above do not work for USA viewers, try this one for the 1st episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfDlfhHVvTY

NJY

12

Why does the WT bother with their new country farm if ...

by mP in

jw
friends

they can simply fire all those dumb sods and release ebook versions of all material printed there, saving money where all contributions are profit..

notjustyet

Maybe that realize that they have to keep the masses already in busy doing busy work. It keeps them on the treadmill and does not allow them the time to start thinking.

I feel that going out in service and doing other embarrassing things like being the odd man out in schools is in a way, a initiation of sorts.

See this info under the main heading of Cognitive Dissonance at the wikepedia site.

Links are clickable.

I think that doing anything unpleasant (as accepted by an average person, not a current JW) is used to make them think that "It is worth it" as explained below.

You HAVE to go to meeting, out in service and also take unpleasant stands for the TRUTH, and to keep dissonance down, in your mind, it HAS to be worth it so this makes continuing to be a member of the JWs worth it.

NJY

Effort justification paradigm

Further information: Effort justification

Dissonance is aroused whenever individuals voluntarily engage in an unpleasant activity to achieve some desired goal. Dissonance can be reduced by exaggerating the desirability of the goal. Aronson & Mills [15] had individuals undergo a severe or mild "initiation" in order to become a member of a group. In the mild-initiation condition, the individuals engaged in an embarrassing activity. The group they joined turned out to be very dull and boring. The individuals in the severe-initiation condition evaluated the group as more interesting than the individuals in the mild-initiation condition.

All of the above paradigms continue to be used in fruitful research.

Washing one's hands has been shown to eliminate post-decisional dissonance, presumably because the dissonance is often caused by moral disgust (with oneself), which is related to disgust from unsanitary conditions. [16] [17]

68

need to talk/vent. wifey wt problems

by unstopableravens in

my wife ask me if im going to make up the assmebly, i reminder her that i in clean conscience can not go anymore,as soon as the word anymore came out the tears started flooding.

it hurts me to see her like this.

i talked to her calm trying to explain why i cant worship with doctrine that is so clearly wrong.

notjustyet

Steve Hassan says to make sure that you assure her of your love for her continually.

If she says " I hate you!!" tell her " i have enough love for the both of us"

If she shoots daggers at you, act like you are dodging them. lol

If confronted and cannot get out of a little JW conversation you might want to share the point that you have not left the Org, the Org has left you. It is the one that "changed the contract" not you. They are the ones that have taken the liberty to change doctrine and demanded that you change your thinking on it in an instant, take it or leave it. In any other situation, these actions would give the other party to a contract the option to cancel that contract.

I would not want to have to make those comments, but if cornered and forced to give a reason why you are thinking this way, that would be my lead in.

NJY

55

Let me get this straight about the FDS latest thinking

by wha happened? in

so the fds does not include the apostles.

what part of the gospels aren't food at the proper time?

or am i just mixed up on who the fds are..

notjustyet

I thought the annual meeting talk did not say GB members, did it?

I thought there was some wiggle room there a bit, like they mentioned annointed ones working at world headquarters or something similar.

NJY

100

What would Jesus think of Crosses everywhere?

by Simon in

.

http://imgur.com/gallery/k9hiq.

notjustyet

That is a hilarious thought!!! JFK coming back,... I mean come on!!!

NJY

14

How Many Here Regularly Get Mail From Other Posters?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i see comments quite often like, "check your mail.

i sent you a message".

i usually get a message once every 2 months..

notjustyet

While I do not get much if any email, last one, one month ago and it was a brand new user (0 comments) asking me to email them a link to the PDF of Shepherding the flock book. I think it might have been a lurker trying to figur eout who I am.

Either way I wish everyone would just check their PM first when they log on, then they would not need a reminder to constantly check their Pms.

NJY

3

Flag Salute Letter

by Bangalore in

jw
friends

flag salute letter.. .

.

bangalore.

notjustyet

Love that little Freudian slip where he had to go back and add "Not" in the "I do not salute the flag(not)because I do not love my country"

NJY

86

WHAT ARE YOUR MOST VIVID, ODD, or FUNNY Memories of Conventions and Assemblies of Jehovah's Witnesses?

by Balaamsass in

share with us memories of the bizarre, funny, strange, what you hated, what you miss...we all have them.

(question..why the big to do between terms- convention and assembly .

notjustyet

Getting to see first hand how an attendant handles a brother who had wheeled his wheelchair bound son up to a "ADA marked" (Americans with Disabilities Act)area on a upper level so that he could hang his head over and see the drama as the view from the floor back row was not working for him due to his full body paralysis, I think.

I was thinking how nice of the father to make an effort to get his son to an area where he could enjoy the drama. NOPE, the attendant approached the father and told him that he was instructed to not allow anyone in that area, no exceptions. I approached the attendant and explained to him that this area was especially marked for people that are bound in wheelchairs, it is a federal law for these areas to be provided just for reasons like this. No, sorry, my instructions are not to allow anyone in this area. I was making more of a scene than the father as he said it was okay and he turned and started to push his son back the floor seating area on the back row where his son would not be able to see any of the drama. I carried on the conversation with the attendant a little bit more out in the main area and I could feel that was getting heated like I wanted to explode and he just walked off like it did not bother him at all. That is when I SHOULD have woken up to the lack of humanity in this Organization and started my research. It took me a few more years to start to wake up although I do think that this added to the straws that finally broke me down.

I just could not believe how unloving this rule was.

NJY

51

Stronger Christian presence on JWN?

by Christ Alone in

jw
friends

i've only been a member here for a short time, but it seems like there are more christians on the board lately.

for the first few months that i was on jwn, it appeared that there were very few that argued in favor of a creator and belief in the bible in particular.

there seems to be several more that have recently joined...or at least posted more regularly regarding belief.

notjustyet

I've wondered, on another forum,(JWR) why when we leave the WTBTS some stop at the next plateau and decide that Christianity is still good and where it is at while others decide to go the core, no beliefs in a omniotent being and decide to verfiy everything before moving forward in a belief system, it at all.

I wonder if there was a poll conducted, if the born ins tend to go direct to agnostic/atheist and the converted to JWs from christianity stop at christianity?

Possibly the born ins have christianity tied to th WTBTS so when they find it is a lie, they clean house entirely since the WTBTS and christianity are inseperable whereas the Converts have the WTBTS beliefs tagged onto their former belief in a God and Jesus etc.

How futile for a person to be taken to the cleaners by the WTBTS belief for all these years just to be so sure that they got it right this time, without really doing any unbiased research and are just making life altering decisions based on assumptions.

I'm the "get back to basics' kinda person and feel that you have to unshackle your mind from any preconcieved ideas about a God etc and remove any Carrot from before you to be able to make a informed decision. To quote Carl Sagan, "I donlt want to believe, I want to know"

I see "faith" as a bridge that is used to make the leap between lack of evidence. I do not see it as a good thing to have as I think that it allows the "user" to stop researching and looking for evidence to back up their claim for their beliefs.

NJY