cappytan

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Posts by cappytan

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  182

  The Case for Theism

  by FusionTheism in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  "theism" here means "belief in a god" or "the worldview that an intelligent designer created the universe and life.

  " ("god" here means a being with a mind who initiated and/or wound-up the universe, and designed life on earth)the most common claim that i see atheists making on twitter, is that "no evidence" exists in support of belief in a god.this post will remove any excuse atheists have for claiming "no evidence exists" in support of an initiator.

  atheists can still reject this evidence as "weak," but they cannot truthfully say it does not exist.now, it is true that we do not have "observable, repeatable, falsifiable, empirical, scientific" evidence conclusively proving that an initiator exists, but we do have many lines of philisophical, experiential, and logical evidence.and... here... we... go:1:) many leading scientists, including stephen hawking, say that the space-time-matter universe had a beginning at the singularity/big bang.

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  cappytan

  Wow....this thread hasn't died yet? Funny...just like the virus of Theism.
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  182

  The Case for Theism

  by FusionTheism in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  "theism" here means "belief in a god" or "the worldview that an intelligent designer created the universe and life.

  " ("god" here means a being with a mind who initiated and/or wound-up the universe, and designed life on earth)the most common claim that i see atheists making on twitter, is that "no evidence" exists in support of belief in a god.this post will remove any excuse atheists have for claiming "no evidence exists" in support of an initiator.

  atheists can still reject this evidence as "weak," but they cannot truthfully say it does not exist.now, it is true that we do not have "observable, repeatable, falsifiable, empirical, scientific" evidence conclusively proving that an initiator exists, but we do have many lines of philisophical, experiential, and logical evidence.and... here... we... go:1:) many leading scientists, including stephen hawking, say that the space-time-matter universe had a beginning at the singularity/big bang.

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  cappytan

  FayeDunaway is all class.

  *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*
  
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  35

  My Story of Waking Up - in retrospect

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so, many of y'all know bits and pieces of my story of waking up, but i thought it might be nice to have it all in one place.. i was baptized at 11, auxiliary pioneered every summer, regular pioneer at 17, ministerial servant by 19, then went to bethel for a year.. i always had minor doubts from time to time, but nothing serious.

  always dismissed doubts and decided to "just have faith.".

  after leaving bethel, i was never really firing on all cylinders "spiritually speaking.

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  cappytan

  I hesitate to use the words betrayed or conned because I'm not convinced there is an evil motive, yet.

  I felt betrayed. Here's why: I realized that the ONLY reason they were sticking to their guns on 607 BCE was because they needed that date to justify their authority.

  To me, that is a selfish motive...and a betrayal.

  Conned? No. I don't feel conned.

  Duped is a good word. But I would also say betrayed. They betrayed the concept of truth.

  I told my wife the other day that I probably could have gotten over my doubts if the Society didn't put so much emphasis on calling the organization "the Truth." Equating the organization with that word "truth" was something I couldn't get over when I found things that were obviously NOT true.
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  75

  What was your eye opening moment?

  by WasOnceBlind in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  if you had to pinpoint the time or experience that finally made you open your eyes, what would it be?.

  i think for me it was the time i saw my dad shun his brother who he had not seen in decades just because he was a da'ed jw.

  i thought to my self "no way jesus would do that.

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  cappytan

  Legitimately researching 607 BCE got the ball rolling for me.
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  35

  My Story of Waking Up - in retrospect

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so, many of y'all know bits and pieces of my story of waking up, but i thought it might be nice to have it all in one place.. i was baptized at 11, auxiliary pioneered every summer, regular pioneer at 17, ministerial servant by 19, then went to bethel for a year.. i always had minor doubts from time to time, but nothing serious.

  always dismissed doubts and decided to "just have faith.".

  after leaving bethel, i was never really firing on all cylinders "spiritually speaking.

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• 

  cappytan

  Tornintwo: Where are you now? Are you fading/faded, do you still attend? How have your parents been? Sorry perhaps everyone else knows this. Any helpful tips about leaving quietly?

  First off, thanks for the kind words!

  I'm currently fading pretty quickly, but still attending sporadically to keep elders and the in-laws that happen to attend our congregation off the scent.

  Thankfully, I have been able to wake my wife up. I had a much easier time of waking her up than other people have experienced. I am a very fortunate and lucky man. I actually moved too fast with her. Most faders that move as fast as I did with my wife end up having a lot of conflict with their wife or divorced and disfellowshipped within weeks.

  From the time I shared my first doubts with my wife to the time she told me she didn't want to be a Jehovah's Witness anymore, it was about 6 weeks.

  My parents have no idea we're fading. Although they live close by, they're in a completely different town and circuit. I'm finding it hard, though, to stay close to them. I'm recognizing narcissistic selfish behavior in my mother, and it's leading me to resent her. My dad, who was my best friend for most of my adult life, I just can't be genuine with anymore. There's this big elephant in the room, and I can't talk about it because I don't want to be shunned.

  I'm taking it day by day, though. Trying not to let the negatives get me down and just be thankful I'm gaining true freedom!
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  141

  Schoolyard bully mentality

  by FusionTheism in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm not naming names, but i just want to encourage people on here or on reddit or twitter, and tell you that you do not have to tolerate people who act like schoolyard bullies in the way they speak to you online.

  i think anonymity is a big part of it.

  they feel like there is zero accountability so they can be a bully all they want.. i recommend just ignoring or blocking anyone who is verbally abusive or treats you like schoolyard bullies treated you.. life is way too short to spend any time dealing with those kinds of people..

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  cappytan

  I'm going to interject to ask some honest questions of FusionTheism.

  FT, do you value evidence and rationality when forming an opinion on a matter?

  The answer to that question is important. It's important to your freedom, for Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

  How can one "know" the truth? How does one "know" anything is true? Is it just a feeling one gets? Is something "true" because that's just how you were raised? Or is something actually "true" because the evidence shows it to be so?

  How would you answer these questions?
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  60

  Why don’t we have a better story?

  by iconoclastic in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  1. some say we are all gods, and god is omnipresent..

  2. some say: god created his children who later challenged his sovereignty, who in turn asked his eldest son: go down to the world, do not resist the wicked, but be murdered by them, the value of which will be used to atone the sins of the world..

  3. universe arose out of a big bang.

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  cappytan

  Cool story, bro!
• 
  182

  The Case for Theism

  by FusionTheism in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  "theism" here means "belief in a god" or "the worldview that an intelligent designer created the universe and life.

  " ("god" here means a being with a mind who initiated and/or wound-up the universe, and designed life on earth)the most common claim that i see atheists making on twitter, is that "no evidence" exists in support of belief in a god.this post will remove any excuse atheists have for claiming "no evidence exists" in support of an initiator.

  atheists can still reject this evidence as "weak," but they cannot truthfully say it does not exist.now, it is true that we do not have "observable, repeatable, falsifiable, empirical, scientific" evidence conclusively proving that an initiator exists, but we do have many lines of philisophical, experiential, and logical evidence.and... here... we... go:1:) many leading scientists, including stephen hawking, say that the space-time-matter universe had a beginning at the singularity/big bang.

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  cappytan

  If Richard Dawkins says that we evolved from apes, why do we still have Richard Dawkins?

  CHECKMATE ATHEISTS!j
• 
  182

  The Case for Theism

  by FusionTheism in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  "theism" here means "belief in a god" or "the worldview that an intelligent designer created the universe and life.

  " ("god" here means a being with a mind who initiated and/or wound-up the universe, and designed life on earth)the most common claim that i see atheists making on twitter, is that "no evidence" exists in support of belief in a god.this post will remove any excuse atheists have for claiming "no evidence exists" in support of an initiator.

  atheists can still reject this evidence as "weak," but they cannot truthfully say it does not exist.now, it is true that we do not have "observable, repeatable, falsifiable, empirical, scientific" evidence conclusively proving that an initiator exists, but we do have many lines of philisophical, experiential, and logical evidence.and... here... we... go:1:) many leading scientists, including stephen hawking, say that the space-time-matter universe had a beginning at the singularity/big bang.

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• 

  cappytan

  Someone who is deeply entrenched in the Idea of the Existance of God..
  Is`nt going to jump straight to abandoning a belief in God..
  Those people need time to think,they have`nt done that in a very long time..
  They literally need to rehabilitate their ability to think on their own again..

  This I completely agree with.
• 
  35

  My Story of Waking Up - in retrospect

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so, many of y'all know bits and pieces of my story of waking up, but i thought it might be nice to have it all in one place.. i was baptized at 11, auxiliary pioneered every summer, regular pioneer at 17, ministerial servant by 19, then went to bethel for a year.. i always had minor doubts from time to time, but nothing serious.

  always dismissed doubts and decided to "just have faith.".

  after leaving bethel, i was never really firing on all cylinders "spiritually speaking.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  cappytan

  So, many of y'all know bits and pieces of my story of waking up, but I thought it might be nice to have it all in one place.

  I was baptized at 11, auxiliary pioneered every summer, regular pioneer at 17, ministerial servant by 19, then went to Bethel for a year.

  I always had minor doubts from time to time, but nothing serious. Always dismissed doubts and decided to "just have faith."

  After leaving Bethel, I was never really firing on all cylinders "spiritually speaking." I would go through spurts of activity from time to time, only to lose energy and get spiritually burned out and give in to "temptation" to skip meetings, service, etc.

  Fast forward to Summer 2014. I'm attending one of the Regional Conventions. I cried every day, knowing that I could be doing more for Jehovah. I resolved that weekend to go back home to my congregation with a renewed vigor.

  Went to every single meeting again. Service every weekend. Aux Pioneered during the CO visit. Helped with KH cleaning on Saturday afternoons when it was needed. Started getting privileges again. Prayer at meetings for service, then mid week meetings. More talks were assigned to me. The so-called "shepherds" of the congregation gave me many pats on the back. Encouraged me to "keep up the good work."

  Around October, right after the annual meeting and premiere of the first broadcast (which made me cry again), I prayed for a bible study. That weekend after I prayed, wouldn't you know it, Jehovah blessed me with a study!

  This was the first bible study I started since I was a teenager - 15 years or so.

  I was freaking out. I realized I had never really studied the Bible Teach book on my own. What was I going to do when my student asked me questions? Just tell him these things were true because it said so in this book? No! That wasn't good teaching!

  I decided to study the book with a passion, confirming everything from independent sources so I could inculcate the teachings with conviction to my student. If the society used Encyclopedias to backup their claims, I should do that too, right? I am specifically avoiding apostate sites. Looking for academic sources in everything I can find.

  So, I get to the 1914 doctrine in my studies. I thoroughly am able to explain the doctrine backwards and forwards using the Society's reasonings. So, to confirm my explanation, of course, I start with the destruction of Jerusalem. 607 B.C.E. I pull up the Wikipedia article on the Siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and realize that there's nothing about 607 BCE. I'm confused. 587 BCE is all over the place.

  What to do? Off to the Watchtower Online Library! I type in 587 BCE, read these articles:

  When was Ancient Jerusalem destroyed? - Part 1

  When was Ancient Jerusalem destroyed? - Part 2

  I was floored at the flimsy evidence. There is no evidence to support their theory beyond conjecture. Compared with the amount of evidence in support of 587 BCE, I realized the Society was mistaken about 607. Dominos started falling. If 607 is false, then 1914 is false. If 1914 is false then 1919 "cleansing" is false. If 1919 is false, then GB wasn't chosen as the FDS.

  My head was swimming.

  I talked to my Dad about what I had found. He said, "Son, we have to ask ourselves, do we have faith that what the Bible says is true? If archeology conflicts with the Bible, we have to side with the scriptures."

  At the time, I took this to heart and decided, yet again, to just have faith..."wait on Jehovah."

  It was at this point that I decided to stop researching everything for the moment.

  Fast forward to November 2014. Everyone was excited! We were having a special meeting! The Branch visit! This was going to be so encouraging!

  Two words: Tight Pants.

  I was pissed. Where did Morris get off saying what he did in front of more than a million people? Doesn't he know interested ones might be in attendance?

  At that point, I was so pissed, but couldn't say anything about it. So I decided to google Anthony Morris III to see if any media had picked up on it.

  Yep. They sure had. That google search also led me to this site where I started lurking.

  I'll admit - even though I was waking up, at first this site seemed at face value full of a bunch of bitter, hateful people with a "sour-grapes" attitude. But I did like reading the threads about Tight Pants Tony.

  The more I lurked, the more I read the horrible stories of how people were treated by the organization. It became an obsession. I kept looking for peoples disfellowshipping stories...

  I decided to start researching again. This time, I checked out JW Facts. Every point on JW Facts, I cross referenced to make sure it wasn't a false claim.

  I was freaking out. I WAS IN A FALSE RELIGION. These people did NOT have God's blessing, much less his spirit.

  I couldn't concentrate on anything. Late December, I got sick and decided to download Crisis of Conscience and read it.
  

  I couldn't put it down. I speed-read it in a few days.

  The next week, at work, I joined the forum and made this post, and the rest is history.

  ***Disclaimer: In the month or two I first started posting here, I would change details or make up certain details about my life because I was extremely paranoid of some imagined elder spy network that monitored this site. So, some of my early posts may conflict with what some of you may now know about me. Sorry about that! I feel bad for lying to a group of people that have helped me so much.***