hi my first post.. for the people that grew up in the religon, do you have any memory of being spanked for not sitting still in the meeting?
i see kids acting like kids but the parents take them out and spank them for something like not sitting still.
some of my worst memories are my father taking me out for a beating with a belt or his hand.
I only remember once being taken out for a walloping, by my Mum, I would have been about 5 I suppose, I was not afraid or anything, but to this day I remember that I identified the injustice of it.
O.K I was being a little bugger probably, but I just KNEW I did not deserve the shame and ignominy that was involved.
My Mum was only doing it because it was expected of her by other JW's.
how come jws/exjws find these two words particularly difficult to spell?
i've done it myself.
doh!.
Slimboy, you are such a pendant ! (< written with a nod to Shaun Keaveney's Pendants Corner , BBC Radio6music, he still gets people writing in saying it should be Pedants Corner, I wonder what they think irony is ?)
i am trying to compile information of how the bite system applies to groups other than the witnesses.
this will help witnesses consider the bite model in a non-threatening manner, because it applies to the 'other guy' and along the way they will see, hopefully, how it applies to their group.. .
for starters today, i found this link interesting.
"When our own thoughts are forbidden, when our questions are not allowed and our doubts are punished, when contacts and friendships outside of the organisation are censored, we are being abused for an end that never justifies its means.
When our heart aches knowing we have made friendships and secret attachments that will be forever forbidden if we leave, we are in danger. When we consider staying in a group because we cannot bear the loss, disappointment and sorrow our leaving will cause for ourselves and those we have come to love, we are in a cult"
Deborah Layton, Jonestown survivor.
Any use Londo ? I know a JW who read the above quote, and the attribution to Deborah Layton was right at the bottom of the page, the JW said :
"I thought that was written about Jehovah's Witnesses till I read the bit at the bottom !" There was no need to comment further, point made.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=in-atheists-we-distrust.
in atheists we distrustsubjects believe that people behave better when they think that god is watching over them.
by daisy grewal | january 17, 2012 | 116. shareemailprintfor jobs that require a lot of trust, people tend to prefer the faithfulimage: istock/classix.
If your morals and actions rely on the belief that a fictional character, god, is watching you they are flimsy at best.
If your moral compass comes from what you personally have decided is right, then you would be denying yourself if you went against it.
It is far easier to think ," oh, "god" may not be looking right now", or "he will forgive", than to think I will do this, even though I judge it to be wrong, and then have to know that I am a worthless scumbag.
Morals you have adopted are far stronger than mores imposed by a false belief.
OOOoh ! good luck with that one, it is as difficult as establishing who the Faithful and Discreet Slave are , I think in answer to your question I would get a point from Stephen Fry on "Q.I" if I held up the paddle that says:
"Nobody knows"
i was just reading on another thread--and came across the idea that the wt soc is dying.
oh--i wish--but lets be realistic--not very likely.. .
then the thought occurrs--if the wt soc did collapse--died--just became part of history----.
DOC, my thought too Tee Hee, I was going to say "but isn't it " whom should we go away to" ?"
It would certainly free us up to wreak some havoc elsewhere on the Net, I wonder what target most of us would choose ? Other religions ? The buffoons who run our respective countries ?
I would hope this site remained a little after the WT had gone, just so the newly freed Dubs could read all the old threads and think "Damn, if only I had trawled the Net years ago...."
an article from the canadian medical association.. .
.
bangalore.
"JW's have the right to accept death if they want to"........ agreed , but ,as we know here, that is not an informed choice, J.W's have only had presented to them a doctrine that is held by the WT/JW religion, on that basis, what men have told them the scriptures mean, they base their life and death decision.
That alone would be sad enough, but, if they are too lazy or too controlled by the cult to examine the doctrine fully, we could say it is their fault to a great degree, but they then go on to impose this on their children !
I know that in most situations the medics would seek a Court Order and administer a life-saving transfusion, but this is not always done, and sometimes cannot be done in time to save the child, so, children not old enough to understand the doctrine, never informed that there are alternative views on it, they die.
This is Medical Ethics and Political Correctness going too far by allowing the parents this power, to murder their children for a belief imposed by men whose doctrines change constantly, and whose doctrines are plain wrong.
me and my brother in law share a computer at home.
we have different accounts and for the life of me, i still don't know his password.. but it hasn't stopped me from putting "apostate" literature on his desktop screen.
i am an amateur it geek who knows the ins and outs of computers, so i don't look twice at things like passwords.. anyway, a few months ago, i slipped three files onto his desktop.
Reading for himself, with no pressure from you, may well be the best way to go, he is only a few clicks of the mouse away from finding out more if he wants, and I am sure he will.
from the grat wikipedia (long may it live).
in 1993, mathematician gordon ritchie requested baptism by jehovah's witnesses and almost immediately began advocating disagreements with their teachings.
he claims he was expelled for apostasy in march 1996.
Do we really want these guys on here arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin ?
Oh, go on then, it may be good for a laugh. It is surprising that they are convinced they have it right, but, despite knowing full well a lot of people here see through the WT theology, and many openly say they are searching for "the truth",they do not come here to promote their brand.
Could it be that they do not wish to cast their pearls before swine, or "mentally diseased apostates" ?
apologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.
in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.
without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.
I was helped to understand exactly what atheism was by the guy who used the illustration :
"I do not play golf, I am a non-golfer, it is simply something I do not do, not doing it does nor define who I am, what my morals are or what my world view is, I just do not do it, in a similar way, I do not do God"
