Saethydd

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Posts by Saethydd

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  41

  You might have been a JW if...

  by Incognigo Montoya in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ... unlike the rest of humanity, you looked forward to mondays because it was a day off from a meeting..

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  Saethydd

  ...you turned down a full tuition scholarship to a good university because you didn't want to become the family disappointment
  
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  6

  "Do not make any graven image" (oh except the one on the Ark of the covenant of course!) Huh??

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  so we all know that the first few commandments state that "there should be no graven images made" etc.... but, the very "ark of the covenant" had two angelic figures on the lid!

  so the very box used to carry the 10 commandment tablets, broke those same laws!!!.

  this observation, plus many other hilarious ones is highlighted in the latest episode of the how-to heretic podcast (episode 063).

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  Saethydd

  Yeah that realization struck me back when I was JW. I thought it was weird that God made an exception to his otherwise very strict, enforced under penalty of death, “no idols” rule.
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  42

  Hello Everyone, Another JW Has Left!

  by SuperGirl in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  just want to introduce myself and let you know that this site is working and is a big help to lots of jws with doubts.

  i've been lurking for about a year, the first couple of times i was frightened and literally shaking visiting an apostate site but it's the only place i can come to for sanity.

  the religion has become a nut house.

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  Saethydd

  Congratulations on taking that step, I know how hard it can be to take charge of your life when it involves many people you care about turning their backs on you. I hope you and your son can have long happy lives away from the toxic environment created by the Watchtower.
  
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  43

  Did Ray Franz Help You To Get Out of “The Truth”?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i sneakily read his books at work.

  it was written in such a way that no one could accuse him of being another bitter old apostate.. once it registered in my brain, especially after reading the second book, i knew i had to get out!.

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  Saethydd

  Learning of his story sparked my interest to examine the organization more closely but unfortunately I was never able to find an affordable copy of his book
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  16

  Holiday Plans

  by Kathy1978 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  anyone doing anything interesting/fun for the holidays this year?

  we got some presents for our kids and a tree.

  other than that, just chillin.

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  Saethydd

  I'm glad my parents never made me go out in service on Christmas, we would usually go out with some friends to see a movie in theaters and eat at Waffle House. Now that I'm out, my girlfriend and I are just planning to visit her family Christmas Eve and stay home together on Christmas morning.
  
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  5

  I Got My Best Friend Back

  by Saethydd in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  yesterday morning i woke up to an incredibly unexpected text message on my phone.

  my best friend from before i was disfellowshipped had sent me a really long message.

  he apologized for the way things had been and told me how much he missed me, and then he told he respected my decision, that he understood and didn't harbor any bad feelings against me for it, that all he wants is for me to be happy.. i responded to his message and told him that if he wanted me to explain my reasons i would, but that we needn't discuss them if he would rather not.

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  Saethydd

  Yesterday morning I woke up to an incredibly unexpected text message on my phone. My best friend from before I was disfellowshipped had sent me a really long message. He apologized for the way things had been and told me how much he missed me, and then he told he respected my decision, that he understood and didn't harbor any bad feelings against me for it, that all he wants is for me to be happy.

  I responded to his message and told him that if he wanted me to explain my reasons I would, but that we needn't discuss them if he would rather not. I just told him that my door was always open to him and that I would always be there for him if he needed me. Then he asked if he could call. We spent two hours on the phone before I had to leave for my class that morning, it had been two years since we spoke so we had a lot to discuss, but in another way, it felt as if we had just spoken the day before. We talked about all the things we had been through in the last year. He told me that it was better that I didn't go back to the religion if I didn't really believe it and he respected me more for holding true to my integrity and not coming back just because I missed people. He told me how proud he was of me for going to college and trying to work to make the world a better place, and he saw the merit of my doing this an agnostic simply because I think its the right thing to do, not because I'm looking forward to some supposed reward. He realized that his friendship with someone needed to be based on more than just sharing religious beliefs with someone. He realized that withholding your friendship from someone to "motivate them to return to Jehovah" wasn't right and didn't produce good results. He wants to have a relationship with me again and keep in touch even though I'm not a Jehovah's Witness anymore and have no intention of becoming one ever again.

  I found myself a true friend who has given me unconditional love and support. It took awhile for it happen because he had everything he was taught from the time he was a kid and the advice of his parents working against it, but he got there. I've basically been smiling for the past two days because I finally got my best friend back and I never thought it would happen. He's still a Jehovah's Witness, and he's not really telling anyone except his fiance, which I understand, he still has a lot to lose, but this is so much better than what I had before.
  
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  29

  Do you remember when you realised it was all bulls£&t

  by moley in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i remember when my faith left me.

  i used to enjoy meetings and used to participate but then all of a sudden i was finding myself bored shitless at meetings.

  i was taken off the theocratic ministry school for not attending when i was due to give a talk and not long after did something naughty and got disfellowshiped.

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  Saethydd

  I was born into the religion and for years I went through the motions of meeting attendance, field service, baptism, and "studying" the Watchtower so that I could later paraphrase what I highlighted at the meetings, but I never really put in the deep study required to "make the Truth my own," or "prove the Truth" to myself. When I finally did examine the arguments of the Watchtower and the "evidence" they used to support their arguments I slowly realized they were full of shit. After that, I just sat in the back at the meeting and read up on logic, secular humanism, (to build a decent framework to replace what I had been taught all my life) and Harry Potter (for entertainment) until I was finally able to move out of my parent's house.
  
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  36

  Do you celebrate Christmas?

  by LovingLifeNow in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you celebrate and how long have you been out?

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  3 years for me and yes i do..

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  Saethydd

  Last year was my first time celebrating Christmas and my best friend made it really special for me, this year that same person has become my girlfriend and I'm looking forward to the holiday even more. Neither of us is religious but we still enjoy all the beautiful decorations and festivities.
  
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  34

  For those who are athest, or non-christian, how did you come to this decision?

  by Tameria2001 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm not asking this question to cause an argument or accuse, but i am honestly just wondering?

  for those of you who are now atheist or non-christian, how did you come to this decision?

  i hadn't given this much thought until about a year ago.

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  Saethydd

  After I got disfellowshipped the elders told me that they felt I sinned because God wasn’t real enough to me. So I gathered up many books and set out to “make Jehovah real to me.” I decided to start by confronting the little nagging doubts I had in the back of my mind about creation.

  For perhaps the first time in my life I actually delved deep into the theory of evolution and considered the writings of many experts and came to the conclusion that the literature the Watchtower had given me on the subject was wildly misleading. At this point I was very confused and didn’t know which sources to believe so I decided to learn about logic itself and discovered what logical fallacies are, I realized that JW arguments are almost entirely appeals to authority, and that primary authority is supposedly the Bible, so I decided to research that. As I researched the origins of the Bible I realized that it’s authorship wasn’t as clear cut as I had been lead to believe. Some books had been written at completely different times than I had been told, many events where at best uncorroborated by any other sources and at worst directly contradicted my multiple independent lines of evidence. Not to mention the many books that were arbitrarily declared “apocryphal” by different groups of men and different points in history. I determined the Bible was not a reliable source nor a good authority to base any argument on so the Watchtower and any other religion based on the Bible had no true basis for their belief system. As of now I haven’t found any religion that does have a sound logical basis for its particular set of beliefs so I am an atheist.
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  16

  You're in the Army Now: Jehovah's Witnesses No Longer Exempt From Finnish Draft

  by Tahoe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  https://sputniknews.com/europe/201809211068220658-finland-jehovah-witnesses-army/.

  the finnish government has ruled that the current law allowing jehovah's witnesses to avoid military service, in place for several decades, is discriminatory and contradicts the constitution.. .

  in the future, finnish jehovah's witnesses* will be obliged to either serve in the nation's military or perform civil service on the same terms as everyone else, the government ruled, submitting a corresponding proposal to parliament, national broadcaster yle reported.. according to the 1987 law, jehovah's witnesses were not only freed from the military draft, they were freed of any obligation to perform community service as a pacifist alternative, a common option among other young people in finland.

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  Saethydd

  I think someone should show the Finnish courts the video of a Governing Body member saying that Jehovah’s Witnesses are not pacifists and don’t necessarily reject violence as a rule. (After all, how could they do that at still worship the violent god of the Bible?)