Posts by Saethydd

23

Reflecting On Death

by Charles Gillette in

jw
friends

reflecting on death.

i can't remember, maybe steve jobs before he died.i thought i would share it with you and see what you think about it, and i'm quoting i think from his book.. "i'm about fifty-fifty on believing in god.

for most of my life, i've felt that there must be more to our own existence than meets the eye.. i might be overestimating the odds 50/50 out of a desire to believe in an afterlife.

Saethydd

I've found little evidence that our "essence" or our "sense of self" carries on in any form after our brains die, but that doesn't mean we're gone entirely.

Our thoughts, knowledge, and wisdom can be preserved in the written word which could impact the world long after we ourselves are gone. One never knows what will happen to our writings in the future, perhaps some great significance will be placed on it by the world as was the case with Emily Dickenson, or maybe future archeologists will examine our writings to gain insight into the lives of our generation. Every experience we have and record has the potential to help our offspring or our race go a little further, fly a little higher, and delve a little deeper.

Even if we have not written much down our words and actions could deeply impact people we care about for years to come. Perhaps our words guided someone towards a path in life for which they are well-suited, gave them have the strength to carry on when they were ready to give up, or just helped them become a better person. If you want something to good to survive you after death, then look for every opportunity to improve people's lives for the better, and take it.

41

You might have been a JW if...

by Incognigo Montoya in

jw
friends

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

Saethydd

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

6

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

by stuckinarut2 in

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).

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.

42

Hello Everyone, Another JW Has Left!

by SuperGirl in

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.

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.

43

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

by minimus in

jw
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!.

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

16

Holiday Plans

by Kathy1978 in

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.

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.

5

I Got My Best Friend Back

by Saethydd in

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.

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.

29

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

by moley in

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.

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.

36

Do you celebrate Christmas?

by LovingLifeNow in

jw
friends

do you celebrate and how long have you been out?

.

3 years for me and yes i do..

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.

34

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

by Tameria2001 in

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.

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.