what's your prediction?.
the economy is already trending upwards and has been for quite a while.
the fact that it still hurts despite the upwards trends shows how low it had started sinking before he got into office.
i predict that come 2014, the overall economy will look better. especially when the health insurance exchanges kick in.
this is a melancholy day for me.
over the past few years i have been studying american politics and have enjoyed learning perspectives from different ideologies.
i personally lean towards conservative values when it comes to creating legislature, however i am socially liberal.
theres so muc wrong in that post...
life story of a brother who converted to islam.. .
http://tiigerr.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/raphael-my-journey-to-islam/.
bangalore.
promoting a belief that the illiterate paedophile prophet Muhammad is the last prophet that God had chosen is very similar to saying that the WTS is the organization that God has selected to be his chosen group on Earth today, both utterly ludicrous.
any more/less ludicrous than god supposedly choosing a relatively insignificant group of bronze age tribesmen from which to dispense "truth"?
any more/less ludicrous than the miracles up and down the bible?
or how about that virgin birth? everything about the story of mary and joseph screams pedophilia or at least someone was getting wild without the pill...
within islam, just as in christianity, you have a range from "extreme liberal" to "extreme conservative" we even see that on here with the atheist/nonatheist and other christianity threads.
they're not all trying to blow people up or chop anyone's heads off. they ARE going through a period in which they have to reconcile the qu'ran with the world and the accepted social norms around them.
my wife went to the sunday meeting and said nearly everyone had ipads (tablet pcs) or laptops during the watchtower study with downloaded watctowers.. if they provide free wi-fi and coffee, i might start going again..
now that would be an interesting image.
go there with with an ipad and a coffee. pretend to follow along, let the aroma "wake everyone up"
how's that for art?
being an adult, i choose not to attend the meetings.
i would prefer my children not attend meetings, however being married to a diehard jw, this is difficult to accomplish.
the kids do not want to attend, as the meetings are boring, as they have often said.
ptn that's awesome :)
it might be a bumpy road ahead, but i think what you're doing is great.
and really, if you think about it, if it's REALLY the truth, why would you have to force kids to go?
why would you have to force kids to not hang out with the "worldly kids"?
if it was really the truth, wouldn't it stand up to all the scrutiny thrown at it?
i truly think that your hardwork will pay huge dividends later and your kids will thank you.
sending you a pm in a few minutes
i was just making a comment on a christian's youtube and someone said this:.
i just realized?
ur an ex jw and dont believe in god no point in making a reply to u... .
on a sidenote, and perhaps i should start a new thread asking this but...what was it like posting when this forum first got started? i can't imagine it would have been easy as back then, the internet was practically straight from the devil. i didn't have the stones to even look at the site until earlier this year and that's after not having been to a memorial/dc/ca in maybe 3-4 years? not being regular at meetings in...probably 6? haven't gone out in service in 6 either, not from my recollection.
i would think that took a ton of bravery
i was just making a comment on a christian's youtube and someone said this:.
i just realized?
ur an ex jw and dont believe in god no point in making a reply to u... .
it's a tricky one. your point about born ins....i could see that being the case. without data and some number crunching, it'd be hard to say for sure. i still question why. i think that would lead to some interesting revelations as far as what happens to people coming out of high mind control cults.
or at least our high mind control cult.
i'd also be interested in seeing the same data for people who joined on their own.
as well as why they came into the org.
hmmm and some hard data as to social/mental problems from being raised in.
with some good polling data, we could probably show how awful this cult is with numbers. the problem is, if we're getting this from jwn and the other exjw forums, that could lead to a high bias.
i certainly wouldn't trust jws to be honest about their thoughts and feelings as far as the organization. especially when they've been brainwashed to not speak ill of the cult. i kept my mouth shut for years and years and years because i didn't want to stumble a nonbelieving family member who could potentially be "saved" in armageddon.
this would come with all kinds of statistical noise that wouldn't be easy to sort through. or, in my slightly inebriated state, i can't think of one off the top of my head. then again, i'm sure there's others on here far better at stats than i am.
i was just making a comment on a christian's youtube and someone said this:.
i just realized?
ur an ex jw and dont believe in god no point in making a reply to u... .
doesn't have to be all. just a decent sample size. i haven't done much stat work lately and i have big ears. stuff goes in one great. falls out the otherside faster than i want it to :P
the trickier part is getting to underlying root causes. it's one thing to note whether many are atheists or not, the meat is WHY. ok, the meat in my opinion is why :P
then there's the tricky bit with agnostics. i suppose that could be an "i don't know" but is that an "i don't know" that leans to belief or not?
being an adult, i choose not to attend the meetings.
i would prefer my children not attend meetings, however being married to a diehard jw, this is difficult to accomplish.
the kids do not want to attend, as the meetings are boring, as they have often said.
i also want to echo otwo's sentiments. they don't like it now, and having a parent in the household who already is expressing dislike in the org should show them that is acceptable to not want to be a jw.
if i had that, instead of a single mom who was all into it, i would have bounced out of this thing by the time i was 10 or 12.
being an adult, i choose not to attend the meetings.
i would prefer my children not attend meetings, however being married to a diehard jw, this is difficult to accomplish.
the kids do not want to attend, as the meetings are boring, as they have often said.
i'm happy they have someone like you in their lives.
