Yes, camaraderie and feelings of closeness are one of the good things. Actually, the only good thing. And I must admit is the best thing that can happen to the lonely, insecure, depressed. However, it traps many who could be quite adept or adaptable in other social groups, who can offer far more than just a network of conditional friends. My family of JW's, just as many other families, are trapped by this belief of: "look, we are happy and caring, therefore we must be the true religion". That's the only fallacious, yet quite effective, argument holding them in the cult.
never a jw
JoinedPosts by never a jw
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79
The really cool feeling of community within JWs
by Phaedra ini remember going out with other jws after the memorial.. small gatherings.. picnics at some local landmark.. the feeling of closeness, camaraderie, friendship with like minded people you could trust.. haven't experienced it since i left.. really miss that..
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The positive achievements of Science and Religion in 2015. How do they compare?
by nicolaou inscience.. landed a probe on a comet, found liquid water on mars and successfully completed a ten year mission to pluto.. developed the first successful vaccine against ebola, discovered another human species in homo naledi, developed cancer killing molecules and high intensity ultrasound therapies which avoid surgery and leave healthy cells alone.
successfully mapped the human epigenome and developed the gene editing tool crispr, it's potential for medical and agricultural advance is staggering!.
found a way to produce graphene for a 1000th of the previous cost, developed cheap and sustainable methods to supply clean drinking water where water borne infections have been killing thousands, scaled up production of clean, renewable energy.. there's loads more, please feel free to add to the list.. .
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never a jw
What has atheism "produced" ever?
Just to add to what Nicolau said, science is not pro atheism or anti religion per se, it's anti blind trust or belief founded on bad evidence. Christians, and other religion's main methods (faith based) happen to be quite the opposite of science main methods. I believe that the essence of this thread is to compare which method yield better results, scientific method or the religious method
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The positive achievements of Science and Religion in 2015. How do they compare?
by nicolaou inscience.. landed a probe on a comet, found liquid water on mars and successfully completed a ten year mission to pluto.. developed the first successful vaccine against ebola, discovered another human species in homo naledi, developed cancer killing molecules and high intensity ultrasound therapies which avoid surgery and leave healthy cells alone.
successfully mapped the human epigenome and developed the gene editing tool crispr, it's potential for medical and agricultural advance is staggering!.
found a way to produce graphene for a 1000th of the previous cost, developed cheap and sustainable methods to supply clean drinking water where water borne infections have been killing thousands, scaled up production of clean, renewable energy.. there's loads more, please feel free to add to the list.. .
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never a jw
Christians have not changed in a long time. They help everyone needing help every year.
Yes, they follow orders. Who knows what really is in their heart.
Humanism, independent thinking, science, classical Greece and Rome have done far more for poor people than Christians have. Imagine life in the days of Jesus Christ for the poor. Then imagine that the Renaissance, the Reformation, the French and the American Revolution (to mention just 2 of the main social revolutions), the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, the social movements of independence such as the Indian independence (to mention just one of many), the movements to bring equality of races and genders...yes imagine that none of these secular movements ever existed. If these movements, mainly fueled by secular thinkers, had never existed, we would have conditions for the poor exactly as they were in the days of Jesus Christ, a time when people died of a simple tooth infection. If you like that, wait for scientists to invent the machine to travel in space-time and go live the life of a Christian at the beginning of the common era. I actually may pay a visit to find out how the whole scam started and developed, but no way I want to get stuck there.
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The positive achievements of Science and Religion in 2015. How do they compare?
by nicolaou inscience.. landed a probe on a comet, found liquid water on mars and successfully completed a ten year mission to pluto.. developed the first successful vaccine against ebola, discovered another human species in homo naledi, developed cancer killing molecules and high intensity ultrasound therapies which avoid surgery and leave healthy cells alone.
successfully mapped the human epigenome and developed the gene editing tool crispr, it's potential for medical and agricultural advance is staggering!.
found a way to produce graphene for a 1000th of the previous cost, developed cheap and sustainable methods to supply clean drinking water where water borne infections have been killing thousands, scaled up production of clean, renewable energy.. there's loads more, please feel free to add to the list.. .
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never a jw
Religion achievements:
Most religions reluctantly, but quite effectively and permanently, liberated many of their members, who are becoming free thinkers and able to, in direct ways or indirect ways, contribute to the advancement of science. That my friend is no small achievement. Kudos to the governing body, pastors, pope and many other religious leaders for their transparent lies and manipulation.
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Trained to Keep Our Mouths Shut
by compound complex inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf_b5kezylw&feature=youtu.be.
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never a jw
NVR2L8,
i stopped accompanying my wife about three years ago, soon after I learned ttatt, But I still hear that spanking is not only condoned, but encouraged. If you don't spank your kid, you are a bad, or at least a weak parent. Total submission is demanded since birth. No wonder, young JW's have a hard time adjusting to the real, often more compassionate and ethical, world beyond the walls of JW land..
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Trained to Keep Our Mouths Shut
by compound complex inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf_b5kezylw&feature=youtu.be.
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never a jw
I guess this system of Satan (humanists and humanitarian movements) is getting tired of all these God fearing fundamentalists and has decided to expose them for what they are: hypocrites, liars and abusers -
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Can my friend be DFd for dating a non witness and wanting to get married to him
by cognitivedizzy indear all, need some advice .
in my country one can get dfd for pretty much anything the bullies want to df you for.
but is there any specific guidelines that state one can or cannot be dfd for marrying a non witness.
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never a jw
My wife was a JW in good standing when she started dating me. She got reproved only (couldn't comment in the congregation and something else). But the reason she got reproved is because her sister went to the elders and suggested, with no proof at all, that we may have done something wrong; we never did. The elders also arranged for a speaker from another congregation to give a speech especially dedicated to her. I was there. She was pretty much called "a stain" in the congregation.
The good thing is that after we married --with nobody from her family attending the wedding-- the circuit overseer came and told off the body of elders for their actions against her. Soon the elders apologized to my wife shielding their guilt with Proverbs 4:18.
By the way, my wedding was attended by plenty of JW's from my own brother's congregation. There were lots of JW's who knew me and, I guess liked me. In fact, the Big Kahuna, an elder who was a legendary figure for having been a JW for more than 5 decades, having pretty much started the entire Hispanic conversion in the area, part of one the first Gilead class, meeting in person several heavy weight of his time. Well, you get the picture. He offered me personally to be the speaker in my wedding. I declined because I didn't want to cause him any trouble.
In summary, the reaction against dating worldly people is a grey area, even in the higher levels. I guess some more liberal elders are compassionate and understand JW women fear of becoming spinsters. Others, the chauvinists, are not so compassionate, likely very unattractive too, and want to have a big pool of women to choose from, with no regard for women desires.
We are still happily married, while a bunch of her JW's relatives who married other JW's have gone through divorce, in some cases more than once. There's even a case of an elder's wife being unfaithful with another elder.
Caveats: My marriage took place in the U.S. 21 years ago
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Haha! New employee has one neighbor who's a "jerk." No surprise here
by stillin inthe neighbor blows his leaves over onto my employee's yard, then denies it.
the neighbor's wife calls the police about anything and everything.. of course they're witnesses.
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never a jw
The neighbor can put and end to those calls to the police. Go and molest one of the JW's. Then Jehovah will take care of the matter. -
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In Judas' Defense
by opusdei1972 ini have read in jw.org that the governing body affirms that judas has been eternally condemned:.
did judas iscariot commit an unforgivable sin?.
his greed moved him to steal money that had been donated for a sacred use.
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never a jw
If we use the Bible as our guideline to determine someone's guilt and eternal damnation, or innocence and eternal salvation, we will find both, damnation and salvation for Judas. In fact, if we try hard enough using some JW ingenious reading and interpretation techniques we may even "find out" that Judas was Jesus lover and did what he did because he was jealous of Peter.
Wow! I had to edit and add to my comment after I clicked the link above (sir82)
Possibly Bart Erhman had the same thing in mind (Judas and Jesus as lovers). Look how closely Judas' lips are to Jesus' lips in the cover of his book.
In a more serious note: "Judas did not show true repentance" Really? the poor man took his life right after the "sale". Besides, it was God who crafted the whole story. God is the one who needs to show repentance for his filicide.
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What made you turn atheist or agnostic?
by LevelThePlayingField inif you were a jw and are now an atheist or agnostic, what was the tipping point that made you turn to it?.
the reason i ask is i have noticed that many who leave the jw's seem to turn to atheism, versus still having some form of a faith.
have many of you given up on god first or have you had atheistic views first and then found atheism to be true.
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never a jw
never been a JW. I must have turned atheist in my early teens, during junior high. I never liked the mean God of Catholics (I remember some sort of capital sins that guaranteed your trip straight to hell and, one of those sins, I believed, was missing mass) and felt that science had better answers than religion.