christianity began it's formation without the bible.
the bible, as we know it, is a collection of what were very old texts when they were assembled by christian leaders in the late second and third centuries because they were deemed to be inspired by god.. whether they really were inspired by god or not is now open to debate, but should they prove to not be, it should not undermine christianity as an establishment.. discuss......
A religion that begins with a blood sacrifice has nowhere to go but down. The ransom sacrifice/redemption teaching had me worried at age 16.
Putting everyone else's needs before your own is psychologically dangerous. Being told that Christ died for you therefore you must give of yourself to serve Him is just more of the same. Self sacrifice is bad for you.
although i have been out for 8+ years, my recent experiences with this have taught me quite a bit.
i believe most here would claim this is what mind controlled people do when they are in contact with a known "former" believer, so i think some deeper understnding of what is really going on is in order.. i always asked why is the "mind control" so effective and how do the organizations that intiate it, learn how to?
i never really could find a satisfactory answer.
d4g that a very good summation of what happens. When you are born in and raised in that closed atmosphere you really do not understand reality at all. Being forbidden 'worldly' friends, and discouraged from reading non-JW books or having further education you have no way to break out of that false reality.
Because of being forced to be weird by the no holidays, no joining in policy of WTS, everyone at school and work makes you feel misunderstood and even disliked which fuels the paranoia.
They shun because they sense that a person who no longer believes is a threat to their understanding of reality. No words need be spoken about "The Truth" at all. The fact that an intelligent person no longer believes is enough for them to go running to hills to find their known "reality".
Yes when they bump into us the fight or flight mode sets in rapidly. Cognitive dissonance has them fleeing from us in terror because we represent a reality that just does not compute and causes them extreme discomfort.
....you buy two cadbury's chocolate button Easter eggs for yourslf - too good for kids.
i'm not suicidal just fed up.. i did think of suicide (briefly), but as there is no painless way and it's not something i would willingly do just in case things would have been better the day after.
i do have a slight grain of hope.. money problems.....problems at home (that's another matter with a son up court for something he is adamant he didn't do.
first offence but the pigs police and the cps have got charges made.
Sorry you're feeling down Paul. I've been there, depression, grief and so on. Last few weeks I've been pretty down but I think it's tiredness from stress. Pulling back from it all and just living in the now works for me. It's my day off so I've been to the gym and did a bit of gardening while the British sun lasted. It's gone now Get out in any sunshine you can and walk is my advice. Eat healthily and enjoy a glass of red wine in the evening. Hope you feel better soon.
2014 march our kingdom ministry .
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'Responding to potential Conversation Stoppers' is pure hard sell technique. Like when the double glazing salesman says you might not want new windows right now but if I were to call back next week which day would you prefer?
i would just like to get this off my chest.. during the public talk last sunday the speaker (bro holden m'groin) said in public talk: .
" if you ask any 16yr old girl what she wants out of life, she would probably say a home, a family etc etc" (because obviously this is still 1955).. anyway that got my attention i thought " hmm....where is he going with this?"..
bro holden m'groin goes on .
We don't have to help anyone. There's nothing we can do. We just have to sit back and wait for God to do everything. A great religion for lazy people who judge everyone as useless and beyond help.
something happened this week to make me think about this again.. it feels like all bets are off and i really don't know what a good person is anymore.. when i left the jws i was so sure i knew what it meant to be a good person.. this has been revised many times since.. i tend to favour the utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.. sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.. no idea where i'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than i thought!.
any thoughts?.
I think it is a flawed concept. People make a religion out of anything- even society- thinking there is a level of goodness to attain to to gain some mysterious intangible benefit somehow, and it is just a dream. It is better just to be natural, to help a blind person across a road, for example; but also to take our 'guilty pleasures' when we want them- without feeling guilty, of course. I have given up on the concept of good & bad- it doesn't work for me. - Transhuman68
Transhuman I think you're right it's a flawed concept. It is better to be natural and let myself feel compassion when it rises up inside me and motivates me to do something for someone. Sometimes I don't feel compassion for people, especially if they wallow in self pity. There are so many families struggling so hard all over the world just to get enough to eat I can't cope with people who moan endlessly about stupid things like the weather.
Also there is still something deep down inside me from the religion that there is some mysterious intangible benefit to gain from being a good person. Good point, I didn't realise I felt that. So much stuff still in there from the indoctrination. Just follow my heart is the answer when it comes to compassion and use my reason to decide how best to use my time, energy and money. Oops speaking of money gotta go to work!
one of my best friend's, who is an ex elder had two elders visit him at his home yesterday to invite him to the memorial.
he was cordial to them because they were'nt over the top.. so far, i have had no invites, thank god..
No I'm an evil apostate, they don't call here
as one of the jw "young ones" i was always expected to witness to my friends at school if i wanted to make god's heart glad or whatever but i didn't.
the closest i ever got was just explaining why we didn't celebrate christmasetc.
even then i was just reciting things i read in publications.. one topic i always tried to avoid talking about was birthdays.
Those four scriptures scattered all over the bible to explain the seven times ending in 1914. I found it embarrassing. It didn't make sense to me and I could see it didn't make sense to the householder.
'i would like to apologize'.
'i need to apologize'.
'i must apologize'.
Lol I thought you were going to apologize for that aweful book you wrote or that someone wrote about you, Thomas Covenant.
