Posts by Xanthippe

68

Come on! Tell it like it is. People are LYING when they tell you, "I've read the Bible."

by Terry in

go ahead.

tell me.. "i've read the bible cover to cover.

i don't believe you.. it is damned near impossible!.

Xanthippe

For those who say they read the Bible (cover to cover) how many of you believe what you read?

Terry I don't believe it at all now. As a JW, when I read the Bible from cover to cover as a young woman in my twenties, I thought it was full of sex and violence. Women being offered for gang rape, Lot's daughters I remember in particular and the woman who was gang raped and then chopped into little pieces and her parts sent to the twelve tribes of Israel. Was that the one where the men were then forcibly circumcised and then murdered when they were recovering? Or perhaps that was another story. Very bloody I thought.

I could never undersand why woman were treated the way they were by men in the Bible or even why the whole subjection and headship thing was right when I have always believed in my bones that men and women are equal. I thought Jehovah would explain it to me in the new system. Lol!

As for the New Testament, I vividly remember trying to get to grips with this person called Jesus through his words and actions but the strong impression I was always left with was that there is nobody there! Couldn't find him. That really confused me as a JW but all of this added more doubts to all the other doubts that were slowly mounting up.

68

Come on! Tell it like it is. People are LYING when they tell you, "I've read the Bible."

by Terry in

go ahead.

tell me.. "i've read the bible cover to cover.

i don't believe you.. it is damned near impossible!.

Xanthippe

Yeah every word, a few verses a day. Took me five years. I've also read Plato, ten Shakespeare plays, rather a lot of history, computer programming books... Bored now.

28

Should some people actually be Witnesses?

by Apognophos in

it seems to me like certain people actually benefit from joining the religion.

primarily i'm thinking of ones with drug problems who are only able to quit because they are working towards baptism.

another example would be those who are always getting in fights or who have a big ego, and who learn to be pacifistic and humble as a witness.

Xanthippe

I'm not convinced that the religion is bad for everybody. It seems to work well enough for many JWs. - Apog

I do wonder if some people will ever be able to leave the JWs. My brother seemed to really enjoy bethel and having bells ringing to tell him when to get up etc. It would drive me crazy living like that and I hate being told what to believe now but I agree some people are followers, advertisers know this.

At the last two family funerals one of my sisters said something about the colours of the flowers each time. Nothing else! I thought is that all you can say after all these years? She learnt Russian at school! Have their brains been atrophied with disuse?

I don't know if everyone could cope with leaving. 'Humankind cannot bear very much reality' - T S Eliot

And do you have any suggestions of equal effectiveness for someone with this kind of need?

Do I have any suggestions? This site is great for people who are thinking of leaving but I just think if the likes of my siblings ever find their way here we should be careful not to jump all over their probably continuing theism as they try to find their way through the craziness of human beliefs. Giving up the structure of a belief system and one as strict as JWs takes time.

31

Post some niceness ! There is too much negativity in the world.

by new hope and happiness in

jw
friends

so here we are on a niceness thread talking about nice things.. yesterday a very pretty girl left her mobile behind at the computer in the libary, i returned it to her and she gave me a hug.

.

Xanthippe

This story was in a local paper a couple of weeks ago. It restores your faith in human nature after reading the national papers lately.

Trapped dolphins rescued by Nottinghamshire family

THE heroic actions of a Nottingham family saved the lives of 19 dolphins trapped on an isolated Scottish beach.

Simon Lane, 60, fronted the rescue mission at the secluded resort of Lochbuie, on the Isle of Mull, after his 13-year-old nephew, Finley Meakin, noticed a pod of dolphins swimming unusually close to the shore.

Within minutes, it was clear that the animals had become stuck in the shallow waters after following a school of mackerel towards the beach.

Mr Lane, of The Green, Hickling, immediately waded in to help the "mass stranding" – which the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust believes is the worst case seen in the UK since 2008, when a similar incident happened in Cornwall.

Mr Lane said: "I had never seen anything like it before.

"They were beached about 20 yards from the sands and seemed very distressed.

"You could hear them squeaking very loudly.

"They must have been talking to each other but they seemed to know what we were doing and that we wanted to help them."

Over the course of two hours, Mr Lane and his family helped to slowly move the dolphins, which weighed between 35lbs and 200lbs, back into the deeper water.

"They even used a suitcase luggage strap to help lift the heavier animals.

He said: "We had to move them into the deeper water and hold them under using this strap so they could get their sat-nav sorted, otherwise they would just keep heading back to the beach.

"It was pretty exhausting but we were all so relieved to know the dolphins were safe."

19

How do you think we'll be remembered?

by rebel8 in

jw
friends

some day far in the future, will we be looked upon as suffragettes who abolished cults with tenacity, courage and outspokenness?.

will future generations shudder at the backwardness of cultures that permitted cults to flourish, and not comprehend how this could have happened?.

will they be grateful for being spared death and suffering at the hands of cults because of what we are doing to expose them and reduce their growth?.

Xanthippe

Will future generations shudder at the backwardness of cultures that permitted cults to flourish, and not comprehend how this could have happened?

Historians are trained to set events in their historical context and taught to refrain from seeing them though contemporary eyes. Russell was born in 1852 and seven years later Darwin published Origin of Species. Karl Marx was publishing his works at the same time. It was the end of the industrial revolution and as the world became more secularised and industrialised those who were afraid of change rushed headlong into the new religions and cults.

In the last 150 years or so we have seen the space race, the development of weapons of mass destruction, huge steps forward in technology and medicine and the world shrinking because of ICT and air travel.

Cults may be seen in the future as the backlash because of our getting ahead of ourselves in knowledge and causing pollution, nuclear waste, global warming, depletion of fossil fuels and destroying the ozone layer. When we are afraid we rush to primitive beliefs for safety.

Will we be remembered? We might be a line in the paragraph about the people who left and were shunned by the cults. What the history books won't say is that those people went off and made a life for themselves, with autonomy and ethical living outside of a structured religion. Perhaps a tutor will look up at her students and say, after growing up in a cult what brave souls they were!

89

Poll--How Many Believe In God, Do Not Believe or Are Not Sure Of His Existence?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i believe in god but i'm not sure of anything....what about you?.

Xanthippe

I'm a Pescetarian. Occasionally I eat chicken. Also pizza, if it's been bled properly.

21

I realized I've been *hit on alot

by skeeter1 in

about a month ago, i realized that i didn't really care about my still-in jw family.

i just want to be left alone by them.

they caused me so much grief.

Xanthippe

Skeeter, thanks for sharing and I admire you. You've done so well despite your toxic family and you have inspired me. Well done! Sorry they have upset you today but they are the losers. They are not worthy of your company.

63

pros and cons of anti depessants?

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

obviously i'm having ex cult issues, family still in and a wife that's all kokoo for cocopuffs as well as our marriage isn't good.

i would like to leave her, she has never been the kind of wife i wanted.

anyway the stress is getting to be to much, thinking about things all the time and its effecting my work as well as otherthings.

Xanthippe

Fernando I loved the vids thanks. What an interesting guy Peter Breggin is and the Open Dialogue methods begun in Finland and now in the UK apparently. Actually talking to people with severe mental health problems instead of stuffing them with meds, there's a novel idea. Psychosis and schizophrenia need not be a life sentence anymore.

11

I was a publisher of falsehoods

by scotoma in

jw
friends

the biggest regret i have about association with jw's is that they used me to publish their lies.. yeah.

a publisher.

think about the responsibility of a "publisher".. a publisher takes pride in bringing "truth" to the public.