Posts by Rainbow

19

Has your name or reputation been maligned by the Witness gossip-mill?

by stuckinarut2 in

as we all know, witnesses routinely share in gossiping, slandering or maligning the name and reputation of those who are "spiritually weak" or ones who "fade" or "stop associating".. they feel it is ok to speak badly of such ones who "have left jehovah's organization".. of course, some of the worst perpetrators of this are elders and their wives, who insidiously plant negative stories in the minds of all they interact with in the congregation.

they may never have actual facts, but since when do facts matter to witnesses?

however through such conduct they manage to separate people from one another, or cause rifts amongst former friends.. this sort of conduct is plainly inappropriate.. but what scriptures could be used if the opportunity arose to confront such ones about the way they have behaved?.

Rainbow_Troll

It happened to me. Nowdays I am a really evil person by JW standards (and probably by Muslim, Buddhist, and secular humanist standards as well), but back in my teens I was actually a pretty good guy. The only sin I can recall committing was masturbation; other than that, I was squeaky clean.

Nevertheless, I found out later on that some pretty nasty rumors had been circulating about me which I was unaware of at the time. I have since traced them back to a close family member who was evidently attempting to slander me so she could create a rift between me and my friends (none of whom she liked). I'm ashamed to say that she lied to me as well and I believed her without ever investigating whether or not she was being truthful.

To be fair, I don't think this is unique to JWs at all. I've found that gossip and backbiting are endemic in human society no matter if it's a church, workplace, or school. People are bastards.

123

Why do some Jehovah's Witnesses choose to be atheist or agnostic?

by Cassaruby in

jw
friends

"traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .

.. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .

from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.

Rainbow_Troll

Why do some Jehovah's Witnesses choose to be atheist or agnostic?

Because we were disillusioned and we don't want it to happen again.
After I left the WT I spent (or wasted, some could argue) the next 18 years of my life searching for the true religion. I attended many churches and went near-sighted reading the Bible, Apocrypha, Book of Mormon, Calvin, Augustine, Aquinas, ad nauseum.

Once I concluded the Christianity was a total fraud, I looked into Islam (another big scam) and then some of the eastern "religions". I have to admit that Buddhism and Hinduism are actually good forms of psychology if you discount all the supersitious accretions and metaphysical speculation. Lao-tzu and Confucius were great ethical philosophers, but they weren't prophets (nor did they claim to be).

Eventually I just concluded that religion is bunk. I tend to shy away from generalizations, but I can say quite confidently that every person who has ever claimed to receive a revelation from God was either deluded or, more likely, a charlatan. Harsh? Maybe, but keep in mind that I spent EIGHTEEN years of my life in a sincere search for truth and this is the conclusion I've come to.

Religion is, even at its best, an utter waste of time and energy that could be spent much more productively. If anyone hungers for truth then they should apply themselves to philosophy, mathematics, and science (in that order). Pythagoras, Plato, and Liebniz grasped more about the true nature of reality than any theologian. Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy offers more hope than any apocalyptic eschatology. Science has improved more lives, healed more illnesses, and eliminated more poverty than an army of the most well-meaning saints ever could. Banish faith and embrace reason! Your life can only change for the better.

30

Jehovah's Wonderous Creation - The Guinea Worm

by pale.emperor in

you're not likely to see this in an awake!

magazine, but here goes.

for those that believe in intelligent design please explain this one to me:.

Rainbow_Troll

careful
Rainbow_Troll, so is the Book of Jubilees from Satan or Jehovah?

It was written by Enoch before Jehovah transformed him into Metatron and took him up to Heaven. Don't you know anything?

pale.emperor
Rainbow Troll are you serious or being sarcastic?

Can't I be both?

moomanchu
Oh Wise Rainbow_Troll,
What then was the original and unperverted function of the Guinea Worm.

It was created for the purpose of oral hygiene; much like the Dentic in Farscape. You'd suck it into your mouth after a rich, vegetarian meal and let the little guy polish your teeth while you leaned against a tree and watched baby fawns and wolf pups play together.

BTW are you gay and a troll?

I wish I were gay, but I was born with an inexplicable preference for girls (it's a disease, I know). I really just became obsessed with trolls at age 10 after I was forced to throw away my entire collection when we found out the little eunuchs were demonized.

32

Irregular to meetings, can I partake in memorial?

by Squekylive in

hi friends .

i don't believe in jw doctrines anymore but because of family i have to be a jw for now.. i am not regular to meetings, and don't answer in meeting, but i report some hours so i remain as active jw now.. .

congregation knows that i am not spiritual and i don't talk to people and i don't care what they think about me.. now, i believe it's important to observe lord's supper as a christian as per john 6:53, so in the coming memorial if i attend i want to partake in the communion,.. i believe it is a sin to pass the bread and wine inspite of knowing it's flesh and blood of jesus.. it's like rejecting jesus.. so i want to partake.. but i dont consider i am anointed etc.

Rainbow_Troll

Squeky, why not just take the eucharist at a mainstream church? Surely you can sneak in to one at least once a year without anyone noticing.

If you partake at the memorial, it will just be seen as a desecration of their sacrament and probably embarrass your family.

Incidentally, I've studied Satanism and the black mass in particular. While there are many variations on the unholy rite, not partaking of the bread and wine is the one common thread that runs through them all, as it is symbolic of rejecting Jesus Christ and his atonement.

Fun fact: Nisan 14 does NOT fall the first full moon after the spring equinox (ask a Jew). That, in fact, is a pagan holy day (ask a Wiccan).

Cool, Huh?

15

Compiling a list of Sin

by Nihilistic Journey in

with all the rules that we had to live under to be a good christian it's a wonder that we aren't all neurotic basket cases like i am!

let's compile a list of transgressions and rules that we had to live by.

no rated r movies.

Rainbow_Troll

In no particular order:

No long hair (for men).
No crossdressing.
No reading books that are critical of the WTS' s teaching (which basically means anything written by apostates, as well as most books on Science, Philosophy, and Comparative Religion).
No Higher Education.
No icons, statues, crosses, or other emblems of idolatry.
No dating (unless you are an adult who is seriously searching for a spouse).
No holding hands or kissing.
No oral sex, mutual masturbation, BDSM, or role-playing with your spouse.
No witchcraft, enochian magick, or eldritch conjurations from the Necronomicon
No drugs.
No voting.

Since I left, I've committed all the above except one.

31

You know it's the Truth, because it attracts crazy people.

by schnell in

jw
friends

i wish i was kidding, but i have heard this idea suggested lately as a defense of the wts.

this is god's organization, even though it attracts crazy people, and because it attracts crazy people.

"unlettered and ordinary," et cetera.. i don't get it.

Rainbow_Troll

On that note, check this out:

http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/mental-issues.php

To sum it up, studies show that JWs are 2 to 17 times more likely (depending on the study) to suffer from mental illnesses than the general population.

My own mom, though she hasn't be diagnosed as such, is almost certainly suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and I think the WT is primarily to blame.

Of course it could be argued that people predisposed to mental illness are attracted to the WT's teachings, but it is equally probable that those same teachings exacerbate mental illness. When the GB tells suggestible people, who accept their word as gospel, that they are surrounded by invisible demons who want persecute them and that, in fact, the entire world is controlled by Satan, this is bound to result in some JWs going insane.

8

Demonizes medical techniques and jws

by Crazyguy in

so i remember in the 70s and 80s kenisalogy ( spelled wrong) was talked about as being demonized and wrong.

for those of you not familiar with the term it was used to describe alternative medical techniques used by some.

these could include massage techniques for healing, acupuncture, cranial sacral , aroma therapy, acupressure, etc etc... so my daughter has been dealing with a very painful condition and western medical has only one solution which is a bad one so we have been searching and using some of these other types of medical treatment along with a couple of others that are unique and would maybe fall under the umbrella of this term.

Rainbow_Troll

You have to keep in mind that the Watchtower Society was born at a time when scientific materialism was very much in vogue. Quantum mechanics was in its earliest phase of development and had not peneteated public consciousness. The theory of relativity wasn't even conceived of at this time. 'Holistic science' was an oxymoron. Most educated people lived in a simple 'common sense' newtonian world where action at a distance was impossible and the universe functioned like a mechanical clock with no room for randomness or uncertainty.

If you look at many of the Watchtower doctrines, they seem to reflect this worldview. For example, in denying the soul's immortality, the Watchtower is asserting the standard hard materialist argument that consciousness is just an epiphenomenon of the physical brain and thus cannot survive the death of the body.

I once read a WT article that mocked belief in astrology since science had proven that planets are "just dead pieces of rock" (guess they never heard of the Gaia theory).

Even the Watchtower's God, while not as anthropomorphic as the Mormon god of flesh and bone, is still basically a sort of deistic grand architect of the cosmos who sits on his throne watching it all wind down; a far cry from the traditional Christian God who is omnipresent, closer to us than our breath.

The weird irony of this is that despite their materialistic, no-nonsense, anti-mystical theology, JWs themselves, as a group, are the most superstitious people I have ever met. Everything has a supernatural (demonic) explanation in their world from missing car keys to malfunctioning electronics. They scoff at astrology, reiki, and parallel universes and yet they are convinced that fallen angels live in antiques and Satan spends his time playing practical jokes.

30

Jehovah's Wonderous Creation - The Guinea Worm

by pale.emperor in

you're not likely to see this in an awake!

magazine, but here goes.

for those that believe in intelligent design please explain this one to me:.

Rainbow_Troll

Satan can't create anything, but he can twist and pervert what already is.

Like homosexuality and other perversions: Jehovah created heterosexual missionary sex, but then Satan jazzed it up by introducing sodomy, BDSM, and 'prostate massagers'.

Jehovah creates cute vegetarian pussycats and Satan turns them into bloodthirsty incarnations of death.

Jehovah created humans to walk around naked and munch on fruit all day, but then Satan fowled everything up with that damn fruit and taught us writing, mathematics, and agriculture (see the Book of Jubilees).

Satan knows he'll never be God. He'll never be able to create anything original so, instead of accepting his inferior status, he contents himself with ruining and defacing what Jehovah has created.

30

Jehovah's Wonderous Creation - The Guinea Worm

by pale.emperor in

you're not likely to see this in an awake!

magazine, but here goes.

for those that believe in intelligent design please explain this one to me:.

Rainbow_Troll

Satan made it.

27

Here's a morbid thought...

by Rainbow_Troll in

it probably will never happen but... imagine the gb recieved some new light that told them the great tribulation was imminent.

the world is going to hell and all jws can expect until armageddon is terrible persecution the likes of which no christian has ever experienced in two thousand years.

but jehovah has a solution: put yourself and your family 'to sleep' and after armageddon's over, jehovah will 'wake his people up' at the resurrection.

Rainbow_Troll

I think I understand what you are saying Cold Steel. In the Roman Catholic church the pope is technically fallible in regard to his opinions. He only become infallible when he pronounces something 'ex cathedra', which would be binding on all practicing catholics to accept. As a man he's fallible, as pope he is infallible.

But the GB doesn't have a system like the Catholics. There's no distinction between fundamental beliefs (such that you might find in a catechism or confession of faith) and just any old opinion the GB might happen to spout in the magazines. Theoretically, believing in vegetarian lions, 1914, and the ransom death of Jesus are all on the same doctrinal level even though, in terms of actual biblical support and relative importance, they obviously are not the same.

Rainbow_Troll

Posts by Rainbow_Troll