jp1692

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Posts by jp1692

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  10

  On Grief and Loss

  by jp1692 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  on grief and loss.

  each and every tear is a memory.

  and when you feel so intensely all that you have lost, you are also remembering everything that you have had.

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  jp1692

  CoCo,

  To be able to feel sadness and pain without either being consumed or incapacitated by it is in itself an achievement.

  It is, I have learned, a measure of our progress and growth. A marker along the pathway to healing.

  jp
• 
  10

  On Grief and Loss

  by jp1692 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  on grief and loss.

  each and every tear is a memory.

  and when you feel so intensely all that you have lost, you are also remembering everything that you have had.

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  jp1692

  On Grief and Loss

  Each and every tear is a memory. And when you feel so intensely all that you have lost, you are also remembering everything that you have had.
  
  And that is beautiful …

  jp1692
  
  
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  28

  Why do ex-JW's talk so much about being ex-JW's?

  by Sour Grapes in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  is it because we were in the cult watchtower compound that we talk about being ex-jw's when we stop being active?

  i have never heard anyone say that i was an ex-catholic or an ex-lutheran or an ex-baptist.

  they just stop going to their church and don't talk about it.. years after not stepping inside a kingdom hell, many of us still have to talk about being ex-jw's.

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  jp1692

  We're OCD about our PTSD.
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  9

  Jehovahs Witnesses and mental illness

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i came across this video, which looks at mental illness among jws.. it is an old video, but really hits the nail right on the head as to the reasons why there is such a high level of mental illness among the jw's.. https://youtu.be/co-b65w-zqs.

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  jp1692

  What Furuli calls a "study" is merely a survey and not a rigorous one by academic or scientific standards.

  His argument is essentially: "Bergman has questionable credentials and ethics; therefore, JWs do not have a problem with mental illness. I also know because I asked a bunch of my friends if there were any crazy JWs in their congregations and they said, 'No, not many!'"

  I'm not joking. He really did this.

  An example of this can be seen by considering Furuli's "methodology." He himself explains:

  As the basis for my 2015 study, I sent a questionaire to elders in 35 Norwegian congregations. In order to ascertain that the numbers from the Norwegian congregations were representative of the worldwide population of JW, I sent the same questionaire to elders in 24 congregations in USA and in 15 congregations in 12 other countries. The elders were asked to carefully consider each member of the congregation with the following questions in mind: How many active and inactive members have, or have had, a mental illness (schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar disorder etc.), and how many active or inactive members have, or have had, a severe depression? (2015, p. 8)*

  Seriously!?! Furuli asked congregation "Elders" to diagnose mental illnesses and then to report back to him. THAT is the basis for his conclusion that JWs have a lower incidence of mental health issues than the general population. To say this is flawed research methodology is a gross understatement.

  Obviously, elders are not trained or qualified in any way to make such assessments. This is ridiculous!

  Also, his own data sometimes indicates that mental health issues are higher among JWs than among the general population. For example, he writes:

  If we use this number, the rate of admission to mental hospitals is 2.60 per 1000 among the Witnesses compared with 2.54 in the normal population; the rate of schizophrenia is 1.15 among the Witnesses and 0.61 in the normal population; the rate of paranoid schizophrenia is 0.88 among the Witnesses and 0.38 in the normal population (2015, p. 5).

  So even after Furuli’s tweaks with the numbers, he admits the rate of mental illness of JWs in Western Australia is more than that in the normal population. Nevertheless, Furuli himself admits that "final conclusions are difficult to draw" (2015, p. 5).

  Another significant detail to consider in Furuli's analysis is that he included "only those who have been treated by a psychiatrist or at a mental hospital are counted" (2015, p. 11). There are two serious problems with this:

  1. There is no reason to exclude people that suffer from mental health issues and who do NOT seek professional help. Many people do not, especially JWs since this religion actively discourages it.
  2. Again, this information was reported to him by congregation elders, so it would exclude anyone that may have been treated by a mental health professional or admitted to a "mental hospital" but the elders did not know about it. (If you think the elders know everything, you're wrong). This fact likely changes the actual numbers drastically.

  These two factors alone demonstrate the serious methodological flaws of Furuli's "study." A dispassionate reading suggests that the actual number of active and former JWs suffering from mental health issues is probably quite high. Indeed, for a religion that claims to be "the happiest people on Earth," even one person with mental health issues is a problem for their delusional, unrealistic and unhealthy ideology.

  Furuli's discussion of the issue of suicide is similarly flawed. Demonstrating his religious bias, Furuli writes: "To commit suicide is an extreme act that violates the basic principles of God, and persons who do that either are mentally ill or they are in a situation of the deepest despair where they see no solution for their problems" (2015, p. 13).

  Clearly, people that are suicidal have mental health issues. But it is equally obvious that if you are a member of a religion that spouts messages like the above, you are not likely to be open about your mental health issues with congregation elders. Unfortunately, such ideological shaming usually has the opposite effect, causing people to hide their concerns, preventing many from getting the help they need. This is a serious, endemic problem for people in this religion.

  There are so many other logical and factual errors in his paper it's laughable. The last third turned into a JW propaganda puff-piece totally unbecoming for an academic paper.
  

  I could write more detailing reasons whey Furuli's "research" should not be given much attention, but the above makes the point. Again, it's really lame.

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  * Note: My citations are from an early draft of Furuli's research submitted for the 2015 CENSUR conference in Belgium. It is my understanding that this draft was rejected for publication because of serious methodological problems such as those I addressed above. The link Earnest provided is only to the abstract of an ostensibly revised version. Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of that nor is it readily available.
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  9

  Jehovahs Witnesses and mental illness

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i came across this video, which looks at mental illness among jws.. it is an old video, but really hits the nail right on the head as to the reasons why there is such a high level of mental illness among the jw's.. https://youtu.be/co-b65w-zqs.

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  jp1692

  Although Furuli is definitely a scholar by most academic standards, his field of expertise is Semitic languages, not psychology. He is also well known for being a rabid JW apologist:

  Based on his studies, Furuli has attempted to defend the religious views of Jehovah's Witnesses—of which Furuli is a member—including their view that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 BC rather than the broadly recognised dating of its destruction in 587 BC. - Rolf Furuli

  His bias and lack of objectivity is obvious in everything he writes concerning JWs.
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  9

  Jehovahs Witnesses and mental illness

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i came across this video, which looks at mental illness among jws.. it is an old video, but really hits the nail right on the head as to the reasons why there is such a high level of mental illness among the jw's.. https://youtu.be/co-b65w-zqs.

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  jp1692

  The Rolf Furuli "study" is highly flawed for many reasons which I will explore in a bit when I have more time.

  His pro-JW bias is blatantly evident. Also, he relied on the opinions of JW elders in determining if people suffered from mental illness or not. Yes he did. I kid you not!

  It's really a joke.

  As LisaRose previously commented about this "study":

  Being a lecturer in Semitic studies does not qualify you to do a study on mental health, it's frankly laughable. He may mean well but what are his credentials in mental health? What are his credentials in statistical analysis? Was this even peer reviewed?
  You are talking about a religion where it is not acceptable to be unhappy, much less admit to mental illness, so how accurate could any casual study actually be? And in a religion that disfellowships people for bad conduct, how meaningful is any one time study anyway? Anyone seriously mentally ill will soon get disfellowshipped, which is going to skew the results. You would have to do a long term study from birth to determine how many actually became mentally ill, which I doubt was done here. I don't even know how he got this published.
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  340

  Calling Cofty and others regarding evolution

  by dubstepped in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so i have started down the path of trying to understand evolution, and to get the linear lies that the jws planted in my head out of it.

  i bought an audiobook called "evolution: what the fossils say and why it matters" by donald prothero.

  i heard it recommended on an atheist podcast that i listened to.

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  jp1692

  Here is an excellent video that explains how “micro” becomes “macro” while deconstructing the incorrect idea that there was ever a first human:

  There Was No First Human (PBS)
  
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  25

  SKE, and other acronymic crap

  by MTSman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so, i was sort of forced to spend time with my uber-in parents.

  they went on gushing about the website, and the new business cards they have to give out to busy people.

  business cards?

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  jp1692

  Here are a few of my favorite anti-JW acronyms:

  • WTF
  • BS
  • STFU
  • LMAO
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  315

  Flat earth vs round earth

  by Jrjw in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  my brother has been talking about the earth being flat and some big conspiracy going on to make people beieve otherwise.

  what are people's thoughts on this?.

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  jp1692

  Is The Earth Really Flat?
  

  Is The Earth Really Flat?

  “It wouldn’t be fair to just assume the Earth is round or that the Earth is flat without taking a look at the evidence.”
  

  “There is a whole belief system in place that covers every aspect of a flat Earth.”

  Evidence or beliefs .... hmm, which should I choose?
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  121

  Did man really go to the moon?

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  l have researched this subject and come to the conclusion that no we didn't.what do others think?.

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  jp1692

  Um, Mars is farther away than the moon. The outer planets are even farther.

  Duh.

  Thank you Dagney for bringing some current accomplishments to the discussion!