Posts by SYN

20

Media interest in Australia

by Lehaa in

i have great news.

i've been contacted by the channel 9 sunday program.

they are interested in talking to as many people as possible about our experiences with the jw religion.

SYN

Same here, but up north in Brisbane, so can't make the park thing I'm afraid. If I can be of any further assistance, do let me know.

39

i recently read an article about jw's that, if had the choice, would probably leave because of the deceptions, lies, etc., but don't because of family, friends, prestige, whatever, and instead lead a make-believe life going through the motions of being a loyal and believing follower of the watchtower organization.

most of those purported to be part of this non-believing/participating, but attending, jw population, are folks that have been associated with the jw's for a number of years, but, as many have, decided that the lies and constant changes (new light) just don't make sense anymore.

i would suspect that identifying those who just "go through the motions" of being a good jw would be difficult.

SYN

Slimboyfat, in the eyes of Witnesses, there are two types of people: Witnesses, and The Damned. Since you're not a Witness, well, goshdarnit, I guess you know what you are then!

105

I'm a Neutral Jehovah's Witness

by Martini in

jw
friends

dear brothers and sisters,.

i martini, will confide in you that i have become a neutral jehovah's witness.

i wonder if i'm not coining a new phrase here!.

SYN

Destruction or eternal life? I'm not holding my breath for either.

83

To those that believe in a god; Please help me believe

by AlmostAtheist in

jw
friends

hey gang,.

this isn't a debate-for-debate's sake thread.

i enter with an informed but open mind.

SYN

Zen is older than God. But to truly understand both God and Zen, you must understand that both Zen and God are the same age as humanity.

141

THE AWESOME POWER OF GOD

by Brownboy in

the awesome power of god

if you are willing to put faith in jah, the only true god, then i am willing to share my experiences with you.

jehovah is able to humble any man, no matter how strong or powerful he thinks he is..........in a microsecond.

SYN

"I have witnessed a small fraction of Jehovah's magnificance, along with Christ's. The radiance, along with the strength is overwhelming beyond anyone's imagination. You feel a strong radiance present before you that would strike fear in any man. I felt powerless, and became weakened in my own strength, in fear." And it gets even better when you inject it straight into your blood instead of smoking it!

83

To those that believe in a god; Please help me believe

by AlmostAtheist in

jw
friends

hey gang,.

this isn't a debate-for-debate's sake thread.

i enter with an informed but open mind.

SYN

Don't know if this will help (I doubt it), but I've come to believe that God is a manifestation of plain old human selfishness. There are no athiests in a foxhole, you might say. And HE (usually it's a HE) also ties in very nicely to our primate centers of power and dominance in our brains. We can only really think in terms of hierarchies of power, and God is at the top - it all makes sense, if you're a primate. Easy! Maybe you should try Zen. Or, as a true Zen master should say, you should realize that to try Zen, you must not try Zen.

18

Humans on other planets

by Truth2Me in

through research over the years, it seems to me that aliens do exist, and even it some of the alien abductions are "demonic" or "ginn activity" as many claim, there are still many tales of humanoid beings from other planets that have been seen on earth.

this is something i've struggle with for years, because jw and mainstream christians alike write it all off as demonic etc.

anyone have thoughts on reconciling belief in god with aliens, even humans on other planets?

SYN

Ah, this old chestnut. It's remarkable how the "aliens" have managed to keep themselves away from every single scientific establishment in the time they've been here. Or then again, they could just be running the most ludicrously effective PR campaign in history. Nobody believes you if you say you were abducted. It's perfect, really. Think about it.

40

They say they won't publish the Awake anymore???

by under74 in

my sister has a co-worker who's studying with jws.

he told her today that he was being told the the wt society was going to stop printing the awake this month.

and stop other publications soon.

SYN

Wouldn't be surprising at all if they were cutting back on less profitable distribution avenues.

But I do think that they'd have to be at death's door before they completely stopped publishing a magazine as well-known as the Awake.

16

"I'm Osama Bin Laden ... and I approve this message"

by Simon in

.

it seems like everyone is making election videos .

SYN

I think old Usama has been watching Farenheit 9/11, what with all his talk about the pet goat, etc. At first I thought the movie was a fake, too. It just seemed too amateurish. I just don't know what to believe anymore damnit!

6

An Essay on Faith.

by SYN in

been reading some interesting threads here lately.

there's so many new faces here that i don't know...*sigh*.

does anyone else here who's been out of the "truth(tm)" for a couple of years feel like that part of their lives was surreal?.

SYN

Thanks for your comments guys.

SNG, I knew that number was wrong...it didn't feel right...but I view it as a step forwards in my life that I don't remember the exact number of songs anymore. Hehe!

Will Power, as a programmer, I have learnt to break problems down to their roots, and tackle one part of the problem at a time. The same can be applied to an analysis of religion, any religion really. Dubs are just an especially silly religion, when you really get down to brass tacks.

JGNat, that's a pretty sad story, but then, the Organization is a great creator of nutcases. I know all about that!

Thanks for your comment, LittleToe, Yes, I didn't even realize I'd put my real name in the post until it was too late....nooooooo...hehe, not that I really care.

Ah, Gumby, ye olde "Where else are ya gonna go, mofo?" It's a tried and trusted solution.

I feel that the whole problem with that mental attitude is that people (and Dubs especially) are encouraged to be close-minded every single day. Our leaders like it when we think only in terms of Democrat or Republican (to use a tawdry, possibly flame-worthy example). Our leaders like us bi-polar - we're more predictable that way. All this brouhaha about the elections in America just makes me feel tired and sad, really. I feel that the very act of possessing the desire to lord it over people should automatically disqualify you from the group of people who should be allowed to be in charge.

Then again, power is an aphrodisiac. Yeah baby! Hehe! I'm really irreverent tonight, aren't I? But it's late here in Queensland :)

The leaders of Dubs especially, in their varied forms, love it when Dubs have a polarized mindset. It's extremely important for Dubs to erect shields whenever their cherished notions of Paradise on Earth and the Faithful and Discreet Con are challenged. It's a combination of groupthink and mindf*ck, if you'll excuse my Espanol. And sadly, it's a terribly effective combination. Human minds are extremely good at comparing things - colours, numbers, books, movies, but most especially, our most cherished ideals and concepts. We're great at forming "Us and Them" mentalities - in fact, we excel at it, to our great and eternal detriment. The very impulse that has led to the formation of civilizations and that binds together family is also responsible at a mental scale for the formation of religions like the Jehovah's Witnesses.

What was the earliest driving doctrine behind the Witnesses? I'd say that a large part of it was the formation of a new type of faith, a faith DIFFERENT to the original root religious idealogies of Christianity (I've forgotten the name of the specific flavour that good old Tazy Boy was an adherent of, in his pre-Dub days of yore). Once he had a basic schizm of thought, and you enough adherents to that very schizm, he took that group and formed it into a religion, and there you go. This is a very common notion in human society, the evolution of new mental structures. It's another thing we're terribly good at, sometimes for good, but just as often to our detriment. It's the double-edged sword, the Yin and the Yang.

And life would be terribly boring without it.

Of course, it would be a mistake to classify the religion of Charles "Tazy Boy" Russell in the same category as the globe-spanning, multi-national corporation that calls itself a religion and that we call the Borganization. The only true similiarity between the two is a marginally related INTERPRETATION of one old book, which was itself an INTERPRETATION of some dude's story, told thousands of years ago, then handed down through the ages by guys who supposedly never got laid. (Definitely a sad existence)

And this, this core grain of Truth that really underlies all that is the Society, is itself like the Mandelbrot fractal algorithm. It's only a few variables, a couple of squares here and there, but it gives rise to an amazing beast, the Watchtower Society.

I could yap on about this stuff for hours, really I could, but right now I must go to sleep :) Been nice chatting with y'all, keep those comments coming :)

Goodnight! (And, er, Gawd Bless!)