scratchme1010

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Posts by scratchme1010

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  2

  Is This How You Promote Insecurity in Relationships?

  by Saename in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  it's time for some ridiculous entertainment, guys.

  today my sister showed me a video by pewdiepie in which he reacted with his girlfriend to this article.

  it was really funny, i have to admit, because he was basically criticising the article.

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  scratchme1010

  Thanks for sharing that video. It was fun, and I really, really hope that the article was meant for fun. I don't get why PewDiePie is so YouTube famous. Whatever.
  
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  22

  Real Estate Business?

  by no-zombie in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i was going over some of the older posts of others and without starting some kind of flame war, i got no idea why people are saying that the society is some kind of real estate business.

  of course its making millions of dollars in its real estate sales but this a one time event.

  its down sizing by selling the furniture.

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  scratchme1010

  For everyone on this thread who has claimed that the WTS is not buying property, how do you know this?
  

  Good question. My thoughts are that the WT has a real estate business. As a business, you make all kinds of, well, business decisions. I don't believe that it's any good business practice to just buy or just sell. Buying is as part of a business as it is selling.

  I personally don't believe that they are just selling, but don't believe that they are just buying either. Their purchases are investments, not buying for just consumption. When you buy for investment, the money you spend returns earnings, and in real estate that is based on a number of factors (renting, being an up-and-coming area [buying-holdng-selling later], flipping properties, etc.). Remember, the WT has free labor, so they can easily build things with minimum cost and make a profit from selling the property later.
  
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  117

  2017 Yearbook released

  by bohm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i saw this on reddit:.

  https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.

  overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).

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  scratchme1010

  Thank you for sharing those numbers, bohm. I've learned that they mean something to some people.
  
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  11

  Which was the best century to be born in?

  by defender of truth in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.businessinsider.com/10-reasons-2016-is-the-best-time-to-be-alive-2016-8/#1-there-are-much-fewer-hungry-people-in-the-world-1.

  is the world getting better?.

  in which century would you rather have been born, given the choice?

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  scratchme1010

  Is the world getting better?

  In which century would you rather have been born, given the choice? The 19th century? Earlier?

  I may be too analytical about it, but here are my thoughts:

  1. The number one thing that comes to my mind is that the fact that I choose a great period to live doesn't mean that I'm going to have a good life. In any period of civilized humanity we have all the social issues we always have. How do I know that I'm not going to be a slave, or a member of an oppressed class?
  2. Life is never in black and white. I personally don't use "good or bad", "better or worse" to characterize the entire world at a given moment. Some things are great today and not so great.
  3. Then there's the "according to who?" factor. What does it mean that according to the article, for example, "more people have access ti clean water", for those that to this day still don't? Is this ear better for them? Is this considered the best time to live for that? And for who?
  4. What is being measured as criteria for "better"? What that means to you may not mean the same to me. For a person who loves being sexually open, maybe ancient Rome was the best place to live... unless you were a slave and had no saying about your life. I could live without running water or electronic devices if I was a rich aristocrat, but not if I was a member of the poor class.

  It's not just about the conveniences that today's world provide; it's about access to them.
  
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  31

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

  by schnell in

  1. jw
  2. 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.

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  scratchme1010

  schnell, you should know better by now:

  Do we say the same thing for other institutions?
  

  Yes

  Which ones?
  

  Insane asylums and USA Congress

  Why?
  

  Insane asylums because they are for, well, the insane.

  Congress, well, need I finish this sentence?

  On a more serious note, one of the things that made me start opening my eyes and leave was precisely that I started noticing in the congregation I was in, a lot of people with a number of different mental health conditions. That was my biggest eye opener.

  My awareness started with me. As an older teenager, becoming a young adult, I decided to finally give that Jehovah nonsense a serious try, not because it was imposed on me, but to give it a fair chance. A few years later I found myself extremely depressed, sad and feeling horrible about myself. I tried looking for some kind of role model (didn't know at the time that that's what i was doing), but I was looking to see a good example of anyone who I could follow. First, since at that time I was already labeled as the brother "with that problem", every single male in the congregation thought I was coming on to them simply by me attempting at striking a conversation. Then the elders kept telling me that if I was depressed it was because there was something I had to confess to them to feel better, and that service is the best antidepressant. And don't get me started with the nasty, ill-intended, backstabbing gossip!
  

  I finally had it with their --it, so I went to a psychologist. It felt so great! However, I started asking myself who else in the congregation may be in similar position than I was, and that's when i started seeing people, I mean, really seeing people in the congregation. I alone, without having any professional mental health experience, saw people with depression, anxiety, a lot of compulsive behavior (there was a sister who used to cut herself, and a lot, I mean a lot of people with all kinds of eating disorders and issues around food), there was this young guy who claimed that Jehovah was talking to him directly, there was this other guy who wanted his mother dead so she can be resurrected in paradise, there was a sister claiming that her children's father was Satan, I mean, I saw a lot of people suffering, expecting some kind of healing or miracle from their Jehovah, there, going to meetings and doing was they were told and expecting something in return.
  

  It was very saddening and scary, both experiencing depression and seeing so many people suffering too. That was when I decided to leave that organization. A lot of people around me thought that my leaving had to do with the being gay thing, but that was not the reason. My main reasons had to do with seeing how irresponsibly the WT and their people handle people with issues that affect their mental health, at the same time that I needed to protect my own mental health.
  

  So I think that to me it's not new that there are people who notice the rather large number of people with mental health issues, some of them severe, in their congregations. Of course, they are not going to say that that's the case, so they better come up with some BS excuse to explain why congregations have so mane people with issues. Solving their issues is what attract them to the JWs in the first place. To me that's not new. What is new is that there's more awareness of it and they are trying to excuse the WT's irresponsible behavior.
  
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  36

  An interesting reasoning for the existence of God (from JW public talk)

  by anointed1 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was on an official tour last week to another part of my country.

  on my way to the hotel, i noticed sign-board of jw kingdom hall.

  i thought i would attend sunday meeting as i knew no one would recognize me.. seeing “a new-comer” in the audience, public speaker adapted his material making it especially appealing to me.

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  scratchme1010

  Universe is like a diary book with countless blank sheets. Yet only on one page [earth] is written something—something like a beautiful poem [life].’ What does this show? Owner decided to write on one page so that when others see blank sheets they should know that it takes a writer to do the writing. Whether he will do so with rest of the pages or not depends on the owner.
  

  And you believe that crap? That doesn't make sense at all. Let's see:

  Universe is like a diary book with countless blank sheets.
  

  First, according to who? Second, this is based on the nonsense that the Earth is supposed to be the center stage of the entire universe. Need I say that every single piece of well established scientific fact contradicts that notion?
  

  Yet only on one page [earth] is written something—something like a beautiful poem [life].
  

  LOL! That coming from the same idiots who believe that the entire planet isn't worth preserving and needs a complete new system, including the elimination of natural selection in animals. Some poem.
  

  Owner decided to write on one page so that when others see blank sheets they should know that it takes a writer to do the writing. Whether he will do so with rest of the pages or not depends on the owner.
  

  Again, LOL! Where's the proof of that? That's just downright faulty logic. What relationship exists between a poet writing on a blank piece of paper and proof of the universe been created? What does one thing has to do with another.

  About the "thinking" thing:

  There are some thinking persons in an organization where thinking is banned.
  

  This goes right to what I continue pointing out about how in denial many people in this forum are. Intelligence and capacity to think has nothing to do with indoctrination and brainwashing. In fact, many JWs are quite intelligent. That has nothing to do with falling into the hands of being indoctrinated. That happens based on what they feel, not on what they know.
  

  If you look at it from that point of view, it can make more sense, but of course, that seems a little hard to do to many people (probably because they are too conditioned to not take a look at their own capacity to reason or to their own feelings).
  
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  15

  To love Jehovah more than friends and family.

  by schnell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i was a believer, i endorsed this idea too.

  i commented with things like "love jehovah more than your mate" or "love jehovah more than your friends".. it didn't occur to me as i was saying it that jehovah is an idea.

  this god concept is an idea that should really pass scrutiny if you're supposed to love it more than anything else.. at best, this means that jehovah is real and you have to love jehovah more than the people in your life, no matter the despicable things he is said to have done, condoned and endorsed in his holy writ.

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  scratchme1010

  "love Jehovah more than your mate" or "love Jehovah more than your friends".
  

  schnell, that goes to the core of the most damage that the JW faith caused in my family. My abusive, violent, dry alcoholic father used that as an excuse to continue beating us and treating us like crap, simply because he was "putting Jehovah first". And he wasn't the only one in the congregation where I grew up acting that way.
  

  Granted, not everyone interprets that nonsense the way my messed up father did, but I'm still waiting for the WT to clarify and set specifics about what that's supposed to mean. That's how I know that they can't care less about the well being of their people, or anyone for that matter.

  Interestingly enough, that's what I use as an argument with my messed up JW family when they want to know why I shunned them. Apparently that principle is good when they use it to shun me, but they have a hard time understanding that I agree with it and, therefore, don't want them in my life. Do you notice that they love using that nonsense to be the ones having the last word in every conversation? They love, love love using that nonsense to reject others, but hate, hate hate when people agree with it because they want nothing to do with them.
  

  Somehow they claim to be victims when outsiders actually agree and act according to their own principle.
  
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  20

  Faith to Faithless XJW event London, UK

  by Fe2O3Girl in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  description.

  we often come across jehovah's witnesses near station entrances and at our front doors, but we never hear about what happens when they leave.

  if you're near london, uk, faith to faithless are doing their first ever event at kings college london, and their first ex jw panel!.

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  scratchme1010

  Please post the pictures.
  
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  32

  Irregular to meetings, can I partake in memorial?

  by Squekylive in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  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.

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  scratchme1010

  Can any experienced JW advise me?
  

  First, why on Earth are you asking for advise from a JW here in an ex-JW forum? Since you asked anyway, my advise is this: If you don't believe in the WT and the JW teachings, that's perfectly fine (trust me, I don't either). However, that doesn't give you the right to be disrespectful to the JWs who do. Partaking knowing what that means to them in that setting is disrespectful, regardless of what your belief is. And this is coming from someone who has no respect for the WT (just look at my posts and replies).
  

  • You are not going to make your situation with your family any better (that is considering what you say that you keep putting up with the JW nonsense because of your family)
  • You are not going to make a point to anyone, regardless of how correct you feel you are in your actions.
  • All you will get (at best) will be 5 minutes of fame and in a bad way
  • If you really want to manifest your faith, you don't need to disrespect other people's, especially that of your loved ones.

  I'd suggest you to look into (a) why do you want to do that, and (b) why do you want to do that that way. The way you come across to me sounds more like attention seeking than wanting to express your faith.

  There are many other places and opportunities for you to partake and do whatever ritual you want to do on your own, so neither it make sense for you to do that based on your own words about being there for your family, nor it will result in anything that will make your life better, not to mention that you will not make a dent in making anyone there believe anything you do. I do not see any point in doing that.
  
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  21

  54 year old Jw pedophile molests 14yr old jw girl.

  by notjustyet in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  need someone to correct the article to let the readers know "it's not a church,.. it's a kingdom hall!!".

  please share and comment on their fb page to get some info out there.

  https://www.facebook.com/sunherald/posts/10157904826940532.

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  scratchme1010

  I am glad to see the mother did the right thing to protect her child. It is sad to see this disgusting creep use the Kingdom Hall to groom his victim.
  

  Are you actually sad for the KH being used for that, or for the disgusting pedophile doing what he did?

  Anyway, another one. I wonder what the don't get caught/get caught ratio is.