Posts by terraly

23

Want to help my JW friend

by wannahelp in

jw
friends

i'm new here, and i want to make it clear upfront that i am not, nor have i ever been a jw.

in fact, until recently i didn't know much about jw's.

but i do have a question that i hope both jw's and ex-jw's will try and answer for me... about 10 months ago, i hired a 20 year old to work for me.. i hired him because he seemed very loyal, ethical, sincere, hardworking and honest.

terraly

Hi,

I've never been a JW either, so I guess we're kind of in the same boat- except luckily my reason for being here (my girlfriend) has already left the organization. I can't speak as a witness then, but only as one who has had the privilege of being there as one soul winged her way free of the Tower.

Definitely take it slowly. It's the only way anyway, he won't respond to a frontal attack upon his belief structure, very few people can. You cannot throw all you know at him at once, his brain will almost certainly enter defensive mode and reject it all.

But... chances are good he will find out the truth about "the truth" one day. If you keep silent and don't say anything he may live a happy, contended, JW-life, but it is also almost certain that he will acquire doubts through some other means- so leaving him alone does not mean he will remain a happy JW.

My girlfriend describes the wonderful, peaceful feeling she had when she made the decision to disassociate herself. To live as a Witness, if you are at all aware of some of the problems and unloving doctrines (such as the one which threatens your friendship) is to live with doubts, with cognitive dissonance, and with self-reproach for having these doubts.

The Witnesses believe in a thing called "theocratic war strategies" which basically involve lying to people who don't deserve to know the truth. While this is a terrible ideal to preach, I think we all feel that it's an acceptable- or necessary- strategy at some times.

But in the end, I think the truth is a necessity, and I think the truth always produces the best results. This may be simply a naive, optimistic hope, but there you have it.

Your friend deserves to hear the truth- and perhaps that means from you.

It's the old philosophical debate: live a happy, contended life as a monkey, or a painful, difficult, wonderful life as a human. I think we all have moments when we'd like to be that monkey, but on the whole I come down firmly on the human side of things. Ignorance can be bliss, but living free and true is the wonderful fate of mankind.

I think you can live a perfectly contented, animal-like existence as a JW. I do not think you can truly live- you can only exist, bearing on until the end of the world, which is coming Very Soon (tm).

I would wish life for everyone, and not consign anyone to mere existence(1).

It's not you duty to help your friend. It's not your fault if you can't free him. Everyone must (and does) walk their own spiritual path in this world. Remember that, and remember to be true to yourself and to him, and things will work out.

Best of luck, and please keep us posted.

t.
(1) of the sorry-I-stole-your-line-you-know-who-you-are class

4

IfYouHaventSeenThis.....

by sf in

jw
friends

...maybe you would like to > http://www.fortunecity.co.uk/jodrellbank/hyperdrive/479/.

.

scally

terraly

Wow that's long. But it's a fascinating read.

22

Newly DF'd/DA'd

by praying_mantis in

jw
friends

over a year ago i divorced my husband.

he is the son of an elder, was addicted to pornography, and started doing drugs before i called it quits.

since then, i have met someone else.

terraly

Lost, scared and alone is exactly the effect they are trying for, and exactly why we are here to combat it, to let you know that JW's and their loved ones can pull through the whole DF'd/DA'd mess, because we are stronger than them.

You may find out the "truth" about the "Truth" on this site, but I think what the Org. is really scared about on the internet is places like this, where you can see that not all apostates are devil-worshippers and that you are not alone.

Welcome, and I hope things work out. Keep your chin up, and remember that at the end of this process the WT will no longer have any power over you whatsoever.

25

JW JOKES PLEASE ADD MORE!

by natred in

jw
friends

jokeshow to get rid of a jehovah's witness... .

when they ask, "can i talk to you about god?

" reply, "sure, what would you like to know?

terraly

Hi Angy,

Just wanted to welcome you aboard...

137

Face/Pyramids on Mars! What do you think?

by qwerty in

jw
friends

the things you look into without the wt cynical mind behind every thought.. [ http://www.geocities.com/area51/6683/cydonia-face.html].

qwerty .

justa surfin!

terraly

Tell me something, with NASA now stating that mars "may have been warm and wet". ----> MAY. <----
IF that is discovered to be a correct conclusion...
WHAT would be so illogical about intelligent beings having lived on mars LONG AGO and having remnants of their homes/cities/dwellings discovered by US?

Absolutely nothing illogical about that whatsoever. Although the data seems to indicate to me that Mars if indeed it ever was warm and wet (which is still a very tentative conclusion) was not that way for long enough for an intelligent civilization to evolve. Nonetheless, we don't know that time-scale for life to develop/civilize.

But I want evidence of this race.

This would definitely be more convincing than a mountain which happens to look like a face. I have a picture of a crater on Venus here which looks like a face too. I'd scan it if I had a scanner [it's the multiple crater Lillian in the Guinevere region of Venus (25.6N, 336.0)]. It looks like a big ghostly face.

An intelligent race, and this is the best evidence for it? When we've been to the surface of the moon 3 times and mapped the surface in great detail?

The "face" hardly counts for this kind of rationalistic approach anyway. Unless these creatures (1) could see into the future to know what our faces look like (2) happened to evolve to look very much like us or (3) are actually our descendents who moved to earth when Mars got to cold and subsequently descended into barbarism. The last one would make a good Sci-Fi story (probably already has).

The illogical part of all this is the contention that the scientific community as a whole is collectively engaged in a massive cover-up of the evidence.

35

Kingdom SMELLodies

by reagan_oconnor in

jw
friends

which "kingdom melodies" did you most despise?.

mine had to be #125... the one that talked about "bees that were molested.

" [8>]

terraly

My proposition is that decent music is a necessary but not sufficient criteria for a "true" religion.

That is, merely having great music does not prove anything. However, being so uninspired and spiritually dead that your songs torment the soul is enough to disqualify anyone as having any sort of connection with cosmic/eternal truths.

137

Face/Pyramids on Mars! What do you think?

by qwerty in

jw
friends

the things you look into without the wt cynical mind behind every thought.. [ http://www.geocities.com/area51/6683/cydonia-face.html].

qwerty .

justa surfin!

terraly

I hope the conspiracy theorists can understand why scientists get a little upset when you accuse us all of being part of a vast conspiracy to hide things from the public. It is rather insulting, and also dangerous.

Perhaps scientists are lying about all the evidence for evolution too. If they can cover up evidence of extra-terrestrial life then it would be child's play to cook-up this whole "evolution" story.

Why believe any evidence these "scientists" give to support evolution? Most people I know who believe in this sort of ET stuff also laugh at the foolishness of Creationists- trusting science when they want to and accusing it of lying when they want to.

I see it like this: according to the UFO conspiracy theorists intelligent life contacted the earth, but everyone missed it- except for the Government and some top-notch investigators/tabloid authors.

According to the WT, the end of the world came in 1914, but everyone missed it- except for the Governing Body and some top-notch writers at the Watchtower and Awake writing departments.

2

So long, and thanks for all the laughs

by expatbrit in

douglas adams, the creator of the marvellous hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, died on friday of a heart attack, aged 49.. i not usually affected to much by the deaths of public figures, but this one brought a lump to my throat.. the bbc: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1326000/1326657.stm.

tributes on the bbc: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/newsid_1326000/1326735.stm.

expatbrit

terraly

A most sad day.

I can't think of anything fitting to say to commemorate him, so I'll just assume that he's still alive in some alternate dimension/time-line/sofa.

2

Dirt Naps, Hezekiah, Non-Flattery and Reform

by metatron in

jw
friends

once upon a time, there lived a reasonably successful king named.

hezekiah, who learned that his kingdom was going to be pillaged.

and raped in the distant future.

terraly

Just a thought,

I'm not sure Firestone et al. really set a more moral example. Financial implications required them to change. There is only one reason why the GB will change in my opinion, and that is if they are forced to by a ever-shrinking JW population.

Unfortunately, "ever-shrinking" is a bit of a hope for the future, as currently they are still growing, but if the tide is turning here there is hope.

Every JW who leaves (either formally by DA, or informally by drifting) sends the only message the GB can hear: "Change, or you will lose more power and money because you'll be left with only a tiny group of hard-core followers".

31

Do You Fear Death?

by think41self in

jw
friends

i am very interested to know how all of you feel about the subject of death and the future.

do you fear death?

what do you think are the possibilities for the future?.

terraly

And then there's the old thought that we don't spend a lot of time worrying about our situation before we were born.

We don't fear that perhaps we didn't exist then (depending on your religious beliefs/re-incarnation that sort of thing), so why should we worry about non-existence afterwards, we already have lots of experience with not existing...

Or something like that.