THE GLADIATOR

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Posts by THE GLADIATOR

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  43

  think i'm becoming an atheist

  by rather be in hades in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was just thinking about how often i prayed when i was going downhill.. now i subscribed wholeheartedly to the 'don't pray for bullshit requests' concept, so at first i rarely prayed.. starting around middle school, 9/10 i prayed for friends.

  didn't really pray to stop the teasing, my fists did some of that and besides...racism isn't/wasn't jehovah's fault anyway and i can't pray for that to end when he allowed the witnesses to suffer in ww2.. through high school, same issue and then when i started pioneering and hanging out with some of the other witnesses, those prayers prayers for friends intensified cuz they were asses.. but they were dominated by the prayers to love god starting around 15. i didn't want to read the magazines, despite how much i love reading.

  didn't want to stdy the lessons, didn't want to plan my presentations, though i did enjoy giving the talks and crafting them.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  rather be in hades "maybe my prayers weren't answered because maybe god doesn't exist."

  Your posting has been answered very thoroughly by the comments made by the people who have responded. Your comments above says it all. You are still at the ‘maybe’ stage.

  I would add that you don’t believe in a God in the sense that you don’t believe he is doing his job properly, so you don’t trust or like God. You consider him a failure. You are starting to doubt whether a personal God as defined by major religions exists - that is an objective being with feelings and rules.

  Next you will have to consider whether there is an impartial, invisible presence pervading the universe manifests as life? If you decide there is no such presence you will be an atheist.

  You will be an atheist when all anger has gone; all questioning has ceased; when you get up in the morning and enjoy your day, forgetting to think about a bogey-man in the sky.
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  33

  Lets pretend the JW's are right for a moment...

  by puffthedragon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  don't worry, i'm not loosing my mind.

  but whether you are christian, agnostic, atheist, thor-worshipper or otherwise, just pretend with me for a moment.. armageddon comes and wipes out wicked people.

  there is a resurection and some kind of test and the ones that pass make it into the glorious new world.. how long would it last before a revolt?

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  THE GLADIATOR

  If this slaughter were to take place, most Witnesses would have just lost most, if not all their relatives. Who would want to live in a world that is ruled by someone capable commanding such a slaughter? How could any survivor then enjoy life, in a world that has paid such a high price for daring to believe that the Watchtower Society was not a reliable organization in which to put faith?

  The remaining Witnesses would then have to spend the rest of eternity knowing that any mistake on their part would result in their execution at the hand of the God whom they still love. They believe that if they can make it through the first thousand years, they will reach perfection, after which they are not likely to sin. The problem is that they also believe that the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, were perfect but turned against God. The perfect angel who was sent to look after them also sinned and became Satan the Devil.

  What makes them think it will be any easier to keep all the rules in a new world than it was in paradise? To make things even more difficult the Witnesses believe that the Devil will be released at the end of the thousand years to test them.

  It doesn’t look good!
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  68

  We KNOW who they are

  by DonJuel in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  folks!

  we need to unite on this one.

  all of us know names of elders and others inside the tower who are child molesters in different parts of the world..... now that we have some allied out there in cyberspace i would like us to make the most of it.... everyone who knows names and addresses to pedophiles inside the tower...now is the time to act!

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  THE GLADIATOR

  DonJuel “if you as an adult accept that some non educated person could decide about things like that; well then you are so fucked up stupid so you deserve to be on that list!”

  “They are going down – and they are going down hard! ”

  You are one dangerous dude.

  How about putting your own name on the list.
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  135

  Why get "personal" when discussing a topic?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  trading insults happens among kids all the time.. intellectual development hasn't progressed to the point where they can present contrary ideas and opinions with persuasive appeal to reasons, facts and logic.. "i know you are; but what am i?".

  "your momma's so fat....".

  so, they fall back on childish mocking, provocation and personal attack.. as we grow older and have more education and sophistication our minds should mature---or so you'd think!.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  “Is "closed-minded" an adjective or a noun? ”

  Closed-minded is an adjective.

  Closed-mindedness is a noun
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  32

  The "cause" of homosexuality (From JWtalk) LOL

  by yourmomma in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if any of you can read jwtalk check out this thread for a good laugh: http://www.jwtalk.net/forum/read.php?10,118252.

  for me the best "cause" was soy, yes soy apparantly turns people into homosexuals, lmao!.

  what would really be funny is if someone who has an account could post some more insane stuff like that, like "playing with smurfs or my little pony causes homosexuality" or "eating too many cheese curls".lol.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  What causes heterosexuality? Because I have suffered with it for as long as I can remember.

  Is it possible I was born with it - passed on from my parents?
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  135

  Why get "personal" when discussing a topic?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  trading insults happens among kids all the time.. intellectual development hasn't progressed to the point where they can present contrary ideas and opinions with persuasive appeal to reasons, facts and logic.. "i know you are; but what am i?".

  "your momma's so fat....".

  so, they fall back on childish mocking, provocation and personal attack.. as we grow older and have more education and sophistication our minds should mature---or so you'd think!.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  Thanks talesin . I know that you have been unwell and suffered pain. This, along with all the normal challenges that life throws at us takes its toll.

  Glad to hear you are on the mend. Here’s to happier days.
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  135

  Why get "personal" when discussing a topic?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  trading insults happens among kids all the time.. intellectual development hasn't progressed to the point where they can present contrary ideas and opinions with persuasive appeal to reasons, facts and logic.. "i know you are; but what am i?".

  "your momma's so fat....".

  so, they fall back on childish mocking, provocation and personal attack.. as we grow older and have more education and sophistication our minds should mature---or so you'd think!.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  Well talesin I just looked at the post you refered to and remember the exchange at the beginning. It's an example of allowing someone to get to you rather than just ignoring their comment. On that thread I made a post that seems to apply to this thread, so I have put it here and added to it.

  I started posting in my own name. I used to get into some heavy debates in those days and found that some people became abusive when they were called to account. When you post in your real name insults feels more personal. I felt that by posting as a gladiator in armour I could bang heads together and blame my alter ego. As it happens I have found that arguing, debating is often a waste of time, so I tend to use the gladiator as a figure of fun.

  Perhaps more of us that rarely start threads should do so. It may help to stop the increasing dominance by threads that amount to nothing more than preaching; followed by the predictable counter arguments which generally become abusive. It would be good to see more threads that aim to help lurking Jehovah's Witnesses who are struggling to stay in the organization but don't know what to do next. Threads that offer a warm welcome and help to people experiencing what we went through years ago.

  Salute
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  135

  Why get "personal" when discussing a topic?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  trading insults happens among kids all the time.. intellectual development hasn't progressed to the point where they can present contrary ideas and opinions with persuasive appeal to reasons, facts and logic.. "i know you are; but what am i?".

  "your momma's so fat....".

  so, they fall back on childish mocking, provocation and personal attack.. as we grow older and have more education and sophistication our minds should mature---or so you'd think!.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  British Parliament houses a lot of ex-public school boys where such behaviour is par for the course.

  It would seem that making personal attacks on a forum is the easiest way to get attention. It is also less effort to heckle than it is to construct a sensible argument and make a useful contribution. There are some here who use the forum to vent their personal frustrations, anger and disappointment.

  Over the years I have been guilty of this. Afterwards I felt hollow and unsettled, so I try to be civil. The remarks we make will always be driven by our emotional state of mind, as we are human. We are not exactly the same person from day to day but move within our own range of emotions. The extent of that range can vary greatly from person to person.

  I sometimes enjoy the cat and dog fights on fickle threads. It’s a shame when they ruin serious discussion on threads that could be sensible debate. Well thought out comments are drowned out by the noise. The risk is that sensitive people may be driven away from JWnet.
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  81

  How Did You Become An Atheist?

  by NewChapter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since there seem to be a number of threads in this spirit, i'd like to ask how others became atheists.

  for myself, i learned some things that made me understand the bible wasn't true.

  i looked deeper, and it became even more unlikely.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  still thinking This is true. Once we have an interest in something specific, our level of awareness increases.

  What was always there, but we were unable to see, becomes apparent.

  "I'm still not ruling out some sort of connection in the universe...but a god...I highly doubt it."

  It is wise to keep an open mind. A closed mind learns nothing new.
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  81

  How Did You Become An Atheist?

  by NewChapter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since there seem to be a number of threads in this spirit, i'd like to ask how others became atheists.

  for myself, i learned some things that made me understand the bible wasn't true.

  i looked deeper, and it became even more unlikely.

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  THE GLADIATOR

  still thinking Thanks for sharing that. I too stopped praying long before I left the Watchtower Society. It was not a conscious decision.

  I guess that deep down my sub-conscious mind had worked out the state of play and stopped emotionally motivating me to pray.