Freeandclear

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Posts by Freeandclear

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  42

  What Are the Top JW Issues That Just Burn Your Buns the Most?

  by Wild_Thing in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  which ones make you the maddest?

  covering up of abuse, shunning, failed end of world predictions?.

  my list is long and heavy, but the top 3 that set me off the most are:.

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  Freeandclear

  Awesome comments so far, and I must say I agree with them all. For me personally it is this:

  The double standard of what they say and the reality. They say "Do your best. Just do what you can do. Jehovah knows your limitations. Be modest (recognize your own limitations)" But the reality is at every single meeting and in every single article you get bombarded with "DO MORE. Reach out! Extend yourself." etc.... So the result is, even though you ARE doing all that you can possibly do, you feel worthless and guilty.

  I've come to realize this is nothing more than a mind control trick. If you feel miserable about yourself you will be too down to question anything, and that's exactly where they want to keep you.

  I spent a large number of the years of my life as a true believer. I was 100% from 18 to about 37, believed it all and felt miserable and guilty and depressed over my own very minor shortcomings. All for what? Nothing. For a bs lie.

  Since I've woken up I am no longer guilty, no longer depressed and I'm actually LIVING my life. To me this is one of the largest travesties they inflict upon their members because it affects each and every one regardless.

  Who was it that said "Religion is a snare and a racket!" ? CT Russell or Rutherford? One of them said that and they couldn't have been more right.
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  21

  Whats the one thing

  by MrTheocratic in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jw's are constantly trying to prove they have the truth.

  they always point to matthew 24:14 and say "who is accomplishing this work today?

  this proves we have the truth and gods backing".. for those of us in this community looking from the other side what is one thing that proves to you that this organization does not have gods backing?

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  Freeandclear

  For me the awakening point started when I read Crisis of Conscience. That was over a year ago and started me actually "thinking" (I had not been going to meetings at the time so I was much more receptive to that book at the time)

  Then I went back and got DF'd and that hurt, and so I started looking around and finally doing some real research on "my" religion and found jwfacts.com and that really started opening up my eyes.

  At this point the "One Thing" for me is the false prophecy. Duet. 18:20-22 really drove it home for me. The WTS has indeed thrown out many many false "prophecies" in the past, in fact starting from Russell. None of them have come true. The end of those verses says "The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him." And guess what, that was it for me, the defining "I'm awake" moment.

  From there I continued and continue to research and the more I learn the more baffled I have become that I fell for it all for so long. There are myriad things that prove not only the WTS is wrong but all religion in general and now I'm even questioning the belief in God at all. I no longer believe the Bible and honestly I'm pretty sure there might be a "first cause" but as for a God who cares about us or what we do, think, or how we worship? No. I don't believe any of that anymore.
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  14

  Thoughts

  by thinker11 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as much as i want to believe in the bible and wish for a god that is watching over us and love us; i find it difficult to comprehend that a loving god will erase mankind with fireballs, earthquakes, and kill childrens, mothers, and fathers who refused to believe in the bible.

  and i can’t help but to take their side in all these.

  i mean: what has god really done to show that he is love and that he exists and is watching how we act.

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  Freeandclear

  A God of Love that allows millenniums of suffering despite being all knowing and all powerful and having the ability to prevent or stop it all. That doesn't make sense.
  

  A God that desires the Good News to be preached to all inhabitants of the earth so that no one should be destroyed, but then chooses a weird little group that fails to convince even 1/10th of 1% of mankind, leaving the vast majority to be destroyed. That doesn't make sense.

  That weird little group claims to have a "special connection" with that infallible, perfect God of Love via the mystical Holy Spirit, but everything they have predicted in His Name has failed. Not once, but multiple times. Still we are to believe they are the one and only source of God's direction. That just doesn't make sense.

  This quote above from DOC wins the internet. Perfectly summed up.
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  28

  If death is a natural occurrence in the human species, why are we born with the innate feeling to continue living indefinitely?

  by Tenacious in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  there are some people that do in fact want to die.

  these people include the mentally unstable, emotionally imbalanced, and those suffering from ailments or diseases, just to name a few.. i've never met however, anyone, or heard of anyone, who is of sound mind, who just awoke one day and thought it would be an excellent day to die......naturally.. your thoughts?.

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  Freeandclear

  Well well my favorite topic. haha

  The JW dream, that of living as a perfect young person with vibrant health on a paradise earth with none of the badness and evil hurtful things that are our reality now is certainly the most pleasant dream I can think of. Who would NOT want to live forever under those circumstances? To be truly free? Free from worry, hunger, disease, violence...nothing but pure peace and happiness forever and ever? Not to mention a sexy young wife or husband to share your forever with...imagine perfect sex, perfect food, perfect contentment with all and everything around you. I for one would absolutely love to have that life forever.

  That said, I no longer believe in the Dream. It was nice while it lasted but I find now there is simply no proof for it whatsoever in my mind.

  We as humans have the unique ability to look into the future with our imagination and we see our own deaths looming on the horizon and it terrifies us, and so we invented God, religion and purpose. This is as simple as I can think to put it.
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  57

  Confused: What does the overlapping generation really mean?

  by MicaSmith in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  can someone help me understand how the wt came up with the overlapping generation theory?

  i just don't understand it even though i read the information several times.

  it's bewildering.

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  Freeandclear

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  19

  TRUTH or OPINION--which is it when the Governing Body speaks?

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when and why did the governing body suddenly appear?.

  the governing body of jehovah’s witnesses, for all practical purposes, did not really exist as it does today, until a dangerous crisis** had developed in the watchtower religion at the headquarters beginning of the 1970’s.

  historically, the founder of the watchtower corporate empire was a men’s clothing entrepreneur named c.t.

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  Freeandclear

  Wow, this thread is totally blowing my mind..... Thank you Terry and all who commented. I can add nothing except that I read here to reinforce in my own mind what a sham all this is. The organization, the Bible itself and even the idea of a loving caring all powerful God. I do believe something had a hand in creating all this, a "first cause" but other than that there is simply zero evidence of a kind benevolent being trying to guide us...... The Bible? Yeah, it has some good points but I'll be damned if any of it is "heavenly" it's merely wisdom gained through age and experience. It's all a sham. Religion in itself is a sham. The idea of God....well as sentient beings who know we will die we seek some sort of solace from the idea of eternal blackness so we most likely invented the idea of God as a protection. I mean if God doesn't exist and our 70 years are simply futile then what is the point? Why carry on at all? Why not just end it now? Anyway I'm digressing. Thanks all. This whole thing blows my mind, and it blows my mind that I never saw it as a R&F member for so many years.....
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  23

  Why did Jesus have to suffer?? Something I never thought about.

  by ttdtt in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  something dawned on me last night.

  jesus was suposed to be a corresponding sacrifice for adam right?.

  a perfect life for a perfect life.

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  Freeandclear

  It's all nutty to me. I was still a believer and having a conversation with a good workmate friend of mine with whom I've had many "spiritual" discussions with over the years. We were talking about the "Ransom" and he asked something along the lines of "Who did Jesus pay back the ransom to?" I said "Jehovah" and he said "Why? Why did God need anything paid back to himself?" this totally stumped me and to this day the whole idea of the Ransom makes zero sense at all. It's a foolish idea to me now.
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  11

  Defining What is the Truth about the Truth of the Jehovah's Witnesses Religion

  by Finkelstein in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in an endeavor to clearly define the truth about the truth of the jw religion, whats your personal perception of what you understand of how this religion came to be, in its inherit beginning and how it was able to sustain itself over the years ?

  from my own perspective i think the strategic actions by its founding leaders to draw attention to their own published works such as the singular endeavors starting from c t russell and onward.

  the self proposing recognition by people such as j rutherford, that god had specifically (1919) chosen " his " organization exclusively, is really where and when this assuming man made power began and continued to flourish.. but the real significant thing that created attention to the public's eyes and imagination was when both russell and rutherford proclaimed that christ had returned and he had started to divide and choose who was going to be saved from destruction and live on in a earthly paradise and who was to be killed at the soon to come day of judgement.

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  Freeandclear

  For me the start of my waking up was my disfellowshipping in April of 2015. Since I had never been DF'd before I took it pretty hard and I was really struggling with some personal non-doctrinal related issues.

  I still believed it was the truth for the most part and was contemplating getting my act together and getting back in. Then I decided to do some research on the organization and see what if anything was to be found out there on the internet. I found jwfacts.com and that was where the real eye opening happened.

  Three things really clinched it for me.

  First of all I should say this; I am now agnostic. I pretty much believe there was a creator or a first cause to all of <this> around us. To me that seems obvious and I think even science must somewhat agree with that idea that something had to cause it. Something doesn't come from nothing. Life does not arise spontaneously. But I digress....

  The three lines of reasoning for me are as follows:

  1. Deut. 18:21, 22

  21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.

  The JW religion has made many many false prophecies over the years. This alone was enough for me to scratch my head and say "Yep, they are not the one true religion." However I don't believe in the Bible anymore anyway so....

  2. The whole 1919 "Jesus examined us and chose us out of all other professed Christians at the time because of what we believed" etc... (quotes mine) Then when you look at just what the JW org was believing at that time there is no resemblance of what they believe now. They did all kinds of un-christian pagan things back then.

  3. Finally, the ARC. When G. Jackson was asked if the org taught that they were the one true spokesman for God on Earth and he bold faced lied and said "Well that would be presumptuous of us to think that...." I about fell out of my chair. For a GB member to say that......it just blew my mind because this is precisely what they believe and teach. Theocratic warfare my ass.

  I'm fully awake now. I have no fear of them at all.
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  21

  Facing mortality after leaving the witnesses

  by truthseeker in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  tell me i'm not overly thinking this.. i'm 39 years old...still youngish...but i worry about getting old.

  i look in the mirror and it depresses me.

  i suppose i still cling to watchtower utopia when no one would age over 25.. i used to look forward to paradise earth because it meant all the evil in the world, nuclear warfare, terrorist attacks and sickos would be no more, but we are deep in the 21st century with no end in sight.. appreciate your comments.

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  Freeandclear

  I'm 44. I was a convert at the young age of about 17. I didn't really wake up to the TTATT until about a year ago. It is very hard to let go of "the dream" as I call it. Eternal youth, etc.... Very hard to think about just being gone. I've come to the conclusion that there is one of two realities awaiting us at the end. Either 1. death just as JW's believe. Eternal nonexistence. Or 2. Something else happens. What that something else is is anyone's guess.

  All I can do NOW is to live in the moment. Enjoy each day to the fullest. I continue to be a good person. I dont' harm others, I try to be good and fair to everyone even those I don't like. I know that if there is a God at the end I will be able to look him in the eye and say "I did my best" and he will know I'm not lying.

  Humans have dealt with this "existential crisis" from the time we became self aware, and through all of it no one has any real answers. We find ourselves in this very real situation where we live and KNOW we will one day die. It's no wonder "religion" was created by the human mind to deal with it. Much easier to believe in some fantasy at the end than to deal with the reality that death is the end for real.

  Best of luck to you OP. We're all in the same sinking boat so let's have a party while it's going down!
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  4

  Calling on all EX Bethelites From The 1960s, 1970s and 1980s

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many have commented here about my bethel experiences.

  even though it's been over 40 years since i was there, many have found the stories to be interesting and amusing.

  some have even mentioned writing a book about them.

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  Freeandclear

  Great idea.