Posts by Freeandclear

63

How the Watchtower Screws Up Your View of Scripture

by CalebInFloroda in

while i do not argue the stand of atheism (because as a jew i find it totally logical and acceptable), i have noticed that there are odd carryover preconceptions about scripture that some hold as axiomatic about the bible (at least the hebrew texts), misconceptions that have nothing to do with the jewish scriptures themselves.. so regardless of what you may think of scripture, whether you believe it is of g-d or not, i thought some of you might enjoy a reference to see how much the watchtower teaching on scripture might still be influencing the conclusions you are making today...at least about the tanakh.

jews read their texts acknowledging the following:.

1. no scriptural concept of original sin.

Freeandclear

Just reading over some of this just now and all I really got out of this was the same old thing....namely: Confusion.

The Jew's think one thing, the Christians (all 45,000 of their sects) think another, the Muslims another, etc etc etc and on and on ad nauseum.

For me God and Truth boil down to one simple thing..... Here it is: IF there is a God, he/she/it does not care one bit about how or if we worship.

Why conclude this? Because there is NO solid "truth" out there. That's why there are a billion different ideas about truth. IF God really exists and is truly Almighty and REALLY wanted a specific style of worship from US lowly humans then HE WOULD HAVE MADE THIS KNOWN and not just known to a few or one, but to all. And he has not. End of discussion for me.

I hope there is something better after this human life. But if not I won't know anyway since I'll be gone, ie. Dead in the truest sense of the word.

Perhaps the only real truth in life really is after all: Death and Taxes. Maybe that'll be my new religion.

9

Going to listen in on the meeting today...just for fun

by Freeandclear in

jw
friends

so real quick.

i'm df'd, also awake to ttott, no desire to go back but of course i still have unresolved issues.

so i think i'm going to listen in today just to see how things are at my old hall..... should be sickening....er i mean "encouraging"

Freeandclear

They changed the call in number and pin on me those bastards....lol I have to call the PO to get the new one. Oh well.....I guess my "spirituality" isn't worth passing along a simple number to through text without going through the proper channels.... what a bunch of dog shit. Must be Jehovah telling me something.

9

Going to listen in on the meeting today...just for fun

by Freeandclear in

jw
friends

so real quick.

i'm df'd, also awake to ttott, no desire to go back but of course i still have unresolved issues.

so i think i'm going to listen in today just to see how things are at my old hall..... should be sickening....er i mean "encouraging"

Freeandclear

So real quick. I'm df'd, also awake to TTOTT, no desire to go back but of course I still have unresolved issues. So I think I'm going to listen in today just to see how things are at my old hall..... should be sickening....er I mean "encouraging"

13

any Near death experiences any one can relate

by baker in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbkgj5j91he.

this is as close as it gets to the other side....

Freeandclear

Near Death Experiences - My rational take on it (and not my own thought here but this is based on what I know and have read, so somewhat of a rehashing of already known facts):

DMT - Dimethyltryptamine

This substance is produced by the human pineal gland in the brain. It's what makes you dream, and at death the pineal gland releases all of it's DMT. This causes you to have very intense very real (after all, what is real? Real is simply our brain processing information coming in from our 5 senses right? That is as real as things can get for a human) visions which seem like reality. Just as a very intense realistic dream may be very hard to forget once you awaken from. It may seem "real" but it's simply a process of the brain and DMT.

So, when a person get's very close to death as in a NDE the pineal gland does it's natural function of expelling all it's DMT and a NDE happens. It seems as real as real can be for a human and thus when the person is "brought back" to life he/she remembers this vision and attributes reality to it, viewing it as "real" as in, "This is the truth! This is what happens at death! I have experienced it!" etc......

These NDE are all different. If you look at them all, explore them, you will find they vary greatly. IF they were reality would they not all be the same? The world around us is the same for everyone. We breath air, we eat food, we walk on the ground, etc.... it's in this way I'm speaking of it all being the "same". NDE are very different for the different people who construct them. No basis in reality, simply a function of DMT and their own individual brains.

In short, NDE are nothing more than a very real feeling complex dream caused by the release of DMT at the time of death.

14

Mentally challenged DF

by James Mixon in

there was a df of a mentally challenged young man he sexually assaulted a young girl.. in jesus day people were possessed by demons but we know today they had mental issues.. do you know of any cases where a mentally challenged person was df.. the case that i mention the young man was 18-20 years old and it was a case where he was.

functional, school, friends and was baptized.

i knew the family and if you didn't know he was a. typical teenager.. my question, if a mentally challenged person is able to answer the questions to qualify to be.

Freeandclear

We had quite a few at my old Hall. One was a very good friend of mine who at the age of about 18 had a mental breakdown and has been on psych meds ever since. He regularly get's df'd then reinstated, I think he's on his 5th one atm. Or he might be back in by now, idk.....crazy.

17

We give more to the Watchtower Society than for our local KH

by James Jack in

i have been doing the accounts for our local congregation now for 3 years.

i just thought, wow our local expenses total just $500 a month, yet we have an ongoing expense each month of $600 for the kh expansion work(ie:world wide work), $60 for the traveling overseer insurance and $54 for the local kingdom hall insurance, in addition to the operating committee expense of $525.. so, our one congregation sends $714 a month plus what the publishers contribute towards the world wide work usually between $600 to $700 per month.

in other words, we are at least sending, for our little congregation of 75 publishers, $1314 a month!

Freeandclear

Here's a serious question. Where does the money go? I mean who exactly is benefiting from it? Don't all the GB members live at Bethel and live modestly? What are they spending it on? It doesn't seem to be on themselves or on big fancy cars or houses......just curious.

23

12 signs you are a modern day Pharisee

by Zoos in

i was reading through this list and was struck by how accurately it describes the watchtower royalty class.

not exactly a professional doing the writing but i think he captures it pretty well.. http://frankpowell.me/12-signs-you-are-modern-day-pharisee.

for those who cannot access the link:.

Freeandclear

The more I learn about my former religion and it's leaders the clearer it becomes to me that they are indeed nothing more than modern day Pharisees. Incredible that I never saw this before..... What a waste of time.

37

My experience with the people in my hall

by Freeandclear in

i've been awake now for about 6 months i'd guess and a member here for a couple of weeks.

it's been eye opening to read other peoples experiences on here and i appreciate all of you.

i've noticed in many, seemingly most, of your comments that you were not treated well at your hall or you have had very negative experiences in the "org" so i thought i'd like to share mine.. in all my time as a jw i have to say for the most part i always loved the people.

Freeandclear

I appreciate all of the replies. I agree, I was never an MS or elder, so in reality I don't know what it's like to be in those positions of "authority" and have no real clue what goes on in their "meetings" I'm sure there is a whole different side to things that I have not seen.

This site and all of the experiences you've had is very eye opening. For me though the matter is settled. There is simply too much evidence against this organization to show it is not under God's direction. This leaves me searching for the real truth, if it exists at all. I still pray but now not to Jehovah or even through Christ, I simply pray to God and I've been making my concerns known to him and have told him that I'm open to whatever he may want to share with me. Through all that I've determined to be open minded to what answers may come and that I will continue to be a good person and mostly be good to others. I think this is the crux of all human life and to be truly Godly we can do no better than to treat all other humans well with dignity and respect and kindness. Until they show us a reason not to give them respect of course, some people are just truly "bad" in my eyes. But most I can find some good in and I try to do that for the most part. I'm getting off track here.....

Again, simply, thanks for all of you. And hopefully we all will find out what the truth really is. I've been reading a lot and researching a lot of other beliefs and it's simply mind boggling......

37

My experience with the people in my hall

by Freeandclear in

i've been awake now for about 6 months i'd guess and a member here for a couple of weeks.

it's been eye opening to read other peoples experiences on here and i appreciate all of you.

i've noticed in many, seemingly most, of your comments that you were not treated well at your hall or you have had very negative experiences in the "org" so i thought i'd like to share mine.. in all my time as a jw i have to say for the most part i always loved the people.

Freeandclear

Hi everyone. I've been awake now for about 6 months I'd guess and a member here for a couple of weeks. It's been eye opening to read other peoples experiences on here and I appreciate all of you.

I've noticed in many, seemingly most, of your comments that you were not treated well at your hall or you have had very negative experiences in the "org" so I thought I'd like to share mine.

In all my time as a JW I have to say for the most part I always loved the people. I was treated very well and I treated others well. I had a lot of very good friends and there was much love in my congregation.

I will admit I was a very naive person and didn't know all the gossip and back stories and all that stuff as I never payed any attention to any of it. Not out of fear but just because that's not how I was raised. I preferred to look for the good in people and so I did.

All in all my experiences were positive with regards to other people and with elders. All of my local elders were good men who were trying very hard to shepherd the flock in their care and to be loving people. I can't honestly say a bad word about any of them. Even when I got DF'd back in April of 2015 I felt they had made the right decision and they handled it with genuine love.

Sure there were people who were odd, or even mental, but even those I could see as having genuine motives behind their speech and craziness, so I never thought of them negatively.

As a youth my best friend and I would often visit other nearby congregations looking for our potential wives lol and there was only one time I remember feeling something strange. Most congregations were very warm and loving especially to visiting brothers but this one time it was just cold and dead and when he and I left we both said the same thing "There was no Holy Spirit in that hall!" we both felt it, it was very different from our other visits to other halls. But besides that one experience I always felt at home in a hall, wherever in the world or country it was.

One of my best experiences in life was the 2006 District Assembly. I got to go as a delegate to Prague to be at their big international assembly and it was amazing. The feeling of love was overwhelming and it really changed me as a person and at the time really made me feel like this was God's love in action. Not sure how to feel about it now, but I still think back on that time with joy and appreciation.

I'm sorry that so many of you have had negative experiences with the JW religion. Mine were never people based but rather internal. The guilt, the constant not feeling good enough, etc..... And I've since come to realize that with all the false prophecy, and all the blatant lying the org has done over the years and always pointing the finger at the members for their "false" ideas that there is no way this could be an organization directed by God.

But suffice it to say I always felt and still do that the people themselves for the most part are very sincere and only want to do what they think is right and what God wants of them.

It's sad really.....

55

College and EX-JW Discontent....Questions and Stats

by teenyuck in

jw
friends

*many* ex-jws say that they were robbed of an education due to the wtbts and as a result, they feel that their families and the wt screwed up their life by depriving them of the opportunity to go to college and therefore, earn a high salary at a job they love.

here is a link to the us census which shows that approximately 26% of the us population graduates college.

page 5, towards the bottom, shows the college graduation stats.

Freeandclear

I was a straight A student in HS, I scored exceptionally high on my ACT test and was an Honor Society member in school and graduated 8th in my class out of 350 students. I was not born in, but rather got the "truth" when I was about 17. I was very naive and completely convinced it was the truth.....needless to say I rejected all ideas of higher education and decided to get baptized and pioneer. I had a full ride offered to me by MIT and I wholly rejected it because of my false beliefs.

As it turned out, I made out okay. I have a good job and my own side business that I made all on my own, so financially I'm fine. But I do regret not having the typical college life and awakenings that most "worldly" people go through and which I feel are a natural part of human development, ie. the social introductions, the parties, the fraternizing freely with the opposite sex, the experimentation, all of it. Due to that I always felt like I missed out on something big, something very important in life. And as such, a couple of years ago when I kind of went off the deep end and decided to finally explore all of that stuff NOW as a full grown adult man. Some would say mid life crisis (I'm 44 now) and in the process I made some really bad mistakes due to my own naivety. I'm okay now but I put myself through a lot of unnecessary pain and misery for a bit, actually I guess due to the lessons learned it may have indeed been necessary but who knows? If I'd had the chance to do these things when I was younger I think my life would have turned out somewhat differently. Perhaps for the better.

I don't actually regret the decisions I made when I was younger, or any decisions I have made, I own them all. They'll all made me who I am today and I like who I've become. Also, all the decisions I made for the "truth" I did out of a pure heart and for all the right reasons so how can I regret that?