Or...maybe just because God doesn't exist and therefore neither does "One True Religion"? (I didn't read all the comments so excuse me if this was already mentioned)
Freeandclear
JoinedPosts by Freeandclear
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50
Why Finding the One True Religion is Impossible
by Simon injws like to think they have found the one true religion.
but like so many other religious people, it's usually the religion they were born into, the only religion they know because it's the first one they found or, at the most, one of two or three (typically the second one after they left their first / born-in faith).. the trouble is, there simply isn't enough time to explore and investigate each and everyone of the many thousands of belief systems, religions and sects around the world.. think of it this way: which is the best neighbourhood to live in where you would be most happy and most successful?
not just in the city or even the country you are in, but the entire world.. how would you ever know?
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67
What is life?
by punkofnice inwhen i was a jobo, i used to thing of 'life without end at laaaasssssst'.. having been on my journey out of the wbt$ slaveholdery, i have found that something that makes sense is that life doesn't owe us a meaning.
psalms 146:4 was actually bangeth on the money-eth 'his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.'.
although i am now very atheist, and really do not even think there is the remotest possibility of a god, that bible passage is correct.
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Freeandclear
I can not find happiness or meaning knowing it will all end and be forgotten. To me it's all absolutely pointless. Finding meaning - is merely a distraction from the reality of all of our eventual deaths. How can anyone be happy? Only by ignoring the facts can you find happiness. I know for certain I would be better off as a cat, or any other being that's not been "cursed with consciousness". That truly is humanity's biggest curse. We are no better for it. I wish I was a babbling idiot or a retard who could not ponder such things as my own eventuality. It's very hard to deal with...
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The Ramblings of the Stranded Man
by Freeandclear init's late.
so late.
yet early....... my mind races....my heart beats....i'm alive yet.
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Freeandclear
It's late. So late. Yet early......
My mind races....my heart beats....I'm alive yet
Time marches on.....inevitably towards the end.
I fear. I want. I need.
I think of you. I think of our love. I think of the pain you caused me. But did you?
Perhaps it is all just me? Yes. I am causing this pain.
My own heart bleeds for something that never was.
Then the other you came along. Just when I needed you, the universe sent you....
And soon you must leave as well and I will be crushed and broken again by my own mind...
By my own wants and needs....by my own hope.
How many more years of this torture can I endure? Life is short they say......yet it can feel so long.
Not too long and I will meet my own eventuality....the same eventuality as everyone else who's lived and died on this ball of mud.....this wonderful ball of mud circling for endless eons in the darkness of space.
Where do we go from here? What is waiting for us on the other side?
Blackness? Eternity? Emptiness......? No, those things are in our own mind. Created by our own hopes and fears. In the end we are all as we were, stardust in the wind.
Yet there are so many happy coincidences aren't there? And this yearning inside to always be..... So many signposts pointing the way..... yet so many dead ends.... There goes that hope again.
Wishing won't make it real. Yearning won't make it solid. Needing answers won't bring them. Nothing makes any sense at all, yet, here I am. I am. Is this a gift or a curse? To have this brain that thinks these things and a heart that feels so much..... I guess it's just yin and yang, a perfect balance of both. One day the two pieces of light and dark will fall away from each other and will nevermore be connected.... but that time is not yet at hand..... so the struggle continues......
Breathe in, breathe out. Sleep.....wake.....eat......excrete....... dream on and on....hope and if you can find it, love.....for this is all we are. This NOW that we have. This moment in time. So short, yet oh so tortuously long.....
My mind reels. My heart aches. My bones and my blood are crushed and spewing forth.....and I can not stop it. Nothing takes the pain away.....nor the hope. Only time. Time.....time....time
Then.......the end. Nothingness? Blackness? Void? Or just dust in the wind.....forever floating along until its' new iteration? An iteration that is not me but yet is me.....some part of me.
In 200 years, a mere moment in time, I will be forever gone. Gone physically and gone from all stream of consciousness that exists on this ball of mud. Gone in the truest sense of the word. No one to remember me. No memories of my own. Gone forever and ever.
Time marches on. On into the void.....
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Quite Possibly The Most Sinister Speaker Ever?
by pale.emperor inhi guys.. "brother" jose is quite possibly the most sinister speaker i've ever seen or heard.
and i've seen/head a lot of cults in my time.. he's over the top with his voice tone and gestures.
i see a future governing body member in the making here:.
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Freeandclear
Great talk! Pulled me right back into the Troof.
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That One Defining Moment That Changed Your Life.
by new boy init seems that many times in life there is a moment or an action that changes your whole world.
it could be just a look that someone gives you.. many times it can be something rather small.
something hardly noticeable by anyone but you.
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Freeandclear
I've had three such moments that spring to mind.
1. Sitting at Three River Statium in Pittsburgh PA about 1987 at 16 years of age realizing that "This is the Truth, everything is from the Bible and indisputable"..... That changed the entire course of my life for the next 28 years.
2. Reading Crisis of Conscience and then the entire WJFacts.com website and realizing it was all just a scam and then dealing with that aftermath. The loss of my faith and my entire worldview was quite the undertaking.... still working on it.
3. The day I met "her", my muse, the love of my life and my succubus. That was by far the most powerful thing I've ever been through and is still affecting me to this day.... and not for the better......
Life is full of these moments when we change instantly from one thing to another. Crazy huh?
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"50 Years a Watchtower Slave" Chapter 3 Part A
by new boy inthe door to door salesmen .
southern california wasn’t hawaii after the war but it was real close.
there was great weather, plenty of jobs and no smog yet.
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Freeandclear
New Boy please keep writing! I'm loving your stories. I just went back and read all of your posts! Great stuff. Very entertaining. Thank you.
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GB "... it can make mistakes when explaining the Bible ..." Simplified version WT Feb 2017
by freddo instudy article: who is leading god's people today?
start of paragraph 12.. standard version: "the governing body is neither inspired nor infallible.
therefore, it can err in doctrinal matters or in organizational direction.".
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Freeandclear
Isn't it so ludicrous? If you speak out against the bOrg you get shunned as a mentally diseased Apostate yet they themselves admit openly to being "uninspired and fallible" It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever that anyone would base their life on their teachings and follow them to the letter, shunning their own children and family members, spending all their time in useless "service" and donating money, etc etc etc..... It's hard to believe I was once so blind.
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Why Is it the Girls who Hang in There?
by snugglebunny inhaving seen many, many people leave the org over the years, i have to say that, when it comes to married couples, it's almost always the man who makes the first move to leave.
conversely, when it comes to being converted into the witnesses, more often than not it's the wife who joins up first.
although that wasn't the case with my own parents, my father became converted and my mother followed very reluctantly..
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Freeandclear
The bOrg uses emotional appeal to bring members in. The logic behind their teachings is sketchy at best. I used to teach and conduct Bible studies so yeah, I know this. There were things I didn't fully understand but my CD always found some way to logically explain it to others. But the emotional side of this cult is what really is appealing to most. The idea that all your problems will be solved, that you can rely on God to help you through anything, that you will have this huge "family" etc.....
Biologically that is much more appealing to women than men IMHO, thus why I think women get brought in first. Add in the social aspect of it as was already mentioned and yes it's very hard for women to leave first.
Makes sense to me.
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What steps did you take to free yourself from the cult? mentally or physically?
by HereIgo infirst i ignored all of the elders phone calls to send my recommendation letter to my new congregation, truth is i had already started my fade and moved across town and didn't have a new congregation.
i deleted all jw friends on facebook.
i also threw away all of my public talks recorded on cd, all literature, even my book bag and my bible.
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Freeandclear
I got DF'd in April of 2015. I was distraught and really still though it was the truth. Since I was out I decided to do some digging that I never would have done if still officially "in" and I read CoC and found JWFacts and read all of it. I then joined up on this forum and started talking to others and reading everything.
It was a real shock to me. Of course I did have some very minor doubts now and then but my programmed CD always kicked in and I would be fine. But learning that the religion I had devoted most of my life to was nothing more than a cult and a lie....well that was really hard on me for a short time.
I went through the typical phases of grief I suppose, went athiest for a while, then finally had a two month long existential crisis and finally I ended up where I am now. I don't officially believe in God (as in the God of the Bible) but I'm open to the possibility of something else after death, and the possibility that there is some sort of creator and order in the universe. We really don't know, we can't prove it either way.
Now I follow my conscience. I try and do no harm to others. And I'm hopeful that when I die (we all will die) something else happens. What that new reality is or may be I will just wait and see when/if it happens, and if it doesn't....well, I won't know anyway, I'll just be gone.
But my atoms have existed for 13.6 billion years and they will continue to exist for as long as our universe exists so in a way I guess I am eternal already. ;)
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New Video Series On Courtship May Open Some Eyes
by JW_Rogue inso the wife was watching the latest installment of jw broadcasting and near the end there was a new segment on dating and courtship.
it starts at about the 39 minute mark:.
https://youtu.be/vuir-azsdm0?t=38m52s.
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Freeandclear
So glad I'm out of this cult. I was very interested in an ultra-spiritual JW woman for a while. Very much in lust/love/like with her. IE. Totally infatuated. I never did approach her though. I was a very spiritual guy when I was in but she seemed so much higher than me that I couldn't bring myself to hardly even talk to her, except in service.
Looking back I'm so glad that it worked out the way it did. I would no doubt have been unhappy with her and eventually divorced. As I've grown farther and farther away from the mind control of the cult I'm starting to realize that marriage isn't for everyone. I enjoy being alone and having my time to myself. There is only one thing that makes me seek the company of women and I won't spell that out. I do enjoy women as friends and I have a lot of them, but just one, for the rest of my life? Nah....can't see that working out.