Posts by alecholmesthedetective

I preemptively shun JW family and friends since dropping out of the map. Like many I had run-ins with the elders but I've never met with any of them anywhere, not even when one tried to lure me for a coffee in a public place. I just totally left. After six years I'm sure they know I'm not going back, even if I had been a regular pioneer and when I left was still a ministerial servant.

55

JWs Outlawed in Russia

by minimus in

jw
friends

they are banned!.

alecholmesthedetective

Td, thats where i have to break with you. Jw’s dont “forbid” anything, nor do they have the authority to forbid. They have no power their membership dosent willingly grant. Your free to leave anytime. Your family and friends dont have shun you, its a choice they make. I realize this is an unpopular opinion but we all have choices even if those choices are influenced by a high control religious group.

Morpheus I believe I disagree with you about the circumstances some of us find ourselves in when it comes to high control religious groups but I do not disagree with you when it comes to personal responsibility and choice.

I was a born-in, the indoctrination was imposed on me. It took me more than two decades growing up in the religion to see it was a load of bollocks. Then, I had to decide upon leaving how to survive when my entire social network was made up of JWs. Surviving hasn't been easy.

My point is I didn't stand a chance. Years and years of my life and a lot of energy were simply just wasted. I also failed to invest in my education at an earlier time thanks in part to those godawful belief systems. Had I been born in a mainstream religion in a family that was not made up of zealots I would have had better odds to be freer. The Catholic Church today is less detrimental to freedom in the West than Islam is, even though it can hardly be argued that it does more good than harm.

Having said that I believe Thomas Jefferson had it right when he famously wrote that the government "should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."

Though some of us didn't have a choice banning a cult is not a long-term solution. More freedom is necessary, not less. A free press that would report the truth about any religion without any bias, an uncensored Internet that would allow for dissent from all sides on any issues, and a government not meddling with individual freedoms.

At the end of the day, people need financial freedom to survive. They also need to take full responsibility for themselves if they are going to survive in the real world after leaving a cult if they were born in it. Governments should spend more time fixing their education systems and their economies than banning religions, so their citizens can be truly educated, have access to jobs, and are then able to make a positive contribution to society. If a JW leaving the cult can get the access to education that they need and can support themselves financially even after losing all his family and his entire social network, leaving becomes easier. I am not even mentioning the psychological support needed to leave as well.

Those are my feelings, yet I can't help feeling a tingle of schadenfreude hearing that the Watchtower was banned by the Russian government.

62

Is There Life After Death

by Brokeback Watchtower in

i think this is a well developed discussion, of ian stevenson's work in investigating people's past lives claims.

it's a little long.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0attm9hgcdw.

alecholmesthedetective

Our consciousness doesn't survive anaesthetic so how can it survive the complete destruction the brain?

Do you mean to say we 'die' each time we are unconscious? I genuinely don't understand what you meant.

62

Is There Life After Death

by Brokeback Watchtower in

i think this is a well developed discussion, of ian stevenson's work in investigating people's past lives claims.

it's a little long.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0attm9hgcdw.

alecholmesthedetective

"For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible." ― Stuart Chase

"The business man who assumes that this life is everything, and the mystic who asserts that it is nothing, fail, on this side and on that, to hit the truth. "Yes, I see, dear; it's about halfway between," Aunt Juley had hazarded in earlier years. No; truth, being alive, was not halfway between anything. It was only to be found by continuous excursions into either realm, and though proportion is the final secret, to espouse it at the outset is to ensure sterility." ― E M Forster

16

U.S. political turmoil ...

by mikeflood in

that russian thing, all those suits, the bitter political divide... it's getting out of control.

i think trump could resign and pardon all, he even could get ill because to much pressure (even for his lawyer), or he's gonna get so cornered that he could take very drastic decisions.

they should concentrate in govern the country instead, it's getting tiresome.

alecholmesthedetective

Trump is ending human trafficking, among other things, the swamp hates it.

These two executive orders he signed in December and January are relevant.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-blocking-property-persons-involved-serious-human-rights-abuse-corruption/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-protecting-america-lawful-detention-terrorists/

The Special Counsel was started based on no evidence whatsoever as we're finding out. Nothing from the 5 eyes agencies, no evidence at all.

68

Diane Abbott XD

by LoveUniHateExams in

diane abbott has often given me moments of amusement throughout the years.. whenever i'm feeling depressed, 30 mins of watching her varied gaffes on youtube usually cheers me up.. the following is a clip from this week (feb 2008) in which she seems to wonder out loud whether mao did more good than harm.

it's great to hear michael portillo's initial reaction ("whaaat!

") and then watch him and andrew neil belly-laugh at diane abbott's comments at the end of the clip.. perhaps she'd been at the blue nun xd.

alecholmesthedetective

This one's radio and a bit longer but spot on too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz5GeckPkZU