Posts by undercover

64

Do You Look Down on "Religious" People Now That You're No Longer a JW?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i try to respect everyne's opinions on religion but i find myself thinking, "what's wrong with these people?

"

undercover

So based on your comments: if I or some other Christian stated you would burn in hell for your attitude or lack of belief in God or religious affiliation, you wouldn't find that comment bothersome?

Wouldn't bother me a bit because I don't believe in Hell or a God that punishes that way. Threats of a vindictive God from a religious zealot are meaningless to me.

I said:

They've been fooled and haven't caught on yet. Some never will.

That's no different than a born-again Christian saying, "They haven't been saved and realized the power of Jesus Christ. Some never will."

A born-again Christian saying that means nothing to me. I don't believe that way; the belief that I need Jesus is erroneous to me. I ignore it. I do not judge him for believing it or even saying it, he believes that way and it's his right. Why should I be judged because I think and say that people who rely on religion are fooled by the religion?

14

Study puts civilian toll in Iraq at over 100,000

by Simon in

tragic.

remember the neo-con jokes such as "shock and awe" and "precision bombing"?

how about the rediculous notion that you only need a couple of hundred thousand troops to control an invaded country?

undercover

It seems the only thing Bush and his cohorts are capable of planning is how to get us into a mess.

One cohort being Tony Blair? I remember Blair being step in step with Bush when the war-mongering talk was happening.

149

Tons Of Iraq Explosives Missing

by teejay in

tons of iraq explosives missing

material could be used as nuclear trigger .

cnn) -- some 380 tons of explosives powerful enough to detonate nuclear warheads are missing from a former iraqi military facility that was supposed to be under american control, the u.n.'s nuclear watchdog says.

undercover

Arguing over Bush and Kerry is kind of like arguing over who has the right religion....Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons.

13

Pastor Russell and the Colored Friends

by Kenneson in

jw
friends

keeping in mind that charles taze russell began publishing the watch tower in 1879, it is interesting to note that as early as may, 1882 (zion's watch tower), copies had made their way down to caledonia, mississippi where an unnamed colored congregational minister had also recently read "food" and "tabernacle.

" he wrote to russell begging for a copy of the emphatic diaglott since he couldn't afford it.

in the june issue russell replies: "the colored minister who desired a diaglott has been supplied.

undercover

In that same year in the Oct. 1, 1900 ZWT appeared an article entitled "Can Restitution Change the Ehiopian's Skin?" It is a rather humorous report (albeit taken seriously) that first appeared in the New York World of a black preacher who through prayer had a change of skin color.

I guess Michael Jackson does a lot of praying.

(now if we could figure out that nose)

64

Do You Look Down on "Religious" People Now That You're No Longer a JW?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i try to respect everyne's opinions on religion but i find myself thinking, "what's wrong with these people?

"

undercover

LittleToe and Billygoat:

Reread my post...all of it. Notice that I said that I have less animosity towards religious people after leaving religion. If someone chooses to believe in God, Allah, Jesus, Muhammed, fine, believe it. But it's my belief that religion, not belief in a higher power, but religion, is all bullshit. I admitted that I lean towards being agnostic. I don't know if there is a God, but if there is, I believe that he does not operate through any organized religion. Since that's my belief, then it's logical to assume that I would think that anyone who believes in religion is mistaken. That doesn't mean I dislike them, hold animosity toward them or judge them.

If someone who believes in God, Jesus or whatever and has the right to speak it about then I also have the right to speak about what I believe. I can respect you and your opinion and still believe that you're wrong.

What do you find so condescending or offensive? That I have a different opinion than you? That I think you're wrong? If you want to debate whether God operates through religion or not, fine let's debate, but don't give me some knee-jerk reaction as if I personally attacked you and called you bad names.

8

Go Packers Go!!!

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

last weekend i was rooting for dallas cowboys to defeat the greebay packers.

this weekend i will most certainly be rooting for the packers to win against the red skins.

hell... if a cheese packer can beat a cowboy, then why couldn't they also beat an indian?

undercover

Politics aside, any day is a good one when the 'Skins lose.

45

The Internet and Apostasy

by CakeMonkey in

has the internet and forums like these caused an exodus from the j-dubs?

when i left in the early 1990s i met support groups through the yellow pages but it still felt like i was the only one in the world who was an apostate.

i've come to this forum in the last year to browse because my brother has now left.

undercover

I am sorry you felt compelled to be something you didn not want to be

"Being compelled" isn't quite the phrase I would use. Coerced is more like it. A child will not feel compelled to join a religion, he will be forced, coerced or fooled into joining a religion.

Maybe you are sorry it happened, but is the collective as a whole sorry?

Think about it. Someone is born and raised a JW. They are coreced to get baptized at too early an age (13-14). Even if they feel something is wrong, there is no one to go to discuss it with. No one who will voice an original idea or opinion. If they do voice their feelings to a parent or elder the only advice they will get is study, pray and more field service. Those are the JW answers to all problems.
Years later, they realize that being a JW is not what they want. They want to leave. Here's the stickler. Can they resign with no hard feelings from being a JW and go one about their life without any ramifications? Will they be treated nicely? Will they still be a friend or acquaintance? Will they still be an integral part of the family? Will people still speak to them and say hello? If the answer is no to those questions, then the religion and the collective is not sorry that this person was "compelled" to be something they didn't want to be.

16

Human skeletons found in Flores dated back 18,000 years!

by badboy in

.

they have found `fossils' of a new human species in liang ???

cave.. only1.5 metres in height, this is of the most exciting disveries to came from east asia.. i wonder what jws will make of this one?

undercover

I am just puzzled as to why they are not referring to them as 'Pygmies'. Instead they have some yuppie archeologist (or paleontologist) labelling them as 'Hobbits'.

Maybe they have big feet.

64

Do You Look Down on "Religious" People Now That You're No Longer a JW?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i try to respect everyne's opinions on religion but i find myself thinking, "what's wrong with these people?

"

undercover

Even though I would probably classify myself as agnostic these days, I have less animosty towards religious people now than when I was a JW. When I was a JW, I used to wonder how people could remain in a religion(that was non-JW) that was obviously wrong. Were they stupid, ignorant or too arrogant to admit they were wrong? It really was a loathing of anyone who believed different (just as we were taught to believe). Now that I'm out, I see that I was wrong and that I was fooled. It makes me look at other religious types as similar. They've been fooled and haven't caught on yet. Some never will.

4

Did I miss something? 2005??

by Glenmore in

i have been busy, and then on vacation, and stuff and stuff.

so today was the first logon for me in a while.

i was reading the lawrence hughes' post via free minds and i noticed he had 2005 on his placard as a failed prophecy along with 1914 1925 etc.

undercover

The notions that 2005 and 2034 are "prophecies" are a little bit of a stretch. It doesn't compare to the 1914, 1918 and 1925 predictions at all. Even 1975 is more credible, even though a devout JW will say that the WTS never claimed 1975 as the date for Armageddon.

I think that they use dates like that to scare people into thinking that the end is really close, but they don't commit to a date. If it happened in 70 years in John's time or 120 years in Noah's time, then we "have" to be close to the end, "if" the Gentile Times ended in 1914.

Not that it's any better or acceptable. They still use dates and numbers and predictions to scare people. Now, instead of naming a date, they keep it elusive....it can happen anytime. In some ways, that's more scary than having a date set several years out. They got busted for date predicting, so now they can claim to not predict dates, and it's worked in their favor. Now they can try to scare people that it's "imminent".