Posts by Xander

14

Little weirded out....

by Xander in

jw
friends

so...it's 1am here (give or take), and i'm browsing the web some.

doorbell rings.. at 1am.. police coming to bust my enormous mp3 collection?

hey, i'm paranoid!.

Xander

even if you have just been framed for murder you still have your MP3 collection dont you?

Oh, sure, mock me NOW....well, if you never see me on the boards again, you'll all know who was right THEN, huh?

Is your wallet missing? Did you let her in the house? She could have been casing the place.

#1, No my wallet is fine - didn't bring it. Just took my driver's license out, and brought that (just in case)

#2, didn't let her in at all. She still could have looked through the door, looking for alarms or something. 1am does seem a strange time to case a place out though, no? (I did think that, actually, but she was right - our house WAS the only one on the street with the front light on).

For example, what if she said you tried to rape her

Honestly, that's a huge fear for me. Worldly people not to be trusted, remember? They'll say any lie, do anything to bring down a JW.

Although I'm not anymore, and I should know better than to have a 'me vs them' attitude....like I said, it's unnerving to see it hasn't gone away.

(Of course, that's not the ONLY factor. Although my dad generally had a creepy streak a mile wide, what he finally did end up serving time for was a crime he didn't actually commit, he just didn't have an alibi, so...)

frequently her boyfriend(s) are hiding and just waiting for the truck to stop, take a tire iron to your head, and off with the truck.

(I did actually bring my cell phone, before I left, I entered in my home phone #, and told my wife. I figured if anything happened, I just had to hit 'send')

Edited by - Xander on 7 January 2003 2:6:36

14

Little weirded out....

by Xander in

jw
friends

so...it's 1am here (give or take), and i'm browsing the web some.

doorbell rings.. at 1am.. police coming to bust my enormous mp3 collection?

hey, i'm paranoid!.

Xander

Yeah, on the OTHER hand, she could have just killed somebody and dropped a key piece of evidence in my truck to frame ME for the crime. What would MY alibi be? At 1am? My wife could say I was in the computer room all night, but....

See, that's what I mean...my mind always thinking the worst of people...

I'm completely unable to accept anything anyone says at face value. Someone tells me something...it's like...I KNOW it's a lie, and I try to find out what they REALLY want. Even if I have no reason to think that, all evidence points otherwise, and my intuition tells me they are sincere and I should help.

When it comes down to it, when I need to make a quick decision based on little data...my first reaction is to feel 'they are out to get me'.

Which is a perfectly valid programmed JW response.

And it unsettles me that it's still there.

14

Little weirded out....

by Xander in

jw
friends

so...it's 1am here (give or take), and i'm browsing the web some.

doorbell rings.. at 1am.. police coming to bust my enormous mp3 collection?

hey, i'm paranoid!.

Xander

So...it's 1am here (give or take), and I'm browsing the web some.

Doorbell rings.

At 1am.

Police coming to bust my enormous MP3 collection? Hey, I'm paranoid!

It's a girl at the door! Early 20s / late teens, can't really tell (I'm just not good at that). Said she was walking down the street, and heard dogs barking, wanted a lift to the end of the road (our house was the only one on the street with the light on, which is true). To be fair, we do have coyotes around here, and the way to the end of the road runs through a fairly dark valley. She was also shaking and seemed rather alarmed, so I believed her. OTOH, it's not even half a mile to where she was going, and the street is fairly well lit.

Just drove her down to the end of the street. She was talking the whole way (about 10 min or so) - said she was deathly afraid of animals, used to live in the area, et al. Dropped her off, no problems.

I dunno. Weirded me out. Wife pointed out - proper procedure would probably have been to call the police and have them take her where she needed to go, but...

Well, what do YOU all think? Is it....perhaps...as a result of my JW upbringing that I distrust people? My mother (a good JW) always taught me that people were under satan's control, and, though I don't believe that any more...well, my instinct it always to distrust and fear first. (Police were especially bad...they SEEMED friendly, but some day...SOME DAY...they would be coming to 'get us' )

Is my paranoia a result of my upbringing? The age we live in?

Is it unfounded? Or not?

I guess, at 1am, I couldn't really think of anything better to do than honor her request for a ride, but....I still feel....well, worried.

163

So, where DID the 1914 timeline go awry?

by Xander in

okay, i know that historical evidence is that jerusalem fell in 586/7 instead of 607 - as the wtbts would have.

however, that is not compelling enough to show a hypothetical jw.

they (generally) must not only be show that the opposition is correct, but that the wtbts is wrong.

Xander

What's irritating is the JW misdirection he keeps using.

'Scholars can't decide whether Jerusalem fell in 586 or 587 BC. Indeed, although generally agreed on as close, those years may not be. So, OBVIOUSLY, it MUST be *precisely* 607 if it isn't 586 or 587, and thus we are living in the end of the world QUICK SEND US MONEY!!!'

They use this tactic with evolution a lot. If science (or historians) can't prove 100%, for sure, beyond any chance at ALL that their theory or date is EXACTLY to the SECOND correct...then obviously, it must be completely false, and the exact opposite must be true whether there is even any evidence to support it or not.

That the WTBTS then goes on to teach the exact opposite as the sole truth of the universe must be simply coincedental or something.

8

My Brothers

by MrMoe in

jw
friends

i wrote the following on my blog...and i thought it was a little piece of me that would be nice to share with all of you.

i was adopted by my grandparents when my mother took her life 21 years ago.

through this, my uncles became my brothers and my grandparents became my parents.

Xander

Hrm...well, drug abuse has never been REALLY bad up here. Then, we are kinda distant from any major city. The pushers don't usually get out this far with the serious drugs. Marijuana use is pretty common, though. As is smoking.

Don't think anyone I know has gotten into the hard stuff, and as to weed/cigs/alcohol/whatever other addictive and *mildly harmful* chems...well, I'd just as soon leave well enough alone.

I don't think it's my place to judge someone else's choices.

Life sucks. Everybody deals with that in their own way.

Who am I to say it's healthier to escape by living in deep denial or escape with a drug?

9

More woman than men

by JH in

jw
friends

why is it that there are more woman than men in the organization?

in my congregation there was much more woman than men.

it was about 60-65% woman.

Xander

I think you need to distinguish between so-called 'new age religions' and your more typical high control group or other organized religion.

In fact, even in the case of 'new age religions', it may well be the college-degreed that show the most interest....but that is NOT the same thing as the 'well-educated'.

Generally, those who have a keen interest in learning things - the sciences, mathematics, etc - are usually disinterested in such groups. That those same people are also almost exclusively male probably says a lot more about how the human mind functions than anything.

IE., everybody feels pulled to find the need to explain things...how that need is fulfilled may be the result of a gender difference, and college education is merely a symptom of THAT, not the other way around.

18

God's Outrageous Claims

by Yizuman in

there's a very good book for atheists to read that have a very hard time with the concept of god.. the book is written by a former atheist who was like many of you a sceptic until he started doing personal research to find evidence of god and the biblical history and claims.

this is an extrememely good read if you want to find out from a former atheist who found evidence that showed proof that god is real and the biblical evidence that is found to back up the bible.. .

click here to view the book.. yizuman.

Xander

The only "set of ridiculous rules" in the Bible for Christians are the following:
* Love your neighbor the same as you love yourself (your neighbor is any human)
* Do to others what you want done to you
* Love your enemies
* Love God

That's true, those are fairly ridiculous.

I'd propose a better set:

* Be the best person you can be, whether any good could come of it to you or not. That may mean treating people better than you've ever been treated, or being kind to people when you just want to be left alone (IE., being kind to others when you don't want kindness returned).

* Don't have enemies (this is always stupid to me - the biblical obsession with 'enemies'. Why say 'You're my enemy, but I love you'? Why not just, 'You're a fellow human I have compassion for?')

Which is why the bible is useless.

It's entire focus is on two archaic and useless premises:

- You need to have enemies (but 'love' them).

- Love and kindness is conditional (both what you receive, and what you should give out)

9

More woman than men

by JH in

jw
friends

why is it that there are more woman than men in the organization?

in my congregation there was much more woman than men.

it was about 60-65% woman.

Xander

Few things:

1) WTBTS teachings do not appeal as much to people with higher education. Women, historically, have been less likely to get a higher education than men.

2) WTBTS ties you to the org with 'emotional blackmail' (IE., cutting off family, friends, etc, if you leave). Men are, traditionally, much less susceptible to this.

3) WTBTS doesn't really offer much other religions don't have other than an unusually close and closed community - promise of meeting up with dead friends and family, as well. Very tempting to women, not as much so for men (generally).

The org is really tightly focused on controlling its women members with its specific policies. So, why are there any men at all? Well, it has something for them, too. Power. In the org, men have and can get power over others - and, women specifically - fairly easily.

Only problem for the org is, as more education is achieved, the seduction of raw power for its own sake becomes less tantalization. Alternatively (for those to whom the need to feel power over others is strong), there are much more significant ways to attain power in the world than the faux-control the org offers.

18

God's Outrageous Claims

by Yizuman in

there's a very good book for atheists to read that have a very hard time with the concept of god.. the book is written by a former atheist who was like many of you a sceptic until he started doing personal research to find evidence of god and the biblical history and claims.

this is an extrememely good read if you want to find out from a former atheist who found evidence that showed proof that god is real and the biblical evidence that is found to back up the bible.. .

click here to view the book.. yizuman.

Xander

What a ridiculous effort in attacking a straw man.

No atheist claims anything he does as an 'outrageous claim'.

A better book would be explaining the claims:

"Evolution doesn't exist, I created everything myself in seven days"

"I exist, am invisible, all-seeing, care about my people, and let them be raped and murdered. For fun or something."

"I am not a god of war. Unless you don't worship me. Then I'll have my people kill you. Or I will on judgement day, you know, whenever I decide to do that."

etc.

42

Another Victim lost BACK TO WT - how sad

by JT in

jw
friends

a few days back a dfed black woman came to this site - asking for help and looking for answers, so lady "c and myself decided to offer our help, being black we understand that black jw face some issues that a white witness would not, black congo operate many times in a somewhat different fashion in my exp at any rate , we offered our help, we discussed many issues, but in the end she has decided to return back to wt despite the fact that they treat her like dirt- one of the hardest things to watch is to see a jw get so close to freedom and then return to slavery, it reminds me so much of blacks during slavery who were just afraid to run for freedom , even many times when they only needed to cross the river -as a single black mature woman she is facing an uphill battle, if she approaches an elder more than 2 times the elders wife will think she is after her man, if she wants to marry her selection is reduced to some guy with a plaid suit on, instead of the regional director of her company who notices how intelligent she is, but since he don't sell books on the weekend she must let him slide- well here is just a glisp of what we dealt with and how sadly it ended with the jw doing what they have been trained and indoctrinated to do run and deny below are just 3 different sets of dialog .

---- dfed person--sorry, but i don't really think that it is a black and white issue.

jt- o i fully agree it is not a black and white issue, i was merely commenting on what my observation have been, when i was an elder, white bro in meetings would always challenged the co and do if they made some off the wall comment, while black elders would consistently just go along,

Xander

It's groups like this that have me concerned about humanity's future.

That they still exist is a testament to the fact that our species is overrated. No matter how advanced parts of our society get, there will always be some to whom the comfort of a lie will appeal so much they ignore logic, reason, their own observations.

There are many on this board suffering the same thing. It really is infuriating. You look at them, they are obviously just as human as you and me, yet they refuse to use their own mind because it's easier not to.

That we, even as a species, always - ALWAYS - take the easy road...it doesn't bode well, I fear.

*sigh*

I'm too young to be a cynic....