Posts by Zep

29

The Dalai Lama said it all!!!

by Zep in

jw
friends

what attracted me to the wt....i read too many of their magazines from 15-19 basically....it almost got me buying into their stuff, but then, just when i had just started getting into it all, i stopped and dropped it with the idea that i'd look into it later.. i remember reading the book of revelation at age 15 and wondering what it meant, all those dragons and horned beasts...then i got hold of some jw literature and there it was...it was all explained, nice and simple.all those prophecies about the end time seemed so good to a kid....i mean, i never really could understand their blood doctrine but you can over look that...after all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..

another thing attracted me to it.....they seemed not to be preaching that bad people would burn in hell for all eternity, that there was no hell, that there was going to be a resurrection of the good and bad......yeah, seems pretty good, a caring religion eh!...everyone is going to be given ample chance to learn the truth and change.

but things change, i started questioning as i got older...gave the bible study guy a hard time with all those questions, then we had an argument and i just cut it off....decided to look at it later.... but their stuff was always in the back of my mind.. well, later is now....6 months ago i wander into h20 rather casual like, couple that with the fact that i find out a friend has fallen in with jw's and i get sucked into studying up about it all.....its very interesting.its amazing how much you chance your world view from age 19 to 27......things are all different now, jw's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies??????????

Zep

Carmel: I'm wasn't sue what you were gettin at...Solid is the one who said that religion isn't the problem more so who's hands it falls into...I just more or less agreed with him/her.Either way, if your asking me Questions on religious issues, on who's got the right way? your asking the wrong person?...i have not got damn clue on anything, i'm just here havin'a rant thats about it, a bit of self expression..thinking aloud!.
My thoughts, I think theres basically a bit of truth, a bit of worth in all religions, it justs depends on who you are!
My favourite quote or recipe for life was made by an atheist however:

Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!

F Nietzsche

29

The Dalai Lama said it all!!!

by Zep in

jw
friends

what attracted me to the wt....i read too many of their magazines from 15-19 basically....it almost got me buying into their stuff, but then, just when i had just started getting into it all, i stopped and dropped it with the idea that i'd look into it later.. i remember reading the book of revelation at age 15 and wondering what it meant, all those dragons and horned beasts...then i got hold of some jw literature and there it was...it was all explained, nice and simple.all those prophecies about the end time seemed so good to a kid....i mean, i never really could understand their blood doctrine but you can over look that...after all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..

another thing attracted me to it.....they seemed not to be preaching that bad people would burn in hell for all eternity, that there was no hell, that there was going to be a resurrection of the good and bad......yeah, seems pretty good, a caring religion eh!...everyone is going to be given ample chance to learn the truth and change.

but things change, i started questioning as i got older...gave the bible study guy a hard time with all those questions, then we had an argument and i just cut it off....decided to look at it later.... but their stuff was always in the back of my mind.. well, later is now....6 months ago i wander into h20 rather casual like, couple that with the fact that i find out a friend has fallen in with jw's and i get sucked into studying up about it all.....its very interesting.its amazing how much you chance your world view from age 19 to 27......things are all different now, jw's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies??????????

Zep

Frenchy:The dalai Lama Quote......Simply put, it spoke to me....To me its the Golden rule rephrased.I read it in a book and it just seemed to say a lot at the time.
As i see it, Religion seems to go 2 ways, you can either become overburdoned with rules and regulations and tradition or you can keep your eye on the bigger picture.

As to the point that i seem to be contradicting myself....well, i am i guess, but right theres an insight into how i'm thinking...I'm a walking contradiction.....on the one hand i'm very critical of the WT, i feel very cynical towards a lot of there stuff at times, but theres another side thats the opposite owing to the fact that i more or less bought into and took quite seriously the stuff they were pushin'.
You know, When i did the bible study, i found i knew it all pretty much, i probably knew as much as the witness who i did the study with, thats the extent to how far my mind was into to it just to give you an indication.I read the books he gave me in 2 weeks and took it all in, he had to lend me his Insight book for a week or 2...Now i'm not like you of course, you were obviously in way way deeper to the whole deal!....But I'm sure you must at one stage been quite confused on religious issues and been very ambivalent on these things.What more can i say, i have many facets, conflicting opinions, conflicting emotions.....on the one hand i do look at the WT as rubbish, there are of course some good articles but on the whole i do see it as nonsense now...but other times other parts of me are not so sure.6 months ago my aproach was a little different, i'm still continuing my research however into it all but thats nearing its end i feel!
Hell,I sway from being Atheist one day to agnostic another, to believing in god to not givin' a damn.
Maybe i didn't explain myself too well since i write most stuff on the fly, with little proof reading ....maybe it still aint making sense to you now?, but it does to me!.Basically you caught me at a moment when i was in 2 minds!

29

The Dalai Lama said it all!!!

by Zep in

jw
friends

what attracted me to the wt....i read too many of their magazines from 15-19 basically....it almost got me buying into their stuff, but then, just when i had just started getting into it all, i stopped and dropped it with the idea that i'd look into it later.. i remember reading the book of revelation at age 15 and wondering what it meant, all those dragons and horned beasts...then i got hold of some jw literature and there it was...it was all explained, nice and simple.all those prophecies about the end time seemed so good to a kid....i mean, i never really could understand their blood doctrine but you can over look that...after all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..

another thing attracted me to it.....they seemed not to be preaching that bad people would burn in hell for all eternity, that there was no hell, that there was going to be a resurrection of the good and bad......yeah, seems pretty good, a caring religion eh!...everyone is going to be given ample chance to learn the truth and change.

but things change, i started questioning as i got older...gave the bible study guy a hard time with all those questions, then we had an argument and i just cut it off....decided to look at it later.... but their stuff was always in the back of my mind.. well, later is now....6 months ago i wander into h20 rather casual like, couple that with the fact that i find out a friend has fallen in with jw's and i get sucked into studying up about it all.....its very interesting.its amazing how much you chance your world view from age 19 to 27......things are all different now, jw's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies??????????

Zep

And that business with Dali Lama and his religion being kindness is extreme oversimplification. Religion is (has to be) more than being kind.

Nokiddin' frenchy, but that was not my point.....What do you think the Dalai lama was saying when he made that statement?.He's Buddist, a very complex religion...but he was trying to make a point!.Can you see it?????????...You could probably say Jesus went along similar lines at one stage in the bible?????What is "truth"...where should truth spring from?

29

The Dalai Lama said it all!!!

by Zep in

jw
friends

what attracted me to the wt....i read too many of their magazines from 15-19 basically....it almost got me buying into their stuff, but then, just when i had just started getting into it all, i stopped and dropped it with the idea that i'd look into it later.. i remember reading the book of revelation at age 15 and wondering what it meant, all those dragons and horned beasts...then i got hold of some jw literature and there it was...it was all explained, nice and simple.all those prophecies about the end time seemed so good to a kid....i mean, i never really could understand their blood doctrine but you can over look that...after all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..

another thing attracted me to it.....they seemed not to be preaching that bad people would burn in hell for all eternity, that there was no hell, that there was going to be a resurrection of the good and bad......yeah, seems pretty good, a caring religion eh!...everyone is going to be given ample chance to learn the truth and change.

but things change, i started questioning as i got older...gave the bible study guy a hard time with all those questions, then we had an argument and i just cut it off....decided to look at it later.... but their stuff was always in the back of my mind.. well, later is now....6 months ago i wander into h20 rather casual like, couple that with the fact that i find out a friend has fallen in with jw's and i get sucked into studying up about it all.....its very interesting.its amazing how much you chance your world view from age 19 to 27......things are all different now, jw's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies??????????

Zep

Wires crossed here....sometimes i dont explain stuff too well??????????????And remember this...i just having a rant anyway!

1.After all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..

This is a famous quote by someone i forget.I was referring to the fact that when reading their stuff i could never understand the blood doctrine but i could actually overlook it and even rationalize it to a degree when i read the other stuff, since the other stuff seemed rather convincing.If someone is seen to have "the truth"......then people can be made to believe in and do the dumbest of things.....Ask
Hitler.

2 Things are all different now, JW's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies?????????? strange eh!

Yeah thats right!

3 I'm glad they never got their claws into me too deep and that i have no family ties with 'em....

Halljelllulah.....Did they get their claws into me at all?.....well, depends on you want to define it, but to the extent that i read a lot of their stuff and they got me studying it, they it!

4 JW's were once fine Chocolate to a kid like me, now their looking like just boiled
lollies....go figure!

Whatever.....well, fine choclate????? errrr.....Well, simply things looked pretty good for awhile there when i was younger but today that look like sh't!

5.So another 6 months ago i wander into h20 thinking its a JW board just to check things out, its really an Apostate board if your've been there!...Anyway i just started reading more and more of the apostate stuff...i got sucked in....its was very interesting to see how wrong i could be, how easily dupped i could be!

Yep! makes sense!

6 I view WT mags as an interesting study of propaganda and mind manipulation at the moment

Basically thats right...thats how i view 'em

So why did i say this eh?????

8.But to be honest, to be straight up, i'm still not resolved in repsect to JW's...Theres a bit in me that still thinks i might be the truth...

Aint ambivalence a bitch......I said there is a bit, which is not a very big bit...but a bit nonetheless.....What i mean is that the WT to me at this moment sure looks like a crock of sh't, thats how i feel.....however there is this other side, thats rather compartmentalized that just wants to push the study a little further....wants to cover all angles.Its called "doubt".I'd say i was 90% resolved in relation to the WT.When i started out re studying the sh't 6 months ago....i was 50/50 probably.I was even intending to go to kingdom hall at one stage but that ideas getting snuffed out the more i read online...what would be the point eh!Things are never black and white Frenchy, always theres this schizophrenic bit and its in everyone!......

29

The Dalai Lama said it all!!!

by Zep in

jw
friends

what attracted me to the wt....i read too many of their magazines from 15-19 basically....it almost got me buying into their stuff, but then, just when i had just started getting into it all, i stopped and dropped it with the idea that i'd look into it later.. i remember reading the book of revelation at age 15 and wondering what it meant, all those dragons and horned beasts...then i got hold of some jw literature and there it was...it was all explained, nice and simple.all those prophecies about the end time seemed so good to a kid....i mean, i never really could understand their blood doctrine but you can over look that...after all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..

another thing attracted me to it.....they seemed not to be preaching that bad people would burn in hell for all eternity, that there was no hell, that there was going to be a resurrection of the good and bad......yeah, seems pretty good, a caring religion eh!...everyone is going to be given ample chance to learn the truth and change.

but things change, i started questioning as i got older...gave the bible study guy a hard time with all those questions, then we had an argument and i just cut it off....decided to look at it later.... but their stuff was always in the back of my mind.. well, later is now....6 months ago i wander into h20 rather casual like, couple that with the fact that i find out a friend has fallen in with jw's and i get sucked into studying up about it all.....its very interesting.its amazing how much you chance your world view from age 19 to 27......things are all different now, jw's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies??????????

Zep

Why am i here...no reason really!!!!...only been here a few days.I'm just stuffin round on the Net like usual to be honest....i been all sorts of weird places on the WWW, its nots like i've made this place my home or anything!
Whats my story with JW's, errr! sorta complex!
Basically from 15 to 19 or 20?? i read heaps of WT stuff...i mean all the stuff, then started doing the bible thing, went to a few meeting...was really startin to get into it for a sec.You know, Just from reading a lot of their stuff they really got me thinking seriously about it, in fact i took it seriously for sure.....I'm just not a church goin kinda person....feel outa place in those joints which is probably to my advantage in the end else i probably would have ended up one...Seriously, given the right circumstances i may well have ended up a JW...maybe????
Anyway, Just when i was really studying it hard...i stopped just tossed it in....thought i'll do it some other time...and just forget it, other stuff was going on at the time!!!!
But all that end time talk had an effect on me.....Plus my circle of friends back when i was younger were "Headbangers" and there was all this talk of Satan, the Apocalypse etc....One friend even had this bizzare book which was on bar codes being put in the forehead (the mark of the beast), i just started reading JW prophecy stuff instead....my mind was sorta geared for it by then by then. Things are complex.
Anyway, like i said....i thought i'd just study their stuff later, so basically i was unresloved in respect to it... About 8 months ago i get this call from a friend who's head over heals in respect to JW religion...He's basically full of BS, but he got me thinkin about it again.
So another 6 months ago i wander into h20 thinking its a JW board just to check things out, its really an Apostate board if your've been there!...Anyway i just started reading more and more of the apostate stuff...i got sucked in....i found it very interesting, considering how i thought when i was say 15 where and i was rather convinced by this end of the world stuff....its was very interesting to see how wrong i could be, how easily dupped i could be!
I view WT mags as an interesting study of propaganda and mind manipulation at the moment, which is one of the subjects that really interest me.Last year i was into the whole Kosovo saga and just started reading up on Noam Chomsky stuff...which is all about media manipulation in order to gain a public consensus and JW's sorta tie in there...so its all kinda interesting in that respect.
But to be honest, to be straight up, i'm still not resolved in repsect to JW's...though its slipping away now from the reading i've been doing, i still feel i should give it a bit more attention.Theres a bit in me that still thinks i might be the truth....bizzare but true!

2

Lawyers

by Zep in

what do you call 20 lawyers buried up to their neck in sand???????????????????.

soccer practice eh!

Zep

what do you call 20 lawyers buried up to their neck in sand???????????????????

Soccer Practice eh!

29

The Dalai Lama said it all!!!

by Zep in

jw
friends

what attracted me to the wt....i read too many of their magazines from 15-19 basically....it almost got me buying into their stuff, but then, just when i had just started getting into it all, i stopped and dropped it with the idea that i'd look into it later.. i remember reading the book of revelation at age 15 and wondering what it meant, all those dragons and horned beasts...then i got hold of some jw literature and there it was...it was all explained, nice and simple.all those prophecies about the end time seemed so good to a kid....i mean, i never really could understand their blood doctrine but you can over look that...after all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..

another thing attracted me to it.....they seemed not to be preaching that bad people would burn in hell for all eternity, that there was no hell, that there was going to be a resurrection of the good and bad......yeah, seems pretty good, a caring religion eh!...everyone is going to be given ample chance to learn the truth and change.

but things change, i started questioning as i got older...gave the bible study guy a hard time with all those questions, then we had an argument and i just cut it off....decided to look at it later.... but their stuff was always in the back of my mind.. well, later is now....6 months ago i wander into h20 rather casual like, couple that with the fact that i find out a friend has fallen in with jw's and i get sucked into studying up about it all.....its very interesting.its amazing how much you chance your world view from age 19 to 27......things are all different now, jw's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies??????????

Zep

Zep if i had a choice i know which screwed up i'd prefer. What's the story with gentiles times reconsidered - is there an online copy?

>>not making light of peoples experiences with JW's....but i can show you some pretty screwed up worldly people and some pretty screwed families, thats for sure.
No online copy Of GTR available.....the closet you'll get to it online are AF's essays at http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/index2.htm
Im getting my copy from www.commentarypress.com......its taking 8 weeks to get here, should be just crossin the Pacific right now.....you can get it from Amazon if you got a credit card!

29

The Dalai Lama said it all!!!

by Zep in

jw
friends

what attracted me to the wt....i read too many of their magazines from 15-19 basically....it almost got me buying into their stuff, but then, just when i had just started getting into it all, i stopped and dropped it with the idea that i'd look into it later.. i remember reading the book of revelation at age 15 and wondering what it meant, all those dragons and horned beasts...then i got hold of some jw literature and there it was...it was all explained, nice and simple.all those prophecies about the end time seemed so good to a kid....i mean, i never really could understand their blood doctrine but you can over look that...after all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..

another thing attracted me to it.....they seemed not to be preaching that bad people would burn in hell for all eternity, that there was no hell, that there was going to be a resurrection of the good and bad......yeah, seems pretty good, a caring religion eh!...everyone is going to be given ample chance to learn the truth and change.

but things change, i started questioning as i got older...gave the bible study guy a hard time with all those questions, then we had an argument and i just cut it off....decided to look at it later.... but their stuff was always in the back of my mind.. well, later is now....6 months ago i wander into h20 rather casual like, couple that with the fact that i find out a friend has fallen in with jw's and i get sucked into studying up about it all.....its very interesting.its amazing how much you chance your world view from age 19 to 27......things are all different now, jw's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies??????????

Zep

Waiting:Do people who have been in or acquainted with JW's have a shelf life they must wait out until it leaves their system?

>>>Dont know....everyones different.Speaking personnally, i'm not screwed up by JW's at all really...i never got in as deep as you guys obviously, since i'm not a JW, but i brought into it more or less....I'm just shaking off the remnants of the thinking i had when i was a kid or resolving them at least, but i'm not screwed up by it at all and it doesn't dominate my life.I find it interesting actually.....Currently i'm waiting on "gentile times reconsidered" to be shipped over here and i'm looking forward to reading that!.But Basically, I'm just lookin into things and thats about it...thats all i can say!

People are just as screwed up outside KH as they are in.....thats the the Truth!

29

The Dalai Lama said it all!!!

by Zep in

jw
friends

what attracted me to the wt....i read too many of their magazines from 15-19 basically....it almost got me buying into their stuff, but then, just when i had just started getting into it all, i stopped and dropped it with the idea that i'd look into it later.. i remember reading the book of revelation at age 15 and wondering what it meant, all those dragons and horned beasts...then i got hold of some jw literature and there it was...it was all explained, nice and simple.all those prophecies about the end time seemed so good to a kid....i mean, i never really could understand their blood doctrine but you can over look that...after all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..

another thing attracted me to it.....they seemed not to be preaching that bad people would burn in hell for all eternity, that there was no hell, that there was going to be a resurrection of the good and bad......yeah, seems pretty good, a caring religion eh!...everyone is going to be given ample chance to learn the truth and change.

but things change, i started questioning as i got older...gave the bible study guy a hard time with all those questions, then we had an argument and i just cut it off....decided to look at it later.... but their stuff was always in the back of my mind.. well, later is now....6 months ago i wander into h20 rather casual like, couple that with the fact that i find out a friend has fallen in with jw's and i get sucked into studying up about it all.....its very interesting.its amazing how much you chance your world view from age 19 to 27......things are all different now, jw's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies??????????

Zep

zep - good post, however i feel christianity is just as simple as the Dl quote. christianity is great the problem is what's down with it when it gets into the wrong hands - it seems to me.

>>>yeah, i'd agree Solid....The spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law is whats important.
One of the reasons i could never understand the blood doctrine of JW's was it just didn't seem to be in the spirit of what Jesus was all about....its just such a nit picking rule!!!!The problems with Christianity start when people become overburdoned with details and loose sight of the core truths....of the spirit of Christianity!!....they become robots!

29

The Dalai Lama said it all!!!

by Zep in

jw
friends

what attracted me to the wt....i read too many of their magazines from 15-19 basically....it almost got me buying into their stuff, but then, just when i had just started getting into it all, i stopped and dropped it with the idea that i'd look into it later.. i remember reading the book of revelation at age 15 and wondering what it meant, all those dragons and horned beasts...then i got hold of some jw literature and there it was...it was all explained, nice and simple.all those prophecies about the end time seemed so good to a kid....i mean, i never really could understand their blood doctrine but you can over look that...after all, the truth is a powerful weapon, you can make people do anything when you have "the truth"...even murder!..

another thing attracted me to it.....they seemed not to be preaching that bad people would burn in hell for all eternity, that there was no hell, that there was going to be a resurrection of the good and bad......yeah, seems pretty good, a caring religion eh!...everyone is going to be given ample chance to learn the truth and change.

but things change, i started questioning as i got older...gave the bible study guy a hard time with all those questions, then we had an argument and i just cut it off....decided to look at it later.... but their stuff was always in the back of my mind.. well, later is now....6 months ago i wander into h20 rather casual like, couple that with the fact that i find out a friend has fallen in with jw's and i get sucked into studying up about it all.....its very interesting.its amazing how much you chance your world view from age 19 to 27......things are all different now, jw's look like nothing more than a high control totalitarian cult with some rather wacky world views and prophecies??????????

Zep

Australia expression...."from chocolate to boiled lollies".....from something great to something not so great.....A lollie, is a toffee, a Sweet!