Posts by AlanB

44

Fibbing about your time

by SC_Guy in

i'd never thought about this... but last night my father asked for my time.

and i told him i didn't have any.

he didn't seem to mind so he went ahead long his way.. .

When I was growing up in the Congregation it was felt that anything less than 10 hours per month was 'token service'. I never lied about my hours but always felt guilty about managing 3-4 hours per month, which was not bad considering I was 15.

There was lots of pressure to go out from my father. I remember all the talks about the 'joy' of spending time in service... LOL.

My sister was a pioneer for while and had a book of calls, she had a list of old ladies who she could call on in various areas. I remember seeing an entry marked "Good for a cup of tea" <g>.

I tried Pioneering a few times when I was older. 60 hours is a lot when you have a full time job, when you consider you left home at 9:00, group at 9:30, first door at 10:00, finish by 11:00, home by about 11:30 it took two hours of effort to do one hours time.

When I started fading, I did the odd hour just to keep the elders off my back, very poor quality time, then eventually stopped going out.

Interesting I have two teenage boys being brought up as JW's. They were telling me the other day how they hate going out in service in areas where their friends from school live..... Does anyone remember that !!!! That was the worst, being recognised by someone from school wearing a suit and carrying cases. I remember my parents telling me stories about how Daniel had to endure, and I remember thinking I would prefer to opt for the Lions.

When I left, I used to have nightmares about field service, anyone else have this. I would dream I was about to go out in the ministry, I would wake up in a cold sweat and remember, 'I dont have to do that any more'

Ahhhhh the joys of service....

32

Evidence that populations descended from the 16 grandsons of Noah

by hooberus in

.

secular history gives much evidence to show that the survivors of noah?s flood were real historical figures, whose names were indelibly carved on much of the ancient world ?

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/4215cen_s1998.asp

AlanB

And which of Noah's sons do the Navaho, the Australian aborigines, the Zulu in Africa, and the Basque in Europe come from?????

Leolai,

Interesting point, not to mention the Chinese, many of these are language isolates and some traditional folklore of the Gauls for example suggests the Basques were already residing in western Europe before the gauls arrived. There are many examples of language isolates that suggest older races of people who may also have survived whatever cataclysm the flood myths are based around.

From the Noah story perspective the survivors may have considered that the entire world had been destroyed and perhaps there were descendants who later came to dominate the populations of the world.

I feel it is nieve to believe that if there is truth in the Genesis account (as there often is) that it is the cute story of the ark and animals going in two by two as we were led to believe as children. However there are similar tales all around the earth, although some survived in caves and mountains. All fascinating stuff.

A

70

America: North America - The Difference: BRITS READ UP!

by RAYZORBLADE in

jw
friends

welcome to the continent of north america.. within this continent, which includes also the carribbean islands, and central america, it's not one (1) country, but a collection of different countries.. i have noticed, quite a bit actually, with our friends from across the pond (atlantic ocean), especially those that reside in great britain/united kingdom, yes even the republic of ireland, of their generalities with regards to the term: america.. heaven forbid, i would guess if you lumped all brits in with europe/europeans.

wrong.. my experience has been that, most brits consider anything over this way.....the other side of the atlantic as: america.

thus to other nationalities within north america: that means: the u.s.a.. to a north american: when you say "america" it means: the united states of america.

AlanB

South America has vast material potential but their political maturity is akin to a demented teenager bend on ruin! And central America has not faired any better! The few that rule range from incompetent to corrupt!

....... The United States, located in the middle of North America, as with their Southern & Central American neighbours, being a new country also demonstrate political maturaty akin to a teenager, in addition the widespread corruption, possession of some of the most advanced weapons of mass destruction and heavy handed and self advancing approach in Foriegn affairs makes the United States the most dangerous country on earth. The US contribute more pollution to the environment per head of population than any other single country. The US have also withdrawn from many international treaties limiting deployment of various weapons considered illegal by enlightened free states. The United States is currently ruled by a puppet president George W Bush, who came to power following an election rigged by his families oil cartel. The United States are responsible for the creation, funding and training of many South American & Al Queda terrorist networks, the former ensuring the instability of their southern neighbours during the 1960's & 70's, the latter created in the 1980's to fight the soviet forced in Afghanistan, having fallen out with its previous sponsor, Al Queda delivered the devastating attacks on the US in 2001. The following years have seen the US opinion world wide fall from major empathy to pariah state due to human rights abuses in the Guatanamo Bay concentration camp, reduction in civil liberties and the unprovoked illegal attack on a sovereign state in contravention of international law and a string of state sponsored genocide accross the developing world from the massacres in Indonesia (.5M dead) in the 1960's through to their funding of the terrorist state of Israel throughout most of the second half of the 20th century. The US are the only country to have used Atomic Weapons against an enemy during the attacks on the civilian populated cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

..... Just to put this into context...... A

28

WHY did you get baptised?

by fairy in

jw
friends

i was just thinking back to when i got baptised.

and i dont really remember the real reason why.. thinking about it seems to bring up the idea that i only got baptised because of the way everyone treats you when they find out you are getting dunked - and not specifically to serve jehovah.. baptism day comes and you sit there and listen to the talk.

then you go out and get your swimming duds on and line up at the "whatever it is they decide to dunk you in".

AlanB

Yea, same old story, was brought up in it, was conditioned so that I sort of believed it and there was peer pressure to get Baptised in teens. I held out till I was 18, most of the other youngsters had been baptised and there were those that 'encouraged' me to do so.

They would use the old 'what prevents me from getting baptised' scripture. I also remember at the time there were some that questionned my getting a good well paid job.

Guess the bottom line was that it seemed like the thing to do.

10

Old new light - The Pyramid.

by AlanB in

jw
friends

found some interesting quotes while having a surf, on the 'quotes site' you might find this summary of interest.. http://quotes.jehovahswitnesses.com/pyramid.htm.

1903 great pyramid is a testimony in stone to gods plan.

1904 measurement of entrance passage is 3416 inches indicating time of end will be 1874.. 1908 jesus is the top stone.

AlanB

Found some interesting quotes while having a surf, on the 'quotes site' you might find this summary of interest.

http://quotes.jehovahswitnesses.com/pyramid.htm

1903 Great Pyramid is a testimony in stone to Gods plan
1904 Measurement of entrance passage is 3416 inches indicating time of end will be 1874.
1908 Jesus is the top stone
1908 Great Pyramid is a witness to the plan of God.

Then the Pyramid mysteriously grows 41 inches in 6 years, although no record of this exists in archaeological records.

1910 Measurement of entrance passage now 3457 inches, time of the end now 1914.
1922 Pyramid was designed by God.
1925 Pyramid is a silent witness of the Lord

Then the Pyramid suddenly goes out of favour.

1928 Pyramid not mentioned in Bible, following such teachings is vain philosophy.
1928 Pyramid built by rulers of Egypt under direction of Satan.

38

Here comes another Newbie!

by adamgraziano in

jw
friends

.

i just stumbled across this forum today and just wanted to say big hello to everyone.. it's great to know that i am not alone in this world when it comes to leaving the so called truth.. when reading through the forum discussions, i can really relate -and that is great!.

i'm sure i'll be back here time and time again.. have a great day!.

AlanB

Hi Adam, greetings from the other side of the world.

Like many others here I know exactly those feelings you describe. When I was leaving I used to wake up in the middle of the night scared, I used to look at myself in the mirror and not recognise who I was.

I spent about 5 years not even thinking about religion, then some time reading about many different belief systems. I did not find boards like this until around 5 years after I left and even then felt a little guilty, like opening pandora's box.

You may find that there is a lot of positive stuff you can take away with you from a Christian upbringing, I found it best to reflect on the positive. You now have total freedom to decide how you wish apply these values in todays world.

I only recently read Ray's book and even after 10 years it hit me that this was just another religion. I would reccomend it, it will help put everything into perspective.

Relating to other people may be difficult at first, for a while I felt like a foreigner in my own country. People in the world are not all bad, you will find people who share your interests and outlook, they will all have their own imperfections, however you may find an honesty in being able to relate to the imperfections in others and yourself without judement based on the old set of rules.

From now on you are a valuable and normal person in your own right with the same freedom of thought that we all now enjoy. Enjoy life, explore new ideas and people. In time you will build your own set of values based on your experiences. These are exciting times.

I wish you luck.

Alan.

48

A serious question about the angels that materialized pre-flood

by TweetieBird in

jw
friends

according to the bible, the angels saw the daughters of men, materialized into human bodies and married the women, had children.

here's my question...did they create for themselves a human body or did they transform themselves into a human body that already existed?

i know this may seem silly, but i was just wondering where the sperm came from to impregnate the women?

AlanB

You can meet the Ainu today. They are a distinct racial group in Japan. They are far hairier than the Japanese, and a bit taller. Yet three thousand year old propganda is taken as evidence of 'giants', with out a extant skeleton that would prove such a thing.

Interesting point, one race encountering a new race may see them as almost mythically different. If I remember correctly the strange thing about the Ainu is that they are blue eyed and fair haired.

The striking thing is with their language, they belong to the Language Isolates groupings, which means their language does not have any defined roots like for example Indo-European. The interesting thing is that other language isolate groups include, the Dradivians from India, Finno Uralic from the Ural mountains, the Basque from the Pyrranian areas and the Polenesians. There are similarities between Language isolate groups in the manner in which they sequence Vowels and Consonants.

One theory could be that they were other pockets of people who survived the flood, living in mountainous areas or having sea faring abilities. These groups not living in the fertile crescent expanded slower than the Noah families and remained isolated until contacted by the rest of the human family.

I still maintain there is a lot we do not know about or history, traces, hints even can be found in all the ancient books and appear to tell a similar story. All we need to do is objectively examine these roots as historical documents in the context of thir being handed down by word of mouth and from the perspective of the people who preserved such takes and perhaps we can start to get the shape of the puzzle.

A

22

Why bother to even show up at all? (rant)

by razorMind in

jw
friends

i married a "worldly" gentleman.

my "approved associations" status is already up in the air--i am no longer "in the troof".

i was unbaptized and just drifted away.

AlanB

Hmmmm we have all experienced embarrasing stuff like that. You could try reasonsing with them in terms they may understand, in that this created a really bad witness. It is no wonder that people who have experienced close hand witness behavior do not wish to have anything to do with them or the religion.

A

82

Just received Crisis of Conscience!!

by acsot in

jw
friends

i've already exited the jws in mind and heart, and have read many comments from everyone about the book, so didn't really see the need to buy it for myself.

however, after reading something here on the forum, i decided to order it (and the tao of pooh and siddhartha.

) a super-dub sits two desks away from (she and her husband knew ray and his wife, had tea with them in their room when he was on the gb, etc.

AlanB

Interesting views.... I shall order a copy. A

48

A serious question about the angels that materialized pre-flood

by TweetieBird in

jw
friends

according to the bible, the angels saw the daughters of men, materialized into human bodies and married the women, had children.

here's my question...did they create for themselves a human body or did they transform themselves into a human body that already existed?

i know this may seem silly, but i was just wondering where the sperm came from to impregnate the women?

AlanB

Another interesting thread, perhaps if we understood this we would have a better understanding of our history, it all seems to come together at this point of Angelic/Nephinlim/Alien contact. Enoch is a good source of information on this subject and it is possible that Enoch was also known by other races of people post flood as Hermes (Greek god of knowledge), Thoth (Egyptian god of knowledge) and the Northern European Thor, all seem to be attributed to similar ideas and knowledge.

One theory I have read and studied is that very ancient Egypt was the 'Land of the gods' with the great Pyramids. This was where a higher race of people lived and it was these that did not so much materialise as went to the land of men to cohabit with the Women. It has been suggested that Enoch visited this land and was given his knowledge and that it was these 'gods' that gave mankind its knowledge.

One minute mankind are living in caves banging rocks together and the next they have a knowledge of advanced astronomy (some of which we have only uncovered in the last 120 years or so), mathematics, acountancy, irrigation, the calender (described in Enoch), cosmetics and the roots of most of our knowledge. How did thi shappen.

THERE IS SOMETHING WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT OUR HISTORY.

Taking the christian view of the bible has not helped us, even though Genesis is a key book along with all the other 'Creation' stories from all the other cultures on earth.

A