Posts by StrongHaiku

34

Do you ever feel strangely drawn towards Conspiracy Theories?

by JW_Rogue in

after mentally awakening to the idea that jws don't have the truth i strangely found myself delving into all encompassing conspiracy theories.

not that i believed them but something about them seemed quite fascinating.

i was especially drawn to the idea of a new world order/one world government.

StrongHaiku

jwstudy - But It seems to me that once one captured by the exciting ideas such as the Universal Issue or Vindication of God's name or The last days of the Satan's system, then he or she is more vulnerable to other exciting ideas.

Totally agree. I would add that part of the problem with JWs is that they are indoctrinated to believe that "you are a key participant in the greatest Biblical saga of all time in the whole Universe, etc." If you leave that, everything else (including reality) must look relatively mundane and common. It is no wonder why so many JWs stay in and why so many have difficulty when they get out. They don't want to feel "ordinary". And it may explain why so many that leave immediately seek out some other "Grand Vision"/Conspiracy/Religion/Belief to replace the one they left.

I really wish people that leave the organization would take just 5 minutes to learn to appreciate that reality (as mundane as it may seem) is more wondrous and better than some fantasy.

131

On the Relevancy of The Institutionalization of Sin

by Perry in

child murder, sodomy & corrupting the human genome are not new sins, they are old ones.

what is new is their institutionalization.

but even that isn't totally new.

StrongHaiku

Perry - When I left the Watchtower I trusted no one, most of all God. I placed my trust fully in myself for many years. It solved some issues, but on balance it created more problems than it solved.

I can understand that. When you are used to being told what to do instead of thinking for yourself and you go out in the world one can be get lost (maybe even self-destructive). That happened to me. But I got better at thinking for myself and correcting my mistakes. And, over time, I got better and got better at "getting better" and gained more confidence at making my own decisions. Is it possible you gave up on yourself too soon?

Perry - I came to realize that it was not within my constitution to be the final arbiter of right and wrong. I just couldn't see far enough down the road and I couldn't trust the things that I thought I did see.

Wait, what you are saying seems contradictory. How do you determine if your God/Holy Book is the correct moral arbiter if you don't trust your own judgement? Are you not using your own sense of morality to evaluate God's morality? No? Then, how would you know what Bible-sanctioned practices to follow or not follow? For that matter, how would you know if you are following the right religion/God/Holy Book?

34

Do you ever feel strangely drawn towards Conspiracy Theories?

by JW_Rogue in

after mentally awakening to the idea that jws don't have the truth i strangely found myself delving into all encompassing conspiracy theories.

not that i believed them but something about them seemed quite fascinating.

i was especially drawn to the idea of a new world order/one world government.

StrongHaiku

A good article on the subject on how we are wired for "patternicity" and "agency" and how those things lead to strange beliefs (e.g. conspiracy theories)...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/skeptic-agenticity/

OneEyedJoe - The interpretation of this is that the more out of control your life feels, the more likely you are to see patterns in random data, and that's basically what most conspiracy theories are.

Totally agree. And there are studies that show that the less control we have the more superstitious we are as well. There are some studies on games/sports that showed that the more "chance" was required to win the more superstitious the player vs. those instances that required more skill and less chance. Example, gamblers that play dice are noticeably more prone to superstition than, say, a chess player. We are strangely wired little apes ;-)

34

Do you ever feel strangely drawn towards Conspiracy Theories?

by JW_Rogue in

after mentally awakening to the idea that jws don't have the truth i strangely found myself delving into all encompassing conspiracy theories.

not that i believed them but something about them seemed quite fascinating.

i was especially drawn to the idea of a new world order/one world government.

StrongHaiku

Good posts. I would even go so far to add that some people are drawn into the JWs because they have a conspiracy theory mentality. For some it's almost like they fit a particular personality type. Before my mother joined the organization she was into all sorts of conspiracy ideas (e.g. UFOs, pyramidology, etc.). She, like many others (especially during the 70s) was already primed for the JWs conspiracy-laden beliefs.

28

Back in the Basement

by LostGeneration in

looks like the faithful jws are back in the basement, the oct 15th wt has this image on page 9. but now the lights have been turned out!

i guess the persecution is really kicking in if the electric company has shut off their electricity, or the jws are really, really paranoid that the government is gonna get them if they have the lights on!.

only one guy is smart enough to use his tablet (far right), the rest of the jws are old school, using a lantern to read their bibles in the dark!

StrongHaiku

Gotta love JW disaster porn.

77

Reading this might be hard.. Emotionally.. This is the truth...

by Jaewook kim in

every second our watch ticks, thats frequency of our current time.

the frequency will hit our reality every 1 second.. same method for rainbow frequency.. this is where i need your scientists.

need confirmation of change on fact of time.. and this... is truth of jehovah.... under sugar water, blue light will appear on left side.. under salt water, red light will appear on right side.. this concept is same for our heart.

StrongHaiku

Must be Slam-Poetry Friday and I didn't get the memo...

19

God Answers the Prayers of the Earring Hunters

by konceptual99 in

jw
friends

just a small anecdote from the meeting last night.. in the item interviewing a couple of older, long standing ones, one of the sisters was asked how jehovah had answered her prayers.

her response was "in lots of ways but it's the little ways i think of the most.

for example, when i am rushing to get ready for the meeting and putting my earrings in and i drop the butterfly clip on the floor and cannot find it.

StrongHaiku

I think another thing I hate about prayer is that it minimizes the good that is done by people. You pray for health but go to the doctor. You pray for food but you go to work. You pray for help but it is people who do the heavy-lifting. It seems to me that you or some other person is doing the work, but God is getting the credit. However, God doesn't seem to get the blame when prayer is not answered. If all you count is the "hits" and not the "misses" then, by definition, you have confirmation bias.

At best, prayer seems to be a placebo indistinguishable from meditating or day dreaming. At worst, it makes the person less likely to take responsibility and act on behalf of themselves and for others.

19

God Answers the Prayers of the Earring Hunters

by konceptual99 in

jw
friends

just a small anecdote from the meeting last night.. in the item interviewing a couple of older, long standing ones, one of the sisters was asked how jehovah had answered her prayers.

her response was "in lots of ways but it's the little ways i think of the most.

for example, when i am rushing to get ready for the meeting and putting my earrings in and i drop the butterfly clip on the floor and cannot find it.

StrongHaiku

Prayer, seems to me, is just a pond of Confirmation Bias to fish from and it is indistinguishable from random chance.

I mean, if God really wanted to make himself known, wouldn't he choose one religion and enable them to manifest anything they need and want through prayer clearly and consistently? It would be the most wildly successful way to make himself know and clear. Man, this God lacks imagination.

At the very least, he would provide some type of reliable and testable mechanism and guidelines to understand if it has any efficacy. Again, no imagination, no thinking through the problem...epic fail.

You would think this would be the nail in the coffin for most religions and Gods. The amount of Cognitive Dissonance in the heads of people who pray must be deafening. Maybe that's the voice they're hearing.

65

WT October 15, 2015 - Don't believe Apostate Lies

by Designer Stubble in

the last article in this new wt, shows me that the organization is dealing with much information that is damaging them.

i am sure that the many recent lawsuits are being noticed by the r&f.. here are some gems from that article, titled the naive person believes every word.

we must be very selective about what we consider worthy of our attention.

StrongHaiku

Especially could those who are new to the Internet conclude that a report or a news item, however strange or sensational, is true simply because it is online or because a friend sent it via e-mail.

sir82, I often get stumped when they phrase things like that as well. However, I think it might be that the GB is trapped in a bubble of Psychological Projection.

Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against unpleasant impulses by denying their existence in themselves, while attributing them to others. For example, a person who is rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude.

Their writing, in just about every topic, often seems to reflect their own limitations, ignorance, and privileged life experience. In this case, it is the GB that is new to the internet, etc. and they project that on others.

30

The Verdict: God is Not Good.

by cappytan in

jw
friends

not sure if this video has been posted before here or not, but it is a powerful scene.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx7irfn2gdi.

i haven't watched the entire movie yet, but from this scene alone, i will be..

StrongHaiku

Crazyguy, I had similar problems with all of the killings in the OT.

One thing that always bothered me is that in the OT God commands his people a number of times to kill other people despite the fact that killing was something he supposedly could do directly. Not only did this cause untold physical violence but it probably contributed to a lot of mental and emotional damage as well.

As an example, my father is a Korean War Veteran suffering from PTSD and has daily bouts of depression over the people he killed. I know this may seen trivial compared to all of the other OT atrocities. But it begs the question, why would a God (if he existed) wish to visit this type of psychological damage on people if he could have done the killing himself? Never could figure that out. And, all of the explanations I heard at the time are now patently obscene.