recentley i read ray franz book " christian freedom" and it occurd to me if he had lost his faith and become athiest the society would have delighted in that.
i think had ray turned athiest it would have been more easily " justified" in the mags what a " evil man he was" ....but maintaining his faith left the possibillity the society could be wrong.. .
i am athiest but i kept this to myself when i left... any comments?.
Yup - If someone can show I'm wrong about what I think... I learn much and am happy to have done so.
If someone can show a JW that they are wrong about what they believe... They lose eternal life with the fluffy lions and the treehouses.
I guess that's just too much at stake for some of them to even risk listening/reading. Phobia indoctrination at work, it seems.
i found the meetings to be especially boring from the late 1980s on.
before that, we actually tried to make people want to listen.
the meetings were pretty interesting.
I learned the answers to some crossword questions... Totally worth it!
recentley i read ray franz book " christian freedom" and it occurd to me if he had lost his faith and become athiest the society would have delighted in that.
i think had ray turned athiest it would have been more easily " justified" in the mags what a " evil man he was" ....but maintaining his faith left the possibillity the society could be wrong.. .
i am athiest but i kept this to myself when i left... any comments?.
I spoke to a guy I grew up with who's now an elder.
Even though he looked jumpy when I was saying some things about the Borg - he was at least listening (with a frown). Then he asked me what I thought of the bible.
I said I was an atheist... His whole face just went slack at the very word. Conversation over.
We continued to speak for a few moments, but his eyes were vacant. (It was actually quite creepy)
I think there is some truth to what you are saying. Some folks just will not listen to an atheist - the very mention of the word causes distrust and suspicion.
my experience with jws, often they were very frugal and cheap, willing to use my car in field circus every weekend.
why are jehovah's witnesses so dense and obtuse when it comes to sharing costs and contributing?
has the topic of district convention 'tight-ass cheap-skating' jehovah's witnesses been talked about?
yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
To crudely state Cofty's argument would be: "If god exists he didn't stop it".
That's a fact isn't it?
i don't.. i consider myself a truth teller.. the watchtower society appears to be more "apostate" than even "christendom"..
"Point taken. I'm an apostate."
That right there ^^^, is why you are not a Dub... The ability of reason is just not a Dub priority.
(Nor is irony)
i don't.. i consider myself a truth teller.. the watchtower society appears to be more "apostate" than even "christendom"..
Though I'll shush as I'd rather hear how people identify than argue definitions.
i don't.. i consider myself a truth teller.. the watchtower society appears to be more "apostate" than even "christendom"..
They can.
An apostate is not someone who abandons "truth". Just leaves a religion, however false.
mine was a gradual going away.
but once it dawned on them, i think people were shocked that i left the religion i espoused from youth.. were people "in the truth" and "in the world" surprised by your departure?.
I was deeply offended to be told "you were always looking for a problem, it was always something".
When in fact I had been lying to myself and ignoring things that had bothered me - and asking god to help me have faith in the face of my doubt. (The same person said "don't study too much, you'll stumble yourself"... Bitch was right actually)
So in answer to the OP: No. But I was.
i don't.. i consider myself a truth teller.. the watchtower society appears to be more "apostate" than even "christendom"..
minimus: you are using (it sounds like) their definition of "apostate". Don't let them have it.
I think sticking to the dictionary is best. Prophet, spirit directed, abstain, generation and I'm sure I could think of more examples if I wasn't drunk... The dictionary is a problem for them.
5:14 