i am reading a book by victor sebestyn called "revolution 1989 - the fall of the soviet empire".
if you lived through the astonishing collapse of communism in the late '80s i highly recommend it.. what has struck me is the description of life under communism in the six soviet satellite states of east germany, poland, czechoslovakia, hungary, romania and bulgaria.. here is a couple of paragraphs that really stood out to me as a possible parallel to the current climate in the regime of jw.org.. ---------------------------------------------------------.
once idealism or revolutionary fervour had disappeared - certainly by the soviet invasion of czechosloakia in 1968 - the system stagnated.
That last sentence described me to a T in my last few years as a witness. I would say the end was close and that we were in the last days if you asked me, and I would say I believed in God when coworkers asked me. But since I was a teenager I had long ceased believing that the end would come in my lifetime, that the flood was a real event, and rarely thought of God as an entity actually out there in space.
Have to tow the line though, especially as an MS
how are we able to do this.. this is not an attempt to stir the pot or cause confusion but i was sitting here thinking of all the really horrid things that the old testament god did to people.
when i was a jw i just purposely put it to the back of my mind always trying to make an excuse.
when i was in field service and someone would ask me about it i would just change the subject.. however i have been reading alot of info lately here about how wonderful jesus is and how he is a direct representation of what god the father would be.
If you can't trust the old testament then aren't all the prophecies about Jesus that the JW love to talk about invalid?
Or the prophecies the new testament writers hijacked and tailored to fit Jesus I should say.
how are we able to do this.. this is not an attempt to stir the pot or cause confusion but i was sitting here thinking of all the really horrid things that the old testament god did to people.
when i was a jw i just purposely put it to the back of my mind always trying to make an excuse.
when i was in field service and someone would ask me about it i would just change the subject.. however i have been reading alot of info lately here about how wonderful jesus is and how he is a direct representation of what god the father would be.
It's only OK when Cthulhu tells me to do it.
how are we able to do this.. this is not an attempt to stir the pot or cause confusion but i was sitting here thinking of all the really horrid things that the old testament god did to people.
when i was a jw i just purposely put it to the back of my mind always trying to make an excuse.
when i was in field service and someone would ask me about it i would just change the subject.. however i have been reading alot of info lately here about how wonderful jesus is and how he is a direct representation of what god the father would be.
The god of the Old Testament is just a reflection of the culture and time period that the Old Testament was written in. Gods in that time period were expected to be capricious and violent. I think we're trying to project the values and morality backward on a time period where they don't apply.
Christianity was just a facelift on an archaic religion for a new audience, IMO. Not that any of that excuses what the god of the OT is portrayed as doing, it is cruel and completely incompatible with christianity's depiction of a loving god. The OT played a big part in my road to atheism.
Just my two cents
ever since i've learned ttatt the love for my wife, df'd family, worldly family and people in general has become more real!
it's like there is no one telling me who and how to love it just comes naturally with real true love!!!
also i've seen that i have become less depressed and have actualy started tolose weight!
When I first left I too noticed that I was beginning to connect with other people for the first time. I started feeling emotion when I watched a moving film or heard a poignant song.
I guess it was hard to empathize with people that I believed were liable to be executed by a "loving" god at any moment.
Once I got past religion I started to see the beauty in other people and humanity as a whole.
ok this is something have been wondering.
has anyone heard any explanation from jws as to how egypt, which even the wt admits existed 4600 years ago, was eliminated by a global flood but resumed a few short years later with the same culture, language etc.
the pyramids are older than the wt date for the flood.
When I used to bring these points up to my father he would always say that carbon dating was innacurate or that archeologists were just making assumptions and couldn't possibly know how old a certain object was.
# 3 newbie post.
first of all, the newbies have set a record here!.
have you ever seen a 4pg post where 21 new members reply!
Thank you all for the warm welcome!
It sure is nice to have all of you to talk to after losing all of my family and friends.
among the inane fb comments i've come across about the agm, this one stood out as more inane than the most enthusiastic jw slobbering:.
"before we start taking about what happened at the agm we must be absolutely certain that all the meetings are over.
make sure that we are obedient in the small things ago that we will be obedient in the big things.
sd-7
I believe there is some contention about that section. I believe some early church fathers believed that it originally belonged in the text and was edited out to remove the implication that Jesus tolerated adultery. The ones that asserted this believed it belonged in the NT though.
In reply to the OP, this is the only thing that showed up in my newsfeed:
"Today was priceless and the best day of my life!! Jehovah is surely blessing his people! The annual meeting is a milestone in my life and a day I will cherish forever!"
Some life.
I do not believe that a god as described by the Bible and religious people exists. As to the question of a being that created the universe, I guess I really just don't know. I'm not sure if we will ever know. If a being powerful enough to create the universe really existed, I believe it would be so far above us that we would not even be able to comprehend it, or as Cofty likes to say, he blew himself up in the big bang. For the time being, I'm content to throw my lot in with science, try to appreciate what it discovers about our universe, and enjoy my life. I guess I'd be an agnostic atheist then. This quote perfectly sums it up for me: "'Oh, I don't know. I mean, I'd like to believe I'm not, but I just... I've just never seen any proof, so I... I just don't debate it anymore, you know? It's like I could spend my whole life debating it over and over again, weighing the pros and cons. And in the end, I still wouldn't have any proof. So I just... I just don't debate it anymore. It's absurd.' 'The search for God is absurd?' 'It is if everyone dies alone.'"
i finally got caught up with it on netflix, and now it's ending.. predictions for sunday night's finale?
i find myself not really caring what happens to walt.
but i'm definitely rooting for something good to happen to jesse, anything at all..
I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS
