Blotty: People are going to make surface level arguments to try and playdown or discredit them just because they don't like them for one reason or another
"Just because they don't like them for one reason or another?" Huh? You make the dislike some have for the org seem to be light and trivial. I hate the org. Allow me to briefly tell you why. I was strongly indoctrinated beginning at around age 5. When I was 11, I had to take to an aptitude/IQ test to get into a private school. I scored the highest grade ever scored and the school indicated that I could do whatever I wanted in life. HOWEVER, school officials had no idea I was strongly indoctrinated into an endtimes religion.
I had great potential that was stolen from me. I trusted the many older JW authority figures who strongly influenced me. The religion seemed to make sense back then. I was one who was concerned about suffering, injustice, and other issues. I was also one who was willing to sacrifice for what he believed in and thought was right.
Therefore, I lost the prime of my life to the religion and organization. I suffered and sacrificed and lived in misery and poverty for decades serving the org full-time, doing menial part-time secular work just to survive.
I feel that those who misled me back then, including many org leaders, were sincere. However, the org is today deceptive and cold and self-serving. It is still trying to steal lives as it did mine. Every day I am slapped in the face by the fact that I was a JW for decades. I will never escape the effects. I have zero contact with close relatives (all JWs) with whom I was once close, including my own mother. They think I'm either weak or evil or a combination of the two.
I have no children because I listened to the org. If I don't just drop dead, I will end up in an old dreary nursing home with no one to check on me or give a damn. I was promised that by now I would have long been in paradise.
I hate the org and want to see it crash and burn.
Posts by Magnum
-
169Are the statistics out yet?
by slimboyfat inisn’t it about time they released the report for the service year?
or have they stopped publishing it?
did they released selected figures at the annual meeting as they usually do, such as the memorial attendance or record number of pioneers?
-
-
Magnum
-
76
Front row seats watching the collapse of watchtower
by Indoubtbigtime ini’m a pimo ministerial servant and i won’t fade because i want to keep my front row seats watching what happens next few years.. my predictions are that this current governing body will slowly die off and the current younger helpers will be the next gb.
they will eventually have new light that they were wrong about 1914 and the overlapping generations.. the new light will be something on the lines of the last days are now because of king of north king of south pushing each other etc etc.
they will do their very best to burry old literature and try to change the past trying to make it sound like they were right all along just as they have done for 150 years now.
-
-
Magnum
In the minority, I know, but I think it quite possible the whole thing could collapse. JW theology does not allow for a weakening religion that is decreasing in membership. According to JW theology, there is supposed to be an increase in the end and a great shout of warning to the world. As JWdom grows weaker, it looks more and more wrong.
I view it kind of like the physiology of a lot creatures. There is a situation called "homeostasis" that is characterized by all body systems' working properly and working together in harmony. When one system starts to function improperly, it affects other systems. If the situation is not corrected, the whole overall system with its various feedback loops can get to a point of no return at which point the body crashes and death occurs.
I think JWdom is sort of like that. For example, lower attendance at meetings hurts the morale, spirit, and zeal of those in attendance. As they get weaker, some of them stop attending. That makes the situation even worse. In the meantime, donations dwindle, the preaching work weakens, etc. All of these phenomena are interconnected and feed back to each other. I believe there could be a crash and that JWdom can't exist as a small group as some say it could.
Things change. Look at how shopping has changed in the last few years (at least in the U.S.) I see a lot of brick and mortar retail businesses dying and at the same time, I see huge distribution centers being built all along interstate highways.
JWdom's time is up. The heydey is over. It is in survival mode. It is no longer proactive; it is simply reactive. It is flapping at the water trying to keep from drowning. Whether it crashes or just simply continues to weaken remains to be seen, but I hope for the crash and think it's possible.
Businesses and other organizations do crash.
-
28
Poor metabolic health increases your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.
by was a new boy init’s all a big fat lie.
more precisely a big low-fat, high-carbohydrate lie.. 'it took dr. paul marik 12 weeks to prove that conventional wisdom about dieting is a lie, and that was just to himself.
he lost 35 pounds, and cured himself of type 2 diabetes.
-
-
Magnum
Oh my GOD!!! Cofty's still alive... and even healthy according to his post. Please stay this time. I so missed your contributions to this forum.
Oh, and your post is very interesting. I've been thinking a lot about such lately. And thanks for the Gary Taubes book recommendation. Just checked it out; had never heard of him.
-
7
Every religion should comply....
by BoogerMan in...except of course jw's!.
g84 8/22 p. 28 - "the catholic church occupies a very significant position in the world and claims to be the way of salvation for hundreds of millions of people.
any organization that assumes that position should be willing to submit to scrutiny and criticism.".
-
-
Magnum
Damn, that's a good find. Thanks for posting. Putting in my files to use later. This will be really useful.
-
173
Is the tide turning against covid vaccines?
by slimboyfat inhave you seen this video about the covid vaccines?
have you got any views on the information?
i find it worrying at least.
-
-
Magnum
Seriously, it is time to start listening to the 99 % instead of the 1%. You are not special.
I strongly disagree. Your premise is that the majority are (or "is" if viewing majority as a singular entity) right. I disagree with that premise.
I went to the same public schools as hundreds of others in my area. 99% of them cannot manipulate simple fractions; for example, they can't figure what 2/3 of 1/6 is. 99% of them have no clue as to what a transitive verb is and what the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs is. They have no clue as to the fact that a nominative preceding a gerund should be in the possessive case and why. They don't know the difference between the active voice and the passive voice. That's all seventh grade stuff. Most don't even know the difference between adjectives and adverbs. They don't know the difference between the objective case and the nominative case. They are totally ignorant of simple trigonometry; "sin of 45deg" is totally meaningless to them even though they were introduced to trig in school. They cannot do simple algebra even though they were taught it. They are bad at logic, reasoning, writing, comprehension, etc.
There are some who are "special." The majority just go with the flow. I've seen it in many different areas of life for decades. I've found that often it's the minority who are right.
I will never "listen" to the majority in that I will automatically consider the majority to be right. I will "listen" to what the majority say in that I will consider the majority viewpoint, but I will also consider what the minority say and consider it equally.
I have a brother in law who is the Dean of Cardiac medicine at the University of Calgary/Foothills hospital, so I think he knows what he is talking about.
He doesn't necessarily 'know what he is talking about' in this specific matter.
-
20
What are the odds that Armageddon is soooo close?
by Vanderhoven7 inwell judging from past prophetic pronouncements....go figure.
"surely there is not the slightest room for doubt in the mind of a truly consecrated child of god that the lord jesus is present and has been since 1874;…" watchtower 1924 jan 1 p.5).
"the prophecy of the bible, fully supported by the physical facts in fulfillment thereof, shows that the second coming of christ dates from the fall of the year 1914.
-
-
Magnum
Vanderhoven7, thanks. I truly appreciate material like this. Adding to my files. Hopefully can share with my JW relatives in the future.
TonusOH, totally agree. Great post.
-
21
question for those who either aux pioneered pioneered
by enoughisenough inhow many of you would have spent the hours "pioneering" if it weren't for the pats on the back and being looked up to as someone special in the congregation?
i will admit that back in late 1970's i attempted to aux pioneer during a campaign because it was promoted and seemed the right thing to do,but i didn't get the hours and it was stressful trying to...and i didn't feel like a cheerful giver.
i never attempted it again.
-
-
Magnum
I did it because I truly believed (with the exception of the nagging doubts and unanswered questions that I always had) it was right - that billions of lives were at stake and the end was imminent. It was years of excruciating misery. I slaved and suffered and sacrificed, all the while not only not getting paid, but paying (in the form of donations) my "employer". The "pats on the back" were almost insignificant compared to the gripes, misery, tolerating nutty JWs, facing guns and other opposition in the field, working awful part-time jobs to support myself, giving up education and financial opportunities, etc. If the org had been right, then what I did would have been extremely worthwhile and I'd now be glad I did it. However,... well, you know.
-
61
UN and Governing Body and an accounting
by AnnaNana injoseph and mary were not in a spiritually adulterous relationship with the roman authorities, the "legs of iron".
joseph and mary were not perfect.
the governing body of the modern-day organization of jehovah's witnesses is not perfect.
-
-
Magnum
But the sins of those individuals within the organization who misuse their authority or misapply the scripture does not mean Jehovah is not still using that organization.
"still using"???? I see no evidence that he ever was using the organization. It has made well-known false predictions from day one - predictions that robbed people of normal lives. It has a history of crazy writings and teachings. The preaching work has never been such that it would be fair to kill most of earth's population based on how they react to it.
It is weakening now, supposedly in the last of the last days when it should be strengthening and providing a great warning to the world. The organization is in survival mode. Its heyday is over. It is simply trying to survive. It is not giving a great witness to the world or bringing praise to its supposed god.
-
-
-
Magnum
Just started watching during my lunch. Only got to see about 5 minutes. Will download so I can listen to it on the way home Friday (I work out of town). I'm PMing you because I have a question.
-
22
Upbringing
by punkofnice ini was brought up as a born-in(tm) here in the uk.
it wasn't until i was 50 that the scales fell from my eyes, i woke up, got da'd from the cult and my wife was advised to leave me by the elders whom i had served with on the boe.
one of which i know wanted to schtupf her.
-
-
Magnum
50 wasted years for me, too.... and I, too, hold resentment. In fact, a lot of those years were worse than just wasted. For example, one can lie on the couch all day and waste time just watching TV and relaxing in comfort OR he can waste time by working in misery on and investing money in a project that fails. If I'm going to waste time, I'd rather it be in a way similar to the former, however, as a fulltime JW, I wasted time in a way similar to the latter. I slaved in misery with no pay for decades, actually donating to my master the whole time.
I resent my mother (dad was non-JW) because she is still in the cult in spite of having me around to try to convince her of its wrongness. She knows my intelligence and abilities and honesty, yet she listens to Stephen Lett and not me.
I have negative feelings for all my former JW acquaintances because I think that anybody who can be a believing JW today is seriously lacking in something - intelligence, comprehension, discernment, honesty, humility, or a combination of such.