this is my first post here.. i was raised in "the truth", and am an ex-bethelite who worked in brooklyn for several years back in the 90's.
a few years after i left bethel, i started to become disillusioned after doing research about the society and reading crisis of conscience (i know..i wasn't supposed to do that lol).
i eventually stopped attending meetings and going out in service.
Welcome! I was never in so I can't answer all of your questions. However from what I've read on here it's common for leavers to remain religious for a period. Some remain that way, others eventually give up on all faith based explanations.
Best wishes, wherever your journey takes you.
are you an angry atheist?.
personally i wish i could say anger is to strong a word, but from my point of view :-.
a)i am angry that religion teaches children to hate " worldly people" at least that was my experience ad a j.w.
More frustrated than angry.
Sometimes I wonder why it is not obvious to everyone that religions made up explanations for things that were not understood at the time (earthquakes, volcanoes, mental illness etc). When these things have subsequently been explained, why do people cling to the false beliefs (e.g. young earth creationist)? Why do some people think that the human race is special in a universe of at least 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars?
Then I see newspaper reports claiming that people with faith are happier than those without. That really makes me fed up.
she told me that yesterday and i just chuckled.. .
.
So if you die one day before the GT you can be resurrected to eternal life but die the next day and it's all over? Absolutely bonkers.
page 15.
"take for example a christian couple in asia.
in their younger years, they admired those who could afford to own a house.
Perhaps the couple should have cut down on field service to be with their children more and still paid the mortgage?
so last night i was talking to my sister about how i admired president obama's speech to the u.n that happened earlier that day.. i then compared the extremism of isis to how much of a fanatic my jw bil is.. at the end of the statement , my mom walked in to the kitchen.
she was standing in the living room and she heard everything i said.. she called the elders that night to tell them what i said so they can counsel me.. i'm going to meet with them after the meeting on sunday!.
what do i do?!!!!!.
Don't go. If any of the elders approaches you, just say it's a private family matter and none of their business.
hi,.
i just stumbled upon this photo on facebook (pic by david j. m. coleman), and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.... .
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jam - I'm pretty sure that's a Royal Mail van in the background, so it must be in the UK somewhere.
The guy on his phone looks like he's positioned himself to make it look like he's reading the book on the top of the placard!
i stumbled upon this website a few weeks ago due to the jw.org ridiculousness, since then i haven't been able to pull myself away.
the thoughts, feelings, and concerns i have had the past few years aren't just mine.
it's global.
Hi AFS and thanks for sharing your story.
I was never a witness but am concerned about relatives who are, hence my visits here. All individual circumstances are different but, from what I've read here, fading from the org generally seems to be the easiest way out. Confrontations, judicial hearings etc seem to cause a lot of heartache and I've never really understood why anyone would want to go through that, even if there is an element of catharsis in 'having your say'.
Others on here are much better informed than I am about flaws in WT doctrine but if you're looking to read wider than that then I strongly recommend 'The Magic of Reality' by Richard Dawkins. It's quite short and very readable and even if you retain a belief in a creator at least you'll understand where many atheists are coming from.
Best wishes
Bemused
isis recruits children to perform beheadings, shoot rifles, carry out terrorist attacks.. .
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/isis-training-children-behead-launch-terrorist-attacks-article-1.1921995.
bangalore.
Don't call me Shirley - thanks for the response. I probably shouldn't have bothered commenting initially and I certainly won't comment again on this thread, but I'll have one final go at explaining my point.
You may well be right that it was inappropriate for Sammie to use that figure in her argument. I don't know and I don't care. I had no interest in bolstering her argument or otherwise. The one and only point that I was trying to make is that, regardless of the appropriateness of using that statistic in her argument, 100,000 is not a ridiculous over-estimate of the number of Americans who are injured or killed by a gunshot in a typical year.
isis recruits children to perform beheadings, shoot rifles, carry out terrorist attacks.. .
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/isis-training-children-behead-launch-terrorist-attacks-article-1.1921995.
bangalore.
Don't Call Me Shirley - thanks, yes I do know what 'non-fatal' means. The original phrase used was victims of guns I think, which can reasonably include aggressive non-fatal injuries although perhaps accidental injuries are slightly more questionable to categorise in this way.
I got the figures from this web-site http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/.
Not sure why they use different years (perhaps most recent figures?) but in the spirit of honesty I pointed out that they were not all the same year. I shouldn't think it makes much difference though as I wouldn't imagine that the figures would vary hugely year on year, so it seems that there are typically of the order of 85,000 people a year injured or killed by guns in the US.
That's it really - I'm not commenting on gun control or how these statistics should or should not be used in an argument.
isis recruits children to perform beheadings, shoot rifles, carry out terrorist attacks.. .
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/isis-training-children-behead-launch-terrorist-attacks-article-1.1921995.
bangalore.
Throwing knives?! .... now that is dangerous ;)
