I STRONGLY recommend the book "Staring at the Sun" by Irvin Yalom. It deals with that topic exactly: fear of death. Please read it. It is like a journey in Epicurus' Garden. (you'll find what that is in the book)
Posts by Syme
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34Overwhelming Fear of Death
by Perversion of a truth indo any of the posters on here deal with this?
i do, and i hate it.
people (mostly my brother) tells me to not fear death and just to enjoy life and so on, but that doesn't seem to help any.
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17
Schizophrenia
by thedog1 inthat is what it feels like at the moment.
i am leading a field service group tomorrow morning.
taking the wt study on saturday.
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Syme
Man, I feel for you. I mean, I feel sorry for you.
There are a lot of things you can do from your post, but it's up to you to decide if it's worth it, and if it is realistic to think you can change things from the inside.
Just remember that not even Ray Franz, who was an charismatic GB member, was able to change things from the inside. And you're just a local elder.
I have decided that this thing is definately not going to change by individual efforts from the inside. It is too large an organism. So I've decided to live my life, or what's left of it anyway. It is good to those around you happy, but at what cost on your life?
As for the bros and sis: they try to be Christians, but only in the way they've been told a Christian is; e.g. shunning former members, and craving for the oncoming death of 99.9% of humanity in Armageddon. Think about it.
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20
Why Thousands of years instead of Billions???
by Bloody Hotdogs! injws have long ascribed billions of years to the age of the earth, yet only thousands to the length of the creative days (see 2014 awake!
on creation).
what game are they playing??
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Syme
It is all due to the Seventh Day: The seventh day is linked to the JW eschatology: it covers the period from the end of God's creative works to the ending of the 1.000 years Christ's reign. This period has to be around 7.000 years and not a lot more. If it lasted, say, 1M years or 1Bil years, do you understand the implications for the JW eschatology? Armageddon and the Millenium would be postponed to some millions years in the future!
No prophet has any chance of gaining followers unless he speaks of an IMMINENT 'End'.
They could, of course, change the length of only the*first* 6 days to millions of years, but then they'd have to justify somehow why the 7th day has different length.
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74
Has the Governing Body Become More or Less Authoritarian in Recent Years?
by cofty init seems to me that this is a no-brainer but i have been out since '96.. so based on your personal experiences what do you think?.
lots more - a bit more - just the same as always - less - a lot less?.
if you think more or lots more can you spot a time or event when it started to change?.
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Syme
I really agree with Borges!
As a child, in the late 80s and early 90s, I clearly remember a far more conservative JW church, in every way. Conservative elders, conservative R&F. And the GB was indeed authoritarian (in the conservative way); just read Ray Franz's account in CoC.
But, there was a difference. The local elders had more real authority. When I was a secretary I used to read old correspondence and files of the congs I served: there it was apparent that the elders did a lot of actual handling by themselves. They had *actual* opinion, and their opinion weighed heavily.
Now this has vanished. The current GB has taken the handling of each and every congregation as personally as ever. In this aspect, yes, it has become much more authoritarian. The GB now is de facto the BOE of every congregation. The local elders just carry out the endless inflow of ridiculously specific written instructions by the GB. The talks in meetings and conventions/assemblies are also more specifically layed out by the GB. (if you've taken a look at new talk layouts you know what I mean)
As a prime example: think of the recently leaked JC video that was shown in the Kingdom Ministry school. Would you imagine a 70s, 80s, or even 90s GB sending a video showing how exactly the elders should do every little detail of their job? This example I think illustrates how much more the GB is trying to handle all matters by themselves. Now, why is that? Don't they trust the BOEs anymore? Are they scared? These are good questions for another thread.
So, my opinion is: the GB is more authoritarian in organizational matters, but not behavioural ones. They succeed in being organizationally authoritarian because of the very structure and hierarchy of the religion. But, they don't succeed in being authoritarian with regards to the JWs way of living, because the world changes (to the more liberal), and so does every human on this planet, even JWs. For instance, they tried to be authoritarian with the Internet: they failed. Now they embrace the net. They tried to be authoritarian with porn: they failed (they still try hard with that; good luck). They tried to be authoritarian with studies: I don't think they succeeded; most jw youths in my area see studying in college as something really natural. They tried to make every jw spend all their time in field service: instead, they had to lower *their* standards in order to keep their numbers of auxiliary and regular pioneers.
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61
Elders School 2013: Model Judicial Committee Videos and messages from the GB
by hildebrando infor the first time, weve accessed to audiovisual material in spanish, regarding the elders schools.
here is a video of a dramatization of a model judicial committee, in addition to letts introduction (speaking with strange gestures) and comments from anthony morris iii:.
http://hildeydesa.blogspot.com/2014/02/escuela-de-ancianos-2013-videos-de.html.
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Syme
From a certain perspective, it is strange.
It is strange that the GB presses for more disfellowshippings at a time when stagnation knocks at the door.
Many JW are leaving deliberately, more are fading/becoming inactive, and many more give in to apathy. The field work is now a mere distribution of cheap leaflets; few are 'qualified' to serve as elders, most R&F don't want to go into that procedure.
Still, the Org is pressing for more ridigness...
It is a risky game on their part, they prefer to have them under high control even if they are less in numbers; however, the laws of nature dictate that from a certain point on, too much pressure will lead to a 'pressure relief'.
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My confession: How i feel WT makes me a bigger liar
by Jon Preston inthis is difficult for me to discuss.
i love my wife and i live my family.
but since i became a jw i feel like ive lied more than when i was "worldy"...is it stress and the relentless pressure to do more?
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Syme
Repression leads to lying.
It's human nature. Especially when you repress perfectly natural urges.
The more repressing a religion is, the more lying their members are. They are forced to lie.
Why so many priests and monks lie about their chastity/celibacy? Because they're repressed.
Why so many JWs lie about viewing pornography or masturbating? Because it's a 'taboo'; it's a repressed urge.
Excessive requirements lead to excessive lies.
Also, if you try desperately to build and maintain an image of a ''holy'' man of "faith" (as a 'good' JW does), of course you have to lie some times in order to keep that image intact. You can't make an omelette (image) without breaking some eggs (lying).
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25
British museum bible tours
by inbetween invisiting london years ago i had the chance to participate on a bible tour arranged from bethel.
what i remember, it was one out of 12 topics, and a brother or sister served as a guide, showing particular objects related to bible accounts.. at that time, i was quite enthusiastic about it, thinking i learned something valuable.. .
now, being awake to ttatt, i wonder what real scientific value those tours served.. or rather it raises the suspicion, that those tours are for visiting witnesses in order to distract them from many other finds in the museum, that would disprove either the bible or their own theology.. anybody ever made such a tour ?.
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Syme
I visited the British Museum last year, but not on a ''Bible tour''. It was a most amazing and enriching experience. The thing is, almost EVERYTHING in the British Museum actually disproves the WTS interpretations, even the accuracy of the Bible itself, if taken literally. For example, artifacts from Egypt predating, or at the time of, the 'Flood'; artifacts from Neolithic age, long before Adam & Eve; Sumerian artifacts before the Flood; the list is huge.
The most astonishing fact, is that those so-called Bible tours pass right through those wonderful displays and yield ZERO gain in knowledge. A visit that could really change your worldview degrades into another ''faith upbuilding'' experience... it's a farce, come to think of it. Also shows, that the fanatical, brainwashed person is capable of going through a temple of Humanity, as is the British Museum, and yet gain nothing.
It's like a stone that lives in the bottom of the lake for years, yet the water does not penetrate it in the least.
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10
How does anxiety affect your heart rate?
by Splash in-- w54 4/15 p. 233 scriptural aspect of psychosomatic medicine --.
"doctors have found also that anxiety slows down the heart beat as much as 27 beats a minute.
the bible shows that men become faint out of fear and the heart may stop.luke 21:26 (men become faint out of fear)".
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Syme
Hilarious!
Those old ''scientific'' WT articles are pure joy!
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46
War over preparing for WT study
by cookiemaster ini know that title sounds weird but so is this situation.
with the following information i'm about to desconspire myself a little bit, but i don't really care since i will simply deny it if any of my elders are lurking here.
anyway the situation is the following.
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Syme
No, don't be afraid. In fact, *he* is the one out of line here, even by WTS standards.
Kick him all you want, he won't be holding long his position since: (a) he takes double time (2h) to complete the lesson, (b) he insults brothers in the audience, (c) he comments too much on the lesson, instead of letting the audience do the most commenting, (d) he instructs the audience with arbitrary rules as to how they should prepare for the study.
All those 4 reasons are legitimate causes for him to be relieved of his assignment. If you are in good terms with an elder of his congo, shoot freely.
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59
Why doesn't Jehovah just destroy Satan and the demons then leave humanity alone?
by yadda yadda 2 indid you ever wonder that as a jw?.
if all the trouble on this planet is down to satan and the demons, why not just get rid of them and then leave humankind alone and see how we go from there?
wouldn't a god who "is love" (1 john 4:8) full of mercy and justice at least try that first?
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Syme
That problem (the existence of evil) is a problem for all religions, not just WTS.
As Epicurus had said:
Why God doesn't destroy evil?
If he wants but cannot, then he is not almighty.
If he can but does not want, then he is not benevolent.
If neither does he want nor can, then why call him God?
The official doctrine of the Watchtower is that God can destroy Satan but doesn't want to, for the time being (meaning, for the past 6,000 years). So, how can he be benevolent?