Posts by fiddler

26

Counteract jw.org August 2014 Campaign!

by jw07 in

there was a letter read at the last meeting indicating a push to advertise jw.org door to door in august 2014.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/273040/1/four-boe-letters#.uv8l4vldv1e.

many of those who the witnesses prey upon will no doubt search for additional information on the internet.. let us use the extra attention against the watchtower!.

- there are many of us on active on this site.. - most of the widley used search engines (google, yahoo, bing etc) show autocomplete results.. .

fiddler

The LDS beat out JWN and I suspect it's because the members of both Mormon and Jehovah's witnesses exclusively go to their own site and not others. Most other people are more diversified in their interest and use multiple sources to get information. Jehovah's witnesses are strongly advised to ONLY go to the 'mother' where all research has already been done for them. The hits are from the members mostly.

Former Jehovah's witnesses do not suffer from megalomania. We know that we are in a very small minority place trying to battle a monster who has broken our families apart.

60

Can we excuse the R&F for ever ?

by Phizzy in

generally i go along with it when posters express pity and sympathy for the r&f jw's.

i feel this way toward them too, to a degree.. but where do we draw the line ?

we know that jw's do not have a conscience of their own really, they are told how to think and act, and they have to obey.. just as those living in nazi germany were told how to think and act, and had to obey.. but, " i was just following orders " was not taken as a valid defense at nuremburg.. as the wt descends in to becoming more and more like north korea in its do not question, simply obey !

fiddler

Recenly a friend went on line and found my daughter's FB account, or at least some pictures of my grandson that weren't private. I don't have a FB account otherwise maybe I could have seen them but no matter, I went over and sat at her computer and looked at pictures of my daughter and grandson who just turned 3. Under one of the pics my daughter had written, "I think he (son) looks like my dad. I can't wait for my dad to meet him (son) in the paradise."

Her dad died in 2001 and he died NOT believing in the religion anymore; especially not the GB that direct it. For all intents an purposes he died an apostate but my daughter refuses to believe this. She is towing the line with the shunning of her mother who is very much alive and all her siblings so that she can make it to her paradise and see her daddy again. Her dad was a very strict and emotionally distant father and she wasn't even that close to him as a child and young adult. But he died so he has a hope. I guess if I died my 'apostacy' would be dismissed in her mind as well.

My daughter is mentally unstable is what I'm thinking. I blame the GB for all the commands they have made keeping her separated from her family who love her and could have helped her. She already had anxiety and depression problems and now............untreated is she just going to go further downhill mentally? Do I blame her for this spiral down or the GB?

I think it's clear who I won't excuse or forgive.

37

Jealous Murderous OT Yahweh Jehovah really is Satan?

by Shanagirl in

i would love to start a discussion (not a debate) with others that follow the gnostic writings from the nag hammadi library.

i am a believer that pretty much every belief has some truths and fallacies.

some say its a game of 'only taking what you like out of something'.....i say, its using discernment to find the 'pure nature' of what god would be and is.

fiddler

Shana, I don't post here often but your post caught my attention. It was reading up a little on the Gnostics among other things that put the Bible a bit more into perspective for me in the early days of my getting out of the JW beliefs. Also, the Book of Enoch. It is considered 'apocrapha' but if it is pseudo then so is the Genesis account (doh!) It's not that I believe these writings are 'gospel'........just that they clarify things that the ancients wrote. They round out the whole Middle Eastern religious mindset. I, too, believe that Jehovah/Yahweh is actually a description of evil. The Trickster of Native American mythos fits the bill of Yahweh as well........kind of.

As for the origin of humans being beings of light, well.....I can hold that thought. I'm OK with being a dreamer if it gets me through the day. Being only an accident and 'worm food' doesn't get me through the day. At the end of the day, it won't matter to anybody by me anyway.

6

Interesting view on JW's by UN legal

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

a recently deceased human right worker howard clark who worked for watchtower co rights, remembered..... "i knew howard basically on the c.o.

issues which had become an agenda item at the u.n. commission on human rights, which met in geneva.

however, as countries dropped conscription in favor of a professional military or developed alternatives to military service, the only c.o.s left were members of the watchtower society (jehovahs witnesses), whose theology seemed strange to howard, all the more so that in some watchtower publications, the returning jesus seems less nonviolent than the first time around!

fiddler

He saw it clearly it seems.........the JW's and their interpretation of Jesus and biblical 'revelations' about the future were anything BUT non-violent. JW's obviously didn't fit in with any peaceful movements as he saw them and so they were just an interesting inigma to him but not a belief system worth delving into any further.

Logical man! May HE RIP.

23

Were visiting briefly to try to clear up a misconception about Genesis 1:1

by suavojr in

this to me is simply unreal!

imagine having to answer the following:.

km 2014. awake march 2014. were visiting briefly to try to clear up a misconception that many have about this bible verse.

fiddler

Many have trouble believing in creation because religious leaders teach something that the Bible really doesn’t say. This magazine presents the Bible’s logical and credible explanation of the beginning of the universe.”

I don't know what the WT says THESE days but in all my years of growing up Jdub I was taught that the creative days were 7,000 years long so the earth would have been created 49,000 years ago give or take................That's what their magazines used to present. What do they 'logically' and 'Credidbly' teach now? Let's not even start about when Adam was supposedly created (6,000 years ago plus or minus a few).

Many Jdubs have this arrogance about what they believe is their supreme 'scientific knowlege' and in reality.......they are absolute fools when it comes to serious science. They know nothing.

25

My Mom Wanted To Know If I Would Ever Consider Going Back.... Guess what I said....

by minimus in

jw
friends

never!!!

!.

fiddler

I was asked that early on after leaving the religion by my aunt and that was after I'd already mentioned some inconsistencies I have found in the Bible itself. (That should have been 'nuff said!) So I just said: "That would be like going backwards." Didn't have to elaborate on what that meant but it didn't go over too well. I haven't spoken to that aunt in 12 years and yes..........I do miss her. I was just being honest but maybe a little too brutally honest. I'd probably change my approach if I had it to do over but in the end I think I'd still be being shunned.

54

Hello, its good to be back, seriously!

by AllTimeJeff in

jw
friends

for the last year or so, the opening lyrics to gloria estefan's "always tomorrow" have been howling at me.. i've been alone inside myself, far too long.

never really wanted it that way, but i let it happen..... .

(btw, the message in that song is great for former jw's, if you want to think about the lyrics that way....).

fiddler

I remember you from another board Jeff and I always enjoyed your post there. It is good to read your post here and know you are doing OK.

You see that it's been a process of growing and all and maybe feel bad about some of it but really..........the YOU I remember way back is still there. And that YOU is REAL. Your authentic self has always shone through.

I never read anything unkind from you and since I kind of avoid debate I guess I never heard you in that frame of reference but even so, I think I would still have had respect for you even then.

We all have a road ahead of us coming out of JW's. I'd lived half my life already when I woke up so I think in those first few years it was like being in infancy or maybe adolecence as far as emotional maturity went and so the lessons had to be learned in a very short time. I think it'd be fair to say a lot of us had some real a$$hole moments in the beginning. My JW relatives will of course ONLY remember those but Jeff..........WE (if I can be so bold to include the exJW community) remember the authentic you trying to get out.

It's a process.

PS: The Pacific NW has great craft brews!

34

Costco store label Bible as fiction. Minister outraged.

by jam in

jw
friends

minister walks into an costco store and saw labels on the.

bible $14.95, fiction.

the news media contacted the office of.

fiddler

Oh I LOVE it! Love Costco too!

52

What was your "Aha!" moment?

by Hortenzie in

for me it was when i learned that gb makes their decisions by 2/3 majority vote, not by direction of holy spirit..

fiddler

I think it was the way I felt after my JC....that of an errant child. I was 41 years old and not ignorant of my mistakes. I believed at the time that my mistakes were between myself and god and i viewed myself as an ADULT who could weigh this out with God. I guess I never believed that I needed a group of men to intercede for me. Where the f**k is THAT in the scriptures, reallly?+++++

It was all so tribal...........so patriarcal...............so wrong.

So I walked out never to return.

I didn't even think or know about things like the 'fade'. Boy do I wish I knew more then than I do now. Maybe I could have connected more with my JW family in a safer way but oh well.........it is what it is and my relying on just being honest in beliefs got me no where with my JW family.

They can't face honesty.

20

What if Jehovah's Witnesses were right about Armageddon...

by Comatose in

but god has changed his mind?

according to the bible god can and does change his mind.

the example of jonah comes to mind.

fiddler

What if Jehovah's Witnesses were right about Armageddon...

Well............they're not.

But if we entertain the idea that they once were???

..............that is exactly what I was thinking back when I first left the religion of my birth. The situation had definitly changed! There were too many good folks out there in ALL religions and also NO religious belief. The situation had truly changed.

It was sort of a bronze age mentality meets today.

As freedom loving humans we would not go back to tribal bronze age rules like stoning our children to death for being mouthy.......would we? So why accept that a loving god would kill billions of people simply because they weren't Jehovah's witnesses, a religious group that comprises less than .001% of the human population?

If you want to accept that it would be RIGHT to do the above, i.e. killing your mouthy teenagers and 7 billion + people then ask yourselves:

Would I even WANT to live in a world that is left to serve a deity like that?