i am now an athiest myself, but i think being an athiest its a bit like having a faith.
some get very hooked on it and "preash" others (like me) simply get with with there lifes.
i am sure that some athiests like to have discussions about the non existence of " god" in a similar way that "thisists" do about the existence of god.
I was not allowed to go to science classes in public school, so the only beliefs I had about nature came from the dubs. Should no one have ever "preached" the "gospel" of evolution to me, I'd still be chained by prescientific beliefs.
I'm glad some people preach.
lillian gobitas klose, the jehovahs witness who refused in 1935 to salute the american flag in minersville, pa. started a trail that ultimately changed american legal history died aug. 22 at age 90. only three years after it had ruled against the gobitas family, the supreme court voted 6-3 to overturn that decision in a case involving a family of jehovahs witnesses from west virginia.. regardless of what one might think of jehovahs witnesses, lillian gobitas is an example of a person whose willingness to fight for her beliefs has expanded everyones personal freedoms.. http://republicanherald.com/news/minersville-girl-made-legal-history-1.1744279.
lillian gobitas klose, 90; test of faith went to u.s. supreme courtlillian gobitas klose sign the guest book.
atlanta news obituarieslillian gobitas klose, 90; test of faith went to u.s. supreme courtby elizabeth montgomery the atlanta journal-constitution.
As a side note...
more than 10,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were eventually removed to concentration camps
Interesting. The dubs have claimed so many different statistics--once they even said more jws died in concentration camps than Jews. I wonder how many actually did.
meeting with my congregation elders today.. going to tell them about the things i discovered about c.t russell.
(astrology, racism, ect.
) i don't know how to present this information or what to say.
As of right now I'm questioning if god even exsist.
That's just reality. There is zero proof the supernatural world exists, so this "certainty" you had before you woke up was fake. Accepting that we don't know everything about the universe can be freeing and restore the sense of curiosity and wonder the cult replaces with bans on independent thinking.
I now realized that I got married for the wrong reasons..
That sucks. Now your opportunity is to explore your relationship as it now is and what prospects it holds for both of you.
You mentioned you started studying in "Nov/13". Do you mean November 2013? So it's been less than a year that you've been studying and married?
So much of life is ahead of you, and even if you were partly affected by the cult before last year, you still avoided so much by not being directly involved all your life.
I'm lost and I don't know how I'm going to break to my friends that I'm not going anymore..
You actually don't have to tell them. They'll notice you're gone, and the love bombing will begin. If they ask, you are free to not respond or say you don't want to talk about it. If you choose to respond, that's your choice--no one is forcing you.
You mentioned they bought you dresses. That is a new one on me. I guess they've taken love bombing and mothering to a whole new level. Seems weird.
it seems to me like certain people actually benefit from joining the religion.
primarily i'm thinking of ones with drug problems who are only able to quit because they are working towards baptism.
another example would be those who are always getting in fights or who have a big ego, and who learn to be pacifistic and humble as a witness.
I know lots of people who deserve to be Witnesses. Abusers and killers. They deserve all the happiness that religion can provide.
i haven't really been on here in like, a year.
my stbx introduced me to this site and then a whole buch of life happened and i just sort of never had time for forums.
but here i am at 3am, another sleepless night, and i feel like i am simply lost.
He wants me to live with him for a few more months while he gets on his feet financially to be able to support himself without my help...
everytime he starts texting or receives messages on his phone now I want to smash it
ewww...no. Clean break. Rip the Band-Aid off--it'll be less painful in the long run. IMHO
If he wants to be friends and cares about you, then he wouldn't do this. Does he know how much pain this is causing you?
Seriously. Yuck.
meeting with my congregation elders today.. going to tell them about the things i discovered about c.t russell.
(astrology, racism, ect.
) i don't know how to present this information or what to say.
Hi. We're in the same time zone.
One thing is sure--you are not being influenced by demons.
Jehovah gave you a brain and you're using it. There's nothing wrong with that. Thoughts are just thoughts.
In fact, you are directly following the Society's direction.
Awake! 2000 June 22 Do Not Be a Victim of Propaganda! | |||||||||||||||||||||||
We need to scrutinize whatever is presented to us, deciding what to accept and what to reject.
Discernment enables you to discard irrelevant or misleading information
Use discernment: Discernment is "acuteness of judgment." It is "the power or faculty of the mind by which it distinguishes one thing from another." A person with discernment perceives subtleties of ideas or things and has good judgment.
Using discernment, we will be able to recognize those who are merely using "smooth talk and complimentary speech" in order to "seduce the hearts of guileless ones." (Romans 16:18) Discernment enables you to discard irrelevant information or misleading facts and distinguish the substance of a matter. But how can you discern when something is misleading?
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Test whatever you are reading or watching, to see if it is truthful
it's funny how my mind works since walking out of the hall just a bit over a year ago.
for some reason i just can't seem to bring myself to go to the jw.org site.
i find it just to painful.
I get nausea when I hear kingdumb smelodies.
It's ok. It's like when you get sick to your stomach after eating something, and can't stand to eat that thing ever again. I'm betting this automatic response to something we know to be negative is an evolutionary adaptation.
been out now for 10 yrs but life is a mess.
starting to think its because i have no spiritual compass.
why shouldn't i consider going back?.
Leaving a high control group without taking the necessary steps to heal is what alcoholics call "dry drunk". Some people leave only because things got bad, but they never healed the pain it caused, so they just keep the same sort of behavior patterns and often relapse. The relapse happens when they start looking at the past with rose-colored glasses and seek the familiarity of their former chaotic behaviors.
This is not about doctrine or a bunch of bozos. It's about a totally unhealthy way of thinking and behaving--the entire lifestyle is toxic.
You deserve a life worth living. You have to do the difficult work of healing to get there.
this is what i found at anointedjw.org.
i don't know if it's true.
on august 25, 2014, we received the following comment and inquiry: .
the death dealing ‘earthly hope’ doctrine
A bit dramatic.
They actually have deadly policies but that isn't one of them.
this drives me insane when i am rebutted after i say "well take it easy brother so & so" after a small conversation.
they always seem to reply "we are in jehovah's organization there is no taking it easy" or "we are in the last days brother we don't have time to take it easy".
i guess this makes me a care-free man of the world rather than a spiritual man!!
Yeah I found that one particularly heartless at times. Like when I was exhausted and severely anemic from untreated bleeds, and my mother would read about how lazy ones turn upon their couches, and how Satan told Jesus to be kind to himself. And then tell me to get up and put my multi-layered prarie wear on for the meeting. You know, because being at a meeting for several hours on a weeknight, when you have to get up at 5 a.m. for school, is much more important than getting needed rest.
Yes. Listening to them drone on about repetitive, utter nonsense is much more important than your child's physical well being.
