"i was in the jehovah's witness cult you see, and that contained my social constructs well.
f*** that, now i'm free.
now my worldview has changed radically in the fundamentals, however, the orbital satellite things remain constant.
P.S. Mincan, btw, every body's a bit screwed up over something; those of us who can admit it are way less screwed up than those who can't. Best of luck!
EwW! I said "luck!" You know, that's just not something I say, JW or not! You can tell I've had a few today!
<!-- .style1 { font-family: arial; font-size: 18px; } .style2 { font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; } .style3 {color: #ff0000} .style4 {font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; } --> you are much too harsh about the watchtower societysince you were, little we did our best to raise you.
you always received good.
grades in school; we always did our best to feed, clothe and give you every-.
((((((Wanderer))))))
Never give up, they may wake up one day and and want their child back.
Philip
What if their child is an adult? Are they going to adopt somebody from China and rear them as a Witnoid? Maybe we should just start drinking and enjoy the "debauchery."
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you always received good.
grades in school; we always did our best to feed, clothe and give you every-.
Dear changeling:
Take an attempt at it. Please do not
give up because these situations do
happen and quite often.
Just try to resolve it anyway.
Respectfully,
The Wanderer
From page 1:
We did our best . . .
How about, "Your best wasn't good enough . . . because you're f@cktards who should have done more research and who should not have been so lazy in regards to issues of child development and general psychology, education and scientific research!
Does that resolve anything for you Wanderer? Edited because I have been drinking too much. Damn! F@cktards seriously get on my nerves.
<!-- .style1 { font-family: arial; font-size: 18px; } .style2 { font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; } .style3 {color: #ff0000} .style4 {font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; } --> you are much too harsh about the watchtower societysince you were, little we did our best to raise you.
you always received good.
grades in school; we always did our best to feed, clothe and give you every-.
I'm sorry to say that it took me 25 years, but eventually I responded with, "f*ck you," only in not so many words, as I simply stay away and there's no need for the expletives now because I don't have to deal with their extremely damaging and stupid nonsense sense I just stay away. Wow, Satan's really gotta' hold of me now, huh? lol
in a previous post, journey-on layed out the whole week's schedule for jws.
i really appreciated that because i'd always been curious about how many meetings, etc.
per week.
MS = Jehovah's Nazis, only they don't kill you physically, only spiritually with disfellowshipping . . . Ha ha . . . they cut off their noses to spite their faces . . . at least in my case because some people who are d'fe'd eventually realize it's the best thing that ever happened to them; although it often takes a long time for them to realize this.
Who needs a family that believes in this kind of crap?
BTW, lavendar, have you been "forsaking the gathering. . ." of yourselves together, (or whatever the friggin' scripture says)?
-Joy (a frequently drunk atheist)
P.S. If you want a crash course in jw-dom, try an extremely boring and brainwashing Thursday night meeting . . . they don't usually immerse newbies in Thursday nights, because it's so totally for the MS crowd and their families . . .
Who said,"your truth, my truth and THE truth?"
Sometimes, it's all about perceptions; and perceptions change; so do misperceptions, especially amongst the mentally ill, and there are a few of us here . . .. . . not surprising for a bunch in cult recovery or in denial . . .
. . . not to mention that a few of us were raised by the mentally ill. But nevermind those comments, I went to therapy today . . . everything's questionable after that.
"i was in the jehovah's witness cult you see, and that contained my social constructs well.
f*** that, now i'm free.
now my worldview has changed radically in the fundamentals, however, the orbital satellite things remain constant.
Mincan - Good for you, on taking on the task of growing up. All I can say is that whether or not there is a God, you have to live with you, and with the consequences and knowledge of your actions and decisions, whether or not any one else does. If you cut corners and take the lazy way out, others might not know, but you will always know. It is good that you have chosen the harder path - leaving the cushion of a cult religion - because you are the one who must live with yourself and with a complete knowledge of all the actions and inactions you have made in your life. Continue on, with the growth, no matter how painful it might seem to be. Sometimes, what you learn the hard way is what you can teach another, so that they may take a less painful way.
in his book, how we believe, religious skeptic michael shermer states "in our complex and contingent world, random events often happen in seemingly peculiar sequences that cry out for meaning.
we usually rise to the occasion, finding patterns in nature even when they do not exist or have no real significance...." a claim somewhat along this line was made in the tv show numb3rs by mathematics professor epps--that people look for, and think they find, patterns in random events.. you can't watch a movie or tv show about crime without seeing detectives attempting to solve crimes by trying to find patterns in a collection of information.
they work backwards from the end result to find links between the pieces of information and possibly back to a cause.. yes, we look for patterns.
It seems to me that If we approach this without any presumptions, both sides carry equal weight.
Yes, but both sides will never carry equal weight if the the argument for such patterns (that prove or disprove one's beliefs) is approached scientifically, which does require making astute assumptions and predictions (presumptions) about how things will turn out, if the assumptions about why the supposed patterns occur are in fact valid. There have been, for instance studies done on the efficacy of prayer that found it ineffecacious for heart patients, and that found a direct correlation between increased patient deaths in those who knew they were being prayed for.
It is important to understand the difference between scientific evidence and anecdotal evidence: science does make presumptions/assumptions and rigorously tests the assumptions; and if the assumptions are shown true by repeatedly tested evidence, the assumptions are treated as theoretical, scientific fact, until proven wrong by better tests.
This is why germ theory is regarded as a fact - in the same way that evolutionary and other scientific theories are regarded as facts. Nothing more scientific has, nor is likely to disprove them.
Anecdotal "evidence" does not operate in this way. It does not demand double blind studies of the hypotheses; nor does it subject itself to rigorous testing of any sort because This is The Way Of Faith and of anecdotal thought and of the false pattern-identification that is its hallmark.
I suppose all arguments regarding pattern-identification would carry equal weight if not tested scientifically. This is why so many people seem to think that Astrology is scientific. They simply don't understand some very basic scientific principles and they see all arguments as having equal weight because of such flawed thinking.
i recall witnesses saying how evil wordly parents were by "lying" to their children about these characters.
how witness children were fortunate that their parents always told them the truth.. so, i wonder, have you ever met an adult who was messed up because of having found out that santa clause and friends were not real?
are therapist's couches everywhere filled with these poor souls?
They're not real? . . . I'm sick, just sick to hear it!
bwah hah bwahh bawl!
BTW, the greatest pleasures in my life have included celebrating my daughter's birthdays, and observing pagan holidays with her.
I also gleefully take a deep, perverse pleasure in knowing that I have brought into the world a darling atheist daughter who seems only able to date atheist boys, hahahaha (meniachal laughter). Take that, Watchtower Society!
i was inspired to go by a fellow poster on the board who encouraged me to examine atheism a little more closely.
i am glad i went.. (now if anyone wants to come here and encourage me to be religious, sorry i won't respond to that on this thread.
feel free to start your own thread about the wonders of belief.).
Welcome to the Dark Side, Jeff!
I am glad to hear you're getting together with other local skeptics, because it's easy to feel alienated and marginalized as skeptics, living in such a religiously dominant culture. It would be very cool if they build that Atheist Fellowship you mentioned to me! What an awesome concept!
Thanks for the info you sent me on this thread, and your first atheist meeting. I am looking forward to reading the discussion on pharangula and PZ Meyers. He seems pretty cool! If I ever get to the local atheist group, I'll share what I learned, too.
Good luck and congratulations on being true to yourself!
