the bible attaches importance to your name.
if not, what would you like to change it to?.
i always hated mine!
I was named after my grandfather and until the age of twelve I did not know it... I was called a nick name...
when I found out, I was horrified and swore that one day I would change it.... I promised to wait until my grandfather was dead...
two years after he died the idea popped into my head and when I found out it only cost $30 bucks and $5 for a legal copy, I was in.
I legally changed my name August 1985.... 21 years ago, perhaps even this day (^_^)
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i know that all religions have their flaws, so do you agree that witnesses should call themselves christians or are they 'too un-christian'?.
the baptism, i think proves its different, they are baptized into an organization, that forms part of the questions...agreeing that the society is god's earthly representation.. personally i feel they are not christians.
are JWs christian.... who gets to decide? there is no such thing as a verifiable absolute organization that designates who is a christians...
JWs can say who is or is not a JW and catholics can say that for themselves too...but no one can really say who is or is not a christian in the same way...
so its basically a meaningless question.
i just thought it would be nice to have a documented case of someone other than a jw having been 'protected' from rape, carjacking, murder or mugging in an unusual way (ie.
praying, preaching or screaming 'o my god' and the guy stops and apologizes.).
the idea is that i can the relate the experience to a witness, .
after my exodus from the BORG collective, I discovered that seemingly miraculous events have followed me about, sometimes very very miraculous like events... and all without prayer to anyone nor asking for anything....they just happen, sometimes with amazing timing... so it occurs to me that atheist and believers have the same sort of experiences, but believers just think someone arranged them while atheists just accept that they dont understand how the universe works enough to explain things that happen like that...
one of my favorite lines---- GOD, well, you know when you close your eyes really tight and wish for something?, he's the one ignoring you (^_^)
what is it with jehovah's witnesses and apostates and "big announcements" - they are as bad as each other.
witnesses are always on about big announcements in the pipeline - just to end up being disappointed.
like the time they reduced the pioneers hours - big wow.
its only a joke until someone loses an eye, then its a religion
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hello all, been lurking a few weeks, decided to post..... i am mid 20's, male, unbaptised, 3rd generation, elder family etc.
a number of years ago, in the name of intellectual honesty, i decided to research religions to make an informed choice before being baptised as a jw.... there was not enough time (and i was too uninterested) to look at other religions seriously, so i figured if jw is the "truth" then it should be able to stand any criticism.. is it just me or is it all a load of old bollocks?!.
Any religion that punishes the honest [those who just dont believe JWs represent any god] and rewards the dishonest [those who stay in for family sake], cannot be right, can it?
if you read my other post you'll get the context but since this will be of great potential interest here it is: .
the jws are soon(next few months) going to make a public proclamation against all other churches which he was confident would 'shake things up' and would make a few jws unhappy???.
is this the big announcement for september?
the big announcement is that they will have to wear placards that say religion is a snare and a racket in liquid crystal display...changing every several seconds to some bible verse or other..and carry i-pods playing pre-recorded scripts to the door with headphones for the house holder....to keep up with advances in technology
how did you get to the point where you are at now?
was it primarily new information that made you rethink religion and god?
learning about the ice age, the universe, the fossils out there?
I became agnostic for the 2nd time, post JW because I determined to follow the facts no matter where they lead me...and I discovered they always lead me back to my own perceptions, my own minds inventions, my own opinions, my own beliefs, in short, everything leads me to conclude that I can never be sure of any objective reality outside of my own existance... I am the dreamer dreaming because I cannot be sure of being anything else .(^_^). <<looks like the jettisons robot maid, dont it?
in the thread on agnostic or atheist, startingover posted an article by a woman who is referred to as the happy heretic.
i like that phrase.
how do you view yourself?
I am basically a zen agnostic pragmatic pan-me-istic skeptic .(^_^).
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jesus said something along the lines of--- if your eye offends you [if what you see offends you], pluck out your eye..... i have never met a one eyed christian, but i have met some pretty offended ones.
Jesus said something along the lines of--- if your eye offends you [if what you see offends you], pluck out your eye....
I have never met a one eyed christian, but I have met some pretty offended ones.
questioning apostates
i recently read a post in which a man who was married for 27 years was on .
the verge of a divorce from his wife because she claims he is an apostate.. the apostasy was because he showed her the history of the watchtower.
I dont think it is brainwashing but a form of hypnosis which causes one to ignore things they are told not to see... you see it alright, but your mind does a song and dance and tells you to ignore it and you move on to the next thing without remembering what it was you just saw.... in the mind of most of us things that bother us echo over and over again until we resolve them... to the hypnotized they are just filed and buried under do not open boxes....
I saw this first hand when, while recounting all our JW doubts, post exodus, my now ex wife had a sudden memory surface of an elder trying to molest her.
when she broke free of his grip and left the house, she told her self that THAT DID NOT HAPPEN as she had just expeirenced it and buried it and never ever looked at it again until the moment we found it.... and then she became enraged and vengeful and desirous of retribution... she spoke to her dad, a fallen elder but still connected and got this elder to step down... but before she could get her revenge or at least an apology, this very old one died.
