Simon
- just look at Scientology.
I'd rather not. JW has made me sick to the stomach as it is.
in the early 1990s, i was in a meeting.
we were making some major changes to the main it system of the company i worked for.
during the meeting i said, 'what would happen if one of our major customers went belly up and shouldn't we build something into the system to cope with this?'.
Simon
- just look at Scientology.
I'd rather not. JW has made me sick to the stomach as it is.
so yesterday was a lovely day where i live and so instead of going to the meeting we went, as a family, out for the late pm/early evening to have a bbq.
we were far more relaxed than if we had gone to the meeting.
we spent far more time talking that if we had gone to the meeting.
The Searcher
Many of us here - and all around the world - are on the same path, Doltologist.
Good luck to you all.
so yesterday was a lovely day where i live and so instead of going to the meeting we went, as a family, out for the late pm/early evening to have a bbq.
we were far more relaxed than if we had gone to the meeting.
we spent far more time talking that if we had gone to the meeting.
Konceptual99
Indeed however since you are new here you probably don't know that I am on a long fade and working to get my family out with wrecking every family relationship that we have. You cannot force people to see the reality about the WTS so this is the path I am taking.
I have Aspergers. In my world, you either like or dislike me. I couldn't care less which. If people don't like what I do or say, then get the hell out of my life and stay out of it. There are other people in this world that may like me for who/what I am. It may sound callous but why would I want to be with people that don't want to be with me.
That's my take but I also understand that not a lot of people are like me.
Like Punkofnice says, you are the master of your own ship. Your the one who will suffer if you get it wrong - not me.
All I was doing was asking a question, not criticising.
What I can't get my head around is the difference between what you guys call a long slow fade and just not turning up one day.
To me, leaving jovie land is leaving jovie land and it doesn't matter whether it's quick or slow because the end point is the same. I don't understand why the results aren't i.e. a quick leave results in shunning whereas a long slow fade may not. What am I missing and perhaps someone will be good enough to enlighten me?
Oh and good luck with the fade.
so yesterday was a lovely day where i live and so instead of going to the meeting we went, as a family, out for the late pm/early evening to have a bbq.
we were far more relaxed than if we had gone to the meeting.
we spent far more time talking that if we had gone to the meeting.
in the early 1990s, i was in a meeting.
we were making some major changes to the main it system of the company i worked for.
during the meeting i said, 'what would happen if one of our major customers went belly up and shouldn't we build something into the system to cope with this?'.
In the early 1990s, I was in a meeting. We were making some major changes to the main IT system of the company I worked for. During the meeting I said, 'What would happen if one of our major customers went belly up and shouldn't we build something into the system to cope with this?'. Someone said 'Such as who?'. 'Oh, I don't know - how about Barings?' I said. A roar of laughter went up and I was left looking like a prat.
A couple of years later, in 1995, Barings went belly up after Nick Leeson lost the bank £827 million ($1.3 billion). So, a bank that was founded in 1762 and thought to be rock solid was brought to its knees by one man.
Barings Bank was eventually sold to ING for £1.
There's a lot of disenchantment of the gb specifically and all things jw generally and that's putting it mildly. In some quarters, there's hatred.
What kind of things would bring the whole jw thing to its knees?
richard dawkins has said frequently if we don't agree with religious or spiritual people we need to "insult them!
" tell their their out of their "fucking gourds!
" and make sure you really show them how stupid they are for believing in something they can't prove!".
Magic
Doltogoist, your reasonable, you see what he is saying is wrong so why do people try to qualify unambiguous hate speech?
It's like I said, in the past, religious leaders incited others to kill and commit atrocities. For example, x-tians murdered between 100 - 200 million people and raped, pillaged, enslaved and tortured millions more. It's been estimated that science was held back by x-tians by up to 100 years. X-tians even helped Nazis war criminals escape to South America after the war. Until recently, katlicker priests went unchallenged in their paedophilic behaviour. What makes this even worse is that religion is supposed to be about peace, love, understanding and forgiveness.Some people can forgive a lot easier than others. It would seem that Dawkins isn't one of those people. I have to admit though, I'm finding it especially difficult too and my instinct is to ridicule but, you know what?, there may be a better way.
In the end though, Dawkins and I want the same thing - an end to religion.
Whether Dawkins' way is the better or whether showing more tolerance and understanding is the better way remains to be seen. All I've succeeded in doing so far is to let loose some frustration is all.
"theism" here means "belief in a god" or "the worldview that an intelligent designer created the universe and life.
" ("god" here means a being with a mind who initiated and/or wound-up the universe, and designed life on earth)the most common claim that i see atheists making on twitter, is that "no evidence" exists in support of belief in a god.this post will remove any excuse atheists have for claiming "no evidence exists" in support of an initiator.
atheists can still reject this evidence as "weak," but they cannot truthfully say it does not exist.now, it is true that we do not have "observable, repeatable, falsifiable, empirical, scientific" evidence conclusively proving that an initiator exists, but we do have many lines of philisophical, experiential, and logical evidence.and... here... we... go:1:) many leading scientists, including stephen hawking, say that the space-time-matter universe had a beginning at the singularity/big bang.
Cappytan
Wow....this thread hasn't died yet? Funny...just like the virus of Theism.
My apologies. I was gonna have a go at your Egyptian thread today but got side tracked - as one does. I'll sort it tomorrow - honest guv. I have started though and it ain't all good news because there is some doubt as to the dates of dynasties in Egypt. Some scholars disagree and the disagreements vary by several centuries. On the other hand, there may be some good news in that some guy in the British Museum (I think his name is Finkel-ish, if memory serves) is of the opinion that the great flood didn't happen in Noah's time but is actually a memory of a flood from a much earlier period. Also, there wasn't just one great flood, there were several according to geological evidence. Also, there's some theories being hauled up the flag pole, just to see who salutes them, that the floods were actually caused by tsunamis rather than climactic disasters. Also, there's also something about if the Arc had been designed according to the babble, it would have broken in two. Anyways, will do some reading and get back to you.
"theism" here means "belief in a god" or "the worldview that an intelligent designer created the universe and life.
" ("god" here means a being with a mind who initiated and/or wound-up the universe, and designed life on earth)the most common claim that i see atheists making on twitter, is that "no evidence" exists in support of belief in a god.this post will remove any excuse atheists have for claiming "no evidence exists" in support of an initiator.
atheists can still reject this evidence as "weak," but they cannot truthfully say it does not exist.now, it is true that we do not have "observable, repeatable, falsifiable, empirical, scientific" evidence conclusively proving that an initiator exists, but we do have many lines of philisophical, experiential, and logical evidence.and... here... we... go:1:) many leading scientists, including stephen hawking, say that the space-time-matter universe had a beginning at the singularity/big bang.
OGTG
Atheism is a lack of belief in god(s), not necessarily a response to a claim.
How can a lack of belief in something be a belief? That's illogical!!
richard dawkins has said frequently if we don't agree with religious or spiritual people we need to "insult them!
" tell their their out of their "fucking gourds!
" and make sure you really show them how stupid they are for believing in something they can't prove!".
I must admit, Dawkins way was my way too but I've read a lot of posts, written a lot of posts, responded to a lot of posts and been responded to a lot over the past few days.
My feeling is that I was wrong and so is Dawkins.
There is a better way and that is to challenge without insulting.
However, I understand where Dawkins is coming from I think.
In the past, religious leaders went totally unchallenged. They considered themselves to be above the law. They were able to use and abuse mankind. Many of them did. I'll just mention mind control and paedophilia.
governing body member david splane has a new video on tv.jw.org where he talks about all the horrible things committed by martin luther and the protestant reformers.. his conclusion is that there has been no faithful and discreet slave on the earth during the past 1900 years (before 1919 i guess.).
he also says that maybe there were a few anointed on earth, maybe not.. he did add an interesting statement that he doesn't condemn the other churches just for misunderstanding the bible because the society has done that.. another odd point, was that he actually mentioned catholic missionary work in a somewhat positive light, while totally condemning the reformation views on predestination..
Goingthruthemotions:
Man, it's just fictional writing in an ever changing cult that is loosing grasp of it's followers.
An it's grip on reality too.