Posts by neverendingjourney

5

Light speed isn't as fast as Hollywood portrays it.

by Island Man in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aau_btbn7s

neverendingjourney

I never studied physics much in depth in when I was in school, but I've read a lot on the subject over the years. Relativity is fascinating in ways that my mind can't fully comprehend.

For instance, since space and time are intertwined, if you could somehow catch a ride on a photon of light and travel at light speed, you could travel the length of the universe and it would seem instantaneous to you, but to an observer on Earth billions of years would have passed.

Time and distances aren't fixed quantities but can vary based on motion. Weird yet fascinating stuff.

28

help me understand: My wife seems to be utterly detested by skelletons and skulls. Why?

by goingthruthemotions in

so, here i am again....asking more questions to help me understand my wife.

she was brought up in the cult in the 70's and 80's.

so i can only imagine what kind of indoctrination she deals with.

neverendingjourney

that interesting, did the BORG push that alot in the 70's and 80's?

My mother had us read an Awake! published in the early 80s that described a woman's supposed ordeal with a particular demon that stalked and killed her family members one by one. I remember the descriptions quite vividly. The demon left her alone, of course, once she discovered "the truth" and learned all about Jehovah.

It was like showing a child The Exorcist and telling him it was real.

23

Getting the Urge!

by Theburstbubble in

jw
friends

evening folks, so as some of you may know we have recently decided to leave the witnesses and can see it for the man made organisation it is.

so, why do i get the urge to go back and feel guilty for not being there!

it's like my mind is telling me to be logical about it all but then something keeps pulling me back.. don't get me wrong i really want to break free from it all and i'm resisting the urge to go back as i have been miserable in the truth for a long time as i've known it's not right and want to do the best by my daughter.

neverendingjourney

The programming runs deep, much deeper that we imagine.

After I found this website and did online research I knew I would never go back. Yet every time I broke a new rule, I'd feel immensely guilty, the kind of guilt that wakes you up at night. The first time I got drunk, the first time I smoked marijuana, the first time I had sex, each of those instances was followed by feelings of incredible guilt even though I no longer believed in the Witnesses. It was programming pure and simple and I knew it, but it didn't make the feelings any less real.

Eight years after I left the Witnesses I found myself on a business trip in a foreign country. We went to dinner and my boss wanted to order blood sausage. Even though it'd been eight years since I left the Witnesses an unsettling sense of panic came over me. After all that time the indoctrination was still there.

As others have mentioned, it gets better with time, but there's a very real re-wiring of the brain process that takes place at a physiological level that's simply part of unplugging from the Watchtower.

Best of luck to you.

12

Sad News: Girl of JW parents with schizophrenia murders two siblings

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

this is a very sad and disturbing case in mexico.. used google translate.

ask me if the translation is not clear:.

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=utf-8&u=http%3a%2f%2flaverdadnoticias.com%2fnina-de-11-anos-mato-a-sus-hermanos-porque-satanas-se-lo-ordeno%2f570605%2f&edit-text=.

neverendingjourney

Can't have them finding out that the WT worldview and lifestyle might be making the problem worse, now, can we?

While not exactly on point, I always felt that keeping mental health problems in-house was motivated by the same logic found in 1 Corinthians Chapter 6:

Does any one of you who has a dispute with another dare to go to court before unrighteous men, and not before the holy ones? Or do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to try very trivial matters? Do you not know that we will judge angels? Then why not matters of this life? If, then, you do have matters of this life to be tried, is it the men looked down on in the congregation whom you assign as judges? I am speaking to move you to shame. Is there not one wise man among you who is able to judge between his brothers? Instead, brother goes to court against brother, and before unbelievers at that! Really, it is already a defeat for you when you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather let yourselves be wronged? Why do you not rather let yourselves be defrauded? Instead, you wrong and defraud, and your brothers at that!

12

Sad News: Girl of JW parents with schizophrenia murders two siblings

by ILoveTTATT2 in

jw
friends

this is a very sad and disturbing case in mexico.. used google translate.

ask me if the translation is not clear:.

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=utf-8&u=http%3a%2f%2flaverdadnoticias.com%2fnina-de-11-anos-mato-a-sus-hermanos-porque-satanas-se-lo-ordeno%2f570605%2f&edit-text=.

neverendingjourney

Treatment of mental illness is an underrated failure of this religion, in my opinion.

There was a kid who was clearly mentally ill in our congregation. An elder told me in confidence that the elders had been dispatched to this family's house because the kid was hearing voices and the voices were telling him to kill his mother.

Obviously, the elder said, the family was suffering from demonic influence so they prayed with them and helped them go through their belongings to throw away any possessions that could in some way be attached to spiritism, you know, books about witches and the like. As far as I know, the family was never encouraged to seek medical attention.

Thankfully, the kid didn't act out on his impulses (at least not that I'm aware of), but the fact that a complex medical problem like that was addressed by a welder and a ditch-digger is phenomenally irresponsible.

23

Take the Kingdom back to Mexico!

by John Aquila in

if donald trump wins the presidency, about 90% of the jws in my area will have to go back to mexico.

the watchtower will be having a fire sale on kingdom halls.

if trump became president and he followed through on his policy of sending back undocumented immigrants, would that affect the jws publisher numbers big time in the united states?

neverendingjourney

I never said 90% of the population is illegal. I put the U.S. census to help you see that in my City about 90% of the Population is Hispanic compared to 38% in the State of Texas.

Let's walk through this logically.

Trump has called for deportation of illegal immigrants and an end to birthright citizenship.

You said your city is 90% Hispanic.

You said if Trump becomes president 90% of the JWs in your area will have to go back to Mexico (because apparently that's where they all originate from).

Seems pretty clear to me you intended to conflate illegal immigrants and JWs who attend Spanish language congregations in your area.

21

Guardians of Doctrine.

by Pubsinger in

i'm still working my way through the videos..... this has probably been covered before but had anyone else ever heard them use this phrase before?

not me... but it's a clever and as per usual misleading choice of words.. if they are indeed guardians of doctrine, they are very poor ones.

if so jws would believe the same thing now that they did in 1879 and we all know that's not true.

neverendingjourney

Guardians Of Doctrine (G.O.D.) sounds like another effort to become more like the Catholics, in this case theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Curia, today called the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office which in previous centuries was better known as the "Inquisition".

James Penton makes a pretty compelling case in Apocalypse Delayed that the Witnesses have much more in common with Catholicism than they do with Protestatism, despite their history of launching hysterical attacks against the Catholic Church.

Despite the obvious similarities, I had never put two and two together until I read his book many years ago.

23

Take the Kingdom back to Mexico!

by John Aquila in

if donald trump wins the presidency, about 90% of the jws in my area will have to go back to mexico.

the watchtower will be having a fire sale on kingdom halls.

if trump became president and he followed through on his policy of sending back undocumented immigrants, would that affect the jws publisher numbers big time in the united states?

neverendingjourney

But where I’m at, the percentage of Hispanic or Latino in 2013 was over 81%. The local news said a few weeks ago that it pretty close to 90% now

You do understand that a 90% Hispanic population is not the same thing as 90% illegal immigrant population, don't you?

You're equating Hispanics with illegal immigrants by saying that (a) your city has a 90% illegal immigrant population and (b) if Trump becomes president 90% of JWs in your area will have to leave the country.

Not every Mexican, even those who look like the folks in the pictures you posted, are in the country illegally.

23

Take the Kingdom back to Mexico!

by John Aquila in

if donald trump wins the presidency, about 90% of the jws in my area will have to go back to mexico.

the watchtower will be having a fire sale on kingdom halls.

if trump became president and he followed through on his policy of sending back undocumented immigrants, would that affect the jws publisher numbers big time in the united states?

neverendingjourney

I get where you're coming from and you're probably trying to be funny, but that's a really unfair characterization.

I spent my entire life up to my mid 20s in Spanish congregations in Texas and the number of illegal immigrants was nowhere near 90%. Sure, there were many illegal immigrants, but let's not forget there's such a thing as legal immigration as well.

My parents, both of whom speak broken English, are likely viewed as illegal immigrants by a lot of people, but they're both U.S. citizens.

15

Are beards allowed yet for MS and Elders??

by EndofMysteries in

i remember a little over 15 years ago, one of my first jobs at a grocery store, the manager was happy that they passed a new policy allowing them to grow a beard.

previously they were not allowed.

among the usa, i guess beards were considered not very professional still.

neverendingjourney

I work for a large, multi-national company that employs tens of thousands of employees worldwide. Our CEO has a beard.

Much like the expectation that women wear flowery dresses all the time, the no-beard rule is a remnant of bygone generation (not the overlapping kind).