jehovah unmasked by nathaniel j. merritt.
has anyone read this and what are your thoughts, opinions?
i have just downloaded it tonight and i'm already on chap.
This is my favorite book, i could not put it down. It truly made me see how ridiculous my beliefs were.
It made by see God from the other perspective, the evil god, jeleous, insecure and violent. But at the end, I just realized he was just a myth, just like Satan, the most preferred boggie man to pick on. Blame the unknown to unexistant creatures, build myths and cultural traditions along the way!
i look forward to a happy thanksgiving with my family, and my cousin's family.
we grew up together and share many childhood experiences.
she has been of a great source of support after leaving the cult.
A minute of silence for those who are still stuck and not able to be with family on such a special occasion.
I guess I'm the only one struggling a little bit with missing some of the close relatives that are still trapped in the cult. :(
Happy thanksgiving everybody!
i look forward to a happy thanksgiving with my family, and my cousin's family.
we grew up together and share many childhood experiences.
she has been of a great source of support after leaving the cult.
I look forward to a Happy Thanksgiving with my family, and my cousin's family. We grew up together and share many childhood experiences. She has been of a great source of support after leaving the cult. When it comes to food, we will have stuffed baguettes with Salvadoran roast turkey and it special sauce. It should be delicious!!
I have to admit that it's a bit difficult to think about not being able to be with my siblings and my parents for this special holiday. We used to celebrate it together even as JWs. We didn't call it "Thanksgiving", but we still had an excuse to get together and have turkey. But with the shunning that is not possible anymore as we all know.
So there is a bit of melancholy thinking about that, I miss those good old times where the whole family could be together. I guess many of us here share that common sadness. It's a loss for everybody because of this stupid cult. I know they suffer just as much.
Do you guys have the same feelings? I guess we all need to have sympathy for each other, since we all relate to this sad situation.
a must-see for people on this discussion forum.
it's the story of hypatia, the female mathmetician and philosopher who had the distinct unfortune to be alive when those jesus-loving christians were becoming ascendant in alexandria.
she was eventually killed by christians...you know...they have always had problems with really smart women.
Great movie, I love it. It shows what fanatism can do to society and to science. It brings it to the dark ages!!
if you are so certain of what you believe... how do you know you are not deceiving yourself?
did you know that self deception is natural brain mechanism?.
here is an interesting video for you.
There is a book that relates to this topic, "Under the influence", it shows the effect of group dynamics:
i relate to your pain and suffering.
you remind me of the struggle i had for over a year, where i was pushing myself to go the meetings and even gave public talks because of friends and family, even when i knew it was all bullshit.
i was so sick to my stomach, that i literally felt like puking during the meetings.
letsslatejws, I suggest you ignore their calls and you simply stop opening the door. They will eventually get tired, and hopefully get the message that you want nothing to do with them. Good luck!
i relate to your pain and suffering.
you remind me of the struggle i had for over a year, where i was pushing myself to go the meetings and even gave public talks because of friends and family, even when i knew it was all bullshit.
i was so sick to my stomach, that i literally felt like puking during the meetings.
btt
if you were even born into a religion, would you feel that you had to get out?
( the only religion that i know of where people get out and often never go to any other religion is the jw religion)..
Unitarian Universalists! No doctrines, God is optional, just values and principles that give you inner-peace
i relate to your pain and suffering.
you remind me of the struggle i had for over a year, where i was pushing myself to go the meetings and even gave public talks because of friends and family, even when i knew it was all bullshit.
i was so sick to my stomach, that i literally felt like puking during the meetings.
@Hopscotch: Thanks for adding more insight, great points. As an elder I saw this many times. The more desperate you get knowing that something is wrong, the more you think it has to do with you. The more uncomfortable you get (or spiritually sick), the more you try to do for Jehovah by serving as a pioneer, elder, MS, etc... Then you go to the Kingdom hall and you see all the happy faces, and you wonder:"what is wrong with me?". Of course, you don't think it's fake, you think everybody else is truly happy; unless you're an elder, then you know what happens behind the curtains, it's only a f açade, or a front for everybody, but you know how miserable and hypocritical they are.
I thought your comments also go a long way to explain the number of cases of depression, nervous breakdowns, alcoholism, paranoia disorders etc that seem to be rampant within the congregations of JWs. I have personally witnessed many cases of mental health breakdowns in the congregations I was in for the last 10/15 years or so as a JW - including some in my own JW family.
And what I feel adds even more to these mental health problems is constantly being told that JWs are the 'happiest people on earth' and that they are in a 'spiritual paradise'. So when someone does start to feel depressed their cult training leads them to believe that it is they who have a problem and that maybe they are not doing enough. So this guilt and the stress caused by trying to do more only adds to this downward spiral into fullblown depression/breakdown/alcoholism.
The people that are trapped will develop double personality disorders, the cult identity and the real identity, but will have trouble reconciling the two identities. They may start having a secret life as a way to cope with the anxiety, basically not being true to themselves, but this affects their self-steem and sense of integrity about themselves.
The people that manage to get out of the Jehovah's Witnesses or get DF'ed reached the breaking point of sanity, whether they realize it or not. They could no longer continue with the lie, or got fed up with it, and could no longer cope with something that felt unnatural and unhealthy. It may get to the point, where active members will subconsciously sin to get kicked out on purpose, as way of self-survival mechanism because of the constant suffering and misery experienced.
Many still trapped inside could develop obsessive compulsive disorders as a way to cope with the constant stress.
That's why I say, the sooner you get out, the better you are. You cut your losses short and move on, rather than keep losing with no hope in store.
i sent a .pdf to a few friends and one of them betrayed me and forward it to a elder i know, along with the emails of the recipients.
i cant believe i was so naive to think that i can trust someone..stupid.
i have not talked to the "benedict arnold" yet, but hopefully soon.
Smoky, I just hope those elders don't call the WTS headquarters, because they are likely to get further instructions to get to the bottom of this, possibly even get their legal department involved with that source that sent you the book.
Keep playing dumb. Don't sound defiant.. They are likely to meet with you, and will command you to keep silent about this whole incident.
