i always was a critical jw, now df and agnost.
but still this religion fascinates me.
in my eyes most jw are very sincere, but dumb sheep.. this board is filled with ex-jw.
A "Board of Bitterness"?
My experience as a JW, together with what I have seen of other religious groups, has left me extremely distrustful of religion in any of its forms.
I do not take kindly to anybody that has caused me harm, and the JW religion has wrought me harm in various ways. It does make me feel better to, at times, vent my spleen on them by using a few unkind expressions with which to describe my feelings. If some like to call that "bitterness", then so be it!
Bill.
a comprehensive new book:.
"the good... the bad... the deceptive.... and worse!
an expose".
I would have thought that the time to form an opinion about a certain piece of writing is after you have read it through.
That is what I will be doing, anyway!
Bill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2vcgb_pgbte#at=679.
finallysomepride,
You have a PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2vcgb_pgbte#at=679.
While remaining rather sceptical towards this negative publicity about adding fluoride to public water supplies, there is something that I feel compelled to say here. According to Statistics New Zealand (June 2012 population estimates), New Zealand has 15 cities - not three, as has been claimed. Also, anybody that reckons Hamilton has only five traffic lights has very obviously never counted these for themselves! Likewise for the claim that you can walk from one end of the town to the other in 30 minutes. (Yeah - that I would like to see!) Hamilton does have its own research facilities, at the University of Waikato. Also, don't denigrate the Waikato Institute of Technology. (I happen to know something about that institution - it being where I obtained my Certificate of Engineering from). If - and it is a big if - these research facilities were not adequate enough, just 111 kilometres away are three excellent laboratories available in Auckland: Auckland University, Auckland University of Technology, and Manakau Institute of Technology. Contrary to what has been alleged, Hamilton does have the facilities to research this matter. Whether its decision to cease adding fluoride to its water supply is right or wrong, this decision has not been arrived at for lack of a suitable laboratory. Bill. PS: I am rather tempted to add a remark or two about the American tendency to rubbish everything non-American. However, there have been enough ad-hominem attacks made on this thread already, without me adding more!
in a conversation with my mum she said, "son the friends love you and care about you so much.
they would die for you.
that's something you don't find in the world.
When I decided to take a different course from my parents over the matter of the "Truth", my father did warn me
- "If you get into any trouble, the only ones who will help you will be from this family."
Boy was he right!
Ten years later, my wife's health collapsed. Were the Dubs there to help care for our three small children?
Like bloody hell they were!
Rather, I was accused of trying "to use people." Instead, the two older children were cared for during the day by a welfare group run as a joint-initiative by the local churches. This being in a small town, the irony of that was noted by many in the community, I can tell you!
Also, the youngest, not quite two years old at the time, was cared for by my terminally ill mother (who was dead before that year was over).
As my father correctly predicted, have any problems, and the only people you can rely on are those in your own family (whether "worldly" or otherwise.
Bill.
when you pray do you still use the name jehovah.
i still do.
Like bloody hell I do!
Bill
i'm in a pissy mood and would love to hear your stories.
personally, i'm thinking of getting a tatoo on my rear end saying wbt$ kiss this!.
1) Addressing the local Catholic priest as "Father"
2) Relieving feelings of frustration by liberal use of expletives
3) Listening to songs such as the Statler Brother's "Bed of Roses"
many of us were members of the theocratic ministry school for many years.
some say it helped them with public speaking, and maybe it did for some.. but, when you look back at the quality of student it turned out, was it really any good ?.
most elders are crap public speakers, most r&f bros are crap at reading aloud, most jw's are crap at selling their religion at the door, most jw's have scant real knowledge of the bible.. there are reasons for this, quite often the tms overeer hasn't a clue how to teach a person to progress.
As a young adult, I had a long, but ultimately successful, battle with shyness. The TMS helped me in no small way to overcome this.
I also developed into a good speaker (not my own estimation, but the almost unanimous observations of others), again, thanks entirely to the TMS.
Further, I was by no means a natural speaker. So while it may be the case that the TMS has helped some with natural talent to develop their latent abilities, that wasnt the case with me. My speaking skills learned on the TMS have helped, particularly in facing down an angry crowd in some Third World country, who were teetering on the brink of becoming a Lynch mob!
While I too have been guilty of bashing anything connected with the JWs, the TMS is not as useless as many ex JWs claim it to be.
(White Dove, eat your heart out!)
Bill.
so i read somewhere that the 1914 date came from bourbor and that russell used the pyramid to confirm his belief in 1914. its this accurate?
.
Russell was not by any means the originator of the 1914 date. Rather, this was borrowed from a group known as the Second Adventists, a fact readily acknowledged by the late N.H. Knorr (as quoted in Raymond Fraqnz's Crisis of Conscience). Led by one Nelson Barbour, the Second Adventists was one of a number of groups that emerged from the wreckage of William Miller's 1844 debacle. As others here have noted, Barbour finally settled on 1914 after his prophecies about 1873 and 1874, failed to eventuate.
Incredible as it may now seem, Pyramidology was taken quite seriously during those years of the mid to late 19th Century. (Many persons, it would seem, were very taken in by an 1864 book on this subject by a Professor Smythe). Charles Russell went on to use this pseudo-science to back up his 1914 date, probably deluding himself into believing that Pyramidolgy actually "confirmed" what he had said all along about 1914.
One of the morals of this story is that if two dates line up, it means nothing at all!
Bill.
me: one, my husband, so far.
if we all snatch one person from the borg, will our numbers grow exponentially?
i'm no mathematician.. how many have you personally helped?.
I regret to have to say that my success rate here is as bad as my success rate was at "bringing others into The Truth" i.e. a big fat zero!
However, I may have succeeded in frightening some off from getting involved with the JWs.
Bill.
