Posts by truth_b

14

JW healthcare

by jhine in

given that us healthcare isn't free at point of contact and people have to pay for insurance, which can be expensive and is often linked to employment how do jws get on ?

if they are encouraged to take low paid or part time jobs so l assume don't get good healthcare insurance from their jobs .

how do they cope with medical bills?

Growing up as one of Jehovah's Witnesses I only had health insurance once I became an adult and got a job with benefits. Witnesses are obsessed with home remedies and "snake oil". As a kid my parents rarely took me to the doctor. My parents only started going to doctors once they got old enough to qualify for MediCare/MedicAid.

I remember my mother suffered a small heart attack. Rather than dial 911 or rush my mother to the hospital, my father called a sister in the congregation who was a retired nurse. She told my father to hang up the phone and rush my mother to the hospital. Once the medical bills started rolling in my father just placed them in the trash.

29

We are now around 25 years past the point when Armageddon was to arrive as PROMISED!

by nowwhat? in

absolute worst case scenario, the last of the generation that saw the events of 1914 would have died off would be in the mid to late 1990's!

so we were told in the 1980's!

so now we 3/4 of another generation past that!.

truth_b_known

As a born in Jehovah's Witness that was raised in the 1980s and early 1990s I was told Armageddon would come before -

I was an adult
I went to high school
Before the end of the 20th Century (Printed inside each copy of the Awake! magazine)

I became an adult nearly 30 years ago.

I graduated high school nearly 30 years ago.

1999 is the last year of the 20th Century. January 1, 2000 was the first year of the 21st Century. We have been living in the 21st Century for over 20 years.

Now all my children have or will graduate high school in the next 3 years. All my children will be adults before then. That will place as 1/4 the way through the 21st Century.

Here's the nail in the coffin for me -

My whole life I have been told by Jehovah's Witnesses that we are living in the "Last Days". The Watchtower claims we live in the "Last Days" and has for over 100 years (we are closer to 200 years than 100 years). In 2020 Stephen Lett tells us that we are in the "final part of the last days, undoubtedly the final part of the final part of the last days! Shortly before the last day of the last days." Now Anthony Morris III tells us that Lett's statement is false and it is not as close as thought.

It doesn't take faith to keep being a Witness. It takes belief. Belief is the ability to ignore facts and evidence that disprove an idea one holds dearly.

10

Happy New Year

by HappyDad in

jw
friends

wishing all of you a happy and prosperous new year.

my wish is for everyone to find happiness.

for those of you who are still having to keep up appearances (pimo's) because of family who are still in, my wish for you is anything that will open the eyes of your family members and finally be set free.. tonight here in minnesota, happydad will be celebrating with a bloody mary, right here at home in my sweats.

truth_b_known

Happy New Year to all. May you be happy & well.

18

Article to discuss or argue over: Buddha, Abraham, Jesus and Muhammed: Larger-than-life historic figures or largely legends?

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

i've posted a link to an article that contains important food for thought.

as we search for information to free our minds and hearts of cult-like thinking which entails being able to critically think, we need to ponder research that is available to help us to make important decisions.

we need to allow ourselves to consider other possibilities, something that jw’s are discouraged from doing.

truth_b_known

Sea Breeze:

The time stamp is 4:49 on the first video you posted in regards to the doctorate panel's instruction to the then future doctor. He was told that he could not use the New Testament as evidence of the resurrection of Jesus.

A book a read make a statement that really struck home with me -

First, you must have faith that your religion has truth. Second, you must have doubt in your religion. Third, you must have dedication to find the truth, whatever it may be.

Referring to doubt, the writer stated to have doubt, but not be skeptical. There is a difference. A skeptic is looking for anything to disprove something. A doubter simply seeks the truth. It also means not clinging to an idea and seeking to only prove it to be true. There is a balance. A middle way.

I am open to there being a historical Jesus. It would even be reasonable that such a man was executed for his teachings. It would be reasonable that a religion would be born from that man's teachings.

I also know that the Jesus story is built on the foundation of a belief in a future Messiah who would liberate the Jews from their never ceasing line of foreign conquerors. The Old Testament was written by a people who were constantly having their religious beliefs influenced by the conqueror of the day. Egyptians, Persians, Macedonians/Greeks, and then the Romans. Persian Zoroastrian religion gave the Jews a monotheist religion. The Greeks gave the Jews an afterlife.

That is why the sects of the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to be. It was their job to keep the Jewish religion pure from outside influence. That is why they attacked Jesus because his teachings did not align with theirs. That is also why there are those who theorize that when Jesus spoke about his father, God, that it was not YHWH Jesus was speaking of. That the Jews had left the worship of their true god for the worship of another, YHWH.

I am off track here. My point being that Dr. Haberman provides sound arguments, but not evidence. That is what apologetics is - it is reason based argument, only. Reason based argument can show things are possible. That doesn't mean they are.

It is like the Scooby Do argument - you can use reason based argument to show that there is most likely some sort of consciousness that fits the description of what some call "god". However, to make the statement that the consciousness spoken of is god "X" requires evidence. That the one true religion of "X" is "Y" takes a tremendous amount of evidence. This is where the honest believer has to admit that they substitute evidence with belief.

I commend you, Sea Breeze. You obviously are actively seeking truth. Belief is holding on to an idea regardless of the evidence presented. Faith is letting go of all idea and accepting the truth as you experience it. Have a little faith. The Apostles did.

10

No rational reasoning with cult elders

by UnshackleTheChains in

https://youtu.be/elm5y8t3pjs.

this is why i can't in good conscience go back to the organisation.

you are pressured to bring others into the cult and then for them to wake up and find they are caught in a web of rules and policies such as shunning.

truth_b_known

"Because the Bible says so." - Attorney

"Yup!" - Terrance O'Brien

That is partially true. Those who leave are considered to be apostate, "runaway slaves," according to the Apostle Paul who created this arrangement according to scripture.

The real question is "If you are a professed Christian will you obey Jesus and show love or obey Paul and shun?"

6

Poll abouth new media center

by asp59 in

lets take a poll abouth new media center.

maeby its gonna show how well it's gonna be accepted in the congregations.

you can only choose this two options.

truth_b_known

Does anyone else here get dressed up in business attire to attend the most recent blockbuster movie?

19

So many are waking up. Pandemic gave jws time to think.

by pistolpete in

this is not about stats, but "actual experiences" happening world wide in the organization.

there is about 156 comments of what some jws are seeing in their congregation.

feel free to read and come to your own conclusion on whether the watchtower organization is turning pimo but no one says anything in order to keep family relations.

truth_b_known

This makes sense to me. My father who is PIMI shared with me back when I first started my fade that typically Witnesses who become inactive and stop attending meetings rarely return. I wish I remember his exact statement as his wording made sense. It had something to do with a person's way of thinking.

What my father didn't realize what he was actually sayings was "The more time you spend away from Witness activities the more you will see the truth about the Truth."

18

Article to discuss or argue over: Buddha, Abraham, Jesus and Muhammed: Larger-than-life historic figures or largely legends?

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

i've posted a link to an article that contains important food for thought.

as we search for information to free our minds and hearts of cult-like thinking which entails being able to critically think, we need to ponder research that is available to help us to make important decisions.

we need to allow ourselves to consider other possibilities, something that jw’s are discouraged from doing.

truth_b_known

I watched some of Dr. Habermas lecture. It was interesting. I found it intriguing that this body of scholars told him he could not use the New Testament to prove the resurrection of Christ and his response was "I will find a way around your system so as I may use the New Testament to prove the resurrection of Christ."

It seemed the good doctor does what most apologetics do - use philosophical argument based logical conclusion in the place of evidence. I get it. Good argument. Makes sense. Not evidence.

I realize a problem is that what we view as evidence today was not available in time of antiquity. It makes it difficult to prove anything. What could we possibly have?

Well, I found Apostolic Succession interesting. Every ordained Catholic priest can trace their lineage of ordination back to the original 11 Apostles. There is a similar practice in Buddhism. Ordination or Dharma Transmission for a Buddhist traces the line of teachers all the way back to Siddhartha Gautama in the sixth century BCE.

The problem for most Christians, especially Evangelicals, is that would mean accepting the Catholic Church as the one true church.

18

Article to discuss or argue over: Buddha, Abraham, Jesus and Muhammed: Larger-than-life historic figures or largely legends?

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

i've posted a link to an article that contains important food for thought.

as we search for information to free our minds and hearts of cult-like thinking which entails being able to critically think, we need to ponder research that is available to help us to make important decisions.

we need to allow ourselves to consider other possibilities, something that jw’s are discouraged from doing.

truth_b_known

Thank you for sharing the article. Here is an important part that I would like to share my thoughts on -

If we understand the birth and evolution of religions as natural processes, we can predict what kinds of religions may emerge in the future. For example, any emergent religion right now would have to be science compatible, or science-proof. As Robert Wright pointed out, as societies and religions become more interdependent, grow bigger and bigger, they have to be more inclusive, or they simply won’t be able to compete with those that are.

Philosopher Ken Wilber speaks about his Integral movement in religion. There are those who are pathfinders in making Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism come into agreement with science as well as be inclusive as modern society is. Obviously the hard nosed evangelicals have heartache with this. A study of Martin Luther, his Reformation movement, and how it is roadblocking this is all too apparent in the U.S.

What find interest is this article mentions Buddha/Buddhism right from the get go, but never speaks about it. The reason for this, as Ken Wilber shares in his first book on the Integral movement, is that Buddhism is the first rational religion. Only now is it becoming apparent with modern psychology studies and quantum physics how Siddhartha Gautama, the first Buddha and founder of Buddhism, had it right all along. I appreciate how Gautama stated he was not a god, was not to be worshipped, and to not take his word alone as being true, but rather test his teachings to be sure they are valid. There is no god or personal creator in Buddhism.

I appreciate Anony Mous comment So in my opinion, these stories are very important and valuable, it’s very evident that this is a compendium of almost 250,000 years of human and pre-human wisdom that has been filtered and compressed and needs to be taken serious. You don’t take it as fact, you take it as a lesson.

As one outspoken Atheist has brought up (I wish I could find the quote again) that Antitheism is proof of ignorance as religion does have a valid purpose. Any person who claims all religion has no value does not understand religion well enough to know better.

20

Love one another intensely...avoid partiality

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

the watchtower—study edition | march 2020. study article 13. love one another intensely.

if we have intense “love for the whole association of brothers,” we will avoid being partial.

7 jesus urged us to keep treating others the way we want to be treated.

truth_b_known

Self-incriminating article to say the least. I experienced this all too well while I was a Witnesses. Love is the only metric required to prove or disprove a religion.

truth_b_known

Posts by truth_b_known