If you say so dear......xx

Mere, I do take your point about those cults you have mentioned. I agree with your concerns on those points. But I do have to say that we would not class ourselves as the same as those although I know many would think the same as you............................of course it is hard for us to make you understand how we work as an organisation if it is something you cannot happily agree with or like...............................Our choices to follow the faith is our own we are not brainwashed we come to conclusions based on information given and researched. We do have a choice to follow or not....................... Anyone can leave whenever they want to. I do agree that disfellowshipping happens but it is not as terrible as it is described, though I do understand and accept the reasons for it.....................................................If you really listen to the principals behind the faith, the reasons for any of the requirements and look at it as a whole and not just snippits here and there you would see it is not a burdonsome way of life. It is a loving way of life where everyone is equal, everyone is loved cherishe and nurtured. Everyone is protectect from harm, everyone is respectful of every else, there is no racial discrimination of any kind. Everyone has the same rights as anyone else. No-one is treated any better or any worse than anyone else, we all have the same hope for the future, everything is positive..............................I will say though, every at present is by no means perfect and we all suffer the effects of illnesses aging and life problems as we have to live in this world at the moment, but we do try to battle through it isn't easy at the moment and sometimes we make mistakes.......................yes I do accept that some even commit serious wrong doing but that is their weaknesses because of being imperfect and open to temptations..................God's principals never change they ARE GOOD. We are a happy people.............xxx

Everyone is protectect from harm,

 

Really?

 

The Jehovah’s Witnesses destroyed allegations of child abuse and **bleep** against a respected church elder, we can reveal today.

 

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/jehovahs-witnesses-destroyed-documents-showing-7340603

 

It emerged yesterday that the congregation held three “disfellowship” meetings during which the women were repeatedly asked to read a scripture on bearing false witness and consider what it meant

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jehovahs-witness-abuse-victims-quizzed-by-their-attacker-...

 

Church elders refused to comment on a child abuse scandal because they had a 'duty to God' to keep the sex attacker's confession a secret, a court heard.

Further to that they seem very selective in who they want to treat equally , cherish & blah, blah, blah.!!.

I'm sure those in power look after their supporters more than those they suspect could be critics.

 

On a more general point, it is interesting to examine many christian's so called 'morals'.

 

A man throws a petrol bomb into a bus full of children and some are burnt to death, he is arrested and given the death penalty.

Just before the sentence is carried out, he confesses to a priest and turns to Jesus, after the sentence is carried out he goes to Heaven.

 

Another man manages to rescue some of the children but dies in the attempt to rescue more, despite doing good works all his life he is not a believer so goes to hell and is tortured for eternity.

 

Many christians will agree that's what should happen, I wouldn't call it moral.

 

Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends, but it won't get you into Heaven.

 

There are those who say a person isn't sent to hell by God because God is a loving god but rather they choose to go to hell by not believing, however that's the equivalent of saying a man, who is shot for refusing to hand over his money to the mugger holding a gun to his head, has chosen to commit suicide.

It's contradiction all the way! lol.

It was all the contradictions that largely led me to becoming an athiest having questioned belief/faith for probably at least sixty years.

 

The more I examined it the less sense it made and have concluded the only way Christianity has survived for so long is that until relatively recently a declaration of non belief would land a person in deep poop even failing to attend church on Sunday would be suspect.

Actual facts, real evidence and logical thinking have absolutely no place in the mind-sets of those who have been indoctrinated.

 

Facts will be either twisted to suit or ignored altogether and real evidence will picked over to suit. As for logical thinking, it just doesn't exist.

You were having trouble yesterday Busty,,are your posts ok today??.

I agree with both yourself & Bankhaunter, & would add that if you are free thinking & questioning you are automatically classed as a sinner etc, only those who follow without question are bound for paradise or whatever, IMO that is foolhardy, if we have been given the intelligence to question then we have the right to do so& if those questions are not answered or indeed evaded then surely the case is not proved & thereby doesn't hold water?