Certified Apostate

29 Jan 2009 at 20:00

tastyrerun

Cindy Esther jehovah jehovah's witnesses strange apostasy funny the Watchtower Watchtower Watchtower Society

Last night I came home from work and found Cindy cleaning the kitchen. For those if you who are regular readers of my blog, my wife is Esther, Cindy is a friend who is staying with us for a few days. Anyhow, she and I got to talking and she told me about a conversation she recently had with her dad in which he said something about how all of us “apostates” get training. It seemed from what she said that he honestly believed there was some sort of centralized apostate organization that trained former Witnesses. Not only that, he said that he was sure that “Ryan has some sort of certificate”, which I thought was one of the strangest and funniest things I’d ever heard.

It got me thinking… Just how many Witnesses believe there is some sort of organized apostate conspiracy granting certificates in apostacy and teaching former Witnesses to do theological battle? I mean, is this a common idea? Is it common enough that’s it’s worth refuting here on this blog?

Just in case it is, I’m going to go ahead and clarify the matter right here and right now. There is no such thing. There are organizations of people who have left the Witnesses, sure. They’re usually support groups like Silent Lambs. There are web sites that give XJW’s a places to hang out and discuss their lives with others like them. I even started such a site at http://xjwnet.ning.com. However, to the best of my knowledge there is no apostate equivalent of the Watchtower Society, no central organization and certainly nobody granting certificates.

I have a certificate in business computer application programming from CDI Computer Academy, class of 1994. I have no other certificates or formal training in any field related to philosophy, religion, the Jehovah’s Witnesses or anything else. I am merely an enthusiastic amateur and avid reader. I know more than a few ex-Witnesses like myself. Maybe we should start granting each other certificates. That could be fun!

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lucky widgets

ok but after researching most of your info online here, i am almost ready to return to the meetings. i agree with some of your scientific views but i found much much more scienctific views that still teach that there is not an actual ape-man and there should be. the closest bones i saw are more likely that of another ape and not human. i also had been reading the online info of the ewatchman and now if you look you will see it has all been totally debunked as a pile of squat. how so? for those of you ex-witnesses who read it, the contract that the witnesses signed with the U. N. was not even the contract that the e-watchman claimed it to be. because the contract he was referring to was updated much later than the one witnesses agreed to. and the new contract was never agreed to by the society. so quite frankly i would ask any ex-witnesses who left for his information would go to the new info which includes the society's contract in full that they signed. and you will find it does not conflict with the conscience matter so stated by the e-watchman site. as a matter of fact his site would not even come up when i tried now. let's see if he is honest enough to apologize to the society after all of his misleading information that has now been debunked as the lie it is.
tastyrerun

Tell ya what. Go read the book "Why Evolution is True" by Jerry Coyne and then come back to discuss it. As it stands, you seem to be remarkably misinformed on what evolution is, how it works, or what evidence supports it. I could try to explain it all to you, but why would I bother? Other people have already written these books.

To show how sincere I am, I will offer to buy you a copy of that book. Email me a mailing address. You can even stay anonymous. I will buy the book on Amazon and have it shipped to your house or office or any address you desire. If you wish to discuss evolution here on this site, I am afraid I must insist you find out what it is first because otherwise it's like having a discussion about music theory with somebody who has never played an instrument and just listens to the radio every now and then. Ain't gonna be much of a discussion.
lucky widgets

hola again. ok i will find it but i cant guarrantee i will believe all it says. after all even carbon dating is now being disputed. but anyway dont have as much time as i had for a while. but still checking in when i can. actually dont even have time to sign on or check most emails. but i will buy the book and read it. and if ever i make mn i will drop in...;)
tastyrerun

I'm not going to ask you to "believe everything it says" but at least you'll be getting some actual science.

And no, carbon dating is not "being disputed", except by creationists. There are no scientists anywhere who dispute carbon dating but you can find people who will dispute anything for religious reasons. For example, there are Muslims who dispute the claim that the earth is round, insisting that it's flat. Do you honestly consider the spherical nature of the earth to be "disputed" because an Imam with a holy book says it's flat? Everything, and I do mean everything, is disputed if you are only willing to look hard enough to find the crazy person who disputes it but there is no scientific debate over radiometric dating methods.
tastyrerun

Iverson, but good guess. I think VB is still a JW.
Estace

I think this is a hoax and you do, in fact have a certificate with a gold foil seal on it.

hahaha!

Cindy Von Bank?
Rebekah Mathenia

When Tony and I left, my mom couldn't fathom the idea of us not being in something. She thinks in terms of churches and, like most JW's, her question was "Where will you go?". Telling her "To Jesus" just didn't make any sense to her. That's far too simple of an answer and she wanted to make it complicated. She asked me once if we felt that we were the start of a new movement. What??? There have been simple, straight forward christians since Jesus was here. This is nothing new.

It's crazy the things they come up with in order to try and make sense of how we could be so deceived.
Jennifer

Someone sounds a little paranoid. Is it that unbelievable that a person could know what they are talking about without an organization telling them what to say? I guess it is to a JW.
James Zimmerman

Nothing trained me to be an apostate better than the Theocratic Ministry School.
Erock

Hey Ryan. If you do find a program that trains apostates, let me know.

Oh wait. Now that I think about it, I have seen them. They're called universities. :)

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