Viewed 796 times

How Many Of You?

justsomedude	How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:17:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Post 30 of 299 Since 11/9/2005	How many of you, when you were an active and zealous JW (assuming you were), were motivated by the paradise idea? I was basically born in, so I wasn't drawn to the religion, it just was. The whole idea of the paradise never really exicted me though. I followed the religion and did what I did because I just believed it was the right thing to do and not so I could obtain the carrot on the end of the string. How many of you felt the same way?
Quentin	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:26:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Texas Post 541 of 1515 Since 4/2/2005	The New World was that thing somewhere off in the distance...we'd know about it when we got there. Even with 1975 I never really got that excited. Like you I was a Witness because it was the right thing to do. Had the inside track, liked it and could not imagine doing/being anything else.
Narkissos	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:31:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Post 4439 of 9999 Since 9/27/2003	The whole idea of the paradise never really exicted me though. I followed the religion and did what I did because I just believed it was the right thing to do and not so I could obtain the carrot on the end of the string. It was my case too, although it took me some time before I realised and admitted that.
AlmostAtheist	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:33:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Ohio Post 3318 of 5775 Since 8/26/2004	I often daydreamed of the paradise, it was very real to me. I wasn't serving Jehovah for that reward, but I was definitely looking forward to it. Build a house, have occupancy, plant vineyard, eat grapes. Pet a lion. Sounded dandy to me. Dave
drew sagan	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:39:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Post 209 of 4218 Since 8/16/2005	I was really drawn to the idea. I fell right into the trap of finally learning "the truth" about Gods purpose for the earth. I can honestly say that it was one of the harder doctrines I have debated in my mind when I first started to question the organization. One thing has helped me the most in overcoming this. When I simply think about life, the boundries of space and time, and the many possibilites of what can or can not be the future of mankind I am humbled by how little not only I know but how little humans in general know. I live my life by the principles I have chosen to live by, and worship my creator the way I feel he has told me to through his word. I don't think that ANYBODY has enough information about Gods purposes to put forth such a dogmatic additude as to what the future of all life and existance will be. The bible just dosn't talk about such things in detail. Can anybody find one chapter describing what everlasting life will be like? Just my opinion.
lucifer	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:46:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Post 91 of 383 Since 11/6/2005	It's weird, but i wasn't really drawn to the idea, I remember thinking that every picture of the paradise earth had woman and girls wearing skirts or dresses, and just thinking "man i don't want to wear dresses all the time" and thinking how boring it would be with out Tv and all lifes dramas
james_woods	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:48:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Texas Post 68 of 2912 Since 10/26/2005	To be honest, this was another one of their theories that I never could get a handle on. There were just too many inconsistencies - was there room for all the people? Who would do the really dirty jobs? Lions can really eat grass like a cow?...What happens when the sun burns out? Would fat chicks come back still fat? If not, would they be like the Stepford Wives? (I know - who cares - we are talking eternity without sex) Even if you had a perfect body which did not get sick, what would keep you from eventually having an fatal accident? (maybe die but instantly get resurrected?) What the hell was the point of just keeping all the good folks around forever in sort of a terrestrial zoo? What would be the point of doing science, medicine, art, etc. if we are so dumbed down that we just farm the fields? Eternal life without MEAT? The BOREDOM? As Long John Silver said in Treasure Island - "HARRGH - Its them that dies will be the LUCKY ONES"
justsomedude	Re: Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:53:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Post 31 of 299 Since 11/9/2005	There were just too many inconsistencies - was there room for all the people? Who would do the really dirty jobs? Lions can really eat grass like a cow?...What happens when the sun burns out? Would fat chicks come back still fat? If not, would they be like the Stepford Wives? (I know - who cares - we are talking eternity without sex) Even if you had a perfect body which did not get sick, what would keep you from eventually having an fatal accident? (maybe die but instantly get resurrected?) What the hell was the point of just keeping all the good folks around forever in sort of a terrestrial zoo? What would be the point of doing science, medicine, art, etc. if we are so dumbed down that we just farm the fields? Eternal life without MEAT? The BOREDOM? Thats funny. I think I too spent more time thinking about the downsides and problems associated with the whole thing that the potential upsides. Like when they say that there could be 2 acres of land per person, etc, etc. I was always thinking about what kind of brotherly love would be displayed when everyone was fighting for the beach property.
jt stumbler	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:54:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Colorado Post 470 of 589 Since 11/12/2004	I liked the whole idea of a paradise. I too thought that it was the right thing to do. After seperating myself for a few years and got married and had a family, I began to be motivated by the fear of the big "A" and trying to save my own as well as my families skin.
atypical	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:58:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Post 371 of 852 Since 9/30/2005	Honestly, I always liked the idea. I didn't like the idea of heaven, and the thought of being able to keep living with no health problems in a cleaned up earth was great to me. I can't say how much I ever truly believed it would happen, but I did like paradise idea very much. I still wish it could be true, to some extent.
greendawn	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:01:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
England Post 3412 of 12654 Since 4/9/2004	Somehow I never really took seriously the paradise story to me it sounded like a fairy tale. I was always acting as if that end wouldn't come that's why I went to university while some dubs were saying "why if the end is so near?"
james_woods	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:01:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Texas Post 69 of 2912 Since 10/26/2005	Exactly right (but you already knew Malibu and Monterrey were going to the ex CO and DO crowd). I saw that Sean Connery SCI-FI movie Zardoz while thinking this type of logic. The little immortal dome community was slowly dying out of boredom and the unwillingness to even grow food or wash their dishes. They had to have an outside supply of unwashed savages to farm for them and serve them. Their punishment for dissention was selective ageing...otherwise they just stayed about 25. Their final desire became to have the Connery guy let in all the slave savages and kill them to end their misery.
serendipity	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:06:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Texas Post 669 of 3960 Since 11/19/2005	Paradise is the reward for all the abstinence in this system.
lucifer	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:18:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Post 92 of 383 Since 11/6/2005	But..I hated the idea of heaven even more, really how boring would it be to watch "perfect" people all day??
jeeprube	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:19:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Post 375 of 1905 Since 8/3/2005	The only time I dwelt on the New System teaching was at assemblies and conventions. The rest of my time was spent slaving under the Watchtower yoke.
jojochan	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:35:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Post 15 of 980 Since 1/17/2006	I too was really into it. But then as time moved on and the older I got, the more things I saw in regards to that whole idea. How dubs were viewing their own baptism as a talisman to make it in . Even I was scared when I was little about that idea. I loved thethought of it though but.. try to explain that idea to a normal person, the WHOLE doctrine of it.Armageddon, the 1000 yrs in paradise, then at the end of that 1000 yrs satan will be let loose for a "little while" (MORE hoop jumping!) Then God will finally destroy satan along with those who follow him, try explaining THAT. I know; I tried on one occasion to a co worker about it. The whole jist of it, when I was done he looked at me like this . jojochan.
Seeker4	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:57:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
Post 830 of 3354 Since 2/13/2001	The WTS's picture of the New System didn't appeal to me very much - it was the idea of living forever, having infinite time to do what I loved, *that* really appealed to me. S4
Qcmbr	Re: How Many Of You? posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 23:03:00 GMT (1/18/2006)
England Post 755 of 1658 Since 7/31/2004	Maybe you guys could help me out with a question I posed to a couple of dubs: I wanted to know why they didn't actually want to see and be with God but actually wanted to live forever on an earth that seemed little more than a beautiful garden. I pointed out that children wouldn't be part of the picture and neither would old people (though oddly I'm sure I saw kids in some JW depictions of Paradise.) so we'd all be the same age. I asked would it be boring after a while, would they still be married or able to fall romantically in love (can't remember the answer). The thing that got me was the absolute lack of desire for anything more and a very strong no to heaven. Why? What was teh motivation (i.e. the only set of Christians I ever knew who didn't want to go to heaven..)
kazar	Re: How Many Of You? posted Thu, 19 Jan 2006 01:15:00 GMT (1/19/2006)
Maryland Post 456 of 677 Since 2/27/2005	I was Catholic when I converted to Jehovah's Witnesses in my teens. But the concept of heaven actually revolted me. Everyone programmed and flying around on wings. I was very attracted to the idea of paradise earth -- until I began to realize as James Woods so interestingly commented, the inconsistencies which filled my mind in my latter years as a Witness and disillusioned me. I still like the concept. I just can't believe it.
lonelysheep	Re: How Many Of You? posted Thu, 19 Jan 2006 02:36:00 GMT (1/19/2006)
Post 1713 of 5064 Since 11/2/2004	It was a bit appealing to me because I thought that never again would any children be sick or die. This was probably the stem of my dangling carrot.

Confirm ...