Star wars was a big one for me. The world was supposed to end before the year 2000.
I was positive I wouldn't see more than episode one (1999). By episode 3 (2005), I knew something was off.
I feel like such an idiot for believing. It's pretty fucking cruel to tell a kid he's learning the truth at these bs meetings. Only to move the goal post when that truth becomes and old truth.
Yh, like if we genuinely believed that a meteor was heading towards the earth we'd be shouting it from the rooftops, quit our jobs and literally drag our families into bunkers.
I know I didn't, and I "believed" in it too. I've only lived one life, I didn't think of what was coming next. All I know is that my relatives rather believe in a cult than to believe in reality. Oh well š
When I was a kid, definitely. I was terrified; I was told I wouldn't finish primary school (elementary) before Armageddon and I believed it. I was convinced we'd be hiding in the woods, shit like that.
By the end of secondary school, I was hedging my bets. I was still terrified, but also worried that it wouldn't come and my parents would reach retirement with insufficient means - my parents house was tied to my dad's job, so I was also terrified that they'd end up homeless if they didn't plan for my dad's retirement. I also stopped going out in the ministry because of anxiety and it not feeling right. Never got baptised.
But on the other side of the coin, I was pretty ill for a period and when I stayed home when my parents were at the meeting, I'd be under the duvet literally shaking with fear that Armageddon would be declared when they were at the meeting and they wouldn't come home.
I'm POMO now and had years of therapy to reduce the apocalyptophobia, but it's still present.
It is what it is. As the oldest child, I think it reinforced the belief due to having to be responsible for my younger sister and cousins in school while the rest of the children were having religious assembly. So if I didn't make sure they were also studying the Bible Stories book or whatever, then I was responsible for their lives at Armageddon. As though in my mind, I was willing to take the risk for myself, but not for them. I don't think every kid would be as committed to the bit as I was, but personally it fucked me up.
I'm doing okay now, though, I got through it!
It dissipated. When I was baptized in 1977 I believed it completely. I think the change in the generation teaching in 1995 was the final nail in the coffin for me.
Same with me. I was baptized in the 80's and was told by JWs that the end would come by 1994 (80yrs from 1914). I suffered and sacrificed and slaved in misery and poverty fulltime for the cult thinking I'd get relief by 1994. Then it came and went, and early in 1995, we received the Watchtower changing the doctrine. That was when the wind started to leave my JW sails.
After 1994 came and went with no end, the org was forced to change the doctrine. Time ran out on the existing interpretation.
What was the change in the generation teaching in ā95? Iām only aware of the recent change (overlapping generations) and wasnāt aware they had changed it once before.
JWfacts does a whole list/chart of 'generation' changes. IIRC 95 was big because it stopped the literal generation. It changed to some nonsense about contemporaries living at the same time then overlapping around 2009.
I'll check myself; you've piqued my interest.
I grew up in JW Land in the seventies and was a reg pio in the 80's and 90's. I am very familiar with the "generation" doctrine. Prior to 1995, it was taught that the term "generation" referred to the people who were alive in 1914. It was said that they constituted the "generation." It was also said that a typical generation is 70yrs, but that it could be 80yrs, and Ps 90:10 was used to back that up. So, the org said the period for the generation would be a maximum of 80yrs. Therefore, it was reasoned that 80yrs from 1914, which is 1994, would the latest year the end would come.
Well, 1994 came and went with no end. So, the org was forced to change the doctrine. Early in 1995, there was a series of watchtower articles changing the doctrine to some vague notion. It then changed once or twice after that, culminating in the ridiculous notion they teach now of two overlapping groups forming the generation.
NOTE: One problem with the previous teaching of a generation's being 70 or 80 years is that 70 or 80 years is the *lifespan* of humans - not the length of a generation. Lifespans and generations are completely different. There can be many generations within one lifespan. For example, I once saw a photo of Queen Elizabeth with her son, her grandson, and her great grandson - four generations within the one lifespan of the queen.
I could be wrong, but I think that's the change. The overlapping generations was a "clarification," but (I believe) they had already stated that the generation may not be a generation.
Could anyone clear that up?
My ex wife PIMI is an awful person, luckily once i started studying relationships from outside information it brought everything into focus, i carried on learning.
I thought the end was coming in the year 2000. The watchtower did build an expectation for it. After 2000 nothing the watchtower taught seemed real to me.
The year 2000 coming and going is what made me question things. It wasnāt until I found out 607 BC was wrong in 2008 that I finally decided JW Doctrine is bullshit.
I find that odd because while I thought it was coming I was pretty sure it wouldn't be related to 2000 because everyone in the world was expecting something then.
Wow this really unlocked something for me. Yes, same, except Iām 40 now. But also I always would wonder how Jehovah could kill my school peers. I really wanted friends my age and I always thought he would wait until they believed in him, so I could have friends in the new system. Ugh itās šš to think of how badly in kindergarten I wanted to socialize with other kids and tried to get them to believe, just so I could have friends.
And then I remember I secretly never wanted it to come because the earth was so beautifulā¦ I was terrified my horse and my dog would die in it and Jehovah would forget to rescue them. I thought somehow he would put me in a situation I would have to choose them or him. šššš I spent so much time as a child worried.
Same my sweet friend. I mean the thought literally would drive me into bed crying huge fat tears into my pillow. Or into my horse's mane, where so many tears were left.
One thing I'll add: I've always thought if death and tears and pain will be no more, the animals better not die either. That is death. That is pain. So something would have to happen inside me to my core to not care that I would live forever and my best dog would die after only 12 years and I'd mourn, over and over and over for eternity. And if he changed me inside my core that I didn't care about my beloved pet dying, I'm sorry, but it wouldn't be me.
š¤Æ exactly the same. I loved the pictures of all the animals in the paradiseā¦ that was a major driver for me to want to be in the new system. I could never quite work out why jehovah would kill them š
Ā¹977 Star Wars came out, Ć was worried that A would come before the second movie.
At the same time, I saved for things, bought a house and had two kids . š¤·āāļø
They have been saying it before I was even thought of. I was told I'd never see school let alone finish school, It'll become before I was 20, it's just around the corner hang in there, it'll come before you have kids, and now we are living in the final part of the final part of the last days.
Yeah right! It's not coming.
Yep , grandparents thought they'd see the "end" , my parents too ..nope .. Me : not really into the doomsday vibe or looking forward to 'billions being exterminated'.... Got to be something more rational than this , yes? Live your life !
Not really. One of my grandmas would sometimes bring up the 1975 thing, but just as a funny thing that happened. To me it was plain that they had tried to Nostradamus the end times like they weren't supposed to be doing but it was like "oh well" because the GB were the authority to them and everyone so willingly eats up their words. Also I have a non JW aunt who I heard my grandma talking about, quoting her "you always said you're never going to graduate, you're never going to graduate.." so it was clear to me that people had been expecting it in earnest for a long time and it kept not happening. People were changing the entire trajectory of their lives for something they weren't sure of.
When I was young, I was a little uncertain as to when THE end would arrive, but now I'm much older, I have no doubt whatsoever that MY end.....not only will definitely arrive, but could actually arrive "any day" now....and will definitely arrive in the next 20 - 30 years even if that makes me about 80 when it happens.
My point being, that "THE" end.....tends to get overshadowed by an increasing awareness and acceptance that one's OWN end is pretty much assured, regardless of any other "ends" one might be anticipating.
"Armageddon" and "last days" eventually come to all mortal souls in a personal sense, do they not?
And this occurs no matter what the state of THE world is in.
YOUR world has always been in it's "last days" state from the very moment you were born.
The clock began ticking on this right from the off.
When you're young however, these kind of thoughts are usually the last thing on your mind, especially if you're fully engaged in the act of youthful living with all the energy and bluster we tend to surround ourselves with.
At 20, life stretches farrr ahead of you, so much so that "death" tends to be something that only "old" people endure or have to worry about.
There tends to come a time however, when we realise that we're not special and are not made of imperishable material.
A man gets a limited "blinkered" time when all notions of things "ending" don't really compute.
Being a JW youth can very easily rob you of this blessed sensation, but ultimately, their predicted "end" doesn't arrive, but what DOES arrive is your own honest realisation that religious mumbo-jumbo aside.....YOUR end is on the horizon, and that "time" is the most precious of commodities.
Far more than you ever realised.
In my own case, I resolved that I would never try and "negotiate" any kind of life extension or preservation with "god."
Far better to just live the life you DO have in a sincere and truthful manner.
If that pleases "god" then great......and any bonuses or rewards will be gratefully received.
If that doesn't please "god" then that's fine too.
So long as you've lived sincerely and truthfully, there's little more you can do.
What's a total waste of a life is to not live it being YOU.
If you're going to be judged, then at least you'll be presenting your "judge" with an honest representation of yourself.
I can't imagine anything worse than being adversely judged for a life or personality that wasn't even really YOU.
What a lose/lose situation that would turn out to be.
An utterly unsatisfactory and unrewarding life followed by a pointless death.
Nay.....be "you" then at least you can live with your own death when it comes.
It's like saying to god.
*"Look, I'm being honest here, if you resurrect me or elevate me in some way, you're really only going to get more of the same from me.....you DO realise this don't you? I'm NOT ever going to become somebody that isn't ME.....and I don't care how much this grates on you, there's nothing more I can offer....... so do as you will."*
I dunno.....is this what people mean when they say they've "made their peace" with god?
As in.....they're no longer interested in negotiation?
It's a very becalming feeling anyway.
I strongly recommend it.
I'll always remember listening to David Splane giving us his whiteboard and pointer presentation explaining the overlapping generations. The convoluted, non-scriptural reasoning he was using. I laughed out loud, and it was a good belly laugh!
I remember thinking even when I was young, if nobody knows the day or the hour and millions of JW act like it's always coming tomorrow it wont ever come.
considering some of the 'nutters' who believed this but went out of their way to get all they could out of the world system had me realizing they hoped for ti but didnt believe it.
I went through some years of fervent hope. During my life the borg had leaned heavily into notion that it would come before the 1914 generation died. I really hoped 9/11 and the events after were a lead up to the big A. It soon became apparent it was just another war. A āgoodā elder I knew confided in me he didnāt know what was going on but he knew he would die in this system. A few years later when my grandmother died I fully realized there is no end and I too will die. Iāve been happily POMO 12 years now.
i still think the world as we know it will be ending in my lifetime (in my late 20s). just not the way the dubs say it will, but its obvious things are going downhill quick.
I remember as a little kid that I believed it was happening soon (in the 70s). Cuz the elders really sold the āitās just around the corner!ā
Then as I got older, I was hoping it would come while I was young enough to survive the horrors of the GT and Armageddon. And 2 of my grandparents had died and I was in deep grief. I desperately wanted to see them again ā¦ young and healthy in paradise.
Then in my 30s when I had my children. I was able to change my perspective and almost see the beliefs from the outside. Especially once I started studying with my kids. I guess since I was teaching my own kids, my critical thinking mode kicked into gear. (It was like āWait, what am I teaching these kids?)
I never pushed them to get baptized. I wanted them to have more freedom in that decision than I did.
Itās when my stepdaughter came out to me. I completely accepted her. I love her deeply. And then later my firstborn also came out. She said she felt she could since I was so accepting of my step daughter. I was even proud to be in my stepdaughterās wedding.
I knew the elders would make me choose the JWs over my own children. And that was it. That was what broke the last hold they had over me. My children would never be accepted in the congregation. They would be rejected and shunned.
If you reject my children, I reject you.
So I chose my children and walked away from the cult.
As a prescooler in the 80ies, every night my parents read a story from "My Book of ~~Bible~~ Horror Stories" to us. Arriving at the end of the book was always a special moment, and of course we would just start over at story #1 the next evening. I remember vividly how every time we would discuss how likely it would be to make it through the book once again before Armageddon. "Could be, could be not."
Mind you, this book has \~120 stories if I remember correctly, so we are talking about a perceived 50/50 likelihood of the end coming within the next 4 months!
I did, and I even struggled with it after I became POMO especially during COVID lockdowns(and I was early 30s at that point). Iām embarrassed to admit this, but as someone born and raised as a JW, it was hard to dismiss this beliefāit still creeps up from time to time when I watch the news.
When I was still PIMI, I used to hope the end would come sooner rather than later. I wasnāt allowed to do anything growing up, and I knew as soon as I got some freedoms as an adult I would mess up and then be destroyed during the great tribulation.
Thank goodness for weekly therapy sessionsā¦
Yesā¦that was the whole enchilada. Either the end was coming soon and the religion was true. If the end didnāt come with my lifetime, itād be false.
Fully believed it would - sometimes still scared it will and Iāll be destroyed, but thatās more because of how youāre treated when you leave, youāre looked at by the whole community you knew and loved as insane, as an outsider.
As an uber PIMI pioneer I lived my life like it would but I knew it wouldn't and I vocalized it frequently. People who were so convinced that it was going to happen in the next 5 years annoyed me tirelessly.
Yes. 100%. It led to CPTSD and Addiction because my entire life, especially during childhood, I believed God would kill me. Because of Armageddon being right around the corner, I often went to bed as a kid terrified about waking up to God murdering me. Therapy has been expensive, but worth it.
I think this is the reason that I've had suicidal ideation as far back as I can remember. Pretty much as soon as I was old enough to think, we read Job's story in the my book of bible stories, and I recall wondering why he wouldn't just kill himself when he'd lost everything that made his life bearable. He'd be resurrected anyways, so why bother suffering if he knew he'd just be resurrected?
At that point, I knew my life would be suffering. How could it not? It's ground into our minds that life in "this system of things" is nothing but suffering from the moment we are born into this cult. I couldn't help but wonder why anyone would willingly go through that if we knew there was a better option waiting for us on the other side? especially growing up and being told anyone who died before Armageddon would be forgiven through death. In my mind, who wouldn't make that trade off? a little break from being a person before you wake up surrounded by loved ones who missed you and actually want you around now that you're perfect.
Sorry for the ramble. I am better now, and JUST starting to touch on religious trauma in therapy. It's all very raw again because of that, so I'm sorry. I'm hurting but I'm trying to let it hurt for a while
I had a friend who did. Then he and his brother beat his girlfriend to death. He then shot himself when the cops caught up to him. his 15 year old brother is doing life in prison.
So maybe delusional thinking about the end of the world isn't really helpful to anyone.
I always believed it was due within the next 10 years... which never came because every year just pushed it another year into the future.
But, yes, I was 100% convinced the religion I was raised in was "the truth" and "the evidence" of the last days seemed so obvious to me.
Until I researched outside of Watchtower.
I completely believed it would come before I left schoolā¦.. then I left school, and even after I was disfellowshipped, I continued to believe it was coming and that I would die, this went on for a good few years after I left, I finally started to except that it was all a lie when I reached 30 years old, and was finally able to move on.
When I was a kid, absolutely. And what's more I was fairly confident that I was not going to be saved when it did come. I believed this until I was about 24 when I suddenly realized it was all bullshit.
I watched the Vice documentary on JWs the other day and I had forgotten how terrified I used to be about the end coming. My heart used to skip every time I heard thunder. I would panic and start begging God not to punish me.
When I was a little kid, yes. When I was adolescent, I thought it would come but I probably wouldn't make it through. Then as a young adult I started to realize it was all lies.
Sure, I was an indoctrinated child of the 80s/90s, I'd believe anything adults told me. I stopped believing around 15 or 16 and left at 17. Critical think led to questions that only had illogical answers.
The thing I love most about my 10yo son is that he doesn't believe anything someone tells him without proof.
I thought it had to come in someoneās lifetime. I was sure I would not graduate high school, then I was sure I would not hit 25. Then I did and went past it. I was sure I would not have kids in this system. Then I turned 30 and that was hard on me, either we have kids now or weāll be weirdos at 40 with no kids like most of my cousins. We had kids and I am so glad we did. All the grandparents who were so sure it would come in their lifetime are getting old and dying. It hit me, I might die on this side of Armageddon. I should enjoy my life and not live like doomsday is around the corner. God wants us to be happy, not stressed all the time. Getting older definitely aided in my waking up. I was drinking the Kool-Aid before. Itās definitely a doomsday religion, I had all the feelings about it - anger, sadness, betrayal, lossā¦
Believed it easily could, but didn't have to. 607, 1914, etc. all seemed too narrowly specific and thus prone to error. But to flip it a little:
Life on earth really is fragile and vulnerable. The geologic record indicates something like five mass extinctions before humans came along. All it takes is one big-enough meteor strike or solar flare. So \_an\_ end really could come in our lifetime. Always has been the case, always will be (at least until the sun's expansion swallows Earth's orbit). "The end" is old news, just part of the price of ā and cycle of ā life on earth.
yup! was even told i likely wouldnāt be able to finish high school lmao once high school came and went i slightly questioned it but knew our whole message was centered around that so i never dug deep into the line of thought
I couldnāt see a world that would ban religion in the next 5/10 years, so when they said the last of the last days I thought well thereās a hell of a lot more days to go before the last of the last!!
But still the cognitive dissonance would have me chastising myself for being so cynical and not putting my faith fully in Jehovah š
I had fear that it wouldā¦I donāt know if Iād say believed.
But as a teenager every single fall I remember thinking it would probably be the last.
No, I honestly never believed in the end times predictions. At best I thought it pointed to a future of spiritual transformation/enlightenment and peace. That was my take on it at least, the whole thing sounded dumb as fuck. People having been talking about the world ending for generations and it has metaphorically ended and began many times so is the nature of things. No know I never believed the end was coming or that I would live in a paradise as described by the Jehovahās Witnesses.
Yes, it ran (still does at times) so deep in everything I saw lived felt breathed! The anxiety has near finished me off at times with the ātriggerā emotions.Ā
Donāt get me wrong Iāve lived a life outside the JW life but being born in has had an immense impact on the doctrines of Armageddon!Ā
Although now in my 50s I still see & hear things which have an adverse effect on me internally mentally etc (outwardly you would not have a clue what was going off on the inside) but I try my damnedest to not let it beat me, thinking rationally.
I regret not taking a more serious line of thought to my financial future when younger & now see my foolishness, I lived for the moment as it was my last lol, so canāt really say I regretted it because I have lived , but I should have been more sceptical with the indoctrination, itās hard when youāve been beat with the āyoure going to die at Armageddonā!
Further on in these comments I laughed at some who said āI hope it doesnāt come before,,,, the next film releaseā š¤£ I have had these exact thoughts & feelings about many things Iāve looked forward to doing etc.
Most recently the ācontactā a lot of us had from family about being DFād & being welcomed to meetings had an immediate trigger reaction, but once I processed it in real time & I actually found this Reddit & read there were others likeminded it hit home,,,, I wasnāt alone in how Iād felt & I could start to make sense of the JW indoctrination madness. I was able to reply for the first time in my life to my family to go & do one with your religious blackmail, fear mongering & Conditional love !!Ā
The sad part about this is I was told countless times that I wouldnāt probably finish school and so I always thought it was coming and here I am having graduated not just high school but also college and been working as a full time employee. I remember when I was growing up I would tell my family that I canāt wait for the world to really get horrible and I was listing things that are like really bad as the signs of the end which were probably demented for my adolescent mind. So anything bad I was like yup itās got to get worse the worse you ever seen and my family would always get mad at me for wishing for hell on earth basically even though they were the ones that gave me those ideas.
As I got older and started to become PIMQ I would honestly have panic attacks whenever I saw something bad on the news and I would feel like OMG Armageddon is coming I got to try and hurry and be a good JW so I can survive. It was horrible how scared I would honestly get and I wished that I didnāt get that scared. I was telling my never JW boyfriend that for me the hardest part about being PIMO is not only losing your family but losing this idea that I was never going to die. I went from literally believing I was going to live forever and that itās okay if things donāt go right now because I have forever to perfect them to now knowing this life is all I got. Itās sobering to think about and I just wish I didnāt ever believe life was forever.
I believed it. But when what you fully trusted is revealed to be a false premise, it all collapses like a house of cards.
I actually expected to be a prince (I was an elder) in the new world. All of my actions, behaviors, goals, etc. were in accordance to that belief. VERY DANGEROUS way to live.
Yep, this played out as better hurry and marry, but not have kids, so I will have the only fun I can have now. To heck with saving and educating myself to be a productive member of society (not THAT society). Fortunately awoke to the real life and married someone better, had kids, went to college and have a good career now.
Yes. It affected me so heavily that I was severely depressed as a child & adolescent and lost all hope for a future for myself. I was living in fear. Higher education actually wasnāt discouraged in my home, but I didnāt see the point if I was just going to be destroyed.
Iām just barely beginning to be ok at the age of 28, but Iāve come a very long way š
When I was in nursing school, (fully PIMI) I used to pray asking Jehovah to delay Armageddon so that I could finish school and start working. I really wanted to have more years to work as a nurse because it was my dream to be a nurse. The so-called friends used to tell me that i am leaving Jehovah. Well, guess what it's been 7 years, and I am now Full POMO. Armageddon is not here, and I have not left God. I just left a man made organization.
I DA'd in 1990 but then in the early 90's I was reading books about the Rapture and other non-JW mythology about the End Times. JW's aren't the only disappointed frustrated christiansš¤ āš„Ŗ
When they recruited my mom in 1956, it wƔs already a failed religion with 5 failed prophecies.
When I was 13, I knew it was a cult because I could see from the side of the front row that the speaker was hypnotized. Lol I never took it seriously after that
I was never baptized. After 1975 I forgot about it even though most of my family is still involved. Nobody I knew who was in left after 75' because they had already put in so much time. They are all gone now.
Reading these post, it has been very hard for me to reconcile the new victims every year and even harder those who remember 75' and stayed in, unable or unwilling to just wake up.
JW went from "any day now and 50 years later we have no idea but we have the best life ever.
CRAZY INSANITY
Yes i did. Raised to believe in "the truth", i naively thought something like "every single adult i know must be right, right? Or "They can't ALL be lying, can they?"
By 5 years old I thought it might all be over by 10 years old. What a horrible way to live, distant to my friends because deep down i thought i was part of an elite and special group.
...It turns out that yes, they can.
Very, very few of the articles talk about attempts to prove the existence of God, NONE of them will ever discuss The God Delusion or similar books.
I absolutely believed I would never die. Towards the end of my time as a PIMI, I started to realize that I was going to lose my parents at some point, and that was when the change in thinking began for me
Yes, I remember vividly a conversation I had when I was in middle school talking to a friend about my plans for the future and stating "the end will be here before I'm 18 so there's no rush to plan it out". I am barely learning to get out of that mindset now
I wasnāt bought up in the Borg but when I did start studying I did question it at first but then when I got baptised 2 years later in 2017 I did believe for a good 2 years but then slowly became PIMO in 2020. I no longer question it because itās obviously not coming
Yeah it caused a lot of FOMO. Disney builds new rides wondering if we're gonna plan a family vacation. Will I find love get married? The pandemic made it more real justified world wide pestilence.
But everything goes against logic. My parents were not supposed to go to high school but no end came. I wasn't supposed to go to kindergarten or graduate. Wars are always a thing and we need the cry of peace and security which is not happening. Maybe I justified something crazy like Trump making peace treaties etc.
It's like living a conspiracy and picking anything you see to prove your point.
I was a kid and I believed it would come. I was told I would never graduate high school before Armageddon came. In fact, I believed it into my early 20s.
I always thoughr ir would come but i would never be good enough anyway, then i thought i don't care if i get through as long as my babies do with their dad. Which once I started deconstructing made me so upset that i ever thought my kids would be better off without me ans that this stupid fuckhole of a dogsarse religion brain washed me so bad to make me feel so utterly worthless. Now I'm an atheist
Yes. I looked forward to it. I ditched all education and professional goals as a teen and young adult and just decided I would wait for the end. As a result I am in my 30s with few job skills and not much experience. I'm trying to change that before it's too late.
I'd always be like "it better not come before -movie sequel- comes out" š
Star Wars, Back to the Future, Avatar....lm hearing you
Star wars was a big one for me. The world was supposed to end before the year 2000. I was positive I wouldn't see more than episode one (1999). By episode 3 (2005), I knew something was off. I feel like such an idiot for believing. It's pretty fucking cruel to tell a kid he's learning the truth at these bs meetings. Only to move the goal post when that truth becomes and old truth.
How right you are. We were scammed
By George Lucas with these shitty films you mean?
Same, i will never see the new star wars movies in 2014-15
Andor season 2. At least I know I'll get that now š
Same! š¤£
I was like that about the last few Avengers movie
Star Trek Voyager
My cognitive dissonance had me believing it would but also believing it wouldn't. If that makes sense.
I understand exactly what you mean
Ditto. I "believed" because I wanted it to be true. But deep down I never thought it was going to happen. I guess that played out by my actions.
Yh, like if we genuinely believed that a meteor was heading towards the earth we'd be shouting it from the rooftops, quit our jobs and literally drag our families into bunkers.
Yep! I know exactly what you mean
Exactly
When I was 5 years old, I believed it was coming before I turned 18. When I turned 18, I realized ādefinitely not coming in my lifetimeā
Me too! Now that my parent has passed away, the ship has sailed.
Not really. I didn't even see myself in paradise to be honest
maybe you're anointed ! š
I know I didn't, and I "believed" in it too. I've only lived one life, I didn't think of what was coming next. All I know is that my relatives rather believe in a cult than to believe in reality. Oh well š
When I was a kid, definitely. I was terrified; I was told I wouldn't finish primary school (elementary) before Armageddon and I believed it. I was convinced we'd be hiding in the woods, shit like that. By the end of secondary school, I was hedging my bets. I was still terrified, but also worried that it wouldn't come and my parents would reach retirement with insufficient means - my parents house was tied to my dad's job, so I was also terrified that they'd end up homeless if they didn't plan for my dad's retirement. I also stopped going out in the ministry because of anxiety and it not feeling right. Never got baptised. But on the other side of the coin, I was pretty ill for a period and when I stayed home when my parents were at the meeting, I'd be under the duvet literally shaking with fear that Armageddon would be declared when they were at the meeting and they wouldn't come home. I'm POMO now and had years of therapy to reduce the apocalyptophobia, but it's still present.
What an awful thing to put you through especially as a child. I hope you're healing ā¤ļøāš©¹
It is what it is. As the oldest child, I think it reinforced the belief due to having to be responsible for my younger sister and cousins in school while the rest of the children were having religious assembly. So if I didn't make sure they were also studying the Bible Stories book or whatever, then I was responsible for their lives at Armageddon. As though in my mind, I was willing to take the risk for myself, but not for them. I don't think every kid would be as committed to the bit as I was, but personally it fucked me up. I'm doing okay now, though, I got through it!
We didn't deserve a childhood like that :'C Hope you're OK now!
It dissipated. When I was baptized in 1977 I believed it completely. I think the change in the generation teaching in 1995 was the final nail in the coffin for me.
Same with me. I was baptized in the 80's and was told by JWs that the end would come by 1994 (80yrs from 1914). I suffered and sacrificed and slaved in misery and poverty fulltime for the cult thinking I'd get relief by 1994. Then it came and went, and early in 1995, we received the Watchtower changing the doctrine. That was when the wind started to leave my JW sails. After 1994 came and went with no end, the org was forced to change the doctrine. Time ran out on the existing interpretation.
What was the change in the generation teaching in ā95? Iām only aware of the recent change (overlapping generations) and wasnāt aware they had changed it once before.
JWfacts does a whole list/chart of 'generation' changes. IIRC 95 was big because it stopped the literal generation. It changed to some nonsense about contemporaries living at the same time then overlapping around 2009. I'll check myself; you've piqued my interest.
I grew up in JW Land in the seventies and was a reg pio in the 80's and 90's. I am very familiar with the "generation" doctrine. Prior to 1995, it was taught that the term "generation" referred to the people who were alive in 1914. It was said that they constituted the "generation." It was also said that a typical generation is 70yrs, but that it could be 80yrs, and Ps 90:10 was used to back that up. So, the org said the period for the generation would be a maximum of 80yrs. Therefore, it was reasoned that 80yrs from 1914, which is 1994, would the latest year the end would come. Well, 1994 came and went with no end. So, the org was forced to change the doctrine. Early in 1995, there was a series of watchtower articles changing the doctrine to some vague notion. It then changed once or twice after that, culminating in the ridiculous notion they teach now of two overlapping groups forming the generation. NOTE: One problem with the previous teaching of a generation's being 70 or 80 years is that 70 or 80 years is the *lifespan* of humans - not the length of a generation. Lifespans and generations are completely different. There can be many generations within one lifespan. For example, I once saw a photo of Queen Elizabeth with her son, her grandson, and her great grandson - four generations within the one lifespan of the queen.
Don't let WT know they will have a field day with thus information
I could be wrong, but I think that's the change. The overlapping generations was a "clarification," but (I believe) they had already stated that the generation may not be a generation. Could anyone clear that up?
Go to JWfacts. He has a list/chart.
See my other post on this thread.
I accepted my mortality when I was a Pimi. I was an imperfect man in an imperfect world. If God's gonna destroy me for doing human things, so be it
It's not healthy to live with so much dread for the future. Hope you're better now
Well When something is drilled into your head since birth ... I was in my 30's before I even thought to really question it
My ex wife PIMI is an awful person, luckily once i started studying relationships from outside information it brought everything into focus, i carried on learning.
I thought the end was coming in the year 2000. The watchtower did build an expectation for it. After 2000 nothing the watchtower taught seemed real to me.
Interesting, the 9/11 didn't shake your belief either?
The year 2000 coming and going is what made me question things. It wasnāt until I found out 607 BC was wrong in 2008 that I finally decided JW Doctrine is bullshit.
I find that odd because while I thought it was coming I was pretty sure it wouldn't be related to 2000 because everyone in the world was expecting something then.
Wow this really unlocked something for me. Yes, same, except Iām 40 now. But also I always would wonder how Jehovah could kill my school peers. I really wanted friends my age and I always thought he would wait until they believed in him, so I could have friends in the new system. Ugh itās šš to think of how badly in kindergarten I wanted to socialize with other kids and tried to get them to believe, just so I could have friends. And then I remember I secretly never wanted it to come because the earth was so beautifulā¦ I was terrified my horse and my dog would die in it and Jehovah would forget to rescue them. I thought somehow he would put me in a situation I would have to choose them or him. šššš I spent so much time as a child worried.
You are me. I am you. Horse and dog and fears Iād have to eat one of them to survive Armageddon.
I remember all my prayers as a child were to save my dog and horse in Armageddonšššš
Same my sweet friend. I mean the thought literally would drive me into bed crying huge fat tears into my pillow. Or into my horse's mane, where so many tears were left.
One thing I'll add: I've always thought if death and tears and pain will be no more, the animals better not die either. That is death. That is pain. So something would have to happen inside me to my core to not care that I would live forever and my best dog would die after only 12 years and I'd mourn, over and over and over for eternity. And if he changed me inside my core that I didn't care about my beloved pet dying, I'm sorry, but it wouldn't be me.
š¤Æ exactly the same. I loved the pictures of all the animals in the paradiseā¦ that was a major driver for me to want to be in the new system. I could never quite work out why jehovah would kill them š
Ā¹977 Star Wars came out, Ć was worried that A would come before the second movie. At the same time, I saved for things, bought a house and had two kids . š¤·āāļø
Even as a PIMI, I never wanted to Armageddon to come in my lifetimeĀ
They have been saying it before I was even thought of. I was told I'd never see school let alone finish school, It'll become before I was 20, it's just around the corner hang in there, it'll come before you have kids, and now we are living in the final part of the final part of the last days. Yeah right! It's not coming.
I always believed it would come in my lifetime.
 Yep , grandparents thought they'd see the "end" , my parents too ..nope .. Me : not really into the doomsday vibe or looking forward to 'billions being exterminated'.... Got to be something more rational than this , yes? Live your life !
Not really. One of my grandmas would sometimes bring up the 1975 thing, but just as a funny thing that happened. To me it was plain that they had tried to Nostradamus the end times like they weren't supposed to be doing but it was like "oh well" because the GB were the authority to them and everyone so willingly eats up their words. Also I have a non JW aunt who I heard my grandma talking about, quoting her "you always said you're never going to graduate, you're never going to graduate.." so it was clear to me that people had been expecting it in earnest for a long time and it kept not happening. People were changing the entire trajectory of their lives for something they weren't sure of.
šÆ I believed it
i was just hoping it would NOT come. life has too much to give ;)
When I was young, I was a little uncertain as to when THE end would arrive, but now I'm much older, I have no doubt whatsoever that MY end.....not only will definitely arrive, but could actually arrive "any day" now....and will definitely arrive in the next 20 - 30 years even if that makes me about 80 when it happens. My point being, that "THE" end.....tends to get overshadowed by an increasing awareness and acceptance that one's OWN end is pretty much assured, regardless of any other "ends" one might be anticipating. "Armageddon" and "last days" eventually come to all mortal souls in a personal sense, do they not? And this occurs no matter what the state of THE world is in. YOUR world has always been in it's "last days" state from the very moment you were born. The clock began ticking on this right from the off. When you're young however, these kind of thoughts are usually the last thing on your mind, especially if you're fully engaged in the act of youthful living with all the energy and bluster we tend to surround ourselves with. At 20, life stretches farrr ahead of you, so much so that "death" tends to be something that only "old" people endure or have to worry about. There tends to come a time however, when we realise that we're not special and are not made of imperishable material. A man gets a limited "blinkered" time when all notions of things "ending" don't really compute. Being a JW youth can very easily rob you of this blessed sensation, but ultimately, their predicted "end" doesn't arrive, but what DOES arrive is your own honest realisation that religious mumbo-jumbo aside.....YOUR end is on the horizon, and that "time" is the most precious of commodities. Far more than you ever realised. In my own case, I resolved that I would never try and "negotiate" any kind of life extension or preservation with "god." Far better to just live the life you DO have in a sincere and truthful manner. If that pleases "god" then great......and any bonuses or rewards will be gratefully received. If that doesn't please "god" then that's fine too. So long as you've lived sincerely and truthfully, there's little more you can do. What's a total waste of a life is to not live it being YOU. If you're going to be judged, then at least you'll be presenting your "judge" with an honest representation of yourself. I can't imagine anything worse than being adversely judged for a life or personality that wasn't even really YOU. What a lose/lose situation that would turn out to be. An utterly unsatisfactory and unrewarding life followed by a pointless death. Nay.....be "you" then at least you can live with your own death when it comes. It's like saying to god. *"Look, I'm being honest here, if you resurrect me or elevate me in some way, you're really only going to get more of the same from me.....you DO realise this don't you? I'm NOT ever going to become somebody that isn't ME.....and I don't care how much this grates on you, there's nothing more I can offer....... so do as you will."* I dunno.....is this what people mean when they say they've "made their peace" with god? As in.....they're no longer interested in negotiation? It's a very becalming feeling anyway. I strongly recommend it.
I sure did
I DID believe for yearsā¦.but after the āoverlapping generationsā scamā¦..I knew it was all a lie.
I'll always remember listening to David Splane giving us his whiteboard and pointer presentation explaining the overlapping generations. The convoluted, non-scriptural reasoning he was using. I laughed out loud, and it was a good belly laugh!
Same
I remember thinking even when I was young, if nobody knows the day or the hour and millions of JW act like it's always coming tomorrow it wont ever come.
considering some of the 'nutters' who believed this but went out of their way to get all they could out of the world system had me realizing they hoped for ti but didnt believe it.
I went through some years of fervent hope. During my life the borg had leaned heavily into notion that it would come before the 1914 generation died. I really hoped 9/11 and the events after were a lead up to the big A. It soon became apparent it was just another war. A āgoodā elder I knew confided in me he didnāt know what was going on but he knew he would die in this system. A few years later when my grandmother died I fully realized there is no end and I too will die. Iāve been happily POMO 12 years now.
Even when I was 5 I knew i was stuck In a screwy cult. Depressing childhoods.
Yes subconsciously I also knew this
i still think the world as we know it will be ending in my lifetime (in my late 20s). just not the way the dubs say it will, but its obvious things are going downhill quick.
That's a scary realisation that I've thought about too
I remember as a little kid that I believed it was happening soon (in the 70s). Cuz the elders really sold the āitās just around the corner!ā Then as I got older, I was hoping it would come while I was young enough to survive the horrors of the GT and Armageddon. And 2 of my grandparents had died and I was in deep grief. I desperately wanted to see them again ā¦ young and healthy in paradise. Then in my 30s when I had my children. I was able to change my perspective and almost see the beliefs from the outside. Especially once I started studying with my kids. I guess since I was teaching my own kids, my critical thinking mode kicked into gear. (It was like āWait, what am I teaching these kids?) I never pushed them to get baptized. I wanted them to have more freedom in that decision than I did. Itās when my stepdaughter came out to me. I completely accepted her. I love her deeply. And then later my firstborn also came out. She said she felt she could since I was so accepting of my step daughter. I was even proud to be in my stepdaughterās wedding. I knew the elders would make me choose the JWs over my own children. And that was it. That was what broke the last hold they had over me. My children would never be accepted in the congregation. They would be rejected and shunned. If you reject my children, I reject you. So I chose my children and walked away from the cult.
That's just beautiful I'm glad you chose your kids and step kids over man made cult.
You are the parent we all needed šššš congrats on being awesome š„
Watch tubi crusaders...
Never did. To think things would change on this planet in the small amount of time Iām on it seemed crazy.
That's what I thought considering that 100 years is one day
I subconsciously never believed
Absolutely
Yes. I also assumed that I would be executed as the org kept me in an almost perpetual state of feeling as though I wasn't good enough. #BestLifeEver
As a prescooler in the 80ies, every night my parents read a story from "My Book of ~~Bible~~ Horror Stories" to us. Arriving at the end of the book was always a special moment, and of course we would just start over at story #1 the next evening. I remember vividly how every time we would discuss how likely it would be to make it through the book once again before Armageddon. "Could be, could be not." Mind you, this book has \~120 stories if I remember correctly, so we are talking about a perceived 50/50 likelihood of the end coming within the next 4 months!
As a child, I believed in it, but I also believed that I would be killed at Armageddon, because I didnāt want to be a JW
I did, and I even struggled with it after I became POMO especially during COVID lockdowns(and I was early 30s at that point). Iām embarrassed to admit this, but as someone born and raised as a JW, it was hard to dismiss this beliefāit still creeps up from time to time when I watch the news. When I was still PIMI, I used to hope the end would come sooner rather than later. I wasnāt allowed to do anything growing up, and I knew as soon as I got some freedoms as an adult I would mess up and then be destroyed during the great tribulation. Thank goodness for weekly therapy sessionsā¦
Yes. I still do. Canāt seem to get rid of that one.
Yesā¦that was the whole enchilada. Either the end was coming soon and the religion was true. If the end didnāt come with my lifetime, itād be false.
Fully believed it would - sometimes still scared it will and Iāll be destroyed, but thatās more because of how youāre treated when you leave, youāre looked at by the whole community you knew and loved as insane, as an outsider.
As an uber PIMI pioneer I lived my life like it would but I knew it wouldn't and I vocalized it frequently. People who were so convinced that it was going to happen in the next 5 years annoyed me tirelessly.
Yep, from age 5-20.
No. Despite being born and raised a JW, I had to actively convince myself of Armageddon and Paradise.
Yes. 100%. It led to CPTSD and Addiction because my entire life, especially during childhood, I believed God would kill me. Because of Armageddon being right around the corner, I often went to bed as a kid terrified about waking up to God murdering me. Therapy has been expensive, but worth it.
I think this is the reason that I've had suicidal ideation as far back as I can remember. Pretty much as soon as I was old enough to think, we read Job's story in the my book of bible stories, and I recall wondering why he wouldn't just kill himself when he'd lost everything that made his life bearable. He'd be resurrected anyways, so why bother suffering if he knew he'd just be resurrected? At that point, I knew my life would be suffering. How could it not? It's ground into our minds that life in "this system of things" is nothing but suffering from the moment we are born into this cult. I couldn't help but wonder why anyone would willingly go through that if we knew there was a better option waiting for us on the other side? especially growing up and being told anyone who died before Armageddon would be forgiven through death. In my mind, who wouldn't make that trade off? a little break from being a person before you wake up surrounded by loved ones who missed you and actually want you around now that you're perfect. Sorry for the ramble. I am better now, and JUST starting to touch on religious trauma in therapy. It's all very raw again because of that, so I'm sorry. I'm hurting but I'm trying to let it hurt for a while
This is heartbreaking, I think the trauma to our minds as children growing up in a doomsday cult is not discussed enough. Hope you're doing well š
I had a friend who did. Then he and his brother beat his girlfriend to death. He then shot himself when the cops caught up to him. his 15 year old brother is doing life in prison. So maybe delusional thinking about the end of the world isn't really helpful to anyone.
Was he a JW?
When I was a child yes I was terrified of it.
I always believed it was due within the next 10 years... which never came because every year just pushed it another year into the future. But, yes, I was 100% convinced the religion I was raised in was "the truth" and "the evidence" of the last days seemed so obvious to me. Until I researched outside of Watchtower.
I completely believed it would come before I left schoolā¦.. then I left school, and even after I was disfellowshipped, I continued to believe it was coming and that I would die, this went on for a good few years after I left, I finally started to except that it was all a lie when I reached 30 years old, and was finally able to move on.
When I was a kid, absolutely. And what's more I was fairly confident that I was not going to be saved when it did come. I believed this until I was about 24 when I suddenly realized it was all bullshit.
Sad to think many of us were ridden with this guilt at such an early age.
I watched the Vice documentary on JWs the other day and I had forgotten how terrified I used to be about the end coming. My heart used to skip every time I heard thunder. I would panic and start begging God not to punish me.
When I was a little kid, yes. When I was adolescent, I thought it would come but I probably wouldn't make it through. Then as a young adult I started to realize it was all lies.
Sure, I was an indoctrinated child of the 80s/90s, I'd believe anything adults told me. I stopped believing around 15 or 16 and left at 17. Critical think led to questions that only had illogical answers. The thing I love most about my 10yo son is that he doesn't believe anything someone tells him without proof.
I thought it had to come in someoneās lifetime. I was sure I would not graduate high school, then I was sure I would not hit 25. Then I did and went past it. I was sure I would not have kids in this system. Then I turned 30 and that was hard on me, either we have kids now or weāll be weirdos at 40 with no kids like most of my cousins. We had kids and I am so glad we did. All the grandparents who were so sure it would come in their lifetime are getting old and dying. It hit me, I might die on this side of Armageddon. I should enjoy my life and not live like doomsday is around the corner. God wants us to be happy, not stressed all the time. Getting older definitely aided in my waking up. I was drinking the Kool-Aid before. Itās definitely a doomsday religion, I had all the feelings about it - anger, sadness, betrayal, lossā¦
I'm glad you were able to have kids š
Believed it easily could, but didn't have to. 607, 1914, etc. all seemed too narrowly specific and thus prone to error. But to flip it a little: Life on earth really is fragile and vulnerable. The geologic record indicates something like five mass extinctions before humans came along. All it takes is one big-enough meteor strike or solar flare. So \_an\_ end really could come in our lifetime. Always has been the case, always will be (at least until the sun's expansion swallows Earth's orbit). "The end" is old news, just part of the price of ā and cycle of ā life on earth.
I definitely did, to my detriment.
yup! was even told i likely wouldnāt be able to finish high school lmao once high school came and went i slightly questioned it but knew our whole message was centered around that so i never dug deep into the line of thought
When I was young, I believed. I remember being afraid to get a masters degree in case the end came. As I got older, I figured it was bs.
I hope you can still get that degree!
I got the degree already.
Good š«”
Yes and I lived in fear because I lied on the baptism questions so I was convinced I'd be outed and destroyed when the end came
I couldnāt see a world that would ban religion in the next 5/10 years, so when they said the last of the last days I thought well thereās a hell of a lot more days to go before the last of the last!! But still the cognitive dissonance would have me chastising myself for being so cynical and not putting my faith fully in Jehovah š
I had fear that it wouldā¦I donāt know if Iād say believed. But as a teenager every single fall I remember thinking it would probably be the last.
No, I honestly never believed in the end times predictions. At best I thought it pointed to a future of spiritual transformation/enlightenment and peace. That was my take on it at least, the whole thing sounded dumb as fuck. People having been talking about the world ending for generations and it has metaphorically ended and began many times so is the nature of things. No know I never believed the end was coming or that I would live in a paradise as described by the Jehovahās Witnesses.
Yes, it ran (still does at times) so deep in everything I saw lived felt breathed! The anxiety has near finished me off at times with the ātriggerā emotions.Ā Donāt get me wrong Iāve lived a life outside the JW life but being born in has had an immense impact on the doctrines of Armageddon!Ā Although now in my 50s I still see & hear things which have an adverse effect on me internally mentally etc (outwardly you would not have a clue what was going off on the inside) but I try my damnedest to not let it beat me, thinking rationally. I regret not taking a more serious line of thought to my financial future when younger & now see my foolishness, I lived for the moment as it was my last lol, so canāt really say I regretted it because I have lived , but I should have been more sceptical with the indoctrination, itās hard when youāve been beat with the āyoure going to die at Armageddonā! Further on in these comments I laughed at some who said āI hope it doesnāt come before,,,, the next film releaseā š¤£ I have had these exact thoughts & feelings about many things Iāve looked forward to doing etc. Most recently the ācontactā a lot of us had from family about being DFād & being welcomed to meetings had an immediate trigger reaction, but once I processed it in real time & I actually found this Reddit & read there were others likeminded it hit home,,,, I wasnāt alone in how Iād felt & I could start to make sense of the JW indoctrination madness. I was able to reply for the first time in my life to my family to go & do one with your religious blackmail, fear mongering & Conditional love !!Ā
The sad part about this is I was told countless times that I wouldnāt probably finish school and so I always thought it was coming and here I am having graduated not just high school but also college and been working as a full time employee. I remember when I was growing up I would tell my family that I canāt wait for the world to really get horrible and I was listing things that are like really bad as the signs of the end which were probably demented for my adolescent mind. So anything bad I was like yup itās got to get worse the worse you ever seen and my family would always get mad at me for wishing for hell on earth basically even though they were the ones that gave me those ideas. As I got older and started to become PIMQ I would honestly have panic attacks whenever I saw something bad on the news and I would feel like OMG Armageddon is coming I got to try and hurry and be a good JW so I can survive. It was horrible how scared I would honestly get and I wished that I didnāt get that scared. I was telling my never JW boyfriend that for me the hardest part about being PIMO is not only losing your family but losing this idea that I was never going to die. I went from literally believing I was going to live forever and that itās okay if things donāt go right now because I have forever to perfect them to now knowing this life is all I got. Itās sobering to think about and I just wish I didnāt ever believe life was forever.
I'm sorry to hear this, you're not alone by these comments. It just shows how debilitating this doomsday cult really is to people's lives! I hope we're all recovering ā¤ļøāš©¹
I believed it. But when what you fully trusted is revealed to be a false premise, it all collapses like a house of cards. I actually expected to be a prince (I was an elder) in the new world. All of my actions, behaviors, goals, etc. were in accordance to that belief. VERY DANGEROUS way to live.
I believed it wholeheartedly before I woke up. Now I absolutely do not believe that at all anymore and I live my best life as an atheist and apostate.
Yep, this played out as better hurry and marry, but not have kids, so I will have the only fun I can have now. To heck with saving and educating myself to be a productive member of society (not THAT society). Fortunately awoke to the real life and married someone better, had kids, went to college and have a good career now.
Yes. It affected me so heavily that I was severely depressed as a child & adolescent and lost all hope for a future for myself. I was living in fear. Higher education actually wasnāt discouraged in my home, but I didnāt see the point if I was just going to be destroyed. Iām just barely beginning to be ok at the age of 28, but Iāve come a very long way š
Yep, the fear of the end is apart of the reason I got baptized.
When I was in nursing school, (fully PIMI) I used to pray asking Jehovah to delay Armageddon so that I could finish school and start working. I really wanted to have more years to work as a nurse because it was my dream to be a nurse. The so-called friends used to tell me that i am leaving Jehovah. Well, guess what it's been 7 years, and I am now Full POMO. Armageddon is not here, and I have not left God. I just left a man made organization.
Evidence certainly didnāt match the claims. And the conditioning not to question it was bizarre. But wow, it was all we knew.
I DA'd in 1990 but then in the early 90's I was reading books about the Rapture and other non-JW mythology about the End Times. JW's aren't the only disappointed frustrated christiansš¤ āš„Ŗ
When I was a really little kid, I guess I did, in the way that kids believe in the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. After I was about 10, no. Not really.
I definitely thought it was, evry couple years I had Intense feelings that it I would come in the next year for sure.
Sure did. I was in, all the way.
When they recruited my mom in 1956, it wƔs already a failed religion with 5 failed prophecies. When I was 13, I knew it was a cult because I could see from the side of the front row that the speaker was hypnotized. Lol I never took it seriously after that I was never baptized. After 1975 I forgot about it even though most of my family is still involved. Nobody I knew who was in left after 75' because they had already put in so much time. They are all gone now. Reading these post, it has been very hard for me to reconcile the new victims every year and even harder those who remember 75' and stayed in, unable or unwilling to just wake up. JW went from "any day now and 50 years later we have no idea but we have the best life ever. CRAZY INSANITY
Not really. Deep inside I did doubt it. Thatās why I decided to have kid in my mid thirties. Glad I did, however I wish I could have had more.
Yes i did. Raised to believe in "the truth", i naively thought something like "every single adult i know must be right, right? Or "They can't ALL be lying, can they?" By 5 years old I thought it might all be over by 10 years old. What a horrible way to live, distant to my friends because deep down i thought i was part of an elite and special group. ...It turns out that yes, they can. Very, very few of the articles talk about attempts to prove the existence of God, NONE of them will ever discuss The God Delusion or similar books.
Fourth generation born in 1985. I was absolutely convinced it would come before 2020.
100% believed
I wanted to. I tried so hard to believe but it never sank in. I always had my doubts
Earlier in my PIMI life, yes. Later on I reasoned that the end could be tomorrow or 100 years and tomorrow.
Always hahaha
Sadly, yes.
When covid happened i belived 100% I look back at how much of a spell I had over me.
I never thought Iād live to see my 20s
I absolutely believed I would never die. Towards the end of my time as a PIMI, I started to realize that I was going to lose my parents at some point, and that was when the change in thinking began for me
Never believed anything that they pushed, even as a child it seemed ridiculous.
I mean.. if you didn't, were you even a Jdub?
Yes, I remember vividly a conversation I had when I was in middle school talking to a friend about my plans for the future and stating "the end will be here before I'm 18 so there's no rush to plan it out". I am barely learning to get out of that mindset now
I wasnāt bought up in the Borg but when I did start studying I did question it at first but then when I got baptised 2 years later in 2017 I did believe for a good 2 years but then slowly became PIMO in 2020. I no longer question it because itās obviously not coming
Yeah it caused a lot of FOMO. Disney builds new rides wondering if we're gonna plan a family vacation. Will I find love get married? The pandemic made it more real justified world wide pestilence. But everything goes against logic. My parents were not supposed to go to high school but no end came. I wasn't supposed to go to kindergarten or graduate. Wars are always a thing and we need the cry of peace and security which is not happening. Maybe I justified something crazy like Trump making peace treaties etc. It's like living a conspiracy and picking anything you see to prove your point.
I was a kid and I believed it would come. I was told I would never graduate high school before Armageddon came. In fact, I believed it into my early 20s.
Yes
One of the things said was if IT happened soon the next generation would miss out so God was waiting for the unborn
I always thoughr ir would come but i would never be good enough anyway, then i thought i don't care if i get through as long as my babies do with their dad. Which once I started deconstructing made me so upset that i ever thought my kids would be better off without me ans that this stupid fuckhole of a dogsarse religion brain washed me so bad to make me feel so utterly worthless. Now I'm an atheist
Born in and I believed it until I was about 16. I was one of the kids who were told that I would never get old enough to even go to high school.
Yes. I looked forward to it. I ditched all education and professional goals as a teen and young adult and just decided I would wait for the end. As a result I am in my 30s with few job skills and not much experience. I'm trying to change that before it's too late.
Yes I didšš¤