by Geronimo 21 Replies latest jw friends
Geronimo,
UNity seem not to be "Anti-Watchtower, but rather, Watchtower is Anti-Unity. I hope that this group stays the way you found them ... because whenever a good group gets going, is when types of Rutherford show up, take over, and screw everything up all to hell.
Jim Whitney
Thanks LoevlyLill. G
Hello Star. Having read Unity books now for several weeks, I do not find that they fall into a foolish category such as you describe. They hold firmly to certain views but they do not make them a metaphysical line in the sand as fundiots and other conservative Xian groups do. They are not on a jihad whether subtle or overt. They know how to live and let live. G
Geronimo wrote: ***Unity proclaims that all sentient beings have the Truth.***
I guess Unity defines "truth" a little differently from the JWs? Otherwise, this statement makes no sense.
Parakeet, rather than ask a s simple question, "What does Geronimo mean when he says this? What does Unity mean by this?" you make a declaration that nonsense is being spoken. Kindly explain in what way the doctrine of the Trinity makes sense? Or that an axe-head can float? Or any of the other bizarre stories found in the Bible?
I would certianly HOPE that Unity define truth differently than JWs! To a JW there exists only black and white no shades of gray. Truth is understood in an exclusively verbal manner of "logical" propositions (logical if one bites into the closed loop of Bible belief reasoing). To myself and to Unity absolute Truth is an experience of the Absolute, not a doctrinal proposition. It is not merely words on a page to be given mental assent to, but an experience to be lived.
When I or another mystically oriented person makes a statement such as this we are referring to the fact that Absolute truth dwells within each of us. "God" dwells within each of us. "In Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts I believe) Therefore, each of us has the potential to experience the Absolute Reality and thereby know the Absolute Truth.
I recommend The Power Of Myth by the late great Joseph Campbell for illumination on these matters. G
Thank you PMOUSE! G
I went to the Unity church in Clearwater Fla shortly after I left the witnesses in 83, It was a very pleasant experience. I think I went 2 or 3 times but I guess I didnt want to start any new habbits seeing as I was free of the old habbit. I guess that was part of my recovery.
JaguarBass, same here. I don't want to join anything. even if it's as positive and good as Unity. G
I see there are a few of them in the UK, the nearest one to us being in Birmingham, which is about 40 miles from here. I'm not personally thinking of going to any church, but I know an ex jw friend who is visiting various places of worship, so I'll pass this on, thanks.
Your friend will enjoy the experience immensely! G
The more things change, the more they stay the same. I see echoes of the WT founder in Unity's history. Did you know that the great-granddaughter of the founders controls everything from publishing Unity's magazines to the 24-hour Silent Unity Prayer ministry that generates the majority of the organization's approximately $30 million in annual income?
It is understandable that there will be a reaction to authoritarian organisations like the WTS and an attempt to counterbalance their extremist positions but then that all embracing liberalism (everyone has the truth) is absurd since there will in that case be so many contradictory truths. Eg the Moslems Jews etc don't accept Jesus as the saviour of mankind, to them it is a non truth.
Greendawn, your statement is born of thinking of Absolute Truth in a purely rational manner. There are many Truths in this universe that demonstrate the fallacies inherent in Aristotlean logic. For example, let's examine "wavicles." Light behaves as either a wave or a particle, depending on what sort of experiment you set up. So, the term "wavicles" was invented. The nature of wavicles is completely irrational from an Aristotlean standpoint, but this is a Foundational Fact of the Universe. It predates and out-ranks Aristotle ever so slightly.
The problem is not solved by thinking of light as particles moving in a wave pattern. A wave is not particles. When you observe a wave on the surface of the ocean you are not seeing particles of water moving across the surface. Rather, a wave is an undulating motion of the entire sea. Have you ever lifted an end of a long rug and snapped it to create a wave? if so, then you know that a "piece of rug" or "particles of rug" is not how a wave is propagated. It's an undulating motion of the whole. So too with light. Light is an undulating motion of the entire space-time continuum. Yet, it also behaves as particles (photons) depending on how you wish to treat the light. This is illogical in an Aristotlean framework. So much of modern thought has yet to catch up to the counter-intuitive facts of quantum mechanics and relativity.
When people such as myself or an organizxation such as Unity speaks of everyone possessing the truth, we speak of the non-rational personal experience of the Numinous, of the Ineffable. You mistakenly think you have God in your mental box, explained in a rational and logical fashion by various propositions about God. We rather teach people how to have a direct, experiential experience of "God" and leave any rationalizing of that experience to the seeker. We are not about uniformity or control or Arsitotlean logic applied to Ultimate Truth. A marvelous book you should read, but you won't, is The Power Of Myth.
As to "liberalism" I much prefer it to an ignorant, strident, triumphal ignorance and poor thinking such as I find among conservatives. G
UNity seem not to be "Anti-Watchtower, but rather, Watchtower is Anti-Unity. I hope that this group stays the way you found them ... because whenever a good group gets going, is when types of Rutherford show up, take over, and screw everything up all to hell.
Jim Whitney
Hello Jim. Indeed that is so. Unity is not anti-watchtower. I am, because I used to be a JW. Rather, Unity is simply the mirror image of the WTBTS. It's been going strong since the 1880s. Most fundy and evangelical sects are not that old. Someone such as Rutherford entering Unity would immediately stand out like herpes at a nudist colony and alarm bells would sound. G
