What is Truth?

by Victor_E 5 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Victor_E

  Since leaving the Tower some seven years ago I took a leap building my wings of faith on the way down. I have enjoyed some of your posts on faith, truth, and life’s purpose yada yada yada. I have concluded that the truth about my existence lies somewhere in between being a hybrid human/alien product to being a Son of God with a meaningful purpose. The paradox of this issue is that I could make a valid case for any Cartesian point I choose to arrive at in this spectrum. I am curious to hear about your personal truths to the following questions:

  1. How do you explain your existence and the afterlife?
  2. What are the biggest lessons in your life you have had to learn?
  3. What criteria do you use to accept a personal truth?
  4. What past truths did you have to revise substituting them with what?
  5. What gives you the greatest satisfaction since leaving the Tower?
  6. If you summed up your life guiding principles you want to pass on to your children what are these?

  We should be ready to revise any belief, we should change a belief where there is compelling reason to change it, and we should not change a belief wantonly without some good reason. The first point needs intellectual courage, the second, intellectual honesty, and the third, wise restraint. Do not believe anything but question only what is worth questioning.
  
  Victor
• 

  YoYoMama

  We should be ready to revise any belief, we should change a belief where there is compelling reason to change it, and we should not change a belief wantonly without some good reason. The first point needs intellectual courage, the second, intellectual honesty, and the third, wise restraint.

  And yet apostates keep criticizing the WTBTS for changes they make.
• 

  battman

  YumaYuma,

  In your response to the original post you
  sound a like Ferrdie "One Liner" Hall.
  Try some independent thought and drop
  the "parrot" mentality.

  The three traits listed there are sorely
  lacking in the WTBTS.

  They reactively change when their false
  prophesy drops back in their lap, when
  their membership drops etc, etc, etc.....

  These old farts would not know a proactive
  postition as the lawyers and "committee"
  mentality now reign supreme.

  My prophesy "Watch out, more boredom ahead".

  lv ya,

  battman
• 

  battman

  If you summed up your life guiding principles you want to pass on to your children what are these?

  Beware of organized religion, especially one that claims that they alone are the one true religion.

  and be always prepared to: hahahahhahhahahhhahahhhahahyhahahahhahahahahhahahh
  :):):):):):):):):):):):):)

  battman
• 

  Nathan Natas

  Victory -

  1. How do you explain your existence and the afterlife?

  
  My existence: an individual product of the human reproductive imperative.

  Afterlife: WHAT"Afterlife"?
  I join the snuffed candle flames of eternity in etenity, with no personal awareness or consciousness. For an eternity before I was born I did not exist; for an eternity after I die I will not exist.

  2. What are the biggest lessons in your life you have had to learn?

  Don't trust preachers from Brooklyn; Momma ain't always right.

  3. What criteria do you use to accept a personal truth?

  Truth is congruent with observable reality.

  4. What past truths did you have to revise substituting them with what?

  I am not the 27th emanation of Ormuzd-zool. I am the 28th.

  5. What gives you the greatest satisfaction since leaving the Tower?

  Barbequed ribs and heffewiesen.

  6. If you summed up your life guiding principles you want to pass on to your children what are these?

  Religion is a snare and a racket.

  Here's one for you: what preconceptions were you not even aware of when you formulated these questions?
• 

  Introspection

  Why do we need so many beliefs? As far as courage in asking questions is concerned, it all depends on why you're asking. You can ask because you just have to know, because not knowing bothers you. So the first can be "How DO you EXPLAIN your EXISTENCE and the AFTERLIFE?" (in my best James T. Kirk impression) If that's the case, it's not that courageous. It's almost like you have to get out of uncertainty so you feel like you've got something to lean on. On the other hand, you can ask out of curiosity, just for the sake of inquiry. Of course, most of the time we don't need to explain something to ourselves either, so it'd probably be phrased differently. But see, why explain it in the first place? You exist, and the afterlife comes afterwards, so I don't see the point. So I guess this would be my answer for 2 and 6, which makes the rest of them kind of irrelevant for me: It's not important to have all the answers, including the ones for which you don't even know the question. Often times, it's more important to just observe what's going on, REALLY observe, rather than trying to explain it in some way.