Nice thought for the day ...

by neat blue dog 8 Replies latest jw friends

  • neat blue dog
    neat blue dog

    Just thought I'd share what I found in my fortune cookie. (I know, fortune cookies are inviting demons, just like Lucky Charms cereal 😜) Well actually it's more of a proverb, like most of them are nowadays:

    "As one grows to understand life less and less, one learns to live it more and more."

    This is definitely true with many of us. As JWs, we were enticed with absolute truth taught by an organization. When things contradicted this premise, many of us had to suppress the logical side of our minds, which led to great confusion, distress and anguish. Now, knowing that it isn't "The Truth" brings me, not fear of the unknown, but liberation. I can't know everything, NOBODY can know everything. And that is A-OK! Instead of stress from trying to MAKE things fit into a convoluted and flawed framework, the world is now a much bigger place. I'm free to use my own God-given mind to take things as I see them and progress, learning more as I go (because there will always be more to learn), and not fearing someone trying to control the conclusions I draw.

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Thanks, neat blue dog:

    I agree. Your quotation brought this one from Bertrand Russell to mind:

    "One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision."

  • eyeuse2badub
    eyeuse2badub

    Love your fortune cookie proverb--dog! I totally agree with your comments as well. Living life beats the hell out of trying to earn life!

    One "proverb" I always enjoyed is:

    "I'd rather have questions that can't be answered----than answers that can't be questioned"!

    just saying!

  • neat blue dog
    neat blue dog

    eyeuse2badub:

    Yes! That is one of my all time favorites, part of my meme collection. 😄

  • sparrowdown
    sparrowdown

    Rather like "Awareness of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom." Or some such thing, Socrates said it anyway.

    So true tho, so true.

  • Xanthippe
    Xanthippe

    Great quotes. It's such a breath of fresh air to be away from that suffocating belief system where everything unexplained was Satan and everything beautiful and amazing in the natural world, God did it.

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    Your OP immediately made me think of this:

    "Now I am older

    The more that I see, the less that I know for sure

    Now I am older, uh huh

    The future is brighter and now is the hour" - John Lennon (Living on Borrowed Time).

    Although he also sang 'I am the eggman, I am the walrus' so I don't know what to believe XD

  • Reopened Mind
    Reopened Mind

    My mother (nonJW) used to say, "the more you know, the more you know you don't know."

    I don't think this saying is original with her, but it sure rings true.

    Reopened Mind

  • Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho
    Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

    @Compound Complex: "...those who feel certainty are stupid" - Bertrand Russell.

    How many of our loved ones are living in a false state of certainty? They don't even claim to have truth, but rather, are IN it!

    Hawkings and Boorstin appear to have understood our plight with waking family up when expressing the following sentiment: "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge."

    It's like when you're dead. You don't know you are dead - it's only painful for others.

    Same with being stupid.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit