by peacefulpete 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
What I do find sad (but then it's only my subjective view) is whenever somebody pretends to hate Christmas because s/he just found out that there is no Santa Claus.
LOL. brilliant, and so true. of course, many religion haters did not invest their lives into santa. but i get what you're saying. and maybe there's hope for me yet.
so, let me get this straight Narkissos: you're agnostic or something similar, but you go to church for the pleasure of it?
TS
Hi Tetra,
so, let me get this straight Narkissos: you're agnostic or something similar, but you go to church for the pleasure of it?
I'm not sure what I am. I don't like the term "agnostic" so much because it is very ambiguous -- ranging from "I don't know" (cautious and humble agnosticism) to "Nobody can know" (rationalistic dogmatism) via "I know it to be unknowable" (mystical or gnostic agnosticism -- perhaps the best definition to me, although I'm aware it may sound somewhat arrogant too). I have given up the term "God" because I feel it doesn't suit whatever I deeply believe in -- that would make make some sort of "religious atheist" I guess.
And, no, I don't go to church anymore, though I attended for a number of years after I left the JWs. But I certainly enjoy many Bible texts and others, and I am quite fond of Church liturgy, so I can understand Price's present stance.
I guess that doesn't make anything "straight" but that's about the best I can offer thus far.
There just seems an essential difference between "mind candy" we all enjoy, such as a moving novel or rousing movie, and attending and presiding in a church in which most everyone else is invested in the fantasy as real. It appears disingenuous at worst, schizophrenic at best.
What I do find sad (but then it's only my subjective view) is whenever somebody pretends to hate Christmas because s/he just found out that there is no Santa Claus.
The "joy" of Christmas wouldn't work at all if there was not a deliberate lie attached to it which little children, of course, believe hook, line and sinker because it is their PARENTS lying to them! I'd say this is sick; but, of course--we are fated to suffer the naysayers who weep crocadile tears; insisting how wonderful it all is.
Think of it this way, if you will.
Try this at home:
Pretend to your significant other that you WON THE LOTTERY and you will soon recieve millions of dollars in cash!!! Tell friends and family. Spread the word far and wide how wealthy you will soon be and how you are going to share it all with them.
Observe closely how ECSTATICALLY HAPPY they all are as a result of this lie!
Then, after they partying and singing and gaiety subsides; tell the the truth and watch closely what their reaction is.
How many do you suppose will hate you because the story is found to be a lie??
How many will fail to see that you were only giving them joy and light-hearted cause for celebration and optimism for awhile?
Now do you get it?
T.
Not a parallel, Terry.
I believed in the spirit of Santa Claus well past the age of knowing it was mom and dad all along. I also believed if I wished hard enough, I could fly like Peter Pan. I was realistic enough, though, to start with manageable leaps that would not break my neck. My parents worried about me. They needn't. It was not the anticipation of material reward that captured my imagination, it was the, the, the MAGIC of living beyond our own selfish selves. We have a mind that can transport us to places of unreality. That is a sort of magic I still find very appealing.
Now do you get it?
So you're telling me that all those worldly kids got promised/stiffed a million dollars? Damn! Now I once again feel all superior for growing up as a witness. ;-)
My parents worried about me. They needn't. It was not the anticipation of material reward that captured my imagination, it was the, the, the MAGIC of living beyond our own selfish selves. We have a mind that can transport us to places of unreality. That is a sort of magic I still find very appealing.Now do you get it?
When the going gets tough---the tough get neurotic? I get that!
Why make a totem out of unreality and denial? Just because you can??
Magic??
There ain't any.
No, really.
We all long for a BETTER world than the one we have. We all crave a better life than the one we have. We all would rather see things as less depressing and more hopeful than they are. But, there is a way out.
The way out involves facing our problems and using our wits to solve them as best we can. The solution is not pretending; it is taking postive action to change our life.
We have been victimized by imaginary thinking. We got it from our mother's nipple, kindergarten, tv, movies, books, music and conversation. We've been sold on the ideas that appeal to us and we run like frightened children to the comfort of those ideas when things get tough for us. The most extraordinary impact on our everyday life for the worse has been facing the fact that our romantic notions of how life might ideally be DOES NOT MATCH the way life really is. That is enough to disappoint us profoundly.
Antidepressants, alcohol, drugs, diversions and daydreaming seem the only alternative to a life of mundane hell.
But, it isn't really all that bad.
Developing skills at mastering our reality is what we need to be all about.
What you deal with today you don't face again tomorrow.
It took me almost forty years to figure out that saving 10 per cent of every paycheck and paying MYSELF FIRST gives me a nestegg for emergencies.
Compare that with the ridiculous notion and fanciful pipe dream many people have of winning the lottery. They buy three one dollar tickets every week for 52 weeks every year and have nothing but little squares of paper at the end of it.
Reality vs Fantasy.......make your own choice. I choose reality.
T.
Hey, my mother's nipple was honest as the day is long!
BTW I celebrate Christmas (though I sometimes call it Mythmas) for what it represents to the majority; family and human kindness to strangers. An atheist or anyone else must embrace the humanity behind the mythology. Yet I would be less than what I desire to be if I began a routine of mimicry so as to reconnect with my misguided past. I know a half dozen atheist/humanists well and not one of them matches the description of those Price chided.
