gaiagirl

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Posts by gaiagirl

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  5

  Canadian Women want pointy feet! - WHATS GOING ON!?

  by ISP in

  1. jw
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  women pay to put best foot forward

  sarah ryan

  canwest news service

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  gaiagirl

  Gross! Maiming oneself in such a way for the sake of fashion is extemely shallow.

  gaiagirl
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  11

  Does anybody here read Zecharia Sitchin?

  by Waymores Ghost in

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  there are many events in genesis you can actually take quite literally (when seen through the eyes of ancient peoples) if any of the ancient sumarian writings are factually correct.

  fundies like jws wouldn't be able to handle that kinda truth.

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  gaiagirl

  The problem is that these writings, like those of Velikovsky, is that they are based on the assumption that the mythology of ancient people should be read as actual history. While some of the stories may be based on a core historical event, retelling them orally for generations resulted in details being changed, and at times different accounts were combined into one by a later teller. Even a casual reading of Genesis shows numerous contradictions. For example, Chapter 1 says vegetation before people, chapter 2 says that people came before vegetation. Both cannot be simultaneously true.

  Another claim is that green grass existed before the Sun, which clearly cannot be based on actual events. One would think that nomadic people living in close contact with the natural world would have known better than this.

  Interpreting documents to claim that the human race was created by 'alien beings' simply raises the question 'How did the aliens come to exist?' Were they the product of evolution, or did someone else create them. If someone created THEM, who created that someone?...

  I was once asked to review a videotape which supported many of these ideas. While the production values were very good, the tape made similar claims about alien races on various planets interacting with Earth. Additionally, the claim was made that planets moved from one orbit to another in short periods of time without destroying themselves, or that they approached closely to other planets, exchanging atmospheric gases, etc. The easiest claim to test was that one planet rotated with its north pole always facing the Sun, which is not physically possible (try this with a gyroscope or a rapidly spinning bicycle wheel and feel it twist in your hand).

  gaiagirl
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  28

  What book(s) are you reading?

  by gaiagirl in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just finished a 'historical novel' titled "confessions of a pagan nun", by kate horsley.

  this is a story about a woman who grew up in ireland during the late 5th and early 6th century, at the time when christianity was beginning to displace the older pagan customs.

  the story tells how gwynneve is raised according to the beliefs of her ancestors, and the conflicts she experiences as she gradually comes into contact with those claiming to represent the christian faith.

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  gaiagirl

  I just finished a 'historical novel' titled "Confessions of a Pagan Nun", by Kate Horsley. This is a story about a woman who grew up in Ireland during the late 5th and early 6th century, at the time when Christianity was beginning to displace the older pagan customs. The story tells how Gwynneve is raised according to the beliefs of her ancestors, and the conflicts she experiences as she gradually comes into contact with those claiming to represent the Christian faith. I thought that the author portrayed the older pagan ways and the new Christian beliefs fairly, not all positive or all negative, but kind of a mixture. The book also shows how some of the methods of "conversion" used by the early Church were not always gentle, and that the quality of life for converted population was not always improved, but in many ways, significantly decreased.

  The book is well written, and I found myself reading it at night until I was too tired to keep my eyes open. As novels go, it is relatively short, less than 200 pages, but they are very absorbing pages.

  gaiagirl
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  25

  Where are we all going.....What happens........?

  by ScoobySnax in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i watch families crowding around a loved one in hospital whom i'm taking care of who die......sometimes they're old, but that doesn't diminish their pain, still the hurt is palpable.

  sometimes they are young, this increases their pain and ours even more.

  a death occurs, we feel hopeless, they are distraught beyond belief..... what to say?

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  gaiagirl

  It is always saddening to be separted from those we love. When we believe the separation will be longer, or permanent, we are saddened even more. There are many, many different ideas about what happens after the body dies. The Watchtower Society taught that our body was all that there was of us, and that when the body died and decayed, we only exist "in Jehovahs memory". However, this teaching, like most of the rest of their dogma, was not based on any observation of the natural world, but rather on their own interpretation of their own translation of the writings of men who lived centuries ago.

  When we actually observe the natural world, we see that nothing goes to waste, ever. Matter breaks down, and is reconstructed into other forms of matter. The exact same atoms which make up your body today were forming part of the body of someone else last year, perhaps the cow which provided meat for a hamburger you ate, or the tree which used its own cellulose to form the apple you ate. The oxygen present in your body, both as a gas or as part of the structure of your tissues, was once part of someone else. The life force combines atoms into complex forms, which eventually break down, and those same atoms are recombined again into other forms. Over time, those forms tend to become more complex, so life forms today are more complex than those which were forming 4 billion years ago.

  The Watchtower Society used to teach us that evolution was "dishonoring to God". Perhaps this is what they believed, but Charles Darwin didn't think so. He wrote "There is a grandeur in this view of life...having originally been breathed by the Creator into a few forms, or into one; and that whilst the planet has gone cycling on...from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."

  On the topic of the 'soul', I tend to agree with Solomon, who prayed that he would be granted wisdom. Solomon wrote "Men and beasts have the same ending. One dies exactly like the other, as they have the same spirit, so that there is no superiority of one over the other. All end up the same, all are made from the earth, and all return to the earth. Who can say that the spirit of people rises, or that the spirit of an animal descends?" Ecclesiastes 3:19-21. Solomon clearly distinguishes between the physical body and the "spirit" as two different things. If the material making up the physical body are constantly being recycled, what about the "spirit"? Is there any reason to believe this would be different, especially since Solomon states that human "spirit" and animal "spirit" is the same?

  Personally, I view 'spirit' or 'soul' as something like a conscious fluid. It exists in a vast ocean which fills the
  Universe. Within the ocean, there is no 'you' and 'me' there is only 'us'. Within the ocean,
  all knowledge and memories are shared. Everything incarnate as a physical being has a portion
  of this conscious fluid inside it. However, when this fluid is 'in' an incarnated body, it is
  separted from the remainder of the ocean, just as you may go to the shore of a lake or sea,
  and fill a vessel with water. While contained in the vessel, the fluid is not in complete
  communication with the 'ocean' from which it came. It may still be aware of the ocean,
  and even have imperfect communication with the ocean, but as long as the vessel contains it,
  it is not 'at one' with the ocean. At the point of physical death, the fluid is 'poured out'
  of the vessel, and eventually flows back to the ocean, and becomes at one with it.
  If another vessel is dipped into the ocean, the chances of filling it with exactly the same
  droplets that made up your soul are vanishingly small. However, each droplet that was 'you'
  in a previous incarnation still carries your full set of memories.
  Think of a starfish. If it is cut into pieces, each piece remembers what the rest of the
  creature was like, and will grow into a complete starfish. Also think of a hologram which
  contains an image. If you cut a hologram in half, each piece will still contain the full image.
  Each droplet of soul is like a hologram of your entire set of memories. So the next incarnation
  may have a little bit of yourself, as well as many others. As I write this, some of the fluid
  forming 'my' soul has been in other vessels, which is why I may, at times, have memories of past lives, and why someone else might conceivably also have a memory of living as the same person for instance, it is possible that I could have some of the soul which was in the vessel we call Marco Polo, but someone else could also have some of Mr. Polo as well, and many people probably do.
  If I have even one drop of his 'soul', then I can possibly recall him as a past life, due to the
  holographic properties of the fluid. The ocean is very large, and some of the fluid which I
  contain may be experiencing it's first incarnation in my vessel this time around. Some believe
  that the soul ocean chooses to experience a physical incarnation as a learning experience.
  Perhaps we have 20% previously incarnated soul, and 80% soul which has never been incarnated.
  Perhaps the ratio is different in different people. People, animals, protista, plants, fungi,
  bacteria, even virus, ANYTHING alive contains a portion of this fluid, the amount depending on
  the size and complexity of their nervous system. The ocean is constantly being borrowed from,
  and fluid previously having been borrowed is constantly flowing back to rejoin and become one
  with the ocean.
  This is part of the significance of the tarot card 'The Star' in which water is poured back to
  join the 'ocean' of Universal Consciousness". By becoming 'at one' even in a limited sense with
  that ocean, spiritual illumination can be gained.
  Earth is said to be 4.6 billion years old, and to have had simple but
  recognizable life forms for 3.6 billion of those years. Humans have only been around for 2
  million years or so, depending on how closely you define humans
  (some fundamentalists would say only 6000 years). So, into what bodies did 'soul' incarnate before
  there were humans? Are we to think that obviously intelligent creatures, with distinctive
  personalities such as gorillas, chimps, dogs, whales, porpoises, elephants, cats, etc, have no
  souls? I believe that soul incarnates into whatever is available, and will continue to do so for
  a long time. We are not the final word in the development of physical 'vessels' to contain soul,
  only one of the most recent.
  Bright Blessings

  gaiagirl
• 
  28

  Nipple Question

  by Stacy Smith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i see at least two males here (according to their avatars) have nipple piercings.

  the only question that comes to mind is.....why?

  is it something that you have done to impress women?

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  gaiagirl

  Piercings, either on my own body or on someone else, don't do anything for me. I'm not pierced anywhere (not even my ears, don't wear earrings), and have no intention to be pierced at anytime in the future.

  However, I don't have the slightest problem if someone else likes it. Their body, their choice.

  gaiagirl
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  16

  I saw The Best Rapper!

  by ChimChim in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  ludacris, he's even hotter in person.

  i'm gettin all his cd's no matter what....lolol!.

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  gaiagirl

  Funny how sometimes a music genre can become defined by the first example one encounters. The first rap song I ever heard was Deborah Harry singing 'Rapture', and it is still, in my opinion, the best. Best music, best lyrics, best video.

  Some of Weird Al's rap music would be a close second though, i.e. 'Amish Paradise'.

  gaiagirl
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  7

  Was Jesus a space man or something else?

  by ballistic in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  was jesus a space man or something else?

  i found this thought provoking stuff at

  http://www.wearetraversecity.com/reference/jesus.htm

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  gaiagirl

  In considering who Jesus was, there are some important points to consider:

  1) The earliest of the gospels in the Bible canon were written at least 35 years after the events they purport to describe. The latest was written more than 70 years after those events. They disagree with one another on numerous details. How accurate can they be?

  2) In the first century, and for several centuries thereafter, additional gospels also were in use by Christians. They gave other details not listed in the 'approved' four. These were selected against in the fourth century when the 'official' Bible canon was confirmed.

  3) Jews had wanted a Messiah to lead them in revolt against their rulers for many years prior to the appearance of Jesus. There were others who were also thought to be the Messiah both before, and after the time of Jesus. The followers of those other Messiahs were driven underground by Christians once they attained political power.

  In light of these things, I believe that, if Jesus was anything more than a fictional culture hero, he was a man who saw problems in the way that the Jewish religion had come to be practiced in his time. He set out to institute reforms, many of which were astonishing to people who had always accepted things the way they were. The religious leaders did not approve of his reforms, and accused him of seditious acts against the Roman government, specifically setting up a kingdom which would overpower Rome. As a result, he was convicted under Roman law and sentenced to die.

  gaiagirl
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  51

  If you could meet anyone in History past......who?

  by ScoobySnax in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  another fluff special, i've been warned off the jw stuff, so here goes....... would have to be.... 1. jesus christ (just to watch from a distance).

  2. aesop (i loved his fables when i was a kid, and still do).

  3. my grandad (sentimental, but i never got to see him before i could say goodbye).

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  gaiagirl

  For me, the list would be:

  Constantine-I'd like to discourage him from making Christianity the official religion of the Empire. This ended up being a huge step backwards in terms of quality of life for almost everyone, and led directly into the Dark Ages. I understand some of Constantines reasons for this decision, but I think it was simply an expedient thing to do. There surely were other options which would not have had such negative consequences.

  For example, Earth had been known to be spherical and to orbit the Sun for at least 600 years. After Christianity became the only accepted belief system, libraries throughout the Empire began to be systematically burned, and the official teaching became the 'scriptural' teaching that Earth was quadrangular (scripture refers to angels standing at the four corners of the Earth, and to a mountain so high that ALL kingdoms can be observed). One Christian, using the name 'Cosmas', wrote a book which was the only accepted view for more than 1000 years. To disagree with this, or any other teaching became punishable by death.

  Disease became much more widespread because bathing came to be viewed as sinful, some church fathers writing that a Christian should be ashamed of their own naked bodies (a view which is surprisingly common even today).

  Education came under suspicion, and many academies were closed, because a good Christian only needed to know what was told to them by their priest. (Does this sound like a WTBS teaching?).

  gaiagirl
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  11

  Why does the society try to keep the R&F so busy?

  by Flowerpetal in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was thinking this morning on some things, and the story/series on hbo currently, carnivale, is showing the not so nice side of humanity.

  we all have our dark side.

  everybody in this world has one, i believe.

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  gaiagirl

  I tend to think that all the busywork is intended to occupy everyones attention, so that they cannot step back and see 'the BIG picture', i.e. social interaction or activity outside the WTBS. People might go to a museum, perhaps seeing bones or artifacts of ancestral humans. People might go to a live theatre, or see a foreign film and realize that there is uplifting and intellectually stimulating entertainment from many cultures. People might get a hobby, and even meet other people with the same hobby who (gasp) aren't JWs.

  A lot of emphasis is placed on the idea, expressed either implicitly or explicitly, that 'There isn't anything worthwhile outside the organization'.

  Primarily, I think WTBS hopes to keep everyone busy so they won't wander off and do something they might like better.

  gaiagirl
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  58

  What was the first computer you ever owned?

  by Nosferatu in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what was the first computer you ever owned?

  for me it was the trs-80 model 1. i bought it for $10 at a second hand store when i was 10 years old.

  took me forever to find info on the thing, an manual, and a patchcord to hook up a cassette deck.

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  gaiagirl

  My first was a Commodore 64, primarily used to play text based adventure games such as Zork.

  Then I purchased a used IBM PS2 386 from a friend who upgraded to an early Pentium machine. Next was a new AMD 300 Mhz from Computer Renaissance, which still serves well. Most recently I built my own 900 Mhz Celeron, because I wanted to experiment with alternate operating systems.

  Currently running BeOS 5 v2.1 as the operating system, and it works quite well, much faster than Windows, and more stable.

  gaiagirl