As I've been told by friends in recovery, if you mentally subtract alcohol from your life and see that you would make different choices and your life would be different... that's a problem.
Hi, my name's Phantom, and I'm here to listen :)
Phantom Stranger
JoinedPosts by Phantom Stranger
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13
WTS says "There will be no more tradesmen after Armageddon"!
by ozziepost inwe've probably all had bad experiences with defective building or repair jobs, but our reactions would never have reached the limit to which the borg has gone.
in one of the wts' study books, the r&f are told:.
"with just as much zeal as ever for the house of god's worship, the heavenly high priest jesus christ will see to it that the closing words of zechariah's prophecy are fulfilled: "and there will no more prove to be a canaanite [or, tradesman] in the house of jehovah of armies in that day"- zechariah 14:21. the designation canaanite was synonymous with "tradesman".
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Phantom Stranger
When I was a JW, construction trades were the most heavily-represented sector. I guess they all quit and started janitor businesses, eh?
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20
Could NASA's Galileo Create A Jovian Nagasaki?
by SYN in.
and, in your crank news update for this week, here's a very interesting little article...it seems bogus to me, but the question had to be asked by somebody.. i know that there are a few people on this site who will take this ball and run with it, so to speak, so tell us what you think.. my personal theory is, won't the plutonium on galileo be dispersed by it's re-entry into the atmosphere long before fission can take place!
but, i'm no nuclear physicist!.
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Phantom Stranger
Apparently this bonehead thinks that a lack of oxygen will prevent frictional heat from burning up the probe as it enters the Jovian atmosphere.
JYIS.
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16
I'm Spoiled Can You Tell?
by Valis inso i have big problems with our school's online learning software..it basically sucks real bad and this semester has been terrible.
all my docs for my class disappeared when they "upgraded the system...it is a mess.
we couldn't even access it until the very first day of class, which coincided with the sobig virus calamity..very irritating and hard for me to get any continuity going on.
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Phantom Stranger
Valis, I'd say your account there is going to have problems from now on.
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15
What was God thinking when he created Apes?
by Latin assassin from Manhattan ingod created apes, a two legged mammal that can looks, thinks, communicates, shows emotion, and almost walks like a human.
and we're supposed to believe they're not distant cousins?
is this god's idea of a sick joke?
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Phantom Stranger
He did it to test you faith, silly. Same reason he planted the fossil record.
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Is Mankind Born Evil....or Good?
by Farkel inmany ancients including confucious and lao tzu took opposing views about this subject and their arguments are fascinating to read.
their arguments are nearly 2,500 years old.
the greeks also lively debated this question.. of course, as dubs (and in fact, in most christian faiths) we were taught that man was born inherently evil, and the quest is to overcome that and work towards the good.
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Phantom Stranger
OK, I'll take a hack at it... the following will exclude psychopaths and such. I''ll avoid the terms good and bad.
We are born with compassion for others and attraction to others at the surface of our personality. Babies are not hateful, at least not right away.
As we grow older, events occur that we associate with threats to us - real or imagined, physical or emotional. We adopt behaviors to keep us safe from these threats. We shut down emotionally, we decide that men or women are always going to hurt us, we decide that the world will take advantage of us. Some of us lash out first to keep people away so that we won't get hurt after they get close to us. In this way we cover up the compassion and attraction that was originally there.
We continue these behaviors for years, even after the threat is gone. Habits and reactions learned young are hard to shake.
Much of the pain and hurt inflicted on others, much of the anger in the world, is anger carried around from childhood that never had a place to go. I'm not minimizing crimes committed by "rehabilitated" criminals -it's much easier to identify the anger than to change our automatic reactions.
I believe that fear -fear of being unloveable, fear of being rejected, fear of being alone, and fear of not being good enough on one's own - fear is what keeps most people in the WTS, and fear is also why most humans hurt others. It's only after we conquer our fears that we reach out with compassion.
Every day man is crucified between two thieves - the regrets of yesterday and the fears of tomorrow. Benjamin Disraeli.
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How do we make a difference now?
by Mr Lebowski inthose of us raised as jw's were taught that "it does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step".
we were repeatedly told that without god, humans were incompetent and doomed to fail at any endeavour.. i personally believe that this teaching, that we as individuals do not make a difference, is possibly the largest doctrinal harm done to jw's, and one of the toughest to overcome.. so, for those of you who were raised in the wts and left, what do you choose to do now to make a difference in the world?
why did you pick that avenue - or why do you think you've waited up till now?.
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Phantom Stranger
Hey, Rocketman, we don't have to earn it anymore :)
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15
What was God thinking when he created Apes?
by Latin assassin from Manhattan ingod created apes, a two legged mammal that can looks, thinks, communicates, shows emotion, and almost walks like a human.
and we're supposed to believe they're not distant cousins?
is this god's idea of a sick joke?
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Phantom Stranger
Maybe he was practicing? ;)
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Prison of the Future--Cruel and Unusual?
by IronGland inimagine a few years in the future when it is possible to remove the brain from the body and keep it alive artificially.
everything that is 'you' is contained in your brain.
so, even though it would appear to simply be a lump of meat plugged into a life support machine, you would be trapped inside of it.
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Phantom Stranger
Check out the book, hemo-organ :)
I won't attempt to paraphrase... but the nature and experience of memory would also be changed, I believe. I forgot to mention that he deals with the exact thought experiment that you posted - head in a jar.
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(unaided by God)Things we can not do!
by Deputy Dog inin the world today (especially in america) we believe that we can do what ever we want or will to do, but god still rules the universe, and according to his word there are some things that we can not do.
unless god wills!
i thought i might list a few things that (unaided by or apart from god) we can not do.
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Phantom Stranger
Dawg, a few points:
1) I haven't blamed God for anything. Please point out where you feel that I did, so I can retract my mistake or clarify my words. I take responsiblity for my failings and errors, and I hope to avoid hubris about my successes.
2) We both know how evil men's actions can be, and I doubt that we would disagree on that.
3) I don't believe in paradise...but I do believe that over the last two thousand years, people's quality of life has improved, on average, every generation. I don't just mean standard of living, although that helps, but degree of liberty, and degree of mobility, geographically as well as economically. Do you believe that God has effected these improvements? I don't. I think that the improvements, as well as some of the tragic errors and crimes along the way, are the result of humans striving to make something better, to grow, to rise above their inital conditions and for a moment display the slice of divinity within every one of us. Give me liberty or give me death wasn't about religion...and neither was the American Revolution. It was about making room for people to grow and live their lives in freedom.
I'm not looking for God to save me from the evil in my heart or in other's hearts, Dawg. I will stand against it myself, and with the help of others, and humanity will continue to progress - slowly, painfully, and with many missteps - but progress we will. Hey, it's not that I want you to be wrong, dude. I'd love to sign onto a program where I don't have to drive the bus, I can have faith that it's going to the right place. But it doesn't work for me. The book doesn't do it, quoting the book doesn't do it, the fifth step doesn't do it. Good luck.And just know, I'll give you credit for the good that you do, and I suspect the God of the New Testament would too.
Peace, out.