seattleniceguy

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Posts by seattleniceguy

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  33

  Ex-JW on YouTube

  by seattleniceguy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some guy started a video gallery on youtube to talk about his experiences coming out of the jws.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqfll5q6c3c.

  sng.

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  seattleniceguy

  Hey, could the people who only got a few seconds of the first one give the one I just uploaded today a try and see if it works any better for you?

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1_Lh2CGU4U

  SNG
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  33

  Ex-JW on YouTube

  by seattleniceguy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some guy started a video gallery on youtube to talk about his experiences coming out of the jws.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqfll5q6c3c.

  sng.

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  seattleniceguy

  Thanks, everyone! Yes, it's just the one video so far.

  Thank you, OTWO and codeblue for your suggestions.

  Nathan, I'm back in the occident. :-)

  Sorry to the people who are having problems playing the video. I haven't seen anything like that - it plays just fine for me.

  SNG
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  33

  Ex-JW on YouTube

  by seattleniceguy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some guy started a video gallery on youtube to talk about his experiences coming out of the jws.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqfll5q6c3c.

  sng.

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  seattleniceguy

  Some guy started a video gallery on YouTube to talk about his experiences coming out of the JWs...

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQfLL5Q6C3c

  SNG
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  26

  I Don't Believe in God, or wait, Maybe I Do. . . a little wisdom please?

  by Pioneer Spit...oh, i mean Spirit in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i am conflicted as to whether i can or even want to believe in god.

  (using capital g out of respect) i can't separate love of god and my jw life.

  i pioneered for 10+ years, and thank goodness for that, because i can now easily memorize anything and read upside down.

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  seattleniceguy

  Hey there, Pioneer Spit.

  I am conflicted as to whether I can or even want to believe in God.

  My advice? To me it doesn't make sense to want or try to believe in something. When you find it difficult to believe in something, it's not a problem. It's your brain saying that things don't add up.

  The whole religious concept of working to believe is ludicrous. How much work would it take for you to believe in Santa Claus? Is there any amount of 32-page brochures that could convince you of His exalted existence? Think for a moment about why that is.

  You don't need to render a decision right away if you don't find convincing evidence either way. If you find the concept difficult to believe, but you're not ready to say you don't believe in God, there's nothing wrong with saying, "For me, the jury's still out on that one. I just don't know." Perhaps the biggest legacy of religion is the need people feel to have iron-clad belief systems in place about things for which, gosh darnit, there's just not that much data available. It's okay not to know.

  Just my two cents. Hang in there.

  SNG
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  18

  Anti-Religion Extremist Dawkins Advocates Eugenics

  by Deputy Dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  anti-religion extremist dawkins advocates eugenicssays nazi regimes genocidal project may not be bad http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/nov/06112103.html what a big surprise !

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  seattleniceguy

  LOL.

  Anti-Religion Extremist Dawkins Advocates Eugenics

  That's the actual headline. Can anyone say slanted writing? Quit reading propaganda, man.

  SNG
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  23

  "The GOD Delusion" by Richard Dawkins

  by Amnesty Vendor in

  1. social
  2. current

  i just got it for reading during upcoming travels.

  any comments?

  (i'm sure that this is not the first thread on this topic)

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  seattleniceguy

  By the way, here's a link to Harris speaking at a recent conference in Canada. It will give you some idea for where he's coming from:

  http://www.samharris.org/appearances/ideacity-06242005.wmv

  SNG
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  23

  "The GOD Delusion" by Richard Dawkins

  by Amnesty Vendor in

  1. social
  2. current

  i just got it for reading during upcoming travels.

  any comments?

  (i'm sure that this is not the first thread on this topic)

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  seattleniceguy

  Dawkins' book is good. However, I found Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation to be more concisely written and more readable. He covers many of the same points as Dawkins does, but does it in a several hundred fewer pages. In fact, some of the most interesting points Dawkins had in his book were passages that were quoted from Harris' book.

  I highly recommend both books, but I recommend Letter to a Christian Nation first. You can sit down and read it in two hours, and it's around $10 on Amazon.

  SNG
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  10

  Dawkins - A Religious Non-Believer

  by LittleToe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i stumbled across the following article written by a man i know personally.

  i offer it for your introspection .

  http://www.freechurch.org/issues/2006/novb06.htm.

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  seattleniceguy

  LOL @ Satanus.

  Also, the writer misunderstands Darwin. When Darwin said that the "the production of the higher animals" was "the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving," he was not referring specifically to humans. In fact, he spent time explicitly saying that it is incorrect to call one species "higher" than another in the sense of better in some absolute sense. What Darwin was saying was that the fact that this war of nature spurs on the evolution of all creatures - this amazing fact (not humans) is amazing.

  If anything, Darwinism gives humans a sense of humility, not arrogance. We aren't the center of the universe, and it wasn't built all for us.

  SNG
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  10

  Dawkins - A Religious Non-Believer

  by LittleToe in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i stumbled across the following article written by a man i know personally.

  i offer it for your introspection .

  http://www.freechurch.org/issues/2006/novb06.htm.

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  seattleniceguy

  Hello LT,

  I was just thinking I wanted to post about this book. For readers of this thread who only skimmed the first post, the book being referred to is Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion (2006).

  I have this book at my side at this moment and have just finished reading it. It is marvelously written and tackles some of the big topics, such as:

  • Does religion make us good?
  • Can (and do) people be good without religion?
  • Even if religion were not based on reality, is there actually anything wrong with it?

  With regard to the title of this thread, "Dawkins - A Religious Non-Believer," I'd like to clarify exactly what Dawkins means by that. First, let me show what he does not mean:

  • He does not mean that he is "religiously" opposed to the idea that supernatural forces exist. One a scale of 1 through 7, 1 being an unshakeable (no matter what the evidence) belief that God exists and 7 being an absolute declaration that God does not exist, with clearly stated definitions for everything else in between, Dawkins rates himself as a 6, meaning that he is highly doubtful, agnostic to the same degree that he is agnostic about the existence of fairies. They could exist, but at present he has zero percent confidence that they do.
  • He does not mean that he has any belief in any sort of supernatural power. He goes to great lengths to describe Einsteinian religion, which Einstein himself went to great lengths to describe. Ironically, religious apologists often quote Einstein to support their belief in God, but Einstein explicitly said:
    
    

    It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

    Dawkins says that he (and certainly most all scientists) subscribe to Einsteinian religion, but Dawkins feels that it is misleading to use the word "religion," as it invites misunderstanding.

  When Dawkins talks about being a "religious non-believer," he means that, like Einstein, he has an awe, a wonder, a never-ending curiosity about the natural world. It is this curiosity that indeed drives him in his quest to learn more about it.

  In the final chapter of the book, Dawkins compares the world that we can see through eyes unaided by science to the slit in a burka. A one-inch tall burka slit allows the wearer to see only a small band of the outside world. We sense with our eyes, only a tiny band of the electromagnetic spectrum (itself only one of many ways of getting information about the world). If we were to compare this to a burka, we would be peering out through a small slit, with miles of black fabric above and below. What science does is it allows us to wrench open that slit, to see and understand things that we could never see without it. It allows us to understand the counter-intuitive nature of things that happen on very small, very large, or very fast scales, opening our eyes to a reality that is otherwise hidden from us. What could be more wondrous than that?

  He ends his book thus:

  Could we, by training and practice, emancipate ourselves from Middle World, tear off our black burka, and achieve some sort of intuitive - as well as just mathematical - understanding of the very small, the very large, and the very fast? I genuinely don't know the answer, but I am thrilled to be alive at a time when humanity is pushing against the limits of understanding. Even better, we may eventually discover that there are no limits.

  Although at times Dawkins does not mince words in his condemnation of what he sees as the hurtful (or just plain absurd) sides of religion, he is passionate and sincere in an inspiring way. I highly recommend this book.

  SNG
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  82

  My letter to the "Glorious Ones."...

  by Justice-One in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i thought you guys might get a hoot out of this letter that i just mailed..... dear elders (or should i call you glorious ones?).

  you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can never fool all the people all the time.

  and you certainly do not have me fooled anymore.

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  seattleniceguy

  LOL. Wow, that's going to send them scurrying about.

  I had a couple ideas for anyone who may be thinking about doing something similar in their own congregation. I think the effect would be enhanced if you mention names or recent events in the congregation, information that would not be readily available to someone just doing a mass-mailing campaign. Also, it's important to make sure the postmark doesn't incriminate you. Send it from the post office nearest the KH. This will also prevent them from dismissing it as a drive-by from someone out of city or state.

  The JW religion is a mind game, so any cognitive dissonance you can throw into the mix is good. Nice work!

  SNG