Why would the eternal creator of the universe be setting his clock and making out his schedule by the orbital or rotational periods of the Earth or Moon anyway?
True North
JoinedPosts by True North
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32
What day was man created?
by Gadget inaccording to the bibles account of creation, there seems to be a contridiction as to when man was created.
the theory accepted by most people i've spoken to is that, according to gen 2:7, 7 and jehovah god proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul, stating that man was created on the seventh creative day.. however, genesis 1:27 states that on the 6th creative day, 27 and god proceeded to create the man in his image, in god?s image he created him; male and female he created them.. so were man created on the 6th or 7th creative day?
and if god created man on the 7th day, then later created woman from man why does the bible state that he created man and woman at the same time on the 6th day?
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You are EX-JWs because you want to live an immoral life!
by Sirona inmany jehovah's witnesses believe what they've been told about ex-witnesses.
they say that exjws simply want to live an immoral life.
they say that exjws cannot live up to "jehovah's standards".
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True North
When I left about twenty years ago, I wasn't doing drugs or fornicating -- things I haven't done in all the years since either. Nor was I "stumbled" by the behavior of any other JWs. I simply accepted the fact that I no longer believed it and acted accordingly (at substantial cost to myself since my wife was and remains a JW to this day).
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Suicidal Thoughts
by Obviously Secret insorry to put such a crappy subject on here but today and like this whole week has been pretty bad.. right when i went to the 5th grade i started getting i was already in the suicidal mood of things and always thought about killing myself or killing a whole bunch of other people.
all during elementary school kids picked on me since i had a habbit of crawling into corners and crying or just sitting and rocking in those corners.
i couldn't talk to anybody, i stuttered and i threw up every time a person talks to me for too long that pushed away alot of people they always talked about me throwing up all the time and everything.
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True North
Obviously,
High school is often a really bad experience for a lot of kids who don't seem to fit into the accepted stereotypes. It's not just you; you've got plenty of company; thousands of kids all over the country face the same sorts of trials every day.
The good news is that this particular trial -- high school -- is temporary. You're sixteen? Will you be going into the 11th grade next year? If so, you've only got two more years to put up with this crap and then you're free.
In the meantime, are there any good alternatives for you in your city or school district? Maybe there is a charter school or some other home-study program approved by your school system. Would an early-exit exam be something that is available and would work for you?
Also, start looking ahead to your post-high school life. You're going to want financial independence and sufficiency as well as a career that interests you, so make sure you go to college and start planning for it now. Find out what your options are for scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study. If a four-year college is out of reach financially to start with, then start out at a community college for your first two years to get the general-ed requirements out of the way and then transfer.
I don't know why it is that you've been assigned the ADD label, but from what you've said, it doesn't seem like there is anything going on there that should keep you from getting an education. From what you've written here, it's obvious that you can write well. Also, you said, "I was always by myself reading books and always answered the questions that the teacher asked." Clearly, you're already ahead of the pack in preparation for post-high school education.
You will also discover that social life in college will be friendlier. Most kids there are more focused on getting an education and there is a higher level of respect for "bookishness". People aren't under the social microscope so much as they are in high school and there's not the same level of social pressure to conform -- there are so many people from so many different locales and backgrounds with different interests and circumstances. Sure, there will still be some obnoxious social snobs, but they will be easier to avoid and have much less power than they did in high school. Just make sure you hang with the kids who are serious about their studies.
Take care,
True North
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The day a brother died in my Hall, & the unbelievable events that followed.
by Mr Ben inthis one really freaked me out.
i was so brainwashed at the time i found a way to justify it.
i think i?ve been repressing my anger about this and now i need to vent.
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True North
These sad accounts reminded me of the following passage from Barbara Grizzuti Harrison's book Visions of Glory: A History and a Memory of Jehovah?s Witnesses. (The book is online at http://www.exjws.net/vg.htm. It's a really good book, by the way -- she was a very fine writer who wrote many published books on travel and other topics. You can find some still in print -- with 5-star ratings -- at http://www.amazon.com.):
Mike died at a party at a Witness' house. Unlike most Witnesses, he never seemed to give a damn what impression he created on other people. He was funky and loving and flamboyant. He was an iceman; he drove an ice truck. When I was younger, I'd had a temporary job at the UN bank. Mike used to drive me up to the Secretariat building in his truck. We laughed at the incongruity of driving to the UN in a Sicilian-decorated truck, and he never used the occasion to preach about the evils of the "beastly United Nations" (which ranked second, in the Witnesses' chamber of Satanic horrors, only to the Vatican). He may have accepted the Witnesses' belief that the UN was the "desolation of desolations, "but that didn't deter him from driving up gaily and irreverently to its portals. The fear and loathing such "devilish" places inspired in the Witnesses' hearts, and the repulsion and fascination, seemed entirely lacking in his.
But it was his heart that killed him. He'd had two heart attacks; on morning of that party, he'd been out preaching for the first time since his convalescence. He was talking about his delight in being able to go from door to door again, talking with gusto about his pleasure in "sharing" (other Witnesses might "give the truth"; Mike shared), when he clutched his chest and began to gasp for air. He took the diamond ring he wore off his finger and gave it and his wallet to his wife (he knew he was dying; his thoughts were for someone else). A few Witnesses went, spontaneously and generously and compassionately, to his wife to support her. A respected elder from Watchtower headquarters launched-as Mike's gasps began to sound, horribly, more like the final rattle of death-into an interminable story about the people he'd known who'd been taken unaware by death (I knew someone else who died like that," he said, looking at Mike). Three-quarters of the Witnesses present set themselves to clean up the room in order to "give a good witness" to the police when they arrived. Mike was pronounced DOA. The cops were given a speech about our hope in the resurrection. Mike himself was ignored (except by the police, whose attempts to resuscitate him were heroic); grief was shelved (Mike's wife was sedated). The Witnesses congratulated themselves on the way the police had seemed to be impressed by their decorum and their calm; in their zeal to "give a witness," the actual fact of Mike's death seemed almost forgotten. I can't remember anyone crying out in love or horror - or praying.
The task of telling Mike's young daughter that he had died was delegated to me. As an elder drove me to her house, he recited all the Scriptures I might use to comfort her. He might have been reciting the Guinness Book of World Records. (The rest of the Witnesses stayed behind; when I left, Mike's heavily sedated wife lay on a couch while, around her, Witnesses talked about what a pleasant change it must make for the cops to come into a "decent" house, how much nicer than having to break up a drunken fight.) I looked at the elder in a vain attempt to find some trace of sorrow or anger on his face as he continued to offer memorized words of comfort. He had already buried Mike in some recess of his mind; his concern was how to keep Mike's daughter from "going overboard with immoderate grief" (his words - she was 12 years old). I have hated very few people as much as I hated that man, then. "See if you can take Mike's daughter out preaching with you tomorrow morning," he said. "It'll keep her mind from selfishness.
Nobody had cried. Mike's daughter cried, and I couldn't find it in my heart to read a single Scripture to her.
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Questions regarding the Cross/Torture stake
by truthseeker1 inthis was brought up by my journey and they requested information regarding it.
this is a quote from the page below regarding how the wt takes other's words out of context to fit their own agenda.
quote..........misquote:.
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True North
Leolaia,
You wrote:
The Watchtower claim is not only erroneous, but it is also disingenuous....By claiming that crux and stauros did not mean "cross" until the third century, the Society is intentionally distorting and hiding the facts.
So, do you think that they don't really believe it themselves or that they believe it but are willing to use dishonest means in trying to support it?
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Miracles
by peacefulpete init is often suggested that the nt miracles must be regarded as history because early christians believed the stories with deep conviction.
it must be remembered however that even tho the educated generally dismissed tall tales of healings and powerful displays there were so many such claims in the first century that even normally objective thinkers fell to reporting rumour as fact.
here are some examples.
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True North
It is often suggested that the NT miracles must be regarded as history because early Christians believed the stories with deep conviction.
I think that NT apologists are on slippery ground here (which I understand is the point of peaceful pete's starting post for this thread). While they may be happy to apply this principle to a selected special case (the miracles written of in the NT), they would surely be unhappy with the results of applying it as a general principle. Here are three examples from relatively modern times that come to mind:
1. The founder of Jewish Hasidism (Chasidism), the Bal Shem Tov (Baal Shem Tov), was believed by his followers to have routinely performed numerous miracles. And far from having lived in the dim eras of antiquity, he lived from 1698 to 1760 in the Poland/Russia area. The believers in his miracles appear to have included rabbis who I would think were highly educated -- at least in the areas of study that most concerned them. A couple of links about him:
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry?id=3634
2. On October 13, 1917, 70,000 eyewitnesses are said to have observed a miraculous manifestation of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. The witnesses are said to have included former skeptics and persons of advanced education. This manifestation is said to have followed a number of appearances the Lady made to a group of children to whom she imparted prophetic revelations. Since 1930, the Catholic Church has officially declared the Fatima events and messages "as worthy of belief". Surely, non-Catholic NT apologists would be uncomfortable -- to say the least -- at the prospect of endorsing the validity of a modern, miraculous manifestation of the Virgin Mary. Here are links for more info:
http://members.aol.com/bjw1106/marian6.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/9463/fatima.html
3. Over the past several decades, there has been no shortage of persons claiming to have been witnesses to UFO manifestations. Although these are not religious in nature -- at least not in the Judeo-Christian sense -- they are widely believed and attested to. In fact, the reported experiences themselves would, if reported in times past, have surely been considered miraculous and given a religious interpretation. Again, although I suspect that the percentage of the U.S. population that believes in UFO accounts exceeds the percentage of the Judean-vicinity population of the Roman Empire believing in the NT miracles at the time the NT was written, I think that many NT apologists would not care to accept these UFO accounts as fact.
In presenting the above, I'm not saying that the NT miracles never occurred but simply that to argue that their historicity is proven because they were widely believed by early Chrisitans is a questionable approach for NT apologists.
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Per Celtic's doom-and-gloom post: is it the end of the world as we know it?
by True North inin reply to the thread "if things turn ugly for the western world, will you run back to "mother"?
", celtic said the following:move to canada.
wilderness, enough fire wood to last donkey's years in driftwood alone, hunt, fish, become self sufficient, go organic.
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True North
In reply to the thread "If things turn ugly for the Western world, will you run back to "Mother"?", Celtic said the following:
Move to Canada. Wilderness, enough fire wood to last donkey's years in driftwood alone, hunt, fish, become self sufficient, go organic. Thats what I'm planning, because why? Because I'm seriously worried this culture in Britain has only 15-20 years maximum before all hell breaks loose and the country literally dies on it's feet....Our country is by no means any longer sustainable, it's heading for a 'nervous breakdown' of sorts.
I haven't heard this kind of sentiment expressed much since the 1970s and 1980s. Is this a common sentiment in the UK these days? What exactly is going on that would lead to such an outlook?
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If things turn ugly for the Western world, will you run back to "Mother"?
by True North inwho knows what will come in the years ahead from terrorism, global warming, conflict over natural resources, proliferation of wmd, et al.?
it's not hard to imagine truly horrific things happening.
i don't think it's likely, but perhaps one day the major powers might even respond to religion-related terrorism by joining together to restrain or control religion under the banner of the u.n.. such events certainly could trigger a response from the fears/phobias that ex-jws may carry around with them due to years of wt indoctrination -- however much repressed these are at most times.
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True North
Who knows what will come in the years ahead from terrorism, global warming, conflict over natural resources, proliferation of WMD, et al.? It's not hard to imagine truly horrific things happening. I don't think it's likely, but perhaps one day the major powers might even respond to religion-related terrorism by joining together to restrain or control religion under the banner of the U.N.
Such events certainly could trigger a response from the fears/phobias that ex-JWs may carry around with them due to years of WT indoctrination -- however much repressed these are at most times. How would you feel if such things happened? Would you start to wonder if maybe the JW org. was right after all? Might you succumb to a compulsion to seek the protection of the "Mother" organization?
If so, then as time passed and further JW "prophecies" failed to be fulfilled, how would you feel? Would you again leave the organization?
Seems to me that since things are looking a little uncertain right now future-wise for the West, it would be good to be considering such matters.
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I Have The Best Wife Everrrrrrr!
by Corvin inmy wife just came home and brought with her, the widescreen version of the lord of the rings- the return of the king on dvd!.
she ordered it two weeks ago, and we have been watching the first two getting ready for the third.
now, if i can just get her to wear that arwen costume for me .
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True North
Of course, you do realize, don't you, that when the expanded "director's cut" DVD for Return of the King comes out, you'll have to get that as well?
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liberated
by prgirl79 ini sent a post over a month ago about my failed relationship with an ex jw.
a little refresher we dated for 5 years and although he is disfellowshipped he never moved on.
he still lives at home with his jw parents.
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True North
Five years is a lot to lose but ten or fifteen or more would be worse. It was a good move for you to cut your losses and start considering your own needs. Take care.