Posts by myauntfanny

I'm not B'hai and don't know anything about them, but I think "unknowable essence" perfectly describes my general feeling about...whatever it is. And that's as far as I'm willing to go in believing anything.

I do mostly avoid organised religion. But I attended a UU congregation when I had one available, and that was really pretty fun. It's quite nice to be in a group that is focussing on spiritual matters, and the UU approach is always one of questioning rather than dogma.

45

What languages do you speak?

by Pole in

jw
friends

what languages do you speak/write/read (can be ancient ones as well)??

i speak/write/read polish, english and russian.

i know basic swedish and some survival phrases in finnish as well.

myauntfanny

I live in Europe and it sure seems to me like Europeans are better at languages. Most people here speak at least two, whether they are native German or immigrants from Eastern Europe or the Turkey.

I would like to say that I speak German, god knows I try, but I'm not sure many Germans would agree with me.

70

The Stem Cell experiment, good or bad?

by Brummie in

jw
friends

it was discussed by the president & kerry, it will be all over the news over the next few days because of the death of a hero, for some reason the stem cell issue scares me and i dont think i could support it, taking some voiceless life to improve another, maybe i am misinformed?

it all seems unethical.

i dont know all the facts, can you enlighten me please?.

myauntfanny

Well, I'm very unresolved on the issue too. I don't find these things too clear. Okay, maybe the embryo doesn't have a heartbeat yet in the first few days. But neither does a person in cardiac arrest, and we do everything to bring the heartbeat BACK. We don't go, "oh, no heartbeat, okay, now we can use his organs for other patients". So a heartbeat isn't the only thing that makes a person a person, it seems to me.

When babies are born prematurely with massive problems that require life support, no brain and a defective heart for example, we try to keep them alive usually, don't we? What about people in comas? Even if we don't try to keep them alive, we don't trundle them off to the lab for vivisection. It would seem really...wrong. Wouldn't it?

And people have to give permission to have their bodies donated to medical research after they're dead, so there we show a respect for someone who's definitely not alive, not even potentially alive. Yet with fertilized embryos, we show no respect at all for the person they might have become? It bothers me.

There's 6 billion people on earth and we want to mess with what might have been a human life in order to extend their lives 30 years. Why? I don't understand why we think abortion is a good solution to population control but then we turn around and keep everyone else alive even longer. If disposal is a good solution to overpopulation, why isn't disposing of us who are already here just as good a solution?

I understand women wanting abortions, I don't feel good about it but I know it's just necessary sometimes and I would never judge anyone for doing it. But then to use the embryos for research to extend our lives, that seems exploitive to me somehow.

Those are just my thoughts and internal worries about it, and not directed to anyone personally.

35

Why do many religious people dislike non-religious people?

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

i've noticed that usually when someone who is very religious finds out that i am an atheist, they become very agitated even though i never actually said anything negative about their religion.. are they embarrassed?.

do they think i am condemning them?.

do they see me as a threat?.

myauntfanny

Is it really just religion? I meet people who give me loads of stick because I raise my child differently from them, and in America there were always people who got really shocked and offended at women who don't shave their armpits. Just to give two examples. A lot of people just don't like anyone who's different from what they consider to be the norm. My theory is that those people were forced into a mold that doesn't really suit them, and they feel that if they have to be stuck there, then so does everyone else.

10

How would you respond to this?

by Black Man in

jw
friends

how would you respond to this?

there is dialogue going on on a hip-hop website after a buddy of mine raised some issues about jw's.

http://www.okayplayer.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=360217&forum=general2.

myauntfanny

Black Man

It appears to me from what he wrote there that the org taught him very well how to be an insensitive, aggressive, back-stabbing, ass-kissing workaholic. And I'm sure that does come in very handy for many jobs. I actually feel kind of sorry for him. I wonder if he has time for a girlfriend, and he seems to me like a prime candidate for an early heart attack.

35

Who was Jesus actually?

by Narkissos in

jw
friends

.

well, there has been a lot of religious and historical debate going on this topic, as we are all aware.. but i'd like to know what is your personal take, at the moment being.. all contributions welcome.

thanks!

myauntfanny

I really wonder. I read a book by Robert Graves, who ties the Jesus story into a previously long-standing pagan king mythology, pointing out lots of similarities. So perhaps he was a pagan king, but one who changed the ancient pattern and revolutionised the human relationship to divinity. I don't know, I don't relate to it very well. Salvation, washing your sins in the blood of Christ, heaven, immortality, it all mystifies me.

24

Bus Stop Blues

by bebu in

jw
friends

my 13-year old son missed the bus this morning.

and demanded that i drive him to school.

from his point of view, i am doing nothing at all, and only pure selfishness is preventing me from driving him a mile in our van.

myauntfanny

Bebu

You have my sympathy even though I haven't got one shred of advice. I am trying to learn to set boundaries with my almost-four-year-old and failing abysmally. When I think about 13, I quail. So I don't think about 13.

Fanny