Posts by Qcmbr

403

Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

this saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.

despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.

i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!

Qcmbr

I noticed something strange and exhilarating the other day and it was so unusual that I had to share it with my wife. I was at work and I realised that my interest and ability to retain information in several areas has vastly increased over the last few months. In short its as though I now have additional mental capacity since I'm not passing information via the 'wwJd' and the 'can I do this as a Mormon' filter set.

Had another experience as well which showed another dimension to this mental change. In my hotel room I inadvertantly hit the disabled alarm button (I'm not disabled but apparently I was assigned a room with those facilities.) Almost immediately someone ran to my door and knocked to check if I was ok and I, in a daze stumbled to the door in my underwear and nothing else. The female staff member looked embarrassed and asked if she could reset it and without thinking I flung the door open and let her in. She scuttled in and out in a couple of seconds and I managed to mumble that she isn't paid enough to have to put up with my nekkid belly and that I was sorry. What was amazing to me was that old me would have

- not let her in as a female alone with me ( just in case jigginess happened ;) )
- been mortified to be caught in my underwear (not just due to its magical nature but just the general act of getting caught undressed) and would have insisted she waited till I dressed and then I would have spent the rest of the day blushing at the situation.

Just a small situation which shows how thoroughly mentally retarded I allowed religion to make me. I do still get angry that I did not have the personal courage to admit I was wrong sooner. Religion makes it so socially and personally hard to admit things to yourself since once youve singed up to one crazy thing you you've lost any personal integrity that would stop you believing the next thing. Talking animals should have been enough.

47

The Real God: An Epiphany (YouTube)

by leavingwt in

jw
friends

my apologies if this video has already been posted at some point in the past.

only recently did i become aware of this particular video.

the opinions of the author are expressed in a way that was new to me.

Qcmbr

Good god angle. liked the vid

44

90% of the space within an atom is dark matter

by soft+gentle in

this is what we were told in a recent public talk.

if true then it is very intriguing and may support the point being made in the talk that we know nothing compared to god.

the audience was spell bound and even i had to admit the young man gave an excellent talk.. i thought i'd come here to check the facts first though.

Qcmbr

dark matter is inferred through looking at huge structures such as galaxies (without this extra mass they shouldn't stay together - gravity from the observed matter is calculated to be too little.) Since atoms are part of our observed physical world it seems unlikely that dark matter is within atoms since that would simply increase the force of gravity within non-dark matter to that required and the unproven idea of dark matter would not be required.

37

So, do you still think that nuclear power plants are a good idea?

by I quit! in

jw
friends

Qcmbr

We will see fusion reactors being built within the next 50 odd years if not sooner but in the meantime nuclear is by far and away the best solution if we want to produce power without much carbon output however, if the carbon output staves off an ice age and opens up productive land in Siberia and other frozen areas via global warming then maybe iwe should be keeping our carbon producing energy stations running.

128

Who Do You Say Will Be The Republican Nominee For President & Will Obama Lose?

by minimus in

jw
friends

your opinion please:.

Qcmbr

I think it will be Gingrich, I hope it will be Romney and Obama won't lose (as long as the economy keeps picking up.)

384

Atheism 2.0

by Qcmbr in

apologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.

in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.

without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.

Qcmbr

Cofty - good idea - I'd like to see critical / skeptical thinking taught as a priority on the curriculum as well to wake kids up to the possibilities and opportunities that come from realising magic isnt real.

384

Atheism 2.0

by Qcmbr in

apologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.

in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.

without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.

Qcmbr

I never said anything about rights. I do think we need a debate about what we are allowed to do with children. They are not our property and yet we often treat them as such. That there needed to be a rule to stop smacking in the UK is indicative of how we view our children and it is right, imho, that society should be about protecting the innocent and vulnerable. With regards religion I don't believe that stopping a child being commited to a church or having a church exercise discipline on that child is stopping a parent from raising that child in that faith. In my case it would have moved my baptism date to 16 (rather than 8) when I could make a better judgement but also it would have stopped one on one chats with the Bishop at age 12 when I was asked such questions as 'do you masturbate?'

Homeschooling is an odd one for me - I've seen some very bright homeschool taught kids who were absolutely clueless and awkward in a social group. I have no doubt that a dedicated homeschooler with multiple other children is viable and often very successful but for those where it is literally one on one and more critically where it is an excuse for religious indoctrination then I am absolutely opposed. Homeschooling seems open to too many abuses and I don't know how efficient it is (the homseschool kids I knew got lods of resources and money given to them way in excess of what most kids got , they also never got involved in team sports or clubs except the youth activity at church on a Wednesday.)

384

Atheism 2.0

by Qcmbr in

apologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.

in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.

without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.

Qcmbr

I don't agree with homeschooling as a rule anyway - I think sociality is reduced from home schooling.

I would love to pass a law protecting children from being subject to church discipline and church membership until the age of 16. As a sociey we control when people make covenants such as marriage but we allow people to be inculcated and forced to join religions (and some have very onerous disfellowshipping consequences) when they are innocents. It is not the right of a parent to force religion upon a child but oddly most parents think it is.

384

Atheism 2.0

by Qcmbr in

apologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.

in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.

without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.

Qcmbr

Not certain - I really love good architecture and I'd certainly be interested in having a look at these so called temples. Atheists without organisation will always have a weaker voice than a similar sized group who channel their efforts through a central body. If I want schools to stop religious practices in schools and to stop allowing faith schools to exist then a single letter to my MP won't be as effective as a petition signed by hundreds of thousands. Just a thought.

206

i am a regular pioneer in my cong reading crisis of conscience.here goes...

by MsGrowingGirl20 in

jw
friends

i'm on page 90 right now...the info is definitely new and gives me a totally diff view as to how i used to think of faithful and discreet slave.

i was thoroughly disgusted with the way the brothers handled the oral sex and leadership problem and the insight on the scriptures book...... still have alot of questions though.

Qcmbr

Hi I'm an inactive Mormon- take a look at some ex-mormon sites. Once you see the ex(iting) mormons saying almost exactly the same things, expressing the same doubts and sharing the same frustrations as you might do then you can safely critique your faith without triggering too many hidden defense circuits. This site helped open my eyes during my faith crisis whereas a site for ex-mormons was often too near the knuckle for me to easily accept what I was being told, it hurt too much initially.