tec - are you saying you aren't led by a man?
Posts by Qcmbr
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403Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?
by snare&racket inthis 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!
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19
Who's your favorite video game character of all time?
by sooner7nc in"they're waiting for you gordon...in the test chamber.".
gordon freeman from half life.
captain price from cod.
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403
Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?
by snare&racket inthis 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!
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Qcmbr
Here's another way I've looked at this very question.
What did my faith get right, what did it improve morally (the scientific morality of Harris) how am I better for my previous faith? The answer , oddly enough, was that there was not one single teaching that they got right. The reason being is that every single teaching was predicated on a lie. Let me give you a few examples:
1 - Families are forever. LDS philosphy revolves around the central idea of a family and its eternal existence. Nice idea, noble and fulfilling. What actually happened.
- Avoided relationships outside of church, got married in a hurry and had kids way too early (before we had a good enough income to support them.) I had a crippled relationship with my real father since he wasn't sealed to me in the temple. I got sealed to my mother's second husband who is a c*ck (emotionally retarded and a life leech who slowly killed my outgoing mother over the years and turned her into a house slave downgraded to listing reasons why it was better to stay with him than leave.) My religious views pushed me away from the 80% of the family who are not LDS and made the relationship with those 'in' somewhat dependant upon a shared lie (which having now exited means that side is a bit trashed as well.) Net result - pretty poor family closeness on all sides. Contributing cause - 'families can be together forever.'
2 - Chastity is more important than life. No sex outside marriage and no personal sexual release except when utterly asleep. No STDs , no pregnancies outside of marriage, extra commitment to wife. Reality.
- Intimacy issues when married. Hurried marriage ( 6 weeks from proposal to marriage) to avoid giving in to temptation - sh*t wedding. Missed some chances to get sexual experience especially during uni (could have helped marriage - will never know now) but also meant I never really felt one of the guys (talking about sex made me blush and I had no stories to tell.) Infrequent masturbation led to painfully humiliating confessions with various bishops. Sex made to seem very dirty rather than something supremely natural and potentially emotionally fulfilling.
3 - Honesty is important in all things. No lies even when it puts you at personal disadvantage. Reality.
- Job interviews nightmare since I will not blag and therefore struggle to sell myself. Repeated self appraisals and depressed feelings about self and ability buoyed up with a desire to be honest. No idea what honesty really means (30+ years living a lie and then finally fully realising that - double whammy) Now I find honesty as a fairly poor substitute for real social skills, tact, bravura and cheek. Honesty counts in less situations than one might imagine. Its much more important to relate to someone than to impose one's definition of truth (which is the root of honesty!).
4 - Humility. Christ died for your sins and asks only that you accept him into your life. Nice idea, keeps you level headed and appreciative of everyones worth no matter how well hidden it is. Reality.
- Never felt good enough, never felt worthy, never felt capable without help, even prayed to get good exam results. Ended up with a thought process that relied upon asking god for help and guidance all the time and blaming myself for any failure and praising god for any success. I became responsible for bad stuff and 'blessed' when good stuff came along. That is mental hell.
Now that I've escaped from the mind control that religion imposes the guilt is falling away, the fake love, the forced emotions, the smile hiding crushed hopes and dreams is gone. Now I feel much more capable and able to stand on my two feet and I finally realise. I am more moral than my faith. I would not kill my child in sacrifice, I would not accept anothers torture on my behalf, I do not accept eternal slavery worshipping a butcher god who kills those who disagree with him. My kindness exceeds any bible gods. Even the supposed good stuff is just paint ona rotten structure. Now I'm rebuilding my self image, my life, reaching out to all my family, accepting that I am no more amazing or despicable than the next person but that they and I are responsible for what we do with who we are. I feel happy to judge another's character and avoid those who I disagree with and to embrace those who I can relate to and know and respect others right to do the same to me.
I am free. My marriage is great. My kids are happy. I can die with a few standard regrets and a heart unfettered by guilt and a judgement day dread.
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134
WTF? Steven Untank's money accounts suddenly closed!!
by mind blown inthis is weird?!
i just came accross this on mr unthank's personal site: http://stevenunthank.wordpress.com/monies/i recently read something where the wts is, let's just say connected, to various institutions/companies to wield/get their way.....is this one or just coincidence?
moniespersonal message from steven unthank.
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Qcmbr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
Shamus has obliged. Now remind me what the monkey brings?
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403
Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?
by snare&racket inthis 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!
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Qcmbr
I suspect that the most vocal posters may also represent the most polarised views but I have no stats to back that up. There is a huge swathe of lurkers who maybe don't feel strongly enough to post on any particular god/no god topic. Like NC said - once you leave one religion it makes it much easier to keep asking questions.
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403
Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?
by snare&racket inthis 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!
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Qcmbr
tec can you ever conceive of a point where you no longer have faith and yet are still you?
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403
Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?
by snare&racket inthis 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!
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Qcmbr
ND - LDS born and bred.
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403
Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?
by snare&racket inthis 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!
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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.
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The Real God: An Epiphany (YouTube)
by leavingwt inmy 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.
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Qcmbr
Good god angle. liked the vid
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44
90% of the space within an atom is dark matter
by soft+gentle inthis 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.
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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.
