Thanks everyone! That was quick.
Etude.
Posts by Etude
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4I need help with search
by Etude incan anyone help me find a thread about kh experiences.
the particular one i need has a tale about an elder with a british accent who kept confusion balaam's ass with arse.
i've tried using google ("elder arse site:http://www.jehovahs-witness.com") and tried it from the jwd site "powered by google.
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4
I need help with search
by Etude incan anyone help me find a thread about kh experiences.
the particular one i need has a tale about an elder with a british accent who kept confusion balaam's ass with arse.
i've tried using google ("elder arse site:http://www.jehovahs-witness.com") and tried it from the jwd site "powered by google.
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Etude
PLEASE! Can anyone help me find a thread about KH experiences. The particular one I need has a tale about an elder with a British accent who kept confusion Balaam's ass with arse. I've tried using Google ("elder arse site:http://www.jehovahs-witness.com") and tried it from the JWD site "powered by Google. Can anyone help?
Etude
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33
City person or Country person
by JH in.
i travelled alot recently and i passed through many major cities, and i saw the contrast between nice small quiet towns and huge cities with so much traffic.. so, where would you rather live, in a quiet small town where there isn't much to do,but where it's quiet and there is not much stress, or in a big city with lots of traffic jams, where life is more expensive, but where there is more to see?.
i like the smaller town life.
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Etude
I've lived in NY City, in the country upstate NY, in a town (Middletown, NY), in another small town (Steamboat Springs, CO), in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, CA, in a mid-size town (Oxnard, CA) and I've visited dozens of small towns in CO, PA, MA, AZ, OH, ME, NJ as well as fairly big cities like Durham, NC, Nashville, TN, Tampa, FL, Huntsville, AL, Dallas, TX, Phoenix and Tucson, AZ, plus a few others. Now, I live in another small town (relatively) of about 15,000 people. It's on the 101 corridor between L.A. and Santa Barbara, CA. California is quite different from the East. In the East, you generally know when you leave one town and enter the next. Here, as you enter the San Fernando Valley, unless you pay attention you won't know one town from another almost all the way to San Diego. It's a bit different after you go North (actually West) past Ventura. It's a bit more open.
I feel I have the best of both worlds. Santa Barbara is about 15 minutes away. It's not a huge metropolis, but it's very cosmopolitan and very quaint with its unique Spanish style architecture. I like the fact that where I live we only have three stop lights in the whole town. It's quiet and it's on the beach. L.A. is not that far (about 80 miles). It would normally take you an hour and a half to get there. But realistically, with the magnitude of traffic in Southern California, it could take 2 and half hours. I don't like going there much for that reason. In fact, because I lived in the country once, I would be happy to live in an isolated place. I can't because my wife is an extremely social person and she would feel lost.
I do like city living and sometimes miss the activity and availability of things to do. In California, things are spread out and you can't exists without a car, unless you live in L.A. proper. NYC has just about anything that you can imagine, from museums to every kind of restaurants, Broadway, exhibits, you name it. It also has a lot of crazy stuff happening and its just a bit too crowded for me. I like to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. That is, unless somebody paid me a lot of money.
Etude.
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8
Do you stimulate your "G" spot?
by Etude inim sure that this has been talked about before on this forum, but i have no way of searching.
just in case, id like to bring up the issue from my perspective.
the discovery of the g spot (so called god spot) in the brain is indeed a curious thing.
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Etude
I’m sure that this has been talked about before on this forum, but I have no way of searching. Just in case, I’d like to bring up the issue from my perspective.
The discovery of the “G Spot” (so called God Spot) in the brain is indeed a curious thing. My exposure to how this was certified consists of an experiment I saw on a Catholic nun (80 plus years old) whose brain was scanned while she was deep in prayer. What they found was activity in a part of the brain located on the right-rear parietal area. Since, they have been able to confirm that, when you are in a “spiritual” mood, that part of the brain is activated. Conversely, they have been able to artificially (via electrodes) stimulate that area of the brain and produce in the person those feelings of “spirituality” such as: a sense of being part of something greater; feeling one with the universe; feeling peace and reverence. The discovery is attributed to a group of neuroscientists at the University of California at San Diego . The work stemmed from a study on individuals with Epilepsy. However, I’m familiar with the work of Vilayanur S. Ramachandran who studies general brain anomalies. The guy is a freeking genius and has achieved tremendous advances about how the brain works and he appears to head that team in UCSD. It’s becoming so popular that I found a web site once that was selling a helmet to “help” you achieve a spiritual state. I can only find this one now.
Recently, it has been suggested that the use and development of this center of the brain may be responsible for extended life and health. The fact that it is a spiritual center does not necessarily infer that “God” must be its focus. It is also responsible for the state of peace that is achieved under meditation and other trance-like states that are peculiar in Eastern disciplines. So, the question for those here who have come out of the “collective” is: “Do you vote for the existence of this brain area as confirmation that it is an “antenna” to God and that such is its purpose or do you believe that the existence of this brain area is simply some vestigial center that simply gives us the illusion that there’s something greater than ourselves?
Mind you, it would be nice if you try to explain logically why you believe as you do. For example: If you think that it is an antenna to God, its existence would justify its purpose and vice versa. But that is rather circular in logic. At least explain why it couldn't be anything else. If you believe that it’s merely an evolutionary trait, at least explain why and for what purpose would a blind, unintelligent process in Nature find the necessity to fabricate this center in us and for what purpose. Lastly, you may want to address how much influence did your sense of “spirituality” have on your decision to join the JWs or to go to another religion or not after you left. Have at it!
Etude.
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THE END OF DEATH ?
by Erich indoes a british researcher hold the key to life eternal?.
by rafaela von bredow
the dream of eternal life is as old as mankind.
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Etude
Man, that's a tall order. I don't doubt that we will achieve that aim, to live for a very long time, if not forever. However, I doubt that it will happen with nano-robots. It will probably involve some gene splicing. The first thing, though, is to address disease.
Recently, I heard about a newly discovered genetic peculiarity called RNAi (Ribo-Nucleic Acid interference). This one seems to offer some real hope. Basically, they found that the cell (RNA) has an ability to automatically eliminate duplicate copies of genes. When it sees as a duplicate piece of genetic material (I think a mirror image molecule), it simply eliminates both copies. What they propose is to systematically select specific genes, splice a mirror copy to it and let the cells eliminate both copies in order to identify what the gene does. With that process, you can then do the same to the DNA of any virus or bacteria and essentially eliminate the disease. Furthermore, you can affect in a human a mutation like Sickle-Cell Anemia or Down Syndrome to get the body to eliminate the offending genetic material. That is simple, elegant and not a pipe dream. It can even happen in our lifetime.
Etude.
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69
NO LONGER SATISFIED AS I WAS, WITH JWD FORUM
by outoftheorg inno this is not another { i am leaving this forum }.
it is just that i no longer am so hungry for the many posts as i once was.
i could not wait to get home and sign on to read all the posts from newbies and the heavy hitters.
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Etude
It seems to me that you are overwhelmed right now in your personal life. At 70 (I'm 53), you were supposed to be enjoying the rest of your life in peace and comfort. That's the ideal. Reality is a different thing. Your post is so diametrically opposed to what I just finished reading on this other thread that it caught me by surprise.
Although JWD can be life-saving for some, comforting for many and informative for others, it's not a panacea. I know you value it, but I hope you realize that all things have their purpose for a time. I have so much in my life (mostly good, some mundane and a little bad) that I barely have time to log in to read and respond (I stopped posting for a year), although lately, I've broken my own record. This medium is limiting. Nothing can replace the human touch and personal interaction. That's why we need to find that elsewhere, especially when we need it, and we always need it. Considering your personal situation and the limitations of this medium, all I can think that most of us can do is listen to you and comfort you and offer support.
I experienced unbearable loneliness and absolutely no support from anyone when I was younger. I'm glad now because it would be much harder to bear at my age. But I realize that it always gets worse as we age because our contemporaries become isolated from us or die off. I'm looking out for my last surviving parent with Alzheimer's and I've noticed her isolation and depression. I tend to think that I wouldn't have any problems being isolated. But, I'm probably underestimating the how important having good people around me will be I'm older. When my family basically abandoned me, I started building friendships to take their place. That helped a lot. I hope you can find that here.
Etude.
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70
Who all here was personally helped by JWD
by Ticker ini was and i am ever thankful to this board and all the wonderful members on it that have contributed to my freedom.
thankyou all so much and i think i might be becoming a jwd addict.
i love this board it is so helpful.
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Etude
CYP, you're on my pedestal (just below JWD) for expressing yourself with such eloquent clarity. I'm new here and I haven't encountered too many of you posts. But, your last one of thanks takes the cake. I join you in thanking Simon, et. al., and JWD as a whole for the purpose it has it fulfilled allowing us to be understood, counseled, instructed and comforted regarding all things related to JW.Etude.
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31
Trinity?!?!
by Lynne Y inhello, it's lynne again... how's everyone doing?
um..i have a quick question.. haha.. .
one of the most distinguishable doctrine(?
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Etude
Thank you for your last insightful questions. They have made me think. Before responding, let me say that I agree with you about the manipulation religions perform in order to make us their captives. "Condemning someone to death" if one does not believe what one is told, is mainly an inclusion tactic designed to appeal to our sense of "belonging" and acceptance through fear. That should be a very loud alarm for most people that they're going down the wrong path. Unfortunately, like little children, we have to trip and fall often before we learn to walk. I don't see that it should be so when it comes to intellectual and spiritual journeys, but it is often the case . I wish we were better prepared to be skeptical and have reasoning tools at our disposal from an early age.
That's what I've tried to acquire, skepticism and logic. So, in order to answer your question: No. I don't have any answers and I don't know what the truth is. Fortunately, I've discovered a way to live with some degree of satisfaction and relative confidence about what I think and what surrounds me. I've learned not to be certain or absolute about anything. The conviction I felt while I was a JW and the subsequent deception, has taught me that. One may not be able to trust one's senses, but you can trust your ability to reason if you have a proven method. After I became more analytical and attempted to ascertain "truths" about the universe and the nature of things, I realized that we can't be certain about that either. At one point, we thought that Einstein was right (Quantum Mechanics, the relativity of time, gravity) and now we need to adjust his theories. That's not to say that all his work goes out the window. But, now we find that there are no atoms, no quarks or wavicles but one-dimensional strings that vibrate and make the universe what it is. ("The Elegant Universe" by Brian Green) A few other physicists have propose that time is an affectation we have created in order to make sense of events and they have shown how you can take it out completely from Einstein's equations. ("The End of Time" by Julian Barbour)
Forgive me for going so far out on a limb, almost to the point of breaking it. However, I needed to show how it was that I arrived at some sort of peace. I now feel that I'm in a unique position to accept a lot while doubting it all (from the nature of the universe to TV commercials). As I have said before, it's OK to say: "I don't know." However, I only accept that answer when I have reasonably exhausted my options. I've also learned to determine what's important to know (the big questions) and what doesn't make that much of a difference (the penny-annie shit). All of this should indicate to you that the quest for the truth is a very individual one. While scientific experiments yield to truth if they are repeatable and theories become facts if they are proven experimentally, this does not appear to be the case with Bible issues. And so, I've settle for seeking more general and universal truths while recognizing my sense and need for spirituality (regarding which there have been some new scientific discoveries).
If you care to have a discussion about such things, we can take it off-line or start another topic thread. You pick. While I have found a way to continually challenge my own ideas and conclusions, I have given myself room to fail, as scientists often do, but not because of someone else's manipulation or misinformation. I can say that I wish you to have the peace that I feel now about being uncertain.
Etude.
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Who is the Faithful and Discrete Slave?
by Etude inrecently, i've had memories about that topic, which i had suppressed for a long time.
my original question came up when i encountered a few members of the "anointed" in my congregation (we're talking almost 30 years ago).. there was one sister who partook of the "emblems" who had come from cuba.
i learned from her that her health was frail because she had smuggled some expensive jewelry in a condom and stuck it up her colon.
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Etude
M.J.:
You've got a good one there. That is very keen of you. I would have to agree if we decided that we are not to ascribe any poetic license to those words, that there's nothing "representative" about the phrases, that it should be taken strictly literally. Forgive me for nit-picking here, but that's the problem with ancient languages and with how people think, and particularly with the Bible. A lot of things are subject to multiple interpretations.
I tried to use my own analogy and pictured Frank Lloyd Wright saying those words. From the context of a designer, it seems to fit. Yahweh "alone" is the creator. Yahweh "alone" is the one who "stretched" his hand out to make all things. Does that mean to the exclusion of any helper? Not necessarily.
The verses you quoted and the ones in the book of John:" 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ", throw a monkey wrench in the idea as to who made what. It is what has caused dissension and differences of opinion for centuries about the Bible. The dilemma continues.
Etude.
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Who is the Faithful and Discrete Slave?
by Etude inrecently, i've had memories about that topic, which i had suppressed for a long time.
my original question came up when i encountered a few members of the "anointed" in my congregation (we're talking almost 30 years ago).. there was one sister who partook of the "emblems" who had come from cuba.
i learned from her that her health was frail because she had smuggled some expensive jewelry in a condom and stuck it up her colon.
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Etude
The explanation I've heard about (God created everything and Christ created everything) was quite satisfactory to me. It's like saying: Frank Lloyd Wright built the Johnson's Wax building. We know that a contractor/project manager did. No, wait, it was the laborers who actually built it. Well, they can all claim that they did and be right. The point is that the credit ultimately goes to the architect. But the job foreman/contractor is the actual builder.
I don't like the idea that I'm agreeing with anything the WTBTS says. However, their view that Christ was used by God to create all things would put him in the place of the contractor/foreman for the job and would therefore eliminate any contradiction. Does that seem reasonable?
Etude.