Posts by stevenyc

Leaving the cult physically is the easy part. Leaving the cult emotionally, mentally, and spiritually takes a lot of time. And some of those things will never leave. You have to adapt and use methods to live with them.

JWD is a great place to help others and yourself with this trauma.

It can sometime come across as a bunch of watchtower hating, teeth gnashing people, OK at times we are. But, it's all part of the method we have found for overcoming the brainwashing and false, ‘scary’, indoctrinations that we’ve had to grow up with. steve

58

Question for agnostics and/or atheists

by sonnyboy in

jw
friends

i've just recently declared my agnosticism to myself and to one other person in my life.

i don't necessarily consider myself an atheist because i believe there very well may be some higher power or non carbon based entities in existence with 'godlike' abilities.

my question is, do you still find yourself secretly believing in god?

stevenyc

I'm an agnostic. I'll give you my reasons why:

With the standard belief/faith in the clasical term of 'God'; it doesn't make any difference which one you choose. God, in the clasical way, was created by a bunch of tribes and nomads an increadably long time ago to explain why it rains, where the rain comes from, and what it means if it doesn't rain, and who's to blame. Different tribes developped different sets of rules, and the ones that worked sustained the tribes while the tribes that had the wrong rules eventually died out.

It's very easy for me to see how by following certain 'rules' a tribe could prosper, and not understanding the relationship between say washing before eating and contracting nasty bacteria, one could easily see a start to the tribal elders 'knowing Gods on their side'. This started in a very small way but grew to very stong religious practices. And still does. From witch doctors in Hoduras, Voodoo in Haiti, and Demonized art work for the JDubs.

The roots are very simple. Following rules that made the tribe survive became proof of Gods hand. And it still does.

ALL religious practices and beliefs stemmed from this. ALL OF THEM, WITHOUT QUESTION.

So this sounds like I'm an athiest.

Well no. I can entertain the possibility that there are entities somewhere, that if visited us here would be Gods. By comparison. Maybe they'll never visit, but, they could still be there. Maybe they already did, and created life here as a paractle joke. Who knows?

All I know is I'm not prepared to live my life like that. I'm not going to follow the rules of Mesolithic sheep heerders while deciding if I going to watch the simpsons or have sex with my camel.

The morals and ethics that I've learnt from the society I grew up in seam to do me just fine. I can alter them slightly if I choose, however, I know history has brought us thus far with the basics of them.

steve

54

Does the idea of a bodyless soul make sense? Could the 'soul' stay sane?

by IronGland in

as i lay in my pod yesterday i began to think of the following.

in many religions-christianity, hinduism, and buddhism, as well as greek philosophy-attempts are made to mortify the body, to respond as little as often to it's carnal needs and what-not.

this is possible to be prepared for a new existence as just a disembodied soul, in some heavenly spirit realm or what-not.. .

stevenyc

Who's to say that thought processes have anything to do with soul.

steve

58

Question for agnostics and/or atheists

by sonnyboy in

jw
friends

i've just recently declared my agnosticism to myself and to one other person in my life.

i don't necessarily consider myself an atheist because i believe there very well may be some higher power or non carbon based entities in existence with 'godlike' abilities.

my question is, do you still find yourself secretly believing in god?

stevenyc

sonnyboy,

You might find some reading of Dr. Michio Kaku of interest. This guy holds the Henry Semat Professorship in Theoretical Physics at the CUNY and was one of the co-founders of string theory.

He's written quite a bit on advanced civilizations and there 'God like' appearance. He's taken the work of Nicolai Kardashev on advanced civilization types I, II, and III and expanded on it.

Here's a link to his site.

http://www.mkaku.org/articles/physics_of_alien_civs.shtml

steve

28

King Herod, and his "slaughter of the innocents"

by stevenyc in

matt 2:16 "then herod, seeing he had been outwitted by the astrologers, fell into a great rage, and he sent out and had all the boys in beth lehem and in all its districts done away with, from two years of age and under, according to the time that he had carefully ascertained from the astrologers".

does anyone know if there is any historical evidence to support king herod's mass killing of children under the age of two, when christ was born.. i can't find any.

that whole chapter seams to me not to be so much a historical report, but more a justification.. .

stevenyc

Matt 2:16 "Then Herod, seeing he had been outwitted by the astrologers, fell into a great rage, and he sent out and had all the boys in Beth´le·hem and in all its districts done away with, from two years of age and under, according to the time that he had carefully ascertained from the astrologers"

Does anyone know if there is any historical evidence to support King Herod's mass killing of children under the age of two, when Christ was born.

I can't find any. That whole chapter seams to me not to be so much a historical report, but more a justification.

steve

16

What is up with God requiring vindication?

by M.J. in

i've related before that i have started studying with a superbrother from the local congo.

in the knowledge book we came across this quote:

*** kl chap.

stevenyc

I think the idea is that Satan basicly questioned Gods right to demand all his itelligent, free thinking beings to show complete obedience to him, no questions asked.

Satan convinces eve that Gods line of thinking was completly out of order, and henceforth Gods free thinking beings start to rebal.

Satan 'challenge' is that we don't need Gods rule book.

So.. God punishes humans with sin - we die, get ill, blow each other up, which is to vidicate God as being right all along.

Free thinking beings, that don't follow Gods rule book, end up doing pretty bad. And, just to prove it, Gods is about to allow Jesus to perform Genocide on the grandest scale ever.

steve

10

JW versus Christian Sciencetolgy Similarities

by pratt1 in

jw
friends

.

i just read some of tom cruises' comments on his belief cs and i found them disturbing.. not just his point of view, but it appears that his beliefs are black or white... no gray areas, every thought was so definite, almost final.. sounded a lot like the jw beliefs in that they are the only people who has it right and everyone else is wrong.. does anyone know any thing about christian scientolgy and are they similar in their beliefs to the dubs?

stevenyc

Terry,

You kidding right?

steve

31

List the GB, please.

by Gill in

jw
friends

stevenyc

I think credit should be given, where credits due.

I'm amazed this guy can hold down two jobs.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001602/

steve