dang man, your site has seen a lot of traffic over the past few years .
nice.
http://www.angelfire.com/trek/littletoe/profile.html.
I second the "wow" LT.
I had no idea you went out with such a bang. I understand what your intentions were, but I would love to have heard that you did this at an assembly.
Well, I know how much strain this has probably put on your family. But you are following your conscience, so I hope whatever suffering you are enduring be lessened by that fact.
Take care,
CYP
this friend was a fellow elder with me.
in the last few years he's successfully faded with his immediate family.
however his mother who was never "strong in the truth" is still a "believer".
gloat gloat gloat
this friend was a fellow elder with me.
in the last few years he's successfully faded with his immediate family.
however his mother who was never "strong in the truth" is still a "believer".
Since he is still trying to find the truth I might suggest a couple of books that could help him in general, rather than give him all the answers to his specific "hang ups".
The first is How to Find the Truth by Joseph Brinks http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0970882408/sr=8-2/qid=1139594928/ref=sr_1_2/002-7923498-4217611?%5Fencoding=UTF8
This book is pretty good in the sense that it gives you a methodology to use in trying to find spiritual truth. It relies on an adaptation of the tried and true scientific methods. On the other hand it does use examples of this method that appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to debunk Christianity and promote Orthodox Judaism. But ultimately it is about the "how" of finding spiritual truth and challenges the reader to validate all their conclusions, rather than accept them at face value.
Another great book is Finding Faith by Brian McLaran. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310238382/qid=1139595459/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-7923498-4217611?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
This book is just an absolute gem. It goes through all of the questions and issues that come up for a person as they seek to find a relationship with God. Again the focus of this book is the "how" of faith rather than the "what". Furthermore it goes through a great description of "bad faith" that is probably a must read for any current or recovering dub. A few (off the top of my head) "bad faith" identifiers are:
1. Based on unquestioned human leadership
2. Is arrogant and unteachable
3. Is based on fear or coersion
4. Is dishonest (denies or avoids the existence of facts that might refute faith)
So that is my advice. Help him to focus on the "how" of his faith. If that is sound, the "what" will naturally evolve from it.
CYP
if there is a god...don't any of you find it odd that we don't even know his name!
i mean... if he was real why didn't he preserve his name for all of us to know?
i mean think of it, it is really stupid isn't!
According to the bible CYP, gods name is important!
I don't know if it is in the sense that it needs to be audibly spoken. It is not a magic word is it? Might you be reading with your wt filter?
I think it is important in the sense that it represents his nature. "Hallowed be thy name" might be rightly understood as "hallowed be thy unique identity and nature".
Which is more important to know or understand?
if there is a god...don't any of you find it odd that we don't even know his name!
i mean... if he was real why didn't he preserve his name for all of us to know?
i mean think of it, it is really stupid isn't!
I have always thought the JW fascination with the name of God to be odd and irrelevant.
How could it possibly matter one way or the other whether or not a person audibly produces the correct consonants and vowels associated with the Creator.
The significance of a name is only that it identifies a distinct person. It might carry the extra function of providing an attribute with which to identify the person.
But here is a question that highlights the absurdity of this fascination.
Suppose I speak the name Jehovah, and say I am serving him by murdering someone. Suppose another person speaks the name Lucifer, or Satan, or Devil, and claims to serve him by helping another in a way they would want to be helped.
Who does the first person serve? Who does the second person serve? Did the name they utter have any bearing on the answer to these questions?
CYP
i have always heard women say that men can't dance.
it seems they are right most of the time.
peace,.
Bad stereotype. Women are just more interested in dancing, generally, than men are.
Yeah that is a good point. As a guy, I have to say, that I just don't "get" dancing. I mean seriously. What the hell is the point? What are you trying to accomplish when dancing? I might also add that men have the extra burden when dancing, of being constantly concerned that they might look gay or like a pussy. CYP
a lot of people are worrying about these uprisings, riots and violence being done----it seems everywhere.
i've read how some feel that europe does not have the ability as a union to fight against this.
is this like it was in germany prior to ww!!
"the West" (whatever that means)
Western Civilization... the civilization that came out of the amalgamation of Judeo-Christian ethics and Greco-Roman political and philosophical tradition.
aka the civilized world.
a lot of people are worrying about these uprisings, riots and violence being done----it seems everywhere.
i've read how some feel that europe does not have the ability as a union to fight against this.
is this like it was in germany prior to ww!!
I feel like I've just been chastized for my lack of fanatacism.
You think there is nothing in your life worth defending? protecting? nothing?!
Being willing to lay your life down (or take another's) for something doesn't automatically make you a fanatic.
It is what you are willing to kill and die for that makes you fanatic.
a lot of people are worrying about these uprisings, riots and violence being done----it seems everywhere.
i've read how some feel that europe does not have the ability as a union to fight against this.
is this like it was in germany prior to ww!!
‘I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?’ said Sam. ‘I wonder,’ said Frodo.
‘But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale… The people in it don’t know…’
‘The old stories! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?’
‘No, they never end as tales,’ said Frodo. ‘But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended.’
‘You and I, Sam, are still stuck in the worst places of the story,
and it is all too likely that some will say at this point: “Shut the book now, dad; we don’t want to read any more.”’
a lot of people are worrying about these uprisings, riots and violence being done----it seems everywhere.
i've read how some feel that europe does not have the ability as a union to fight against this.
is this like it was in germany prior to ww!!
excerpted from http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/649qrsob.asp?pg=2
The suicide bomber's willingness to discard civilization's cherished rules for warfare gives him enormous strength. In the Cain-and-Abel conflicts of the 21st century, ruthlessness trumps technology. We refuse to comprehend the suicide bomber's soul--even though today's wars are contests of souls, and belief is our enemy's ultimate order of battle. We write off the suicide bomber as a criminal, a wanton butcher, a terrorist. Yet, within his spiritual universe, he's more heroic than the American soldier who throws himself atop a grenade to spare his comrades: He isn't merely protecting other men, but defending his god. The suicide bomber can justify any level of carnage because he's doing his god's will. We agonize over a prisoner's slapped face, while our enemies are lauded as heroes for killing innocent masses (even of fellow believers). We continue to narrow our view of warfare's acceptable parameters even as our enemies amplify the concept of total war. ...The hallmark of our age is the failure of belief systems and a subsequent flight back to primitive fundamentalism--and the phenomenon isn't limited to the Middle East. Faith revived is running roughshod over science and civilization. Secular societies appear increasingly fragmented, if not fragile. The angry gods are back. And they will not be defeated with cruise missiles or computer codes.
A paradox of our time is that the overwhelmingly secular global media--a collection of natural-born religion-haters--have become the crucial accomplices of the suicide bomber fueled by rabid faith. Mass murderers are lionized as freedom fighters, while our own troops are attacked by the press they protect for the least waywardness or error. One begins to wonder if the bomber's suicidal impulse isn't matched by a deep death wish affecting the West's cultural froth. (What if Darwin was right conceptually, but failed to grasp that homo sapiens' most powerful evolutionary strategy is faith?) Both the suicide bomber and the "world intellectual" with his reflexive hatred of America exist in emotional realms that our rational models of analysis cannot explain. The modern age's methods for interpreting humanity are played out.
We live in a new age of superstition and bloodthirsty gods, of collective madness. Its icons are the suicide bomber, the veil, and the video camera. ...
We are not (yet) at war with Islam, but the extreme believers within Islam are convinced that they are soldiers in a religious war against us. Despite their rhetoric, they are the crusaders. Even our conceptions of the struggle are asymmetrical. Despite the horrors we have witnessed, we have yet to take religious terrorists seriously on their own self-evident terms. We invaded a succession of their tormented countries, but haven't come close to penetrating their souls. The hermetic universe of the Islamist terrorist is immune to our reality (if not to our bullets), but our intellectuals appear equally incapable of accepting the religious extremist's reality.
