Elsewhere,
Thanks for your post, i realize it is a serious subject and controversial; however, you worded it so wittily and funny I am still laughing my butt off! Can't help it. Love comedy.
as i said in another post: actions speak louder than words.
muslims were angered by the pope's quoting a 14th century writer who said that muslims are violent in nature.. in order to disprove this statement many muslims took too the streets shouting violent slogans and burned an effigy of the pope.
still more muslims demonstrated that they are not violent by firebombing random churches.. yup... actions speak louder than words.
Elsewhere,
Thanks for your post, i realize it is a serious subject and controversial; however, you worded it so wittily and funny I am still laughing my butt off! Can't help it. Love comedy.
birth - 6 y.o.
: john denver, waylon jennings(dukes of hazzard theme song), etc.... 6 y.o.
: (started grade school... heard new stuff) joan jett & the blackhearts, & (can't remember the artist but the song was:) pac-man fever... and so on... 9 - 10 y.o.
'60's - Bob Dylan
'70's - Van Morrison
'80's - Marvin Gaye
Now - The Stanley Brothers
anything by raymond franz is a given.. 1984. siddartha.
lord of the flies.
grapes of wrath.
Any book by:
John Updike
Joan Didion
Philip Roth
i know this has been mentioned before, but i'd like to bring that question to the front again.
not only from a jw's perspective, but also from all other christians.. who lied to man and woman in the eden story?.
yahweh god says to men: 17 "nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die.
Tophat, that is a great question! One I've never heard before. If anyone knows the answer, please post. I have pondered the mystery of the original pair in Eden since I first heard it. The Witnesses taught me that when God said, "Look, the man has become as one of us knowing good and evil", He was speaking to Jesus (Michael at that time) and the angels; also when He made that statement, it was said in a sarcastic manner because Adam and Eve didn't gain knowledge; that their disobedience was the sin they committed. I could never understand what it had to do with being naked. Even though I don't believe the bible, I would still like to know if there is an explanation for it.
i realize that threads like this have been done before, but i don't think that it hurts to do one again.. i personally appreciate this website so much.
it has been an absolute treasure-trove of information, research material, emotional support, and simple enjoyment.
and, it's free of charge!
I certainly want to say thanks to everyone. All those who run the site and of course the posters!
this will probably apply to few here, but to me it'll always be that way.
it's the what if syndrome maybe, but it's always there.
i still think that as a core belief system the jw's have it right, even if their delivery isn't always right.
Scooby,
I do not believe because I am out of the Witnesses that they don't have the truth or at least some of it. I feel much the way you do. Although I have divorced myself intellectually from "the truth", as yet, I have not been able to completely break away from the emotional hold it had on me. And, regardless of my worthiness or unworthiness which troubles me at times, I do know I hated much of the religion when I was in it. I am still working my way out of the dilemma. I have covered much ground since I came here. Sometimes I think I chose the easy way out and just didn't want to do all that Jehovah expected of me. Fortunately, these are only passing thoughts. What we experience is relevant to most people inculcated in a belief system. My best friend is a Seventh Day Adventist. I listen to her rantings about the Rapture and the Sabbath at least once a week along with other concepts which are very similar to the Witnesses. I don't argue with her because she is my friend. The more I listen to her, the more I see myself as I was when I was with the Witnesses. So, I don't hold the bible as a sacred text anymore. Too many interpretations can be gleaned from it. Who is to say the bible is right just because we once believed it?
.
please make this less than 100 lines....
1. Why did David take all the foreskins of the opponents he killed. What the heck did he do with them? What literal or symbolic purpose did it serve? Was it emasculation? Of course I could never ask the dubs. He was suspect to me the way he "loved Jonathan" more than a woman. Or was it the other way 'round. I'm glad i can't remember. King Saul. Such fits of melancholy. He just needed a witch doctor or psychiatrist. .
2. Ezekiel! How long did he have to lay on his side and see the thing he loved destroyed (presumably his wife?)
i know there are a lot of threads on evolution and creation and i've read a few here and there.
how can complex systems arise of themselves in the face of entropy?
one evolutionist book i read used snowflakes to show this is possible.
Geronimo,
I am beset and plagued by the same questions as you. I was convinced of the evolution theory before I became a dub-- which of course I had to discard when I became one of Jehovah's Witnesses. I used to pray about it all the time, hoping Jehovah would clear my mind. It never happened. Eventually, the evolution theory dominated my mind even when I was a Witness. I just couldn't find any way out of the dilemma ('though I kept my thoughts to myself.) I still don't know for sure which it is but I try not to think about it lest it drive me insane.
.
i had high speed cable internet for $53 a month with videotron and i just dropped it to their lowest cable speed for $29 a month.. now i can buy an extra case of beer a month .
I pay $23.00 per month for AOL dialup and as Sad Emo remarked, there are no English speaking techs when I need them. I ended up having to call "geeks on call" when I had a problem. Very expensive! $99.00 for 30 minutes. They found the problem in 15 minutes...but at least I could understand what the heck they were saying. So, it's important to be able to understand what techs are saying, otherwise, what good are they? I am going to switch to a lower plan with English speaking techs.
why do so many catholics become jws ?
i know a lot of them were not very strong or practicing catholics but the wt does seem to draw them, especially when they are so critical of them and the pope.
you would think it would put them off.. is it because the are so different or the same???????????.
I was raised a Catholic and attended Catholic school. I converted to Jehovah's Witnesses at 17. It is for all the reasons posted by the forum members here that Catholics convert to Jehovah's Witnesses. Also, many of the sincere practicing Catholics are perturbed by the concept of hell as promoted by the Catholics; a place of eternal torment. JW's show from the bible that hell is very different from what the Catholics believe. That was probably the deciding factor for me. We had a high ratio of 75% converted Catholics at the Kingdom Hall I attended.