i have posted one other time on this website.
just for the mere fact that i wasn't anger and bitter and ready to declare the gb the sociopathic criminals that so many here ascribe to, my initial question digressed to bickering over ad hominem attacks against the gb and not my beliefs that i'm questioning.
some did give me some help on my questions.
It's hard to understand the dynamics of all the disagreements around here, when we all spent so many years around people with identical beliefs. Disagreement is good, and if you are sure if your beliefs no one is going to sway you from them, but they might help you to think along some different lines if you take time to consider other points of view.
i won't ever belong to a cult again.
the other day the glass in my oven door exploded and sent glass into the next room, fortunately i wasn't peering in at the time.
about a year go the previous oven door shattered one morning.
the oven was cold.
the fact is we could never talk about politics or of use toward political issues as witnesses now we can and we can disagree without being disagreeable .
so an old friend of mine from the congregation hit me up today.
the story goes like this when we were jw's:.
- this guy used to be madly in love with me but i didn't see him as anything more than a friend.
is there an app for that?
seriously, in this day and age, there has to be a way to find someone you lost contact with.
i know, facebook...but i'm having no luck there.
I don't know of any app's. I have found some people on LinkedIn or Classmates.com that weren't on Facebook. Classmates sometimes is a good place to find out someone's married name and then you can find them from there.
does anyone else feel 'pulled back in' at this time of year?.
i still consider myself to a believer, believe in god and jesus christ, on the whole i think he taught tolerance, love, acceptance and i think we can benefit from following his example.
i love ray franzs book in search of christian freedom.
Actually Alive I like your post it does give me something to ponder. I agree with you,in life it is our perception of things that shapes our beliefs. We can read the bible and all come away with something different.
to answer the original question - no nothing pulls me back to this religion. It is a false religion so there is no pull for me to go back to hateful people trying to control my life.
one thing i like to do to test a theory is to take things to extremes or to their logical conclusion to see if the premises still hold.
very often, a claim that seems to make sense at a superficial level falls apart when you start to stretch it a little.. so let's play a game.. suppose the 2nd amendment is valid, that some "well regulated militia" really is necessary to hold the government to account.. obviously when this was drafted the government had access to the weapons of it's day which would be muskets!
so muskets all round.
I like handguns - I have several. I do not hunt with them. I do take one with me when we go into mountains for protection from animals or humans. I also use them for protection at home as I live in a place where police help is a long way away, sometimes more than an hour. I also have dogs and bear spray, so the gun isn't my only protection.
That being said - I do not need an Uzi for protection or hunting purposes, so I do think there is middle ground, and extended rounds are not needed to stop a threat.
i'm completely new at this however just in my joining this forum and of course interacting with others i can't help but notice what appears to be a significant exodus from the organization.. for those of you that have long been in this game have you seen this before?
i'm really curious and we should refrain from the sensational, but is what we're seeing different than in years past?.
it sure seems like so so many are waking and leaving.
one thing i like to do to test a theory is to take things to extremes or to their logical conclusion to see if the premises still hold.
very often, a claim that seems to make sense at a superficial level falls apart when you start to stretch it a little.. so let's play a game.. suppose the 2nd amendment is valid, that some "well regulated militia" really is necessary to hold the government to account.. obviously when this was drafted the government had access to the weapons of it's day which would be muskets!
so muskets all round.
My perception is that it is very much an all or nothing issue here in the US, which is why a resolution is unlikely.
Would an assault rifle ban really harm gun owners? Probably not for the average person. Who decides what is acceptable? Who decides what is right for me or for my community? My state has decided what they deem acceptable, does another state trump that decision?
one thing i like to do to test a theory is to take things to extremes or to their logical conclusion to see if the premises still hold.
very often, a claim that seems to make sense at a superficial level falls apart when you start to stretch it a little.. so let's play a game.. suppose the 2nd amendment is valid, that some "well regulated militia" really is necessary to hold the government to account.. obviously when this was drafted the government had access to the weapons of it's day which would be muskets!
so muskets all round.
I don't think I am being a jerk or having a knee jerk reaction. I think there is room for some sort of middle ground between no guns for anyone and all guns for everyone.
Unfortunately for both sides of the argument it always goes to an all or nothing stance.
