tetrapod.sapien

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Posts by tetrapod.sapien

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  34

  WOULD YOU........................?

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  here is a serious question for you to contemplate and answer.. if, near the natural end of your present life you could receive a drug that induced within your brain a state of mind most closely resembling one long orgasmic "experience" (but, which would prove fatal within 24 hours) would you.........?.

  1.refuse and accept whatever pain or misery naturally happened according to chance.. 2.accept and go out with a cosmic virtual "bang"?.

  of course, tell us why you have chosen the way you have chosen.. part two.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  2. ...because i don't believe in an afterlife, but simply non existence after death. so, if death is simply a biological shut-down, and there really is no mystery to it, then yes, i would take my right to die and 24 hrs of ecstasy. part 2: yes i would carry it around with me if i knew i would be in a foxhole. but would not carry it around in everyday life.
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  13

  Are the jws asocial?

  by badboy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  its says in one of the ads that jws are asocial,do you think it is true?

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  tetrapod.sapien

  i think in the world at large, JW's are, in a strange way, probably more subconciously, asocial.

  "conditional sociability"

  this is a good one.
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  24

  Has anyone ever wanted to say............

  by whyamihere in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  that they were one of the "anointed" just for the hell of it?

  i always wanted to do that and see what would happen!.

  brooke

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  tetrapod.sapien

  yes, i always wanted to say it as an experiement, but was always much too much of a coward. i probably would have laughed immediately afterwards, which would have nullified the experiement, and exposed me for what i am: Bill Murray's lost soul.

  it would have been priceless to put up your hand and comment: "God has something he wants me to tell y'all."
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  10

  Hopelessly stained...

  by OldSoul in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hopelessly stained,.

  i saw you posted once and ran for the hills by deleting what you wrote ... its okay, we try to keep the ones that bite in their cages.

  if you aren't ready to talk yet, please know you will be welcome and heard when you are ready, so long as you remain cognizant that those you post to are real people.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  Hopelessly stained,

  Welcome!!!

  I saw you posted once and ran for the hills by deleting what you wrote ... its okay, we try to keep the ones that bite in their cages. If you aren't ready to talk yet, please know you will be welcome and heard when you are ready, so long as you remain cognizant that those you post to are real people. Even if we don't agree with you, with mutual respect we can discuss differences in civil discourse.

  Here here! I second this!
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  9

  The day of death is better than the day of one being born...

  by El Kabong in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  "a good name is better than oil, and the day of death is better than the day of one being born.." .

  i remember that scripture from the book of ecclesiasties (sp?...it's been a long time).

  i attended the funeral of my friend today, and that scripture came to mind.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  my condolences. it sounds like you have had a bunch of pain your life recently.

  I think that it is because it makes you realise how precious life is, and how we are here for such a short time. When you think about that for yourself (rather than for someone else, which is horrible), it can make you question how you are living your life and whether you are getting the most out of it.

  i like this concept. but i think when we take the scripture logically, it does not impress me as very thoughtful, IMHO. how can the day of death be better than the day of birth? i understnad that life is much suffering. but there is still much awe and warmth to be had, obviously.

  Is it because the house of mourning is a reminder of our own mortality?

  again, i don't think that the house of mourning is better than feasting. it is, of course, healthy to be reminded of our own mortality. but we should not go on in dread of it, or constantly thinking of it. i used to think of this scripture as comforting when i held the same belief system as Solomon. but he has faith that there is a ressurection. in this context, the scripture is comforting to a degree. but, if you doubt like some do, then a scripture like that may even increase the pain of loss.
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  32

  Is yours a PURPOSE DRIVEN life?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are you coasting along day by day taking it as it comes?.

  are you planning for emergencies and setting aside for the unexpected?

  sacrificing here and there to have something later?.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  my purpose is still to try to make the world a better place. if that means I.T. volunteering for UNESCO, or helping spread common understanding of the scientific method, then i try to be involved in that. my vacume is filled right now with university (computational biology aka bioinformatics), but in my dream "purpose driven life" i somehow, in the future, make a contribution to biogerontology that radically extends human life.

  it's ironic. i think a lot of the desire to contribute to the betterment of humanity actually stems from being in the org. but, now i feel even more ripped off that i contributed to making other peoples lives worse for so long.
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  36

  Would you give your life to get your family out of the Watchtower?

  by zugzwang in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i asked this question as part of another thread but i thought i would ask it in a new thread.

  if there were some way to assure that your death would result in your family and friends learning the truth about the wts would you be willing to die to 'save' them?

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  tetrapod.sapien

  so what you are saying is that you wouldn't be willing to die so that others might live?

  but, they are already *living*, and so are we, that's the point for me. they live with their worldview, and i live with mine.

  yes, christians have life after death, so giving their life up must be easy. i know, i was a christian once. but now, i have nothing but non existence after death. therefore, death is to be avoided at all costs. if the original question was: "would you take a bullet to save a loved one?" then my answer would be yes. but i would not give up my life so that someone else could keep theirs AND come over to my side of the arguement.
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  19

  The JWs worst aspects for you are?

  by greendawn in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  which jw doctrines, collective personality traits and general history do you find to be the most destructive or disagreeable?

  i personally found the doctrine of the other sheep which makes the christ inaccesible to most jws, the devilishly complicated moral code, and the hideously totalitarian behaviour of their leadership to be the worst things on a long list that i've prepared regarding what's unacceptable to me in that society.

  i remember when i was arguing with the elders about the fds and their claim to total spiritual supremacy and they were telling me that the idea of democracy departs completely from their way of thinking, here they have a theocracy and that even "talking about the right things at the wrong time" is basically a crime in other words sit and wait for the fds to reveal it at the so called right time, and i should accept things as they are and not as i want them to be otherwise i get thrown out.

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  tetrapod.sapien

  all IMHO:

  • the shunning policy is a travesty of justice.
  • the literal interpretation of the genesis creation account is a travesty of intellectual honesty.
  • the no blood policy is murderous.
  • the new-light doctrine is an excuse for dishonesty.
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  27

  TMS

  by loosie in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  .

  does anyone have some good excuses for getting out of giving talks in the theocratic ministry school?

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  tetrapod.sapien

  heh heh,

  when i was a pioneer, i got out of talks by saying i was depressed, and might spread the depression around the hall. then, eventually, i called my school overseer from a noisy street side payphone one night late and said that i would be "taking a leave of absence from the school."
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  43

  Weird Logic

  by loosie in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  let's hear the weirdest comment or suppossed logical thought you've ever heard a witness say.. i'll start: out in service once a sis and her son were in the same car group as i was.

  he was having a nose bleed and told his mom that the blood was running down the back of his throat.

  his mother said " well don't swallow it yo uknow how jehovah feels about blood don't you!".

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  tetrapod.sapien

  anything to do with science is some of the weirdest logic i came across in the org. like trying to explain noah and the flood. or "interpreting"/bending the genesis creation account to fit science.

  but i still think the weirdest is when the society goes off on their "no one can live off the religion of their parents" or (to worldly people) "you must test your religion to make sure it is true." rants. it is weird logically, because they seem to think that the vice versa application does not apply to them. "test other false religions, but don't you dare test ours!"