Posts by daystar

105

Somethings just not true!

by defd in

jw
friends

ive been here for sometime now.

long enough to know that some peoples hatred toward th wtbts and some of its members are based on wrong information.

for instance: ive read on hear many times that the wt promotes the idea that everyone whos not a witness are not friend material or will be destroyed at armageddon.

daystar

But it is in July/August issue

of what? Watchtower or Awake!?

105

Somethings just not true!

by defd in

jw
friends

ive been here for sometime now.

long enough to know that some peoples hatred toward th wtbts and some of its members are based on wrong information.

for instance: ive read on hear many times that the wt promotes the idea that everyone whos not a witness are not friend material or will be destroyed at armageddon.

I was a Witness nearly from birth until the time I was 18. We were taught over and over again that "Bad association spoils useful habits". This, in the context of associating with worldly people. Worldy people were always described as at best manipulated and misguided by the Devil. I can recall talks and articles that said while we might think that a worldy person is generally a good person, since they do not worship Jehovah in the way laid out by the Faithful & Discreet Slave, that they should be considered bad association.

And it was always taught that anyone not in the truth, as laid out by the Faithful & Discreet Slave, would be destroyed at Armaggedon. If you have been taught, or believe, otherwise, you are/were taught differently from 99.9% of all other Witness.

153

Why do/don't you believe in God

by LouBelle in

jw
friends

now for all the scientists out there this is not a question of proof or anything along those lines.

for my part i choose to believe in a god because i honestly believe there is one (though i did start doubting for a little while) i've always felt that there was more to our existance on earth - and that doesn't stem from me wanting to live forever or as a spirit, as i don't even know if that will happen.

i also believe in him because many many times when i could not carry on, on my own strength, i managed to pulled through.

daystar

This is a difficult question for me. I do, but I do not.

The god of the Jews/Christians/Muslims, as powerful as it is purported to be, seems quite too limited by human personification to be as omniscient and omnipresent as it is said to be. And this is concerning the exoteric "version" of God as most commonly worshipped. A quabbalist or Jewish mystic might begin by describing YHVH as the creative energy of the universe rather than some bearded guy sitting in a cloud making law and passing judgement.

The word god implies some sort of intelligence comparible to a human's, if surpassed by many, many degrees. I do not believe this to be evidenced to me as anything other than our own wishful thinking. On the other hand, it has been said that the Universe is information...

God is most often given the attribute of One who creates order from chaos. I think that that is our job and that we have ascribed to God the highest aspect of our own job as little creators.

I believe that the force that I might call God would be first, all of existence, all that is, regardless of any human judgement of good or evil. Next, perhaps, It also includes all of non-existence. Perhaps chaos and order together form something I might call God. But even that is inadequate.

So, obviously this being quite confusing, I would say I don't believe in God, at least not as most people would understand that word. I believe that man better fits the word to himself. Something I might call God so utterly pales the scope of that simple (?) word as to cause it to be almost a vulgarity. YHVH comes closer, but is still, as holy as it may be, really just the name of the creative force of the Universe. (In Hebrew, those letters mean much, much more than just a name.)

41

Who is the Faithful and Discrete Slave?

by Etude in

recently, i've had memories about that topic, which i had suppressed for a long time.

my original question came up when i encountered a few members of the "anointed" in my congregation (we're talking almost 30 years ago).. there was one sister who partook of the "emblems" who had come from cuba.

i learned from her that her health was frail because she had smuggled some expensive jewelry in a condom and stuck it up her colon.

daystar

AlanF,

If that is the case, should one "feel" they are one of the anointed, how is that processed by the WTS? I've never known the process having never asked (not that my asking necessarily would have resulted in my knowing). Are they then given a special book telling them of their responsibilities?

41

Who is the Faithful and Discrete Slave?

by Etude in

recently, i've had memories about that topic, which i had suppressed for a long time.

my original question came up when i encountered a few members of the "anointed" in my congregation (we're talking almost 30 years ago).. there was one sister who partook of the "emblems" who had come from cuba.

i learned from her that her health was frail because she had smuggled some expensive jewelry in a condom and stuck it up her colon.

daystar

Etude,

I'm with you. I recall holding the same belief, that the FDS and anointed were one and the same. I was under the impression that the GB was made of of anointed, but did not include all anointed, of course. So we had anointed who were simply in the congregation, working just as the rest did, only they were, well, anointed.

I don't know why I never considered asking their view on how they should be directing Jah's earthly organization.

28

Forget the 10 Commandments Follow the book of Tao instead....

by EvilForce in

as another thread rages on and on over whether we'd be better off following the 10 commandments i would posit that we would be better off following the tao te ching (the holy book for taoists) rather than the bible or 10 commandments.

how many holy wars have been carried on by christians.

how many christians are engaged in war right now?

daystar

Pole said:

I've had a cursory look at some aspects of Eastern philosophy a few times and they just seemed sssoo boring to me as a philosophy.

LOL! I'd hate to think that we should choose a philosophy based upon whether or not it's boring.

That being said, I otherwise agree with you regarding Western philosophy.

For those interested in the Tao, I would highly recommend The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet. They are not so boring.

32

Constantine...Throw up !!!

by Legolas in

jw
friends

.

i just watched the movie constantine

any thoughts???????

daystar

Legolas,

It was actually based on a series of comic books entitled "Hellblazer". I really loved the part of that series that I read. It seems that they have a bit of a hard time translating some of these into movies to make sense to people who've never read them, while making them enjoyable for people familiar with the story.

Thanks for explaining more!

32

Constantine...Throw up !!!

by Legolas in

jw
friends

.

i just watched the movie constantine

any thoughts???????

daystar

So, to those of you who did not like it... was it because it did not live up to your expectations? If you couldn't follow it, does that mean it sucks, or just that you didn't have the background information to understand it?

The film may indeed suck. I haven't seen it yet. But none of you have given me compelling reasons as to why the film itself sucks. Was character development lacking? Were the protagonists, antagonists, climax difficult to identify?

How does ones' lack of understanding of a thing make that thing suck? Tell me.

49

Ok we've left the Org - Now what?

by Nellie in

i am no longer a witness.

i've told all my worldly friends and my immediate family - my kids have told their friends.

i haven't been to a meeting in over a year (and have no desire to go to one) - but i'm not dad or dfd.

daystar

very interesting...does one "use" the Bible to serve the God of the Bible or does one "use" the God of the the Bible to serve themselves. two different things..

Certainly they are different things. I think that most people, being rather sheep-like, "use" the bible to serve God, of course. However, the humans in power, with authority, seem to often have different aims, different values.

Religion and government have always been the two pillars of world power, with commerce being introduced a bit later in history. They have alternately worked together, fought against each other, for dominance. Nonetheless, religion is a pillar of power over masses of people. Belief in God is used as a source of control over billions of people. Belief in the authority and power and correctness of a government is a source of control of billions of people. In fact, belief in a particular govnmental "dogma" is just as powerful as a religious one. In the West and perhaps much more of the world, it is just assumed that what we call "Democracy" is the right way to go. "Commies", socialist, etc. are "bad". But, they believe that democracy is bad. Just like many Christians think Muslims are "bad" or of the Devil and vice versa.

" I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning."

49

Ok we've left the Org - Now what?

by Nellie in

i am no longer a witness.

i've told all my worldly friends and my immediate family - my kids have told their friends.

i haven't been to a meeting in over a year (and have no desire to go to one) - but i'm not dad or dfd.

daystar

But the idea of setting limits based on authority is my obstacle. By what authority do we decide what is right or wrong once we leave the org?

I think that it is a very difficult thing, and scary. In leaving the Org and questioning the very essence of your previously held beliefs, you have effectively invalidated the authority that informed your highest values and beliefs, or at least called it into question.

Secular humanism is an attempt to recover from that. Honestly, I have not found anything to lead me to believe that Secular Humanism claims to arise from any authority other than it just "feels right". Well, of course it does. A person whose core values are called into question due to the invalidation of the previously informing authority (the WTS, and/or Jehovah) feels lost. They still have the same values. To find a philosophy that supports those values while exluding the previous authority can be refreshing. However, I think there still needs to be a source of authority, a reason that the set of values are good or right.

I began looking into God Himself. I was always intrigued by Hebrew and the Tetragrammaton, that mysterious four letter word. I studied the name of God, YHVH. What does His name really mean? Who exactly is this God I was taught to worship? I found a very different God than I was taught to believe in... very, very different. And that led to me beginning on quite an amazing, magickal journey of self-discovery.

I have found the authority that informs my values to reside within rather than without. And this authority carries much, much more weight than the God I thought I knew growing up.