i feel very offended and distrurbed when i see people covered with tatoos.
some people have tatoos all over their bodies, even on their faces.
there are also tatoo programs on the tlc channel that children can watch without a forewarning before the show comes on.
Tats are evil and from the devil.
Mine is large and will eventually encompass my whole back. in the middle is a symbol of infinity or the idea that everything will come full circle. on the left is a samurai, my good samurai protecting all comers from threatening my ideal. on the left will be my bad samurai. i'm going to color them in and do background with the sky going from peaceful to ominous.
when i was growing up i never watched cartoons.
i didn't play with other kids who were not of the same faith.
i didn't curse.
First we get rid of the visible, tangible pain, and then we move on to examining the motives, belief systems, paradigms etc that once defined us. The symptoms are i ndicative of an inner mindset that needs to be examined.
Thank you for articulating some difficult concepts. Jez
No. thanks to you Jez. Your statement is something that I've done but never conceptualized at least in words. I have had to read it over again several times to completely wrap my mind around it. Those words are intense. Thank you.
when i was growing up i never watched cartoons.
i didn't play with other kids who were not of the same faith.
i didn't curse.
Still powerful stuff CHL.
thanks Daystar. Appreciated.
when i was growing up i never watched cartoons.
i didn't play with other kids who were not of the same faith.
i didn't curse.
give it time mariposa, you will.
when i was growing up i never watched cartoons.
i didn't play with other kids who were not of the same faith.
i didn't curse.
I wrote this a year ago. Amazing the progress we make in such a short amount of time. I thought I would share it with you
my daughter's step child is getting baptized at the ripe old age of 12.. my sil is angry and i feel he should try and stop it through the courts, but they feel that would make his ex more determined for baptism to go ahead.. this child has no idea of the mistake they are making .
would she get married at 12?.
it is so sad and irresponsible for a child to take this step.. .
i got baptized at nine. it was because i wanted to be accepted and praised for such a "mature" and "spiritual" choice to show my love for my God. it was pressure from those around me. the emotional implications of it were horrible. i fit in no where. the sisters wouldn't listen to me in the group at field service. the kids my age thought i was a goody 2 shoes and wanted nothing to do with me. i was more alone than i care to recall. it was freaking torture.
jehovah, .
oh how many times i've prayed to you and felt your scornful laugh from yonder skies, how you mock me and laugh at me.
my creation is for your amusement obviously, kinda like the celestial version of the sunday comics, only i appear in technicolor everyday for you.
CHL, you and I could have some pretty insightful conversations, I think. Good on ya brother.
I think we could too Daystar. When I first came here, you were key in helping me analyze my thought process. I thank you for that.
jehovah, .
oh how many times i've prayed to you and felt your scornful laugh from yonder skies, how you mock me and laugh at me.
my creation is for your amusement obviously, kinda like the celestial version of the sunday comics, only i appear in technicolor everyday for you.
I assigned no blame to God. He doesn't exist. If you read my post, I said that to attribute our surroundings to God is a cop out. Everything you see around you is our fault... and it is our responsibility to change it. One more time for emphasis: I don't think God exists, but I'm willing to be proved wrong.
jehovah, .
oh how many times i've prayed to you and felt your scornful laugh from yonder skies, how you mock me and laugh at me.
my creation is for your amusement obviously, kinda like the celestial version of the sunday comics, only i appear in technicolor everyday for you.
use your words there Mr. Kim.
jehovah, .
oh how many times i've prayed to you and felt your scornful laugh from yonder skies, how you mock me and laugh at me.
my creation is for your amusement obviously, kinda like the celestial version of the sunday comics, only i appear in technicolor everyday for you.
Based upon all of that, what conclusions have you come to regarding the nature of God?
Why does the universe, existence, etc. look the way it does if God personifies "love"?
Since I came here more than a year ago a lot has happened to me. I have done a great deal of thinking. The idea that God exists is a cop out to me. It removes responsibility so that the lazy can accept their realities as they are instead of attempting to augment them. "I'm waiting on God." It also removes the responsibility for growth outside of yourself. The idea of having absolute truth is crippling. It is the enemy of tolerance. Knowing that I can co-exist with all men because I accept them as they are instead of attempting to change them into who I am in my heart makes me a better person than I was when I was a Jehovah's Witness. For me that God does not exist.
This will almost be a contridiction in terms but perhaps it is because of my own self-imposed limitations: I would like to think that God does exist, that order has an origin and that he is just letting us "work it all out". I want to believe that God set things in motion and in his imagination wants us to come to an understanding of cooperation and higher order. But in that statement I come back to the chicken and egg concrete value of what I aspire to be. Does the God create the aspirations in the man or do the aspirations in the man create the God?
I cannot answer the questions I have with any concrete data. There is none. There is no "evident demonstration of reality though not beheld." So all I am left with is to live my life as a good man, not because I get the Cracker Jack prize but because I choose to. The answers will come in their own time as a result of my actions and my thoughts relative to those actions. That is the only way.
When I remove God from my personal equation, the possibilities are limitless and I like that.
Your question about God personifying love... I don't think he does. He personifies disconnect. JW's think that he gives them breezes in the afternoon so they can keep going out in service. But my friend in Iraq trying to survive a moment at a time prays every day for God to protect his remaining children. Sad, one of them got killed with an IED this morning. There is no God and I am not a fool.
