geez Dan, reading your post was like reading a transcript of my thoughts over the past six months. I can totally relate. I still struggle on a pretty regular basis with the issue of feeling like I've been ripped out of the ground and having no roots to put down, and not even knowing what I'd do with roots if I had 'em. And I run through the same list of options that you provided courtesy of Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Dawkins, and the rest. I spent the first 26 years of my life as a dub, so I'm sure there are going to be things that will take years to fully dry up and fall out of my brain. The biggest source of comfort for me since I left is trying to actually get to know people, not just categorize them into subfolders within the parent folder of "the damned". Some of the greatest joy I have ever felt in my life has come from feeling like I truly connected with another human being, which only happens if I share honestly of myself. Which has gotten a lot easier since I stopped looking at the entire non-witness population as the walking dead. I know that sounds all new-wave, paperback psychology-ish, but alas, it is true for me. And I just started my freshman year in college, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time, so that has helped a lot to, at least with feeling like I have a goal that I'm working towards.
And as a last resort, you could always marry an eighteen year old and buy a corvette.
Cog
Cognitive_Dissident
JoinedPosts by Cognitive_Dissident
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Ponderings on facing the afternoon of my life....
by DanTheMan inin november i will turn 35.. i did ok in the morning of life.
i was a pretty happy kid, maybe a little weird but not extremely so.
i got good grades in school, loved my mom like nothing else, never dreamed of getting into trouble.
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Cognitive_Dissident
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How do you imagine the world 10 years from now?
by JH ini think that 10 years from here, we still won't be in the jw new system.
i also think that gas will cost 4 times what we pay now.. many more natural disasters will happen, like the tsunami and hurricane in new orleans.. there will be a financial crash .
living conditions will be harder, less clean water, more pollution.
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Cognitive_Dissident
I imagine the world a little more crowded, probably not much more socially advanced, tuition will be ridiculous, but I think I'll be happy. I'm happy now, and I don't even have a jetpack or a hoverboard.
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No end to the grief(Katrina pets)
by Seven inevacuees anguished at leaving pets behind
sunday, september 4, 2005; posted: 10:31 a.m. edt (14:31 gmt)
evacuee valerie bennett, with husband lorne at an atlanta hospital, breaks into tears over leaving their pets behind.
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Cognitive_Dissident
I agree that human life must take priority in a situation like this, but it absolutely breaks my heart to read these stories. I thought that I had lost my dog once and I was incapacitated with grief for two days until I got him back. To think that these people have to deal with having to leave their pets behind,on top of everything else, makes my heart ache.
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Report of "Brothers and Sisters" affected by Katrina
by Grace inwe have have all been so affected by the news from the southern us, and even up here in the middle of the canadian prairie i wish i could open my home to so many who need a home right now; however, all i can do (and it's better than nothing) is to whip out my credit card and make a donation to the red cross.. i picked up my jw husband from the kh today (i am disassociated), and he said, "... they had a report that most of the brothers and sisters in new orleans happened to be at an assembly in houston when the tragedy struck ~ so, not to worry, because not too many were affected.
" of course, it didn't cross his mind to help non-jw folks, and, quite obviously, the elders from the platform would never suggest this because it has been made clear how the rank and file should view charity and humanitarian efforts.. didn't jesus say something about love being the distinguishable mark of a christian?
uhmmmm.... and they're shunning us [those who don't agree with them]?.
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Cognitive_Dissident
what an insanely callous thing to say from the stage - to imply that witnesses should breathe easier knowing that a small fraction of those living in the devestated area might be ok. Just ignore the fact that the city is destroyed and there are countless "worldly" people whose lives are in shambles, or dead.
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A Link for the Liberal Loudmouths
by Shining One inhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20050902/cm_csm/ekatrina .
read it and see that the pres actually was on the ball and had the machinery turned on and ready to operate.
if a dummy like clinton (gore or kerry as well) had been in charge, who knows what would have happened!
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Cognitive_Dissident
Shining One, you consintently amaze me with your posts. You're a blustering, regurgitating, poster child for the Fox News demographic.
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No more hand claps, please
by coolhandluke inat conventions especially, hand clapping annoyed me to no end.
the first day i was excited and really in the business of clapping and silently condemning those around me who didn't do so.
i even condemned those who i thought did not clap enthusiastically enough for my tastes.
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Cognitive_Dissident
If you were leaving with no uncertainty you could wear a white t-shirt with bold black letters underneath a white dress shirt that said
"Got the Clap?" -
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Very Bad Apologetics For Honest Seekers
by AlanF ingod had no beginning, so god did not need to be made.. .
if our local space-time universe is uncreated, then of course it is meaningless to ask who created it.
of course, everything that had a beginning had a beginner.
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Cognitive_Dissident
:"What is more, Hume himself never denied that things have a cause for their existence."
"But there occurs to me (continued I) with regard to your main topic, a difficulty, which I shall just propose to you without insisting on it; lest it lead into reasonings of too nice and delicate a nature. In a word, I much doubt whether it be possible for a cause to be known only by its effect (as you have all along supposed) or to be of so singular and particular a nature as to have no parallel and no similarity with any other cause or object, that has ever fallen under our observation."
David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
It was nice of Geisler to quote someone who argues against the very logic he is being cited to support.
Edited to add: Thanks for the post Alan! Very informative(thanks for the research and links!), and the subsequentwarslaughter of words has been quite entertaining. -
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Films/movies that resonate with Apostates
by Black Man inthere are a few films that i really connect with that sum up my j-dub experiences........ .
shawshank redemption: if you've ever "served time" at bethel, you can't help but connect with this film.
institutionalization, mental persecution and "andy dufrene crossing through 500 yards of shit, came out clean on the other side.
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Cognitive_Dissident
definitely the Village. I saw that movie three times in the theater and was floored each time at all the parallels.
1984 - only saw the movie once when I was like eleven, but the book is like a glimpse in to the governing body's secret operations manual.
Fight Club - I've always loved this movie, but it really resonated while on was on the road out the door.
"This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom"
"It's only after you've lost everything, that you're free to do anything."
"When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep, and you're never really awake." -
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Do you think this is tacky and just plain pathetic (Watchtower) ?????
by run dont walk ini just returned from ontario, where a family member died, i was reading the obit, and i know its been said millions of times, but this really blew me away.
"a private family burial at ______ cemetery.
a memorial service will be held at the kingdom hall of jehovah's witnesses on saturday august 13, 2005 at 2:00 p.m. as expressions of sympathy, please send donations to world wide work of jehovah's witnesses.".
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Cognitive_Dissident
"As expressions of sympathy, please send donations to World Wide Work Of Jehovah's Witnesses."
Translation= "The size of your donation will show the depth of your grief."
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Plain Truth Magazine plug: It is basically all anti-cult all the time!!!
by Check_Your_Premises ini got a free subscription from ptm.org for one year.
for those of you not familiar with the story of the world wide church of god, they were a cult remarkeably similar to the jw doctrinally.
it was founded by herbert armstrong.. after his death they went through a remarkeable and turbulent reformation.
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Cognitive_Dissident
Although I definitely agree that PTM has there own agenda (recruitment in to the 'new and improved' Worldwide Church of God), I know that when I first read the apology that they published in PTM, what struck me most was that it allowed the members to decide whether or not they wanted to leave or stay. It gave them a dignified way out.
Unfortunately, that is not a type of apology I could EVER see the WTBTS making. Especially the section that stated "There was never an intent to mislead anyone. We were so focused on what we thought we were doing for God that we didn’t recognize the spiritual path we were on. Intended or not, that path was not the Biblical one." I respect the ones that crafted that public apology for the reason that it gave their R&F an admission of guilt, and didn't shift the blame to those same R&F. That's the kind of psychological signpost that would be the most helpful, and safe, in allowing the R&F JWs to transition out of the brainwashing bin.
But what am I saying? I'm expecting compassion and reason from an organization whose entire history has displayed anything but.