Cognitive_Dissident

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Posts by Cognitive_Dissident

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  40

  WT Against Higher Education...Again

  by Jeannine in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  the october 1, 2005 watchtower slams higher education in a 5 page analysis on why it is better to pioneer than go to college.

  i recieved this wt today and i was shocked by the statements in there.

  i can fax a copy to anyone who wants it.

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  One thing about college that i've realized that it IS dangerous (to them i guess)
  
  
  
  
  
  since I started my fade, I occasionally run into dubs that I know here and there, and since they haven't seen me at meetings in quite a while I get the cautious, worried look accompanied by a "How have you BEEN?" To which I honestly reply with as much enthusiasm as humanly possible, "I've been GREAT! I just started college, I love it, I'm living on my own, and I've been really, really happy!" This is absolutely the last thing they are expecting to hear, and the look of confusion that follows is absolutely wonderful. I think that since they haven't seen me at meetings, they're expecting a woeful tale of drugs, depression, and misery culminating with the name of the street whose gutter I ended up in the night before with a dirty needle in one arm and a crack whore on the other. There's usually not much conversation after they find out that I'm doing good despite my suspicious lack of meeting attendance.
  
  
  I take pleasure in the little things.
  
  
  Cog
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  28

  LIAR

  by talesin in

  1. social
  2. current

  im a liar, ooh, im a liar.

  but if youll give me another chance i swear ill never lie to you again.

  i lie you, i feel good, i am a liar, yeah.

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  if I knew anything about canadian politics I'd be all over this one. But unfortunately that's not the case. I can think of about six other people/organizations that this song(and it's a great song) applies to, though. Have you seen the video for this song? Rollins dressed up as the devil, it's great.
  
  
  Cog
  edited to add: this is the first time I've thought of this song since leaving, and I can't believe how well it sums up the a-holes in Brooklyn. Especially these lines -
  
  I’ll hide behind a smile and understanding eyes
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  40

  WT Against Higher Education...Again

  by Jeannine in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  the october 1, 2005 watchtower slams higher education in a 5 page analysis on why it is better to pioneer than go to college.

  i recieved this wt today and i was shocked by the statements in there.

  i can fax a copy to anyone who wants it.

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  environment--bad behavior--drug and alcohol abuse, immorality, cheating, hazing...(p 28)
  
  ahh yes, because as we all know, these things only take place on university campuses, and 24 hours a day. This is just another example of the fundamentally cynical view the WTS has of an individual's ability to make good decisions, i.e., that he has none. And that is even secondary to what I feel is one of the REAL reasons they don't want the youth going to college - they will pick up the nasty habit of critical thinking, and will be bombarded from all sides with insidious peer pressure to put ideas in to historical and social context.
  
  Cog
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  21

  Ponderings on facing the afternoon of my life....

  by DanTheMan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in 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

  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
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  23

  How do you imagine the world 10 years from now?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i 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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  7

  No end to the grief(Katrina pets)

  by Seven in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  evacuees 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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  13

  Report of "Brothers and Sisters" affected by Katrina

  by Grace in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we 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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  50

  A Link for the Liberal Loudmouths

  by Shining One in

  1. social
  2. current

  http://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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  26

  No more hand claps, please

  by coolhandluke in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  at 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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  49

  Very Bad Apologetics For Honest Seekers

  by AlanF in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  god 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 subsequent warslaughter of words has been quite entertaining.