Cognitive_Dissident

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Posts by Cognitive_Dissident

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  23

  Did God create good and evil?

  by THE SHOOTIST in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  isaiah 45:7 says he did.

  gen. 3:16/17 says that he placed the tree of knowledge of good and bad in the middle of the garden.

  didn't god say in gen 3:22 that after man ate of the fruit he has become like us (the gods)knowing good and evil.

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  D Dog
  
  We judge God, so we can feel justified in our own minds in hating Him. We really have no way of knowing what it's like, ruling the universe or creation, so why should we try to judge God?
  
  Deputy, I'm not judging God any more than I would judge a character in a movie for acts perpetrated by its writer. I'm not judging God at all. In my opinion, God is a construct which gets anthropomorphized by individuals to serve or salve emotion, and to anaesthetize reality.
  
  But that obviously is my completely unprovable opinion. For all I know the bible actually is the inspired word of God, and I am one of history's current graduates from the School of Romans 3:10-19. Me and all my fellow alumni will surely catch an express lift south, right in to the middle of an Hieronymus Bosch painting, should God ever decide to show up and punish us for our agnostic and atheistic hubris.
  
  I'm not really sweating it.
  
  CD (of the "If Hell is God's Penalty Box Then That Post Will Surely Put Me There" class)
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  23

  Did God create good and evil?

  by THE SHOOTIST in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  isaiah 45:7 says he did.

  gen. 3:16/17 says that he placed the tree of knowledge of good and bad in the middle of the garden.

  didn't god say in gen 3:22 that after man ate of the fruit he has become like us (the gods)knowing good and evil.

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  This calls to mind a line from a Chuck Palahniuk book,
  
  "being born makes your parents God. You owe them your life, and they can control you. Then puberty makes you Satan, just because you want something better." - Invisible Monsters
  
  I'm with you Shootist, if we were to take the bible as the supposed word of God, then we'd be putting our faith in a god who, if he were a parent, would be universally denounced as unfit.
  
  CD edited: spelling
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  12

  Just finished my last final for my first semester of college!!!

  by Cognitive_Dissident in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so i just took my last final for this semester, which was in fact my very first semester of college ever.

  and it feels great!

  dear watchtower bible and tract society, .

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  Thanks all!
  
  SNG and rmt1, yes, it's a great feeling. SNG, you're totally right, it's amazing what you can learn in a semester. It really is no wonder the Society doesn't want people going to college.
  
  Peaches - awww you, talking about my brain. Although the jury's still out on whether or not I'm actually putting it to use. Like the new pic, by the way! I too look forward to chatting again, it's just those cursed time zones givin' us grief.
  
  Muchas gracias Auld
  
  Freedomlover - I think I did pretty well on my grades, which hopefully will have the nice byproduct of people wanting to give me money next year, hence cutting the loans by a bit. Here's hopin'.
  
  and finally,
  
  Pistoff - no no no, YOU my friend...YOU. Many, many thanks for all the support and encouragement! An exclamation point really doesn't do that sentence justice.
  
  CD
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  12

  Just finished my last final for my first semester of college!!!

  by Cognitive_Dissident in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so i just took my last final for this semester, which was in fact my very first semester of college ever.

  and it feels great!

  dear watchtower bible and tract society, .

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  So I just took my last final for this semester, which was in fact my very first semester of college ever. And it feels great!
  
  
  
  
  
  Sod off. And if you aren't doing so already, please fornicate yourselves with an iron stick.
  
  sincerely,
  Me
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  10

  Could Chocolate Save your Life?

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  see:.

  metatron

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  The scientists reached their conclusion after testing a group of 20 healthy smokers.
  
  My question is what criteria define a healthy smoker?
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  45

  The Life of an Atheist and Agnostic

  by Golf in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

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  what do you base your hopes,dreams,aspirations and your eventuality on?

  golf

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  What do you base your hopes,dreams,aspirations and your eventuality on?
  
  I base my hopes, dreams, and aspirations on the fact that they are exactly that: hopes, dreams, and aspirations. One of the most detrimental effects of being a Witness for me was that, although I was repeatedly told that I had an "earthly hope," and many other kinds of hope, I in fact had very little or no hope at all in my day to day life. Never in my life as a Witness was I able to envision or look forward to life beyond a few months out. Beyond the very near future was only a void which held no comfort, only depression and confusion. Hope was something I was told I had(or should have), not something I discovered.
  
  Today I am truly excited for the future, because it's unknown. For someone who felt he had all the answers to life's big questions, I was not at all the happy, wise person one would expect. As an agnostic, my focus is now on the reality of the world around me, and that true change does not occur at the will of an unseen force, it occurs because people precipitate it. For me God is a unicorn, impossible to prove or disprove, so why would I spend my entire life searching for him, discrediting the beauty of the world around me by undeservedly accrediting its nature to a figment of fancy.
  
  CD
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  103

  REVIEW OF JCS "BIG NEWS" ARTICLE

  by Oroborus21 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  note: the catholic molestation cases have mostly been evaluated under employment law theories not the tort of misrepresentation or under non-fraud related tort claims]; fails to address important legal considerations such as standing and statute of limitations; and finally and most importantly, the essay fails to address in any meaningful way the inevitable constitutional arguments that would be raised by opposing (watchtower) counsel.

  supreme court justices do not have the time to browse through law journals and the implication that they would be interested in an essay is even more deceptive.

  the society does not cite a 1960 study as evidence that blood transfusions are hazardous.. here is the actual quotation in context:.

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  I'm definitely a proponent of hearing all sides of the issue, Ohiocowboy.
  
  My concern, Oroborus, is that the last eight times I've come to the JWD site, under Scandals & Coverups, one of your negative reviews or commentaries has been the featured thread.
  
  You obviously have a wealth of legal knowledge cached in your brain and at your fingertips. Perhaps you could spend some of the time that you have put in to posting all of it online, as an overwhelming flood of negative response to a potentially WT damning issue(with effort), in to preparing a legal brief of some sort for those who are no doubt stategizing for the months and years to come.
  
  Do you have some suggestions that would strengthen the case against the Organization? Or are we doomed to forever be obliterated by the Society's crack legal team and buried in paperwork?
  
  CD
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  103

  REVIEW OF JCS "BIG NEWS" ARTICLE

  by Oroborus21 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  note: the catholic molestation cases have mostly been evaluated under employment law theories not the tort of misrepresentation or under non-fraud related tort claims]; fails to address important legal considerations such as standing and statute of limitations; and finally and most importantly, the essay fails to address in any meaningful way the inevitable constitutional arguments that would be raised by opposing (watchtower) counsel.

  supreme court justices do not have the time to browse through law journals and the implication that they would be interested in an essay is even more deceptive.

  the society does not cite a 1960 study as evidence that blood transfusions are hazardous.. here is the actual quotation in context:.

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  any legal attack of the Society itself is going to be met with the full brunt and fiscal power of a cadre of Watchtower lawyers who will bury the plaintiff’s counsel with paperwork, pre-trial motions, discovery requests, etc. Even Erin Brockovich would feel like Dorothy in the Watchtower’s tornado. - Oroborus21
  
  Geez, Ed, tell us how you really feel.
  
  CD
  Edited to add: it feels like you're trying to bury us in paperwork.
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  31

  If you had 1 hour left to live, what would you say to Jehovah?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  this should be interesting

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  I'd say, "Hey, nice to meet you, Jehovah. I used to belong to this really f%@*ed up religion named after an ancient, mythical, tribal god called Jehovah. Did your parents name you after the same god? Yeah? That's unfortunate. Here's a quarter, buy yourself a pack of gum and start looking for a new name, you caught a bum rap, kid."
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  17

  "Special Talk" being given next week about blood

  by dorayakii in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just got back from the meeting minutes ago.

  we had an announcement at the kh this evening that there will be a special talk next service meeting entitled "obeissons au commandement divin de nous abstenir du sang"... which means "let us obey the divin commandment to abstain from blood"

  i asked the presiding overseer why the blood talk was being given so early, and not in line with the kingdom ministry schedule.

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  Cognitive_Dissident

  "equipping them to express their beliefs with conviction."
  
  Ugh. That line right there just completely sums it up. It's basically saying - "Make sure your kids can sound like they sincerely believe this, regardless of how they actually feel about it." It's the same thing they tell parents to "equip" their children with when it comes to holidays, birthdays, the flag salute, and any other doctrine that makes people question the kids about why they don't do these things.
  
  I think the point of the 'rehearsal' is to inforce/reinforce cognitive dissonance on the adult R&F - most of the children really don't buy the bs anyway.
  
  I agree with you sweet tee, but I think it has a specifically damaging effect on the kids, too. I know that for myself the cognitive dissonance(hence the name) started very early, with things like this really aggravating the process. I remember spending hours thinking about exactly how to phrase my responses to every type of question about my beliefs so that I would give the impression that these were my beliefs, not just my parents beliefs. Wording things in such a way that it expressed personal conviction, because I was told not to say things like "it's against my religion". I obsessed about this, a lot, because I wanted to be the good little witness, and to me giving a weak response meant failure. I was basically teaching myself how to be a very good liar, and at some point started to believe my own lies. But there were always two distinct sides to my thought process, one that felt things and thought analytically, and one that regurgitated things. They didn't co-exist peacefully and when the enormous conflict that brewed for years and years finally came to a head, I felt completely insane.
  
  This particular topic just pisses me off, that they instruct parents to drill this sort duplicity in to their childrens' heads.
  
  CD