"Better" is such a relative term. Like good/bad/right/wrong. One of the aspects of the solitude and separation that has come with leaving a group like the Borg is a feeling of some sort of insight. Like being on a runaway train and being the only one who knows the bridge is out. Do I tell anybody about their certain doom? What's the point in that? And besides, maybe, just maybe, its all in error, and then I'll look even more like an idiot. Soldiers who have been thru combat find it almost impossible to give what they feel is a "faithful" discussion about their experience unless it is with another comabt vet (curiously, they don't even have to have been in the same war). Cops tend to have the same sort of difficulties with their experiences as well. Which makes me wonder about the prophets in the Bible. Off hand, I don't recall any that would pass for a Mr. Average today. You know, insurance salesman, father of three, mortgage and job, goes to meetings 5 times a week, just sits and waits for something. Prophets always seemed to be struggling with something, like themselves, or some pesky aspect of truth and/or justice that keeps burning a hole in their brain, or why God is doing this or that. Mr. Average never seems completely acceptable because he never seems to have a clear idea about what is really going on. But at the same time, the mindless roboticism of the religious zealot is equally apalling. Maybe, in the process of "learning" the truth, it is actually just given to us, infused into genome #378, you know, like the Bible says: a free gift. And it's not that we see the people around us as being "wrong", just shortsighted, narrow-minded, uninformed, and not quite affected to the degree that we have been affected? How would you accept the advice of a man who had been laying naked in the street for a couple of years? What would you say to the penniless, homeless man who is dressed in old clothes and who tells you that if you want to be really, really happy, you need to give away all of your possessions and money?
Frogleg
JoinedPosts by Frogleg
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24
Are some Ex-JW better then others?
by Kaylen ini was raised a witness but never baptised and left when i was 17 causing my father (among other reasons) to be "demoted"?
from being a ministerial servant.
for a very very long time i didn't talk about it and only recently started getting involved in the local ex-jw meet ups.
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too stupid for words
by peacefulpete inok this is one for the books, my wife's great grandmother who is a miraculous 94 year old cervical and ovarian cancer survivor and a 87 year old man from the hall were just counselled on the need for a chaperon!
it seems someone was disturbed that the two were alone in her appartment!
she is practically housebound and his visits to shoot the breeze and talk about the old times were the highlight of her week.
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Frogleg
The "elders" weren't trying to be stupid, they had finally run across something that they could handle. Face it, a 94 year old great gandmother probably won't put up much of a fight. They wouldn't tell the dumbass who whined about it to mind his/her own business (those kind of people are why humans evolved a middle finger) because that person obviously knows how to complain. Plus, it's the only way they can keep their feet tethered to the planet and make themselves feel like they are actually accomplishing something. I'm curious, what do you think, is it that all "elders" have no sense of shame, or is it just that only people without any concept of shame are made "elders"? Maybe they didn't want to be outdone by the Florida cops who arrested a couple of 10 year olds for drawing violent stick figures.
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Satan Vs. God: Tally of Destruction
by acuragirl inok i was just thinking about horrible satan and loving god.
can anyone rack up the death and destruction of these two for comparison?.
god has the destruction of all life on earth save for noah and his family and 2 of each animal.
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Frogleg
Maybe its all supposed to be like the NBA: No Harm, No Foul. After all, from that really great moment way back when, we all die. Can you rack up a death toll for killing dead people? However, there is an extremely subtle cause and effect cycle generated in this point, in that how would our attitude(s) change were we to have retained "everlasting" life? How many of the wars, crime, abuse, etc. would have been rendered pointless if only we didn't have such frustratingly finite lives? Then again, maybe all this has been just one big object lesson as to what happens when you cross the boss?
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If absolute proof proved the bible Jesus true....would you be happy?
by gumby inthis question is obviously directed at the un-bible believer.. lets for the sake of conversation say that absolute historical documentation was found that the man jesus was everything the new testement says he is.
we can assume the o. t. has some myth mixed in, but jesus was for real.. would you be happy?
would you follow him?
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Frogleg
Happy? I think you're asking if the number 19 is better than 8. To a great extent, whether JC was real or not doesn't matter. However, what he supposedly said and did and became and so on, embodies the ultimate hope of what we (the human race) could be, and maybe by it just being imaginable we might get there. Some day. The gringo is right, JC has much to answer for, and if he can't get it expressed in a way that I can grasp, well, that's number one on the list. If the owner of a theater in Tulsa Ok. has the fire escape evacuation route written in Egyptian Sanscrit, and people get killed in a fire because they couldn't understand the directions, the theater owner doesn't get off because, "Well, I printed the fire escape plan!" Would I change anything in my life if I get a telegram tomorrow that says:
"Dear Frog,
Yes!
Signed, God"
not really. What would be the point?
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Comments You Will Not Hear at the 10-30-05 WT Study (Walk/Jesus)
by blondie ingo on walking as jesus christ walked
go on walking just as that one [jesus] walked.
how is jesus christ with his followers in this time...?.
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Frogleg
Blondie,
Thank you for the efforts you put into that. I find that I have to read it a little bit at a time, because it doesn't take too many of the WT sentences to start getting me angry. Para 10 was particularly , uh, "interesting". Funny how they assume that each and every elder is a "gift". I never found any of them to be of what I might consider gift status. The curious thing about the para is that it implies that elders will never do anything wrong, and that God will judge us only by our submissiveness, not by what is right or wrong. The insidious nature of the article itself is what is so telling and (I have used many words here, but I keep comming back to this one) evil; it reminds me of the rhetoric of a very sly politician. On the surface, the article seems to be a statement as to how Jesus thought and acted (i.e. "walked") and how studying it will benefit ourselves; but, in reality, it is statement telling me how I am expected (not asked, not encouraged, but expected) to react to any situation regardless of the circumstances. But, the very foundation of their logic is wrong. By their own reasoning, JC earned his punishment, that is, JC did not go to his death as an innocent lamb, as he was not submissive to the Jewish religious leaders, in fact, he was quite the opposite, calling them names and publicly instructing the people about their hypocracy, kicking over tables, usurping their authority by reason and wit. Further, the religious leaders of JC's day had much, much more authority, lineage, and history to call themselves "gifts of men" than do the arbitrary, "Take our word for it", group that runs the Borg today. It is impossible to believe that if JC had acted the way para 10 says that a good JW must act, that the 1st century religious leaders would have ever had motivation or reason to kill him. By JCs cited examples, (gosh, I don't know how to say this) most of the people on this board are doing what should be done: pointing out the failings, the errors, the wrongs being committed by religion ruling in the name of God, and encouraging as many people as possible to actively search for truth, while staying true to their conscience as they know it to be.
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54
Skirting the issue
by Virgogirl inwhat argument is put forth that women must only wear dresses or skirts to the meetings or in service and are not permitted to wear slacks?
where does it say it's wrong for sisters to wear pants, and how are they convincing women in 2005 to buy into this?
i remember many bitterly cold chicago mornings with frozen legs running to doors and back to the warm car as quickly as possible, wearing a skirt which was ridiculous and inappropriate to the weather conditions.
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Frogleg
DanTheMan, how "AssTute!" Your observation as the the Borg being a marketing firm is sooooooo accurate! The non-bearded news casters has an exception: Wolf Blitzer. Not that he is different, other than his beard, but I listen to him anyway (I try to trim my face to approximate him.). But, I think, your point is that mainstream worldliness has its definitions. I agree. One of the first things that attracted me to the WTS was its defiance of the "world". However, now that the Borg has been infiltrated by the counterfeits, they seem to be doing their best to "fit in". We are the sum total of all that we have been; and, that includes the hair we grow on our heads. The bending to world acceptance has it's obvious roots.
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Everything you need to know on 144,000
by mdb inanointed class & other sheep
the watchtower teaches that women are a part of the anointed class.
the disciples are called sheep in jesus flock: matt 10:16; 26:31.
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Frogleg
Now What, You and mdb are absolutely correct. I do not mean to offend. I must, however, agree with Skinnyboy: you have touched a nerve. If the Bible was written only for the 144,000, then all I can do is my best Monty Python and say: F*ck Off, and be thankful for the extra toilet paper. If God wrote the Bible for me, with the 144000 being asterisks saved for the last chapter, then of what significance can they have? If the Sacred Secret is only for a bunch of esoteric weiners and I'm lucky to be alive, then its Monty Python again! This earth is for me. God is for me. AGAIN: the 144,000 are here for me, not me for them. I don't care who or what they are. By all accounts, they should be lined up at my door desperately asking to wash my feet.
"Lonliness, is a place that I know well.
Its the distance between us,
and the space inside ourselves.
Emptiness, is the shuddering in your head.
Its the call of the living,
And the race from life to death.
Oh, and I know.
Yeah, I know, what you feel."
You are beautiful in your thoughts.
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A reminder for Witnesses who deny this
by gumby inhere's a precious little gem for jehovahs witnesses who deny what their organisation really teaches.. when they are directly asked..." do you believe your the only ones who will be saved"?
they try and wiggle out of it with some vague, obscure answer.
below is what they really believe.. watchtower 1989 september 1 p. 19 remaining organized for survival into the millennium .
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Frogleg
Gumby,
You jelly-filled little rascal, you are both right and wrong. How about that for ambivalence? A true witness won't refute what you've said. Will they try to "wiggle" out from under that? I wouldn't have, I would have put on my best Chevy Chase face, nodded two or three times, and said, "Yeah. Okay." The question is the "saving" part. The problem is that we all try to decide by who's criteria is the "saving" to be decided. Remember, according to Islam, you are already worm-food, but just too dumb (and evil) to realize it. What, precisely, are you asking?
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Yin and Yang, Right and Wrong, Love and Hate...
by FMZ init's all so subjective.
just a few thoughts... .
jimmy killed a man, shot him to death.
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Frogleg
FlyingHighNow, Are you a true Russian? Or are you Belorussian? In the grand scheme of things, I suppose that Adolph, Stalin, Ghengis, Nixon, and whomever else you want to include, are speedbumps in the road to equilibrium. If everything can NOT be reduced to love, then what is the purpose? Entropy awaits us all. So let us all eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we
maywill die. What a f*cking waste. -
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Great Quotes from Societies Literature
by Sheepish ini may be behind the times here with this, cause i'm so new, but i picked up an old copy of "let god be true"(1946) at a yard sale, and i've been kinda skimming through it.
this statement jumped out at me.
i got a good laugh considering how, they won't give let you share the other side of an issue with them, calling it "apostate" and all...( maybe you have other ones that you've found.).
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Frogleg
Are you looking for quotes? Okay, here's one:
"Patience. A mild form of desperation, often disguised as a virtue."