^Good point enderby, Confucious did say it much earlier. Still, I don't think anyone deserves full credit for figuring out how to do what any one of us has the ability to discover for ourselves. These people were not gods but just people like you and me. Really they just found a good way to say what you've already observed through your own experience.
"Truth is an event, and only through experience can the veracity of the truth be verified."
-William James
Sentient
JoinedPosts by Sentient
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9
Living
by joelbear inthere is only one law, love your neighbor as yourself.. very simple words that get buried under lots of gobbledegook.
we strain to rid ourselves of the guilt of the shoulds that were cast upon us throughout our life.. we run our lives based on these shoulds and apply these shoulds to others.. there are two parts to the law.
love your neighbor gets most of the attention.
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Sentient
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money will destroy us all
by joelbear init takes the place of natural resources.
it allows natural resources to be allocated lopsidedly.
it is destroying more and more of the natural world every day.
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Sentient
Interesting, I can now see this from both perspectives and I think joelbear may have a point. Before there was money, all WERE basically equal...lol. In one way money has resulted in a new kind of conflict and new powers to destroy the world and ourselves that wouldn't have been possible without it. In another respect the development of money and economies and eventually now globalization has allowed human beings to move from separation and conflict toward equality and the opportunity for an enlightened ability to live in peace. I think we have been more like most animals in the past, fighting and killing and dominating for survival. This way is still the dominant way in different forms, but I think we are moving exponentially towards a situation where, if we can survive for long enough to get there, we are learning how to live with one another in peace through increased awareness. Part of that awareness is also the effect our technology is having on the earth and the inequalities that exist among people worldwide. Another part of it is establishing that people who are strange and different do not necessarily need to be killed because we ourselves are in large part the result of our environment, just as they are. The ability to exchange money and ideas electronically around the globe instantly changes everything and exponentially so. I think monetary systems can result in a sense of mutual benefit and peace.
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Anyone else in PUTERNUT's shoes? Despairing? COME TO US!
by AlmostAtheist inhey guys,.
listen, we were all "brothers" and "sisters" at one time and it didn't really mean shit.
i'd've turned my back on the lot o' ya when i was a jw and i found out you were apostates.. but now we're all truly brothers and sisters.
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Sentient
Hey, I will help if I can. It's a place I've spent a lot of time in and still visit occasionally.
I think you're right AA, the problem is usually that you get confused and overwhelmed and lose perspective, or have trouble finding it for the first time.
When you're trying to help someone else though, it's important to watch out for your own needs. When we are whole and taking care of ourselves, then we can be in a better position to help others. It's like the way the attendant tells you on a plane to put on your own oxygen mask first, because if you've passed out you can't help the child next to you get theirs on...that's true even if it's your own child. -
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GB led by lawyers?
by Lady Lee inif all of the men on the gb were born into or raised within the wts walls, it can pretty much means they have been insulated from the real world.
other than the lawyers (who else would have a lot of experience living in the real world?
) who else would be directing what gets printed or not?
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Sentient
The GB is the antitypical Sanhedrin. Controlling masses of people is a science and a strange art, similar to convincing yourself of something you know is probably not true and then convincing a jury of the same thing. Only securing the total devotion of millions of people requires a lot more sustained effort than a typical court case.
What is amazing is how outspoken they are in their criticism of the Pharisees! -
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Mind Control Alert - Watchtower Article - simplifying your life -
by jgnat inwt january 1, 2006,"how firm is your trust in god?
an anonymous young man with a family is described as quitting a job because it interfered with meeting attendance.
can you see yourself taking a similar step if you were in circumstances like his?
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Sentient
Sunspot,
You bring out a very excellent and important point- the reason why so many who have had some involvement with JWs do not feel that Jehovah's Witnesses are a mind-controlling cult and defend them is because JWs they've known were generally nice people and they CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO GIVE A FLIP and spend that much of their precious time investigating it or listening to the opinions of ones who were most deeply effected by it but managed to truly escape in their own minds.
jgnat,
What you are highlighting here is one of the key points that requires intelligence and either past deep involvement with a cultic organization or understanding of these psychological processes. Between the lines of what the nonmember or less serious member reads, the well-trained Witness is given countless CUES that further control them and cause them to reach even more extreme conclusions than the text actually appears to say.
Every so often I sit back and am just mind-boggled by it even after all this time. I would say the WTBTS is a Master of Manipulation and mind control. I'm not aware of anyone who can do it so effectively, they may very well be #1 in the world in this field. The U.S. government could learn a thing or three from them, maybe they could give them some tips. -
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Watchtower: The Motion Picture
by Clam inone day i'd like to see a film made ( movie ) about the earlier years of the wts.
a serious one for the truemovies channel, or maybe a spoof.
who do you think could ideally play the main roles and what would be a good title?
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Sentient
I've been wondering what it would be like to make a major motion picture depicting the Witnesses' vision of the future of the world, but I can't yet think of any way to do it that would actually interest any other people besides JWs or exJWs. Or maybe I'm wrong and it would really be of interest to other Christian groups who generally do not like them.
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Elders sting operation on myspace
by troubled mind ina certain young person told me last night a jw friend of his from n.y. received an elder visit .
the suspect was told that the elders had been lurking about on myspace and had caught several young ones with accounts there .
they told this person's account was benign yet was counseled it was bad association to be on myspace.
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Sentient
That's the first I've heard of that but it does not surprise me one bit. In the end, their excursions into cyberspace will do more good for their opposition because the realm of free and open information is not the realm of Witnesses.
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Good Morning Apostates!!
by Andy C inah, another fine day in apostaland.
question of the day: what makes you think you are right?
maybe you are headed down that broad and spacious road, something to think about.
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Sentient
For one thing, because fear does not lead you to truth, and neither does cutting off access to information critical of your beliefs. I am not afraid to talk to any human being alive, or read anything ever printed. I actually welcome criticism and alternative ideas now and genuinely consider whether I should readjust my own views. I am constantly learning, growing and evolving now.
In contrast, any "true beleiver" JW is terrified to have a genuine conversation with a sincere and articulate exJW. They are terrified to read any experiences or thoughts of exJWs. It's because although they have a strong conscious belief that they have the truth, there is some part of them deep down that is deathly afraid of truth...that is the way they have been programmed and confused.
I would gladly participate in an internationally televised townhall debate with me vs. every member of the Governing Body, and I know I could prove their methods and their ideas about many things to be very sick indeed. In all likelihood they would decline this opportunity. -
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questions
by mydiscounts in.
i am new here but i have a few questions for one i really would like to know why so many jws do not believe in working for themselves, giving to charity and helping their fellow man unless they are a fellow witness?.
i always get the excuse that the new system is coming and we will never retire in this old system, but hey guys we are getting old in this system right here so why not do something for yourself and your futures now?
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Sentient
If you are heavily indoctrinated, you take note of the numerous experiences in the publications when your fellow Witnesses were starving to death but instead of asking for food when outside help came the first thing they asked for was a new Watchtower! You take note of talks that mention how the most important thing is to renew the spiritual man (through the WTBTS literature) from day to day. If you are a highly astute student of the GB, your mentality is trained such so that when there's shortage of food and a shortage of literature, only work for enough food to barely survive and spend the rest of the time trying to get literature. Looking back on it, it sickens me!
Regarding education and employement, you appear to get mixed cues, but really for the most heavily programmed eager students of Watchtower education (such as I was), the message is loud and clear that those who love God the most and are the most spiritual will view things as if the end is coming 6 months from now and will devote most all their time and energy into distributing the Society's publications and recruiting new people. -
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Which avatars are your favorites?
by AlmostAtheist insome people's avatars make me smile, others make me think.
there are some that i just love to look at.
here are some of my favorites off the top of my head.
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Sentient
AlmostAtheist- the picture in question is Seraph, guardian of the Oracle from the film the Matrix:Reloaded. Great character.