Were they Christmas themed Tic-Tacs? That would certainly catch they eye of any conscientious 'spiritual policeman' ...I mean Elder. After all, you can't be too careful about Satan's influence even in the Kingdom Hall (tm).
so i just wanted to jot down some thoughts and feelings about my meeting yesterday.... first, the wt, paragraph 16. i couldn't help but laugh to myself at the blatant hypocrisy.
god’s word admonishes us “to live with soundness of mind ... amid this present system of things.” (titus 2:12) having “soundness of mind,” or being sober-minded, should certainly come into play when the explanation of a diagnostic method or therapy seems strange or mysterious.
can the practitioner or the one promoting it explain satisfactorily how it works?
Were they Christmas themed Tic-Tacs? That would certainly catch they eye of any conscientious 'spiritual policeman' ...I mean Elder. After all, you can't be too careful about Satan's influence even in the Kingdom Hall (tm).
long story, short story.
grew up on a farm, went to bethel, married a sister and left bethel.
found ttatt after my cousin died refusing a blood transfusion.
i mean, i don't want to be miserable or anything, but what's the bloody point of it all?.
since i left the watchtower cult, i have come to realise that god cannot possibly exist...and if a god exists...god is indifferent to humankind as the least.. in 100 years time i'll be gone.
kaput.
"There is probably no point in my going into your questions now; for what could I say about your tendency to doubt or about your inability to bring your outer and inner lives into harmony or about all other things that oppress you - is just what I have already said: just the wish that you may find in yourself enough patience to endure and enough simplicity to have faith; that you may gain more and more confidence in what is difficult and in your solitude among other people. And as for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.
And about feelings: All feelings that concentrate you and lift you up are pure; only that feeling is impure which grasps just one side of your being and thus distorts you. Everything you can think of as you face your childhood, is good. Everything that makes more of you than you have ever been, even in your best hours, is right. Every intensification is good, if it is in your entire blood, if it isn't intoxication or muddiness, but joy which you can see into, clear to the bottom. Do you understand what I mean?
And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become criticism. Ask it, whenever it wants to spoil something for you, why something is ugly, demand proofs from it, test it, and you will find it perhaps bewildered and embarrassed, perhaps also protesting. But don't give in, insist on arguments, and act in this way, attentive and persistent, every single time, and the day will come when, instead of being a destroyer, it will become one of your best workers - perhaps the most intelligent of all the ones building your life." RAINER MARIA RILKE - LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET : LETTER NINE
I believe he is the main reason most are running for the Exit. Keep it up Anthony, you are doing a fantastic job.
"Oh, shit! What's next? Shooting ourselves in the foot?"
i have always wondered why prince and michael jackson stayed in good standing for some of the stuff they released as jws?
or how the williams sisters could stay in sports without all the bs?
after all the revelations about the org that i have heard... i wonder if they are paid and the reason they get away with it is that they are pr strategies and really they could give a crap about the org?
"I will consult with my 'third eye' and get back to you, Luther!"
i can't recall the word that describes a group that keeps to itself like the witnesses do.
i thought it was "insular" but i don't think that's the one i'm looking for after reading the definition.
i remember an elder using the word "clannish" and that has the proper definition but it reminds me of a group of elves.
BROTHERHOOD!
the organization has many problems.
certain doctrines are problematic.
the men who run the organizaion have issues.
You have no idea about business/religion infrastructure. Once an entity gains momentum it then becomes its own entity through momentum.- Makemeanunbeliever
Watchtower, the Sears Roebuck of the religious world!
i can't recall the word that describes a group that keeps to itself like the witnesses do.
i thought it was "insular" but i don't think that's the one i'm looking for after reading the definition.
i remember an elder using the word "clannish" and that has the proper definition but it reminds me of a group of elves.
A conformist society.
i've never found dualism - the idea that the mind and the brain are two different substances with the mind being "immaterial" or "non-material" - a valid manner in which to address consciousness or any mysteries relating to it.
to show the reasons why i think it's bad metaphysics i'll use analogous reasoning to make a case for my newly made up "mystic essence".. for hundreds of years scientists have studied plants and animals all across the world.
but they still can't explain where ecosystems come from.
I highly recommend this book. It helped me to clarify my thoughts and understanding about 'dualism' and 'the mind'. The book is tough going sometimes but if you stick with it I think you may gain some benefit from it.