Posts by dedalus

23

Would you have become a witness if not..

by sleepy in

jw
friends

would you have become a witness if not raised as one?.

for me i would say no way.

don't know if this is the appropriate place to post this it certainly isn't a jw belief and i don't believe in believing (much of anything), but i'm always theorizing always speculatin' and heres a particular speculation i've been hypothesizing for some while now, something a really powerful post in this forum inspired me to throw out here for your perusal.

whatever the reaction, your sure to have one!.

think about this, you know suffering, struggling, forging on .

dedalus

LOL @ COMF!

Dedalus

20

what if

by raven101 in

don't know if this is the appropriate place to post this it certainly isn't a jw belief and i don't believe in believing (much of anything), but i'm always theorizing always speculatin' and heres a particular speculation i've been hypothesizing for some while now, something a really powerful post in this forum inspired me to throw out here for your perusal.

whatever the reaction, your sure to have one!.

think about this, you know suffering, struggling, forging on .

dedalus

Dude, that is like, totally fucking out there, man!

[8>]

63

The best REMAKE of all times....

by LDH in

original artist: the temptations.

remake artist: george michael.

song: papa was a rolling stone.

dedalus

Original artist: Leonard Cohen
Remake artist: John Cale
Song: "Hallelujah"

It's on the Shrek soundtrack, of all places.

Dedalus

10

BOWEN HAS A THIRD EYE, AND EATS DEAD BABIES DAILY!

by dedalus in

[8>]

dedalus

[8>]

26

An e-mail I received this morning

by borgfree in

jw
friends

a friend sent this to me this morning.

i know this kind of e-mail is circulated a lot, and maybe this one has, but i have not seen it before.. as one of jehovah's witnesses i would have simply ignored the message in this e-mail.

now as an ex-jw i see it in a totally different way.

dedalus

Jesus Christ said He was giving a new command "that we love each other" who can argue with that message?

Sure,loving each other is good. "Christian" love seems to have a way of going sour, in my opinion. I won't pretend to know exactly why that it -- maybe because it's based on ransom sacrifices or something, who knows. There are very few people who can actually practice Christian love, involving, as it does, the very strict censuring of oneself (if your eye stumbles you, cut it out) and of others (don't associate with those not like you is a common Christian theme, though not universal). Anyway.

The example Jesus set was always good.

Well, maybe, maybe not. He did curse a tree that didn't bear fruit out of season, which was pretty dumb, in my opinion. He spoke in riddles that no one understood, was more confusing than a Greek oracle, which was pretty lame, in my opinion. He was rather rude and condescending to his parents and his disciples, but heck, maybe that was a matter of culture, right? Anyway.

I don't think it is at all limited to Christians. Christians should take the lead in showing love and kindness to everyone, that is the New Testament message.

See, I think it's condescending to say that "Christians should take the lead in showing love and kindness to everyone." It implies, whether you mean this or not, that other people aren't as good at being loving and kind because they're missing something that Christians have. When really, other people are just as good at being loving and kind as Christians.

True Christianity would fit both of the men in this story.

Probably if you got a room full of Christians together they couldn't decide what "true Christianity" meant"

One chose to live a very simple life of working for food and necessities while distributing bibles because he was convinced that was the best way he could help people.

Well, maybe there's something to that. Don Quixote was convinced that attacking windmills was the best way to help people. Didn't mean he was right -- in fact, he was a downright nut, but I suppose that doesn't make him a bad person.

The other man was conscience stricken and chose to offer a little help to someone in need.

Yeah, to another Christian. Wonder if he would've helped an atheist? Especially if the atheist never came around to accepting Christ or whatever. Think he would have looked back with such fondness at the meal the two shared?

How can that be "us vs them"? I don't think any Christian would see this story as an "us vs them" story. If everyone in the world followed the example of these two men, would the world be better or worse? If that means following a Christian way of life, whats wrong with that?

Well, maybe I'm out on a limb here, but I think that anytime you assert a creed or belief system you're pretty much setting up an "us versus them" situation, especially when that belief system is grounded in faith alone. In the story, there are Christians who feel deeply and ... well, no one else. Right? No other views are represented, no other faiths or thoughts about what makes a good spiritual life. And I suspect that, if they were represented, they're be shallow depictions of materialistic lost souls who didn't get the vague, "transcendent" message of this little anecdote.

Anyway, I don't want to beat a dead horse, borgfree. Please understand that I'm not mocking your response to the story. My guess is that you personally are deeper than the story is and that your response is grounded in that, and not the actual text, which is pretty insipid and (I'll type it again, because I love this word) mawkish. Sorry we disagree. But I still think you're AOK.

Dedalus

26

An e-mail I received this morning

by borgfree in

jw
friends

a friend sent this to me this morning.

i know this kind of e-mail is circulated a lot, and maybe this one has, but i have not seen it before.. as one of jehovah's witnesses i would have simply ignored the message in this e-mail.

now as an ex-jw i see it in a totally different way.

dedalus

Yeah! What Detective said!

Billygoat wrote:

But what is the MESSAGE?

Yeah, what is it? People leaving bibles all over the place are the ones who've got life really figured out? These people are doing the most spiritual good? Seriously, who is this bum helping? Isn't it that he's helping himself?

Or is the message that all of our good impulses come from God? That if we're spiritual we'll hear tinny little voices in our heads? Or that you're not really deep unless you shed a tear at someone else's idiot delusions?

But the real message is certainly a Christian one, isn't it? I mean, this guy isn't leaving copies of the Qur'an around is he? Or The Book of Mormon? Or Kurt vonnegut? (ha-ha)

The real message is that there's an "us versus them" mentality still going on, and the "us" are good, Bible-fearing folk, and the "them" are people like me, for whom spirituality is deeply private and not something you litter the countryside with.

Dedalus

26

An e-mail I received this morning

by borgfree in

jw
friends

a friend sent this to me this morning.

i know this kind of e-mail is circulated a lot, and maybe this one has, but i have not seen it before.. as one of jehovah's witnesses i would have simply ignored the message in this e-mail.

now as an ex-jw i see it in a totally different way.

dedalus

Double Edge,

Well, I do like cuddly babies, since I have one of my own, and I've enjoyed long, contemplative walks on brisk mornings, everything drab and wet slowly colored by the rising sun. Is reality only what we see with our eyes? I don't quite believe that. I probably agree with you about a lot of things that are "touching," only not this particular story of a bum bible-distributor wandering the country because the voice in his head tells him to.

Borgfree,

If we were in deep trouble somewhere, maybe in a strange city, what kind of person would we like to meet?

I can see that. Read Independence Day, by Richard Ford, for a contemporary man navigating the landscape in seach of some personal meaning -- no easy, mawkish solutions there, no voices in his head but his own, and yeah, he meets people in situations that change him, by gradual increments.

Detective,

I'll be looking for those poems. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" isn't the story about the bible salesman, but I can't think of the title you're looking for. O'Connor is awesome, and she was a "true believer," too. She would have been disgusted by this story, I'm sure.

Big happy warm fuzzy hugs for everyone,
Dedalus

26

An e-mail I received this morning

by borgfree in

jw
friends

a friend sent this to me this morning.

i know this kind of e-mail is circulated a lot, and maybe this one has, but i have not seen it before.. as one of jehovah's witnesses i would have simply ignored the message in this e-mail.

now as an ex-jw i see it in a totally different way.