dedalus

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Posts by dedalus

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  153

  Has your life gotten better as an athiest/agnostic?

  by StinkyPantz in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this quote got me thinking:if you pray sincerely and admit you are a sinner and accept christ as your savior you can have the holy spirit come into your life.. .

  i used to do this everyday.

  when i was being abused, i used to pray incessantly for god to help me.

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  dedalus

  Thanks, rem. It wasn't too pretentious, I hope. Guess I'm feeling "writerly" today, which is usually an invitation to myself to say something dumb.

  This is a really good thread, five pages and no one has gone ballistic!

  Since Aztec was off topic on the last page (), can I be off topic now and ask how you and your attractive engineer (?) girlfriend are doing?

  Dedalus (happy that it's summertime and, incredibly, not raining in his little corner of New England today, and therefore slightly garrulous)
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  153

  Has your life gotten better as an athiest/agnostic?

  by StinkyPantz in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this quote got me thinking:if you pray sincerely and admit you are a sinner and accept christ as your savior you can have the holy spirit come into your life.. .

  i used to do this everyday.

  when i was being abused, i used to pray incessantly for god to help me.

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  dedalus

  I don't understand why so many theists cannot admit that their faith is irrational. Irrationality doesn't always have to be pejorative. The beauty of faith -- delicately held aloft from the quotidian shuffle of the secular and the domestic, from the cold howling chasm of a quantifiable but impersonal universe -- is that, taciturn and fragile, it simply persists, somehow, gallantly folding in on itself as technology, industry, science, commerce, and politics encroach upon its space. Why debase it with pretensions of logic? Faith is emotional soul-business, worthy stuff, but those who claim that it blazes paths to syllogistic certainty, or like medicine salves a wounded world, are missing the point. There are with faith no cures or certainties -- that's the intrinsic worth of it, the courageous beauty of it, only so many “believers” don't realize it.

  I don't have the kind of faith I've seen professed on this thread. But there are moments in my life that blow my heart open, like a parachute catching on air. Despite everything.

  Dedalus
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  69

  The new book for children.

  by dmouse in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife went to the convention yesterday and brought back the new book for children 'learn from the great teacher'.. it's certainly much better than the old pink book, larger and more colourful, even if the pictures have a 1950's feel to them.

  the introduction mentions that there are questions throughout the book that you should ask children to find out what is on their mind... saying ' true, the child may come out with with answers that are not correct.

  but the printed material that follows each question is designed to help the child to develop wholesome patterns of thinking'.... 'wholesome patterns of thinking' eh?

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  dedalus

  I sent a link to the picture (NOT to this website) to my Witness sister-in-law, among a few others. I was curious to see what her reaction would be; she's pretty "liberal," I guess, and I hoped for some earnest apologetics that would at least reassure me that Witnesses don't accept the idea of fiery genocide in its unqualified form.

  My e-mail consisted of a brief, two-line introduction in which I named the publication and noted that it was a book for children. This is my sister-in-law's response:

  Dedalus, could you please not forward me things that bother you about the society's publications, being that I am someone who reads and follows the society's beliefs? Thanks, I feel it puts me in an uncomfortable position with you and the others who receive the email, being that I am a witness.
  Thanks.

  Hmmmmm.

  Dedalus
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  69

  The new book for children.

  by dmouse in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife went to the convention yesterday and brought back the new book for children 'learn from the great teacher'.. it's certainly much better than the old pink book, larger and more colourful, even if the pictures have a 1950's feel to them.

  the introduction mentions that there are questions throughout the book that you should ask children to find out what is on their mind... saying ' true, the child may come out with with answers that are not correct.

  but the printed material that follows each question is designed to help the child to develop wholesome patterns of thinking'.... 'wholesome patterns of thinking' eh?

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  dedalus

  Interesting, how explicit the Witness doctrine of death, even for children, is:

  "It is a serious time for children as well as adults, because children that do not obey Jehovah will not be among the survivors of that battle. God will not preserve them into his new world merely because they are children .... If you want to obey Jehovah you will engage regularly in the ministerial activities that are arranged by the theocratic organization." -- Watchtower 8/15/62, pp. 494-495.

  Sicko shit.

  Dedalus
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  69

  The new book for children.

  by dmouse in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife went to the convention yesterday and brought back the new book for children 'learn from the great teacher'.. it's certainly much better than the old pink book, larger and more colourful, even if the pictures have a 1950's feel to them.

  the introduction mentions that there are questions throughout the book that you should ask children to find out what is on their mind... saying ' true, the child may come out with with answers that are not correct.

  but the printed material that follows each question is designed to help the child to develop wholesome patterns of thinking'.... 'wholesome patterns of thinking' eh?

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  dedalus

  LOL @ Ray!

  Dedalus
• 
  69

  The new book for children.

  by dmouse in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife went to the convention yesterday and brought back the new book for children 'learn from the great teacher'.. it's certainly much better than the old pink book, larger and more colourful, even if the pictures have a 1950's feel to them.

  the introduction mentions that there are questions throughout the book that you should ask children to find out what is on their mind... saying ' true, the child may come out with with answers that are not correct.

  but the printed material that follows each question is designed to help the child to develop wholesome patterns of thinking'.... 'wholesome patterns of thinking' eh?

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  dedalus

  I don't know the source for the picture above -- Live Forever book or Watchtower, I'm guessing.

  In this one below, a closeup from the Paradise Lost book, you can see a little girl clutching the hand of a rag doll as they plunge together into the earth ... oh, and the family dog bites the dust, too.

  Now remember, kids, Jehovah is a God of love, the very personification of Love itself. Don't forget to say your prayers!

  Dedalus

  P.S. Hmmmm ... can't see the pictures. Just in case, here is a link: http://www.geocities.com/graendal54/cultschildren.html
• 
  69

  The new book for children.

  by dmouse in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife went to the convention yesterday and brought back the new book for children 'learn from the great teacher'.. it's certainly much better than the old pink book, larger and more colourful, even if the pictures have a 1950's feel to them.

  the introduction mentions that there are questions throughout the book that you should ask children to find out what is on their mind... saying ' true, the child may come out with with answers that are not correct.

  but the printed material that follows each question is designed to help the child to develop wholesome patterns of thinking'.... 'wholesome patterns of thinking' eh?

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  dedalus

  Upon reexamining that picture, I realize that parents have the added bonus of explaining to their children what a red light district is before tucking them ever so gently into bed.

  Dedalus
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  85

  What's the Highest "Position" You Had in the Congregation???

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  me----p.o.....you??

  ?

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  dedalus

  PUBLISHER!

  In other words, a nobody, like in Emily Dickenson's poem:

  I'm a publisher, who are you?

  Are you a publisher too?

  Then there's two of us, don't tell.

  They'd privately reprove us, you know.

  How dreary to be an elder!

  How public, like a frog!

  To preach that crap

  The livelong day

  To a bleary-eyed cong.!

  Not many people know that Emily Dickenson was a Witness.

  Dedalus
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  69

  The new book for children.

  by dmouse in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my wife went to the convention yesterday and brought back the new book for children 'learn from the great teacher'.. it's certainly much better than the old pink book, larger and more colourful, even if the pictures have a 1950's feel to them.

  the introduction mentions that there are questions throughout the book that you should ask children to find out what is on their mind... saying ' true, the child may come out with with answers that are not correct.

  but the printed material that follows each question is designed to help the child to develop wholesome patterns of thinking'.... 'wholesome patterns of thinking' eh?

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  dedalus

  Ah, what a wonderful hope for mankind ... and what wonderful God to worship. Sleep tight, kids!

  Dedalus
• 
  22

  Let the shunning begin!

  by Cicatrix in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  boy, this has just been my lucky week.

  twice in one week i was the recipient of "active shunning" by former congregation members.. scene one-the local discount food place where all the blue collar folks (and a few smart upper crust ones) buy their food.

  i'm busy grocery shopping and sister zealous comes marching down the other side of the aisle, dutifully studying the cans on said shelf.

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  dedalus

  LOL!

  Good post.

  Dedalus