very interesting lecture and q&a session by professor eric smith of the santa fe institute.
in his discussion of the primacy of energy there is a lot of overlap with the ideas of nick lane of university college london.
if you still think abiogenesis had something to do with "primordial soup" you should invest half an hour to watch this.. ....
False advertising Cofty, that was over an hour, not a half hour, lol.
Very good, though a bit over my head. Do I understand it right that one of the challenges of replicating life in the lab is that we don't know what the chemical structure of the earth was at that time, because life itself has altered the chemical structure of the earth?
i may not have put this in the correct spot, but i do think it's scandalous the way time gets counted now.
i've seen a cart at the edge of our farmer's market, never anyone close enough to talk.
yesterday was a drizzly day and there were two carts set up, covered in plastic, "witnessing" on their own.
Well, it's not like regular field service wasn't just a big time waster either. Most of the time is spent driving around wasting gas, you would maybe talk to two or three people in a morning. It's all just busy work really. Nobody ever stops to question what the point of it all is, other than to put a number on a piece of paper.
what a horror.
instead of there being "more fish in the sea" our marriage mates came from the small and crapy witness pond.
anyone got burned by going with mr or mrs you will have to do?
Yeah, I married an idiot.
So happy to be free and remarried to a wonderful man.
i find myself still at 25 nervous around women.
i wonder is dating and marriage really worth the hassle.
?.
It depends on the person I guess, but do you really want to live by yourself for the rest of your life because women make you nervous? We don't bite you know.
my wife is in the hospital.
complications of a ruptured appendix.
she had it removed around 1am friday morning.
I am so sorry you are going through this, that must be rough. I hope you are over the worst and things get better from here on out. At least your mom isn't shunning you also, so there's that.
This us the point where you ask people for help, whoever you can, in whatever capacity they can help you. Friends, neighbor's, co-workers, most people want to help, they just don't know what to do, so don't be afraid to ask, they can only say no, right?
Hang in there.
Lisa 🌹
since leaving the jws i have looked into many beliefs and have come to this conclusion.. paganism has a high regard for women, as they worship goddesses and respect the female for the ability to give birth to new life.
christianity puts females in second place to males and blames women for male temptations which goes back to eve eating the fruit and tempting adam with it.
they also created a devil with the appearance of the pagan god pan and built churches on pagan worship sites so that people would still go there to worship, but within a christian building.. i have come to the conclusion that paganism versus christianity is about a battle of the sexes.. the fear of demonic forces is taught by religions to deter you from straying.
I agree that most religions are obsessed and afraid of a woman's sexuality and that many rules are designed to control women and keep them in subjection. I think some men are afraid of the power that women hold over them through their sexuality and attempt to control that through rules about conduct and dress, at the extreme end requiring women to be completely covered, some even requiring female genital mutilation.
ok so i have a question.
i was a very, very true believer until i saw the child molesters in my hall and how that whole thing was handled.. my husband is older than i am and had been an elder for 12 when we married.
so fast forward to 06, we are in a hall where i thought all the elders were ok at the worst and great at the best.
Again thank all who have answered and sorry to be such a basket case.
You are not a basket case, just someone who is coping as best you can with a horrible situation. I am glad you are getting counseling, it's really the only fix for what is going on with you. I know the situation is horrible, but you need to focus on your own recovery.
ok so i have a question.
i was a very, very true believer until i saw the child molesters in my hall and how that whole thing was handled.. my husband is older than i am and had been an elder for 12 when we married.
so fast forward to 06, we are in a hall where i thought all the elders were ok at the worst and great at the best.
My question is am I crazy or is this just truly nuts and insane. So much of the time I doubt myself and think did I do something to cause this. I will not back down on my stand about pedophiles.
You are not crazy. This IS totally nuts and insane, but did you really need us to tell you that? It is, however, typical behavior of people in a cult. They cannot acknowledge that the religion's treatment of pedophiles is wrong, because that would force them to confront the fact that they are in a crazy cult. Since they are not honest or strong enough to face reality, it's easier to focus attention on you and make you the problem.
You can do nothing about them, they are going to do what they are going to do, you need to help yourself. It sounds like you have post traumatic stress disorder. You thought you had gotten over all this, but having the creep at the memorial follow you around brought it all back, so obviously you have not gotten over it. I think you need to get professional counseling to deal with this. Buried emotions don't really go away, they just build and leak back out in destructive ways, so do what you need to do to come to terms with all this. Counseling can help you confront all this and deal with it and move on.
In the meantime, do not go to the kingdom hall, not even for memorial. If you happen to see this creep again, tell him you do not wish to speak to him and walk away.
is there gods true worshipers on earth today as jesus said there would be?
if they are not jws then who are they?.
who else comes close to being gods true followers today?.
Who else comes close to being Gods true followers today?
You are making an assumption that Jehovah's Witnesses come close to being Gods true followers. What makes you think that?
How does making multiple false predictions about the end of the world make you a true follower of God, being as the bible says no man knows the day or the hour?
How does breaking up families by forcing people to shun make you a true follower of God?
How does protecting pedophiles make you a true follower of God?
How does using cult mind control make you a true follower of God?
i’ve noticed many people posting on this site seem to have completely given up on religion/spirituality.. but some have attended services at another religion, or just follow their own heart regarding what to believe.. my question is how does anyone deal after leaving with all of the witness crap that we believed about babylon the great, the great harlot, spiritual prostitute, etc., etc.
i’m finding out that i seem to have built myself a pretty solid wall regarding religion.. some people can just chuck all beliefs into one basket saying that they are all basically garbage,,, and that is ok, no problem i respect that.. but for myself there is a certain part of my personality that needs a spiritual belief not like the witnesses in any way, but something to meditate on, and contemplate.. being a witness taught me how bad it is to actually think of god in any other way besides what the jw’s believe.
and now when i attend any other service, the dark jw side seems to pop out and seriously makes me believe that everything i see/do/say is wrong.
seriously makes me believe that everything I see/do/say is wrong. And it is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde it just come out. It’s really quite a big drag that keeps me from moving forward in a positive way.
That's the cult mind control kicking in. The JWs have implanted the idea that only they have "the truth" and everything else is wrong and evil, and that doesn't automatically go away because you now realize they were wrong, and even though you know intellectually that it's not logical. It does get better with time and as you expose yourself to different beliefs systems and as you learn more about cults work. I highly recommend the book Combating Cult Mind Control by Steve Hassan.
But for myself there is a certain part of my personality that needs a spiritual belief not like the witnesses in any way, but something to meditate on, and contemplate.
That's understandable and I think a lot of people feel that way. There is certainly nothing wrong with seeking the spiritual. For some people that is a religion and if that is your inclination there are some better churches out there. I like the United Church of Christ (the United part is important, there is a Church of Christ also that is not at all the same). They have no doctrine, which works if you aren't ready to declare a belief in traditional church ideology. They are quite liberal, so not for those who are against homosexuality, for example, but they are very warm and welcoming and do a lot of charitable work which I like. There are other good churches out there, you just have to look and keep an open mind and find one that works for you. Everything is going to seem weird and different at first, you just have to give it a chance. The JW's study with people for at least six months before they get baptized, because they know it takes time for people to adjust to their way of thinking, and it takes just as long on the other end, if not longer.
In the end I chose to just go it alone, as I just couldn't believe in the God of the bible anymore. I still feel spiritual, it's just that it is a more loosely defined spirituality. If I had to name it I guess I am a humanist, but I don't care much for labels.
I am sure you will figure out where you need to be also, I wish you well on your spiritual journey.
