i am an ex-mormon who is fairly new to this forum.
i am currently debating with a korean jw on how old the earth is.
i'd appreciate it if anyone of you could tell me what wt's official statment on this issue is.. .
If I remember correctly, the earth is however old science says it is. What is in question, is how long have humans been living on it. That, according to the jw, is just over 6000 years.
(I am stating what I remember the jw view to be, not necessarily my own.)
i remember when they wouldn't give me the kingdom ministry because i wasn't an approved associate/publisher/baptised.
i started thinking god everybody knows that i am not good enough for jehovah.
if i had of only known then what i know now, i wouldn't have fell for it.
I remember being a small child and hearing that Jehovah was always watching you and if you did something wrong, he would make sure the elders found out.
Yeah, isn't this ludicrous? The person who owns the universe and everything in it is concerned about what we do with our willy's and hoo-ha's.
images pop in one's mind.
a ritual offering to a tribal deity, a slain ox, even a virgin bound with tethers and killed to appease an island volcano....... is a sacrifice giving up a greater value to gain a lesser value?
usually, when we collectively consider what a sacrifice is we think of a particular person giving up something very dear to them (taking a loss personally) in order for the group they belong to to achieve a greater benefit as a whole.. dying for one's country, for example, means just that; an individual defends the nation as a whole within an army and the loss of that particular life is toward achieving a goal considered worthwhile.
I have always found it puzzling that God would give us autonomy and an intellect and personality as an individual and yet demand you simply let go of it like the string of a kite to become a drone.
Yep, very illogical there.
Another thing that doesn't add up, a little off topic perhaps, but apparently this is the day for me to go off topic.
Anyway, humans are instilled with an intense desire for justice and a distaste for the opposite. Even those who walk on other people's rights, call foul when someone walks on theirs. So, why would we have this profound need for justice and then be villified, shunned, hated, or destroyed for responding to it? I'm not talking so much about vengence, but the feeling of uselessness that comes from having been played a fool. The shame that comes from seeing the person who wronged you, honored and apparently above prosecution.
I have a lot of reasons why I don't buy into the bible but one of the biggest is the LONG LIST of people throughout history who have found it such a convenient excuse for killing, pillaging, raping, and abandoning their fellow man.
i used skype to chat with a jw online today.
he told me that he wouldn't look at the www.silentlambs.org website, because i didn't have the right motive.-ha!
i was just bashing his religion, he said.
Welcome Holy Spirit.
i wanted to get your opinions on the bible, particularly the differences between the old and new testament.
now, i am not a biblical scholar, and i don't presume to possess more knowledge than anyone else, i would just like to hear what everyone else believes.
so, if you don't mind answering a few questions:.
Anitar,
I really want to answer your questions because I definitely have opinions that I've thought about and prayed over for many years. But, right now, I'm feeling too feisty to respond in the way I would like. So, I'll try again tomorrow.
i know homosexuality is a serious sin against god.
but how do jws view homosexuals in general?
how do they associate with them if they ever come across one etc.
I know homosexuality is a serious sin against God.
How do you know that? Isn't it more correct to say you believe that homosexuality is a sin against God? That may sound like a petty point, but truly, how do we know these things? If you believe the bible is God's word then you have that as a basis, but remember, not everyone necessarily believes that.
What I do believe is that a ot of people have been horribly mistreated throughout history because some aspect of their life was out of harmoney with this book. It's a book. It's paper and ink. How can you mistreat flesh and blood based on something that is paper and ink?
Maybe I'm missing something here.
when i first left the witnesses 15 years ago, i still believed in the jw god, jehovah, as the real and only "true" god and that all the others were not real.
they were real in that people worshipped them and as a distraction from "true worship", but to me, they were simply imaginary entities.. no other gods actually existed.
there was jehovah, satan, and the angels and demons.
If there is a God, He's not talking much to me. I'd prefer to worship the full potential such a god infused into each and every one of us as "little gods" than some big bearded guy sitting on some cloud, some "where", doling out law and retribution though some religious "authority", expecting obedience through fear of losing out in some reward which may or may not even exist.
I agree with you on this. Let's play a game. Remember those puzzles we played when we were kids - the ones where you had to look at three or four things and find the one that didn't fit? Here, I have two of them.
Puppies. Kitties. Armageddon. Which one doesn't fit?
Flowers. Honey. Humming birds. Judging people by how they respond to another human's witnessing. Which one seems out of place?
i was reading the article in the nov awake about musterbation (not a typo, i just hate that word & have to rephrase it)!!.
it took me back to the days as a young man who had normal feelings of a sexual nature.
new in the truth and fighting, with every fibre of my being, (at least in the beginning) against the idea of having a ham shank.
Once I finally let go of the 'guilt' for actually enjoying sex, I felt so much more free and a bit more empowered in a sense (hard to explain).
You don't have to explain. That is you trusting that powerful intution you were born with. It turns out that we don't need sexually-frustrated older men tellilng us what good and what isn't.
I have my own rules of what is 'right and wrong' about it, not some dumb cult's freakish and controlling ones.
Amen, amen, and AMEN!!!!
of the avatar closet, that is.
whatcha think?
:) tall penguin
Freeing
Yeah!
We were told we would feel free when we accepted "the truth," but if that's freedom, please lock me up now. On the other hand, I think I've finally experienced true freedom. I can see the wonderful things around me without the need to push my beliefs on someone else. I feel free to stand up to those who DO ENJOY pushing their beliefs down other people's throats.
i was reading the article in the nov awake about musterbation (not a typo, i just hate that word & have to rephrase it)!!.
it took me back to the days as a young man who had normal feelings of a sexual nature.
new in the truth and fighting, with every fibre of my being, (at least in the beginning) against the idea of having a ham shank.
God, I didn't have my first orgasm til I was 26!!! And that was even after being married for 5 years. The guilt I felt around sex, and especially masturbation, I have only begun to shed in the past year since leaving the org. It's nice now to explore my sexuality without all of the shame.
tall penguin
No kidding. I don't think there'd be as much rape, abuse, whatever, if sex wasn't villified by our enlightened society. It's like we're all playing a game where everyone pretends there's not an elephant sitting on the coffee table. We all got here by sex. Sex can be such a beautiful thing if you're not required to hate yourself for enjoying it. I guess I'm getting a bit preachy. Sorry about that.
