Personally I think there is enough evidence of a spirit realm. People seem to ignore how a ouija board works and out of body experiences, speaking in tongues, possessions and such.
Really science tries to make up explanations for it, but you can tell that they are really grasping at straws.
The big question for me is, what is the spirit realm? Is is part of the afterlife or just another level of existence? People think of the afterlife is black and white, good versus evil. What if it was just as crazy and mixed up as our world? What if you died and released your "soul" only to find yourself not in heaven or hell?
People carry their own corporeal beliefs over to the spirit world and try to act on them.
Science can't disprove a spirit realm, and religion can't prove one exists or that we are part of it after death. Just too much to know and too much to guess at.
Paralipomenon
JoinedPosts by Paralipomenon
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6
Conflicting conclusions.
by Blueblades intwo books that i just finished reading come to conflicting conclusions.
the first one is by john mcgraw, brain and belief.
the second one is by dr. don morse, searching for eternity.
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Paralipomenon
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Looking for advice for birthday party
by Paralipomenon inokay, so after coming to an agreement with my wife about letting our kids do holidays our son is having his birthday coming up this weekend.
i'd like to take him out for a lunch or something with a couple of his friends but i have no clue what to do or where to go.
isn't that sad?
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Paralipomenon
Thanks for the ideas.
I was looking for something that was birthdayish as opposed to just having fun but given the intended size I don't think that would be possible.
I think I'll go for Chuckie Cheese then have a cake back at our neighbor's house with candles. I really don't want to go over the top for his first birthday party, maybe next year. :)
Thanks for the ideas!
PS. Just how stupid this religion is, I haven't been to a meeting in about 10 years, couldn't care less about their teachings but still have a small twinge of guilt for planning this birthday party. Anyone else feel a bit guilty celebrating holidays openly after not doing so all your life? -
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Looking for advice for birthday party
by Paralipomenon inokay, so after coming to an agreement with my wife about letting our kids do holidays our son is having his birthday coming up this weekend.
i'd like to take him out for a lunch or something with a couple of his friends but i have no clue what to do or where to go.
isn't that sad?
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Paralipomenon
Okay, so after coming to an agreement with my wife about letting our kids do holidays our son is having his birthday coming up this weekend. I'd like to take him out for a lunch or something with a couple of his friends but I have no clue what to do or where to go.
Isn't that sad? I've never had a birthday in my life and this will be a first for him as well. He's turning 7. Any ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated. -
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Characteristics of Narcissistic Mothers
by rebel8 inhttp://www.geocities.com/zpg1957/narcissists.htm i've had some narcissistic types in my life and boy, does this article ring true.
(this is not true of my mother but just like a mirror image of my sister.
also reminds me of the dynamics of the wt org.
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Paralipomenon
I saw this and thought it sounded like my sister-in-law. I sent it to my wife who thought it seemed more like her mother almost word for word. She started telling me stories from her childhood... wow.
To this day she still fights and bends over backwards trying to get affection from her mother, who really could care less. She came out to help with the birth of our first son but got overwhelmed by the stress of it all that she was bedridden for 3 days.
So my wife is in the hospital worried sick about her mother who is bedridden at our house. After my wife was released her mom mysteriously got better and went home. -
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Paralipomenon
Bullies. People that use either their position of power, status or physical size to intimidate others.
Yeah, I didn't get along very well with many elders. -
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Hypothetical situation: What would you do?
by winnie inlets just say that the jw teaching regarding armageddon, living forever were true.. and lets say that many on this forum who still attend meetings somehow survive.. you don't agree with the teachings.
you may not even like many others who survive.
why would you want to live with the kind of people who continually judge others actions?
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Paralipomenon
Since Jehovah judges heart conditions, apparently my complete and total disrespect for his earthly organization would have been deemed acceptable by him.
That would be a complete and total validation that the way I live my life is acceptable. -
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High school anti-cult lessons
by IT Support ini've been asked to help develop a course for high school students to teach them about destructive cults and how to identify them.
not jw-bashing) to be useful for all students (and also not to frighten off jw kids and their parents), i would hope it might help jws (kids and parents) to start to think.
does anyone know of anything similar that we could buy in?
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Paralipomenon
Might want to examine this thread here from our own Lady Lee:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/32/105788/1.ashx -
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Close friend needs advice -- about to be cut off and lose inheritance
by Dogpatch inthis is a plea from a close friend of mine who is a 4th or 5th generation jw who left a few years ago due to the wt's corruption.
she lives next door to her mother and now another jw family related to her.
she is looking for any advice from any of you that has been in a similar situation, how you dealt with it, and her options.
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Paralipomenon
Wow, that is sick.
Greed has to be the worst human emotion. Personally I wouldn't try to do a point by point rebuttal of the tract. If she hasn't left the organization by now, I would think it would be highly unlikely she'd do so this late in life. She believes it is the truth and when her time comes, she will die peacefully and happy.
What I would take exception to is the money grubbing relatives trying to meddle in her affairs. An education in what they are doing and label it as unscriptural or selfish I think would have a better effect.
The fact that the mother has maintained a relationship with the daughter over the years shows that she values family. What the others are doing is wrong. The bible makes no allowances for cutting off family members. Did the prodigal son's father deny him his inheritance when he went off to squander it? He could have refused, reasoning "my other son is staying here with me, surely he would benefit more from the whole inheritance"
I did recall a few months ago that someone on ebay was selling a course outline from the head office on "assisting" older members with estate planning. That is, how to leave everything to the society. There are definitely vultures afoot that prey on the elderly.
My concern is that if the daughter starts attacking the mother's beliefs, she will seem very apostate and that will play right into what the mother's relatives are telling her. -
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Science vs. Religion - Must We Choose Between Them?
by bavman ini dare to say science and religion are two different animals.
they may try to explain similar things but in different ways.
i don't believe man will ever live without either religion or science nor would i want us too.
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Paralipomenon
The two mindsets just don't breed alot of harmony.
A creationist could find a cave with fossils of every single missing link and denounce it as demonic trickery.
A scientist could watch Jesus descend physically from heaven and perform miracles and would try to prove mathematically that it didn't happen.
The main issue is accepting the other side exists is, in a very minor way, validating their claim. So arguments continue to surface until one side can claim victory.
At the end of the day, some people need facts, some people need faith. If people could accept that everyone has different needs and leave it at that, things would be much happier. -
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The next big change... my prediction
by No Apologies inwith all the talk about the new watchtower format, i thought i would throw out an idea i had recently, on how the tower could solve its current cash flow problem.. .
its very evident that they do have a serious problem with declining income, and that the real cause of this was the switch to the donation arrangement.
although at the time, it seemed like a smart move that would avoid the nightmare and expense of paying taxes, its clear to see that it has had an impact on the bottom line.
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Paralipomenon
I remember back when we had to pay for the magazines that the pioneers got a special rate, they were like a nickle cheaper or something. They could actually make a profit on the sales if they were good, but most put the extra in the contribution box.
One time on vacation our family went to the NY bethel and I went to the literature counter to get the latest set of magazines (sometimes 1-2 months ahead of what we had back home) and emptied my change onto the counter. In the mix was a Canadian dime. The "brother" put a fat finger on the dime and slid it back across the counter at me. "We don't accept foreign coins" I was told.
That was all I had and someone behind me in line offered up a american dime so I could get my magazines. I was so angry, in an organization that was supposed to be loving I couldn't reconcile this person's behavior.