Posts by Paralipomenon

101

All I can say about thr finale of "Lost" is...

by changeling in

jw
friends

wtf???!!!.

they are all fucking dead!.

Paralipomenon

The thing that I got out of it was why they were brought to the island.

While I forget the exact quote, Jacob said that he picked each candidate because they had nothing to live for off the island. So while it was all a bunch of strategy and manipulation for Jacob, in the end each member made a deep connection and found a purpose on the island.

While I knew they couldn't answer everything, it bugged me that the Dharma iniative that played a huge role in the first 5 seasons was completely ignored and written out of the show at the end.

In all, I think the last season really highlighted how chaotic the writing had become over the years. The ending annoyed me because it required you to forget most of what you had already watched and presented new interpretations of the facts.

It wasn't a bad ending. For me, it was just unsatisfying.

62

LOST SEASON FINALE

by Terry in

jw
friends

the 6th and final season of lost has been jam-packed with "reveals"!.

.

what is the secret of the island?.

Paralipomenon

As much as Jack mirrors Jacob, Sawyer mirrors smokey. Both lost a love on the island, both just want to leave and can't.

The thing throwing me for a loop is Hugo and Desmond. Both seem to have supernatural powers on the island whereas Jack and Sawyer just like to strut and make decisions.

Desmond is a candidate as well since the MIB couldn't kill him directly so I wonder how it will play out.

61

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Atheist

by BurnTheShips in

please note that this list is intended to apply to the fundies alone.

not to all nonbelievers.

so let's turn the mirror and grab some popcorn:.

Paralipomenon

8. You think atheists are treated like second-class citizens. Then you spend most of your day belittling Christians and other religious people on JWN.

This one struck a funny chord with me when you consider the title and content of the message it was contained in.

~ Para: A happy agnostic.

40

How long will I be an exJW vs a fomer JW?

by AllTimeJeff in

jw
friends

drew sagan in a recent post (he recently graduated college) said this, something that i agree with and frankly, think about often.

to those of you who feel that you need to "help others" in the watchtower i give you this word of caution.

be careful, because that may simply be an excuse you are using to remain stuck in the past.

Paralipomenon

I had a very similar conversation with my sister once. We were in for about 20 years as well. At the point that we are at now, being an ex witness isn't embarassing, it doesn't bring up anger or hurt. It is just our past. Our upbringing as witnesses is just a series of inside jokes based on our childhood.

We prefer to keep the memories alive. Looking back now, I wasn't misserable for 20 years, I was just deluded.

Keep the happy memories and use the bad ones as a learning experience.

16

The June 15th-2010 WT indirectly admits that most Ex-JW's are happy!

by moshe in

take a look at page nine of the new june 15th wt.

at first glance, it appears to be a standard wt article extolling the safety and happiness of jw's in the kh.. "many who today are members of the christian congregation can tell you that before learning of and adopting jehovah's righteous standards, they lived without moral restrain.

yet, they were unsatisfied and unhappy.

Paralipomenon

The WT is all about half truths. Given that an active witness is only a follower because they believe that the Governing Body is God's agent on earth. Anything that weakens that mindset is dangerous.

If they said MOST, but a person's personal experience taught them otherwise, it has a chance of weakening the hold on a member's mind. With the word SOME, if a person's personal experience taught them otherwise, then they would assume that while it wasn't a scenario they recognized, it must be the case to someone else.

I haven't picked up any literature for years, but it used to be extremely hard to find anything definate in the WT publications. "Facts" are more often than not a question or insinuation. This allows unlimited room to backpeddle and blame the individual for jumping to conclusions if the "facts" turn out to be wrong.

A thing that bothered me was the frequency that they would ask a question in the negative like this: "Would you not agree...?" So much emphasis was placed on the Faithful and Discreet slave being true that the essence of the question mentally resolved to "Is your opinion contrary to the that of the Governing Body" Given that having a contrary opinion is deemed as wicked, unfaithful and Satanic, the mind just accepts the question as fact rather than challenge itself to form a contrary opinion.

45

Stump the expert.

by John Doe in

jw
friends

i dare you.

.

Paralipomenon

Leolaia: I love cyphers! Is the key to decrypt it contained within the text, or does it rely on privately held information?

45

Stump the expert.

by John Doe in

jw
friends

i dare you.

.

Paralipomenon

Q: What is the expertise of the expert?

4

Could humans become as powerful as Jehovah? WT says yes!

by Paralipomenon in

jw
friends

coming to the end of my trying to rationalize and understand the witnesses i had a thought.. witnesses maintain that jesus was a physical human.

a perfect one, but human nonetheless.

this was to be a perfect sacrifice in place of adam, and it had to be human otherwise it wouldn't be a real test.. at the age of 30, jesus was baptised and with the holy spirit in the form of a dove, he regained his memories of his life in the heavens.. close books, applause, sing a song and pray.. whoa, wait... so if he was a normal human... that means that a normal human has the capacity to hold all the information of the universe from the creation of the stars, galaxies, to the intricices of dna structure of every living thing on the planet.. i researched this point and asked everyone i could.

Paralipomenon

Coming to the end of my trying to rationalize and understand the witnesses I had a thought.

Witnesses maintain that Jesus was a physical human. A perfect one, but human nonetheless. This was to be a perfect sacrifice in place of Adam, and it had to be human otherwise it wouldn't be a real test.

At the age of 30, Jesus was baptised and with the holy spirit in the form of a dove, he regained his memories of his life in the heavens.

Close books, applause, sing a song and pray.

Whoa, wait... so if he was a normal human... that means that a normal human has the CAPACITY to hold all the information of the universe from the creation of the stars, galaxies, to the intricices of DNA structure of every living thing on the planet.

I researched this point and asked everyone I could. As far as I could tell, this concept has never been addressed by the WT. Nobody really could dispute it, and I watched as some people got very uncomfortable with the implications of this idea.

Either:

1) Jesus didn't fully become human and retained some of his spirit essense behind, in which case the sacrifice wasn't legitimate

or

2) Humans have the capacity to become gods in flesh

Neither concept is acceptable to a true believer. It was fun to watch them try to mentally resolve this.

48

Why would God stop man from building a tower that reached into the "heavens" and yet let modern man reach even further with a space station and moon landings?

by StoneWall in

anyone?.

Paralipomenon

An explanation is given in the Bible:

Genesis 11:6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

So it wasn't the tower that was a threat, it was all humanity working together.

This was something I brought up to my parents. The wording was interesting. If God was saying that if humanity worked together there was NOTHING that they couldn't do, why create languages? Wouldn't that be a testament to a creator?

I asked my parents this, my mom said that the reason we are here was to praise and worship Jehovah and these earthly pursuits would take us away from that.

So many unanswered questions. I really don't know why I didn't lose my faith even earlier than I did.

123

How I obtained my personal files from Bethel

by jwfacts in

it has taken me a long time, but i have finally put together an article outlining how i used the law to force bethel to send me my personal files.

it is a very long article full of scans, so i have linked to it at http://jwfacts.com/watchtower/experiences/personal-files-privacy-act-1988.php.

in brief, in 2006 i requested that bethel send me my files on the basis that the australian privacy act 1988 entitles people to receive a copy of any information a corporation holds about them.

Paralipomenon

Wow, I am amazed with the lengths they went through to link you to the website. So far beyond "sheparding the flock", more like creepy stalking.

I also did note that one of the items on the form for "Dissassociated self by actions" was refusal to abstain from blood. Didn't they tell a government in Europe that their membership couldn't be dissassociated for taking blood when they were considering labeling them a cult?