Yep--Paypal! Can do!
Maeve
ps. Yadda yadda, it's okay to sometimes drop a few coins for a friend--as someone or other once said: the poor are always with us :)
is there any way we can try to start a crowd-fund to help terry get some wheels quicker than he currently can?
with craigslist and a couple of bucks from a few members we can help terry get moving.
does anyone have any ideas how we can do a "theists for terry" bike fund raiser and challenge the atheists to a bucket-head challenge?
Yep--Paypal! Can do!
Maeve
ps. Yadda yadda, it's okay to sometimes drop a few coins for a friend--as someone or other once said: the poor are always with us :)
as a jehovah's witness:.
two things finally struck me:.
for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now i know in part, but then i will know fully just as i also have been fully known.. _______________________.
Right--we were always given the GB "milk" instead of solid food-any sign that we were trying to chew any solid food we had taken away and our teeth knocked out. so to speak
( important note: my husband hated that i became a jw.
hated everything about it.).
he is the one who every morning makes our coffee in his beat-up metal perculator.
minimus, Terry--
Yep--I am still smiling about it-
Poor guy--22 years of having a JW for a -(cough)-partner. He hasn't said much about it since I left--until this morning's coffee.
I DID use to pour over those mags.
We are both glad I finally got OUT!
Happy Saturday morning to you!
( important note: my husband hated that i became a jw.
hated everything about it.).
he is the one who every morning makes our coffee in his beat-up metal perculator.
( Important note: My husband HATED that I became a JW. Hated everything about it.)
Now----
He is the one who every morning makes our coffee in his beat-up metal perculator. And this morning shuffling around the kitchen with the fresh perked coffee pot in his hand exclaimed "There is one thing I will say that I really miss about you leaving the Witnesses"
--and I will say I was shocked to hear this. My mind drew a complete blank as to what this fervent and thoughtful hater of the Organization would MISS about me being a JW... so I waited to hear this revelation:
"In the past I could always find one of those GOD-DAMNED Awakes or Watchtowers on the table to set the coffee pot on!"
from biblegateway:.
jesus forgives a woman taken in adulterythis story, beloved for its revelation of god's mercy toward sinners, is found only in john.
it was almost certainly not part of john's original gospel.
Phizzy,
I have gone with gut feelings about Jesus since leaving organized religion. The teachings either find a home in me or I throw them out. Is this cherry-picking? I'm not the only one then. There are ancient texts that early church fathers dis-allowed or cherry-picked from the beginning. Texts that suggest that Jesus never styled himself as the "Apostles Creed" does.
The story of the woman taken in adultery is wonderful--whoever told it.
Maeve
this is my first time posting here, although i have been a visitor to it for around a year.
after doing a simple google search under "jehovah'switnesses" over a year ago, i found ttat.
i was deeply unhappy with the congregation and decided to educate myself, and boy what an education i have gotten so far.
Airborne,
That was a great letter. It left a way for the men who read it to reflect. Or if it sticks in their craw--well, they still have to deal with the points you made so well.
i hve continued to live by the teachings that have been attributed to Jesus. I do not trust the Bible, however, which leave me to a great deal of discretion as to how I follow Jesus. Called cherry-picking by some. I have no trouble hearing good teachings where ever it comes from. In the end we have to answer to our own heart. We have to be honest with ourselves.
All the best!
maeve
three months ago i had to stop driving my car.
it wouldn't pass inspection and it would cost about $3k to get it up to par.. well, it's a 98 honda accord with about 179 thousand miles on it, what did i expect?.
.. i decided i would switch to riding a bicycle instead.. it has worked out fairly well.. i put about 10 miles a day on it.
It is a particular pain to have the thief look you over and still rob you. More personal. Rotten to loose your transportation and have to buy it again. Maeve
after reading dozens and dozens of posts and hundreds of comments, it seems to me that a great many people on this forum think that since they figured out ttatt, they must therefore be a highly intelligent and incredibly rational individual.
let me take a moment to congratulate everyone.
its a big step to figure this out - i know.. that said, it doesn't make you a genius!
Coded Logic,
Forms of logic that I have not learned that you have studied: Epistemology, Inductive Reasoning, Deductive Reasoning, Abductive Reasoning, Instrumental Rationality, Syllogisms, Logical absolutes, and Synthetic and Analytic Distinctions.
But this in no way suggests that I lack what is the first prerequisite of reasonableness or the ability to be logical: having an open mind.
Even when a person doesn't know these things you named, they may yet possess the positive attributes of skepticism that allow for successful navigation in the world of conflicting claims. Naming a Logical Absolute or an Instrumental Rationality is not essential to reasonable thought, is it?
Does my confession of ignorance of logical forms mean I need a lesson how to have an open mind? What? You directed me to the video which featured a lesson in how to have an open mind simply because I do not know the list of words given above? Is that logical?
I am not sure of what to think of this situation. But is it possible that the illusion of superiority can cause one to assume that no uneducated person can have an open mind?
A great hero of mine is an illiterate former slaves named Sojourner Truth whose simple grasp of logic was a powerful instrument in countering the educated voices that believed that blacks were inferior to whites and that women were not deserving of rights equal to men.
By the way, Coded Logic, that was a great video-- everyone in the world should see it--no one needs to go to college to understand what it is saying.
Maeve
yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
Psac,
You say that "Compassion doesn't have anything to do with the Golden Rule per se" ?
Compassion IS the Golden Rule.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is one biblical translation. One's personal experience is the instructor of course. We know what is good for ourselves and are enjoined to consider that this is likewise the same for others. What hurts me will likewise pain them.
The Golden Rule, also translated as "Love thy neighbor as thyself" was well illustrated by Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan. Whether or not the Samaritan had suffered himself at the hands of robbers, we do not know. We do not know whether or not the priest or the levite had ever been beaten. But the story says the Samaritan, when he saw the beaten man, had compassion on him.
The story in Luke 10 both tells us the meaning of the Golden Rule (compassion) and how far it is meant to extend.
But the rule is not concerned with the origins of suffering. It simply relates how we should relate to sufferers.
You may choose to believe that God will at some future date restore the dead who suffered and died. But this much I can see for myself: the world is full of suffering and humans do NOT always respond with compassion to the sufferings of others (again, see the behavior of the priest and the levite in Jesus' illustration). Therefore, suffering on the scale that was manifested by the tsunami is a profligate, callous waste of life if this was God's way of re-hashing a precept that is/was already familiar to most people on earth while He himself disregarded the good example of that god-damnedSamaritan.
If suffering proves the compassions of God and his existence, then I hope I burn in hell.
yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.
we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.
they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.
Compassion is universally valued, PSac.
The Golden Rulen in its various wordings among non-christians throughout the ages teaches compassion. Humans realize this all over he earth.
When suffering comes--and you properly say we all face it sooner or later--it does not matter how it comes to us. Humans who have been hurt know that it matters to comfort or help remedy the causes. The Golden Rule is the description of compassion for others. But what evidence is there that God-of-the-Bible invented compassion?
The Bible says that we deserve suffering and death for disobeying God a few thousand years ago. Compassion is a recent development in the Judeo-Christian timeline. But what of the evidence that compassion has been a part of other cultures clear outside the range of Jesus even?
Compassion is hands down the most important thing we have in this world, PSac. But suffering doesn't prove the existence of God.
Maeve