Posts by Eric

12

Word from the platform...?

by ESTEE in

it's not easy trying to be a borg member.... and the transition to living in the real world is not an easy journey either ... .

soooo ... really ... it is all about choice ... because the transition to living is do-able!!!

earlier this week monkeyprincess wrote about talking to her mom about conditional and unconditional love.... she responded with "i love all you girls too, but not unconditionally".

Closest thing I've ever heard from the platform was advice and direction (read orders) for those with disfellowshipped family members. I believe it was one of those 'special needs' talks that get rolled out of the archives whenever a congregation gets infected with independant thinking.

It went a lot like this: "Brothers, you may not find it easy to withdraw your contact, your association, your support, from a close family member. From someone you have deep affection for, from someone you love.

"But consider, brothers, your deeper concern in this matter. (Pregnant pause) Your concern for their everlasting salvation, for their spiritual well-being, indeed, concern for their everlasting life!

"How then will you show your love for these ones? Jehovah, the God of love, has provided the answer in His Scriptures..."

And then of course the speaker rolled out the whole treated as a tax collector, not even eating with such a one verses.

I know it's not exactly what you were looking for Estee, but what I recollect from that talk was a perfect example of something the JW's are expert at, the Orwellian double-think. Black-White.

I will show my great love for this person by withdrawing my love.

Or in the terms you expressed it, I can prove my unconditional love for this person by placing conditions upon it.

And thus do the JW's practice conditional love. By being taught that is nothing of the sort.

Eric

87

Who are the A/As on the board?

by starfish422 in

not alcoholics anonymous, mind you.

:) atheists/agnostics.

i know there are some of us here; who's with me?

Eric

I can look at a craggy upthrust snow-capped peak, marvel at the tenacity of life that scales it, each up to its maximum elevational limits, hike through that peak's varying zones stunned by the variety of life that exists at every turn and never once call to mind the likelyhood of a Creator.

What causes me to ponder is, why does all this richness affect me so as to call it beauty? Is it just an ancient signal that I've found an area of reliable food source? Why do I want to photograph it and show it to my friends? To bring my discovery of plenitude back to my tribe? We all have barbeques and freezers full of meat.

For that matter, why does green and blue look so good together? Trees and sky, perhaps. Is that hardwired into me from ages ago as a safe place? What can these things of beauty mean?

Then I remember that I find beauty in the sound of electric guitars and the whole thought trend collapses under its own weight.

I accept that there may be a force we can't describe properly yet that does or did something. I don't see a need for this force to exist, but it's impossible to rule it out. Just as it is impossible to rule out that it once existed, but does not exist any more.

As for such a force having a personality, writing books for us through men, being in a battle with other forces, placing us in the middle, arranging for my salvation or damnation, desirous of my worship, well, no.

Some of the people who do believe in God also hold a place reserved for things of great beauty for me.

It is the religions and the actions taken in the name of God that hold my unreserved contempt.

Eric

47

Do you eat out alot?

by iiz2cool in

jw
friends

i eat out a fair bit.

i used to eat out alot more - two or three times a day, but i've cut back to about three times a week.

restaurant food is starting to get to me.

Eric

Oh, ALL the time!

I ever find a dead cockroach in what I'm eating, she's outta here!

Sorry,

Eric

105

Anti-Americanism

by Englishman in

jw
friends

how do you define someone as anti-american?

if you strongly disapprove of, say, america's foreign policies, yet basically have an affection for american people, does this still make you an anti-american?

is it possible that people are being accused of being anti-american inaccurately?

Eric

dubla,

For gosh sakes, would you quit trying to sharpen soap.

If you can tell who is and who is not Anti-American just based on their posts, bloody well cough it up and say who, where and when!

Don't make a claim, then sit there and argue your way out of it. Prove your claim!

Sheez.

Eric, fully expecting to read, "if you read what I wrote...I need more detail..." and any of a thousand other soap sharpening excuses.

11

27393 Days... what are you doing with them?

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

i did some simple math realized that if a person lives 75 years they only get 27,393 days.

not very many days when you stop and think about it.. i've already burned through more than 11,322 days... almost half.

what are you doing with your 27 thousand days?

Eric

Hmmm,

Another way of counting my life expectancy would be the number of heartbeats I might reasonably expect to have. So let's see here, at an average heartrate of , say, 72 bpm:

72 x 60(minutes in an hour) = 4,320 bphour

4,320 x 24(hours in a day) = 103,680 bpday

103,680 x 365.25(days in a year) = 37,869,120 bpyear

37,869,120 x 75(years in my life) = 2,840,184,000 heartbeats in my lifetime.

Now, I don't believe that my heartspring was wound up with a certain number of beats from the moment it began ticking, it's just another way of using a number to look at the way I live my life.

So if I've got roughly 2.8 billion beats in my chest to work with, I think I should try to be sure that enough of them are spent with my heart trip-hammering with excitement. Sexual exitement, competitive exertion, adrenalin sports, and challenging the bogeymen of my fears.

I should try to be be sure enough of them are spent percussing loud and slow within me, as I share my partner's afterglow.

My heart should expend enough beats for my brain to encompass the much larger thoughts of people who think more deeply than I do.

I should take care that my heart does not beat fast for what I cannot have.

I should notice how smoothly my heart beats when I am doing good for others, how congestive and panicked my heartbeat becomes when I set myself up for disaster.

With 2.8 billion heartbeats to work with, I can only hope I spend mine well, and that I don't waste them on people who don't care that, in the end, my number is finite.

Eric

47

The Case For God

by Farkel in

a caterpillar.

although there are many more examples in nature for wonderment, the caterpillar is spectacularly unique.

imagine one animal changing into an entirely different species in just a few months;from a multi-legged ugly grub into a stunningly beautiful winged insect.

Eric

Tell us again, uncle Farkle, how the caterpillar is spectacularly unique. Tell us again!

Cups overflow with beauty you may not have imagined. If God is in the details of a butterfly's wings, why can he not be seen in the larvae of its predator? If beauty is seen in a butterfly's wings, why should it not be seen in an early frost which paralyzes it?

If God fits the gap of Beauty, then it is indeed in the eye of the beholder. If God fits the gap of your amazement, perhaps your amazement can be satisfied by education.

But you know this already.

Eric

47

The Case For God

by Farkel in

a caterpillar.

although there are many more examples in nature for wonderment, the caterpillar is spectacularly unique.

imagine one animal changing into an entirely different species in just a few months;from a multi-legged ugly grub into a stunningly beautiful winged insect.

Eric

To continue peacefulpete's thought, (I hope)

There are also tons of other insects which spend much of their life-cyle as multilegged crawlers and borers, inflicting ruinous plant damage, only to metamorph into winged adults for mating.

The caterpillar and butterfly just have good PR.

That is if they get past the stage where nematodes by the hundreds might bore their way up their anal tract and gut them from the inside.

Personally, I'm rooting for the nematodes.

Eric

6

Reprints of Mag articles from Evolution book

by shiloh in

anyone have any direction i can go in to get reprints of the magazine articles quoted in the "life" book?

Eric

Shiloh,

The scan is up at: http://members.rogers.com/esegec/How_Old_Is_It.html

Please note the disclaimer at the top.

My pleasure,

Eric

6

Reprints of Mag articles from Evolution book

by shiloh in

anyone have any direction i can go in to get reprints of the magazine articles quoted in the "life" book?

Eric

Shiloh,

Hard to believe, but I have the November 1979 issue of Popular Science sitting on a dusty shelf in a room upstairs.

>>>goes and checks>>>

Yep. "How old is it? - the elegant art of dating ancient objects", by Robert Gannon.

I could see what my scanner can do with it, or do you need the bona fide original?

Eric

133

HARSH FINAL COURT DECISION IN VICKI BOER V. WATCHTOWER TRIAL

by hawkaw in

jw
friends

i have some unique and troubling news.

i just got off the telephone with scott boer, vicki boer's husband and before that vicki.

her honour, justice anne molloy, has just ruled on the legal cost issue in the boer case.

Eric

Aww, Bloody hell, Hawkaw!

I was only able to get down to attend one day of the original case last year, but I followed it daily in the papers (due in no small part to your efforts), and found what I could on TV news. I was there just after Vicki's lawyer had lost a JW camp motion to exclude his expert witnesses. Due to some filing omission on his part.

It seems to have gone downhill from there.

Bloody Hell!

Oh Vicki, Vicki, protect yourself! Your story got told, you were right all along! Yes Vicki, you were right all along, no court could negate that! The court itself had to say so!

The rest has been a horrible pissing contest between lawyers, and I am so, so sad that your repesentation basically could do no more than stain his own socks.

Oh Vicki, I am just so sad to hear this news.

Please find a way to be safe and OK.

Love, Eric