Posts by marmot

171

Have you changed your mind about ABORTION?

by nicolaou in

i'm not after a discussion on the rights or wrongs on abortion, what i'm asking is whether or not your views have evolved over time.. perhaps leaving the watchtower was enough to allow your true feelings on abortion to find expression.

maybe abortion is one of those subjects where you still find yourself in agreement with your old jw self.

did becoming a mother change your perspective in any way or solidify your views?.

marmot

It's a toughie, for sure.

I'm still morally opposed to it because I think it's a very selfish act (consequences of rapes and incest notwithstanding). I mean face it, sex is an act of procreation. If you don't want to deal with the consequences of that act then take the appropriate measures to prevent it by using birth control. If there IS a pregnancy despite all that, I still think that there are many people who would gladly take that child and give it a good home.

Another tough moral call is the case of abortions following in-utero testing that shows congenital birth defects. Not only is such testing not 100% accurate, but people with disabilities are just as capable of leading full and productive lives as the rest of us.

With advances in genetic testing, this form of pregnancy screening could very well lead to selection based on mere physical appearance or potential personality traits. Already in India and China there is rampant abortion of perfectly healthy female fetuses just because male children are more socially desirable.

To sum up, no I do not personally agree with abortion but neither do I believe in imposing my views on others. If such actions are truly harmful to society, then the effects will manifest themselves with time and the problem will correct itself.

In a sense we can already see these consequences. Much of the developed world is tipping into a population decline because of fewer births and later pregnancies in life. Immigrant populations are exploding because of much higher birth rates and lower numbers of abortions, which is changing the very fabric of western society.

19

Any cigar smokers in here?

by marmot in

i don't like cigarettes all that much (even though i actually tried to take up the habit, i found out i don't have an addictive personality - same reason why i'm not a coffee person either) but i do enjoy a nice cigar.

notice i said a nice cigar, not those nasty chemically-flavored things that taste like froot loops and smell like a crotch fire.

i'm talking about a nice cuban monte cristo or a real leaf-wrapped cigarillo.

marmot

I don't like cigarettes all that much (even though I actually TRIED to take up the habit, I found out I don't have an addictive personality - same reason why I'm not a coffee person either) but I do enjoy a nice cigar.

Notice I said a NICE cigar, not those nasty chemically-flavored things that taste like froot loops and smell like a crotch fire. I'm talking about a nice cuban Monte Cristo or a real leaf-wrapped cigarillo.

I enjoy the aroma and the ritual involved in smoking one, and the little bit of nicotine is relaxing especially if it's combined with a dram of single-malt scotch.

Granted there are health concerns but I believe this is mitigated by simple moderation. If you think about it, a summer barbecue is a cancerous death-trap what with all the carcinogenic charcoal-seared fatty meat and UV radiation and cirrhosis-inducing cold beer, but you don't have a barbecue every single day. Same goes for cigars, IMHO.

21

I'm giving the CO a "green-handshake" tonight! HELP!

by MinisterAmos in

jw
friends

i'm planning on giving him t w o dollars!

and i plan on making a h u g e deal of it as i secretly tickle his palm with the bills.

any hints?

marmot

Donate some of those novelty million dollar bills.

43

HOW CLEAN IS YOUR HOUSE? (fluff test)

by Mary in

jw
friends

ever see those two british women on tv that go into some slob's home that looks like something out of a stephen king novel?

take their quiz to see if you're a neat-freak, or a sloth-in-waiting: http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/100/quiz.jsp.

here's mine:.

marmot

I'm normally pretty good about keeping a clean home but mood cycles tend to affect that. Right now I'm in a phase where I have NO clean dishes in the entire house and there are piles of dirty laundry all over the bathroom and bedroom.

It's not like I have anyone to impress. The dog doesn't seem to mind, in fact he likes to make little beds out of dirty T-shirts.

Bachelor life FTW.

3

Ken Miller on human evolution

by freefly in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi8ffmbyckk&mode=related&search=.

do you believe we evolved from primates?

what are your arguments against human evolution?.

marmot

It kinda bugs me now when people make the claim that evolution is random. It isn't. It's life adapting to a changing environment.

This youtube video shows it pretty well, except instead environmental factors used as a guide to determine an outcome, they assign images.

It illustrates how highly improbable outcomes are possible with natural selection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2SVMKZhV2g&NR=1

20

This is the argument my dad used to justify "new light"

by marmot in

i was talking with my dad the other week and i revealed my doubts (well, not doubts really, conviction) that noah's flood didn't cover the earth.

he tried the usual, first he printed up all the stuff on the flood that he could find on the wt cd (even though i told him that i already read everything the society has ever written about the flood) and when that failed to convince me he brought out the ol' trust in jehovah(tm) line .

plus, he said that since i was so enamored with science to disprove the flood i should consider how science doesn't have the same position on certain subjects compared to the past and that it's based on progressive understanding.

marmot

I was talking with my dad the other week and I revealed my doubts (well, not doubts really, conviction) that Noah's flood didn't cover the earth.

He tried the usual, first he printed up all the stuff on the flood that he could find on the WT CD (even though I told him that I already read everything the society has ever written about the flood) and when that failed to convince me he brought out the ol' Trust in Jehovah(tm) line

Plus, he said that since I was so enamored with science to disprove the flood I should consider how science doesn't have the same position on certain subjects compared to the past and that it's based on progressive understanding.

This stopped me in my tracks for a bit, but something didn't seem quite right about that line of reasoning. True, science clings tenaciously to views that may be thrown aside after a new discovery is made, but old scientific views aren't covered up and hidden away.

Plus, science has a peer review process, unlike the "new light" system which relies only on the contributions of a self-serving isolated group of old men in an ivory tower in Brooklyn.

24

Wow, it just clicked. I'm agnostic!

by marmot in

i honestly don't think i've ever been this happy in my life.

of course, i've got bipolar ii so i might just be edging on a bout of hypomania but i'm good at taking my med so this could very well be genuine!

i'm so excited at the new look on life this has given me.

marmot

Nope, no PMs yet. I don't quite think I'm exactly atheist, though. I think there's the possibility of something that initially kicked-started everything in our universe into motion, but I don't think there's any omnipotent accountant-executioner in the sky.

If you read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins I fall into his classification of agnostic.

24

Wow, it just clicked. I'm agnostic!

by marmot in

i honestly don't think i've ever been this happy in my life.

of course, i've got bipolar ii so i might just be edging on a bout of hypomania but i'm good at taking my med so this could very well be genuine!

i'm so excited at the new look on life this has given me.

marmot

I honestly don't think I've ever been this happy in my life. Of course, I've got bipolar II so I might just be edging on a bout of hypomania but I'm good at taking my med so this could very well be genuine!

I'm so excited at the new look on life this has given me. To think: there's no Jehovah (or other active god for that matter), no divine intervention in human affairs, nobody knows what happens after death aside from physical decay, no "sides" to be a part of, only the here and now.

I must say this is a very refreshing and empowering philosophy, it makes you accountable for your own actions and makes you want to try your hardest to make the present (and future) a good place to be. There's no cop-out future Deus ex machina to base your life around.

I don't begrudge other people their beliefs, though, but it seems to make so much more sense to base life around your actions and their effect on your world around you than something intangible and highly contentious like "faith".

There may be a hereafter, or a resurrection, or reincarnation, or whatever but it's impossible to prove so I'm just going to live my life to the best of my ability and hopefully die old and satisfied someday surrounded by a big loving family who will carry that feeling on through my genes.

Thanks for listening.

22

JWD Prophets! You called it, what next?

by Wasanelder Once in

you guys are amazing.

for some time posters here have been saying that big changes were afoot and that the "members only" wt would be used to announce this new light.

i admit i was apathetic and thought, ok, maybe.

marmot

My prediction:

The society will admit that Noah's flood did not cover the entire planet. Simple geology blasts this right out of the water (no pun intended) and it is completely impossible to argue for a global flood without reaching into a bag of miracles or sounding like a complete loon (like those "Answers in Genesis" blowhards).

Of course, they would also have to admit that Adam and Eve were just Jewish folklore because there's hard proof (carbon-dated, tree-ring dated, you name it) that humans have been around for much longer than 6,000 years. THAT ain't gonna happen because it throws a wrench into the whole theology, so they'll probably just clam up about everything instead and hope nobody asks.

And if you DO ask then it means you don't Trust in Jehovah(tm).

61

Exciting announcements at service meeting

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

we've already had a post on this, but there were other interesting comments.. the brother giving the announcements said that there would be a new understanding of jesus' reference to the generation as discussed at the annual meeting.. an elder giving a service meeting part review of different watchtower articles from the current year brought out the new light concerning 1935.. he asks: "when is the sealing of the anounted ones?".

elder answers: "there is no specific date".

later after the meeting, i asked an elder if the new understanding of the remnant now meant that younger people could go to heaven.. he answered with an affirmative "yes" and that we would be getting the new understanding of the generation jesus spoke of in a future 2008 watchtower.. .

marmot

I still can't see how the 1935 thing could be "new light" though, since there has been a member of the governing body for some time now who was born AFTER that (David Splane).