Posts by GentlyFeral

4

Godzilla

by 5go in

.

GentlyFeral

Gojira! Gojira will save us from Cthulhu!

gently feral

57

The power of witches and occultism

by greendawn in

many believe that the power of witches, male or female, to cause a great deal of harm and suffering by invoking the venomous power of the demons is an evident fact.

there are many stories of such activities going on, the casting of spells, enchantments and curses, harming humans in a psychological way through the use of these invisible powers.

some believe these are just fanciful ideas and fairy tales, the atheists have no option after all but to believe this.

GentlyFeral

Abbaddon,

I have a magic wallet I can sell you...

If it's your own magic, I'm interested

gently feral

42

Do You Sleep ...

by compound complex in

jw
friends

sporadically?.

when depressed?.

while walking?

Reluctantly, because waking life is so interesting when I'm not at work. I put off bedtime partly to put off the drudgery of the next workday. If I could depend on having equally interesting dreams, I'd go to sleep more willingly :)

GentlyFeral

35

You Were My First Love And Youll Be My Last Love ...

by The wanderer in

jw
friends

you were my first love and youll be my last love ...living in florida has given me the opportunity to see couples who have been.

together for decades sometimes dating back to the second world war.. .

it has always amazed me how some couples can stay together for 20, 30, 40 .

GentlyFeral

Thread resurrection – don't you love it? :-)

anewme,

What does it take to make the other person truly happy? If the price is too high for you it will not work in the long run.

Halfway down the first page, and you are the first person to say anything of this kind. Marriages fail, not only because of selfishness; not because of failure of willpower; but because one (or both) demands or needs what the other cannot give.

My husband and I have been extremely lucky in that regard. AlmostAtheist said that you can't depend on life's changes and growth experiences leading you and your spouse in the same direction. I'm not sure if that's true or not. Surely proximity and influence count for something?

Anyway, I suppose we are, in some respects, "growing apart." But that's not a bad thing: we are not becoming alienated from each other, we are simply exploring different territory. Most of these separate explorations are about intellectual and artistic matters, which don't always carry the same emotional weight as, for instance, exploring new areas of sexuality -- but we've done that too, and it's brought us closer rather than driven us apart (even though we have ended up in somewhat different places). Religion/spirituality is another highly charged area of life which could operate as a wedge between us -- but we don't allow it. We've done that, got burned, and won't submit to such an experience again. God can take care of Itself; we must take care of each other.

(Incidentally, I realized that it was safe to leave the jaydubs when I discovered that Jehovah himself was unable to break us up. And I felt that he had tried!)

gently feral

45

Why do people hide on this site?

by Adolfius in

jw
friends

something i've noticed when reading the various threads on this site, is that so many people seem to be afraid.

their scared of being disfellowshipped, scared of being shunned, scared of not being accepted by the congregation, scared that people may find out they don't believe anymore, scared if anyone was to find out they use this site.

there is advice for people on how to avoid being disfellowshipped, if they may have "said too much" about their thoughts, or how to fade without being noticed.. i don't understand this.

GentlyFeral

Adolfius,

Yet in the borg, people will go completely against their natural feelings, and almost pretend a family member never existed just because they have what amounts to a simple difference of opinion. How does that work? How can the borg exercise such control?

jgnat said it most succinctly:

Fear.

Fear that they, too, will be shunned and disfellowshipped in their turn. And to be DF'd means that your salvation, your place in the Paradise Earth™ has been snatched away from you.

You were raised in it and it didn't take – my own children are the same way, thank god :) – so perhaps you never went through the stage adult converts go through, where all other sources of hope and reason are systematically discredited.

gently feral

57

The power of witches and occultism

by greendawn in

many believe that the power of witches, male or female, to cause a great deal of harm and suffering by invoking the venomous power of the demons is an evident fact.

there are many stories of such activities going on, the casting of spells, enchantments and curses, harming humans in a psychological way through the use of these invisible powers.

some believe these are just fanciful ideas and fairy tales, the atheists have no option after all but to believe this.

GentlyFeral

Homerovah,

the only power they may have is in their minds and thats about it .

That's actually enough for most purposes :)

gently feral

38

Tilapia aka St. Peter's Fish

by snowbird in

jw
friends

we had some delicious sauteed tilapia today.

i know tilapia is called st. peter's fish, but i thought this was due to their abundance in the sea of galilee where peter did most of his fishing.. i checked wikipedia and looked what i found:.

certain species of tilapia are sometimes called "st. peter's fish".

GentlyFeral

I'm very fond of farm-raised tilapia. Reminds me of trout, rather than catfish (more gelatinous in texture; not my thing). Trader Joe's is another place where you can get it cheap. GentlyFeral

11

The Joys of Motherhood...

by zeroday in

jw
friends

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fz7wqce09_q

GentlyFeral

narkissos, the RU486 "commercial" comes from MAD-TV, one of the most "out-there" comedy sketch shows on American commercial (free) television. Submerged cultural references: Susan Smith, possibly Andrea Yates, and all the paranoid-myopic Puritan assumptions that underlie the "abstinence education" movement.

gently feral

72

what a pathetic site this is, so sorry i joined

by donna4174 in

to everyone looking at these pages you are all demonic and will be judged when jehovahs day is near dont leave it to late you sinners of satan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!

GentlyFeral

At least you spelled "site" correctly. Congratulations.

GentlyFeral

25

How Long Were You In Spiritual "No--Man's Land"???

by minimus in

jw
friends

when you started understanding that the "truth" wasn't all that it was cracked up to be, how long did it take for you to get mentally and/or physically out??

?

GentlyFeral

That's actually a fairly difficult question to answer.

You know the cyclical pattern of "spiritual high" or "spiritual strength" gradually sliding down to "spiritual slump" and back up again? In about 1992 or -3, I realized that I wasn't climbing out of the trough. Not only was I not recovering my "joy" and "faith," I didn't care whether I recovered or not. And yet the possibility that I was not in the true religion didn't occur to me. I didn't know enough about either comparative religion or psychology to make that assessment. Doctrinally, I thought the JW's were superior, and the brothers didn't treat me all that badly.

In '94, we missed the convention - a sign of dire "spiritual illness" - and I didn't care. About that time, we quit meetings altogether.

In '95, I read Hassan's Combatting Cult Mind Control. I recognized patterns of cult thinking - not in the Spoof, but in myself. "Well," I thought, "my religion may not be a cult, but I am reacting as if it is! I'm going to have to leave Jehovah's witnesses to be any use to God at all."

Three weeks later, I was out.

GentlyFeral