That I know:
One teenage heroin user (showed off his tracks), two teenage marijuana users (showed me their stash), several teenage tobacco users (saw them smoking).
Others suspected. So, sure, just like every other religion.
VoidEater
JoinedPosts by VoidEater
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24
Did You Know Any Jehovah's Witnesses That "Did" Drugs?
by minimus inmy teenage daughter suggested to me that certain kids in well connected families were regular pot smokers.
it was always hush hush because of their connections but evidently it was common knowledge within the "in" crowd.. i knew some adults that were on prescription pills but they had legitimate excuses for being "happy".
of course, most jws i know of, medicate themselves on booze..
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49
How did you find the strength to leave?
by SAHARA into all of you exjws, i'm sure you've been asked this question one way or the other many times and i'm sure the answer is different for many of you, i'd like to know directly from you never having a chance to hear or read many exjw's answers to this.
knowing that you would be cut off from your family and friends and other consequences for your decision to leave, how did you ever get the strength to do it?
i mean really, i find it fascinating to know that there are so many of you who were at one time very devout, if not at the very least loyal to one of the most successful mind-contol organizations ever who believed all if not most of what the society taught and still you found the courage to risk everything once you accepted that it isn't what it claims to be.
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VoidEater
Either the void would eat me, or I would eat the void.
I tore down the foundation and felt empty.
But I felt clean for the first time.
And then I rebuilt.
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99
Why FAITH is actually a form of suicide
by Terry ini once heard a psychiatrist explain suicide as the ultimate act of self-preservation.
sound weird?.
counter-intuitive as that sounds, he went on to explain why.. when all you value in life is threatened you do whatever desperate act that will preserve that value.. destruction of self stops the ......process.....of consciously losing.
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VoidEater
The "self" is a personally-defined construct borne from self-identification.
At different psychological stages of growth this "self" can be flexible - meaning I may be capable of seeing my "self" as being limited to this specific body my awareness is rooted within, or I may identify my "self" with family, with social group, with Nation, or with the biosphere or universe.
We function as "self" in many ways, depending on need and situation. We can identify or behave in social contexts, and base our sense of "self" upon varying standards: functionally, emotionally, intellectually, sytematically. We are versatile that way.
To insist there is only one possible measure of "self" sounds rather cultish. We are herd animals.
Person might equal self, for some, at a particular psychological stage. But that's not a universal, for all persons, nor for all of a lifetime.
Differentiation is a process at a stage. There are others after that.
On the whole, I agree that religion is a mind-killer. But then, so is any cultish belief-system.
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27
How error entered the religious world
by hoj inadam and eve were to eat of any of the trees of the garden except the one.
they must have been fruit trees, since they were to eat of them.
eating (and drinking) in the bible is figurative of partaking of a message.
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VoidEater
The metaphor begins to break down with the gender reversal.
I think Leo did a pretty good job tracing the "tree" from earlier mythforms - the two trees (knwoledge and life) being the two aspects of godhood (omniscience and immortality).
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Religious explanations are CARTOON thinking
by Terry indoes death come to mankind because of sin?.
why does a cat die?
or a petunia?.
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VoidEater
All thinking is cartoon thinking.
It's worth repeating.
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28
Would Jesus have told us the devine name was lost?
by wannabe insome would just love to see it lost!
satan the devil maybe he`s a god!
{jehovah} 7 " 'i will make known my holy name among my people israel.
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VoidEater
Why did Jesus need to pray so hard and so long to converse with God (Himself)?
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33
Comment on Loneliness
by jgnat inone of the great lessons this board gave me is the cruelty of shunning by the jehovah's witnesses.
it is inhuman.
the toll it takes on a person cannot be underestimated.
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VoidEater
Comment: Loneliness can be a symtpom of guilt (as many things can be), but that isn't the whole ball of wax. It's just one take, one facet, one manifestation.
The animal that is hurt and alone may feel what we call loneliness. The lack of the Other at that point of time is a real impact on life. And the key to loneliness is finding a lack in solitude.
Solitude can be lonely, and being in a crowd can be lonely. Our thought processes, our needs, influence the experience, the emotion. Animals may not have our thinking apparatus, but mammals at the least have the physiological machinery for emotion.
I think, without the abstract thinking we have, most animals find no lack in solitude (generally). We make up a lot of stuff about solitude that leads to loneliness. And sometimes, guilt (which is a feeling of failure) makes us lonely in a variety of ways.
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VoidEater
1968 Firebird 400
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49
Would any of you DESTROY ones faith and life as a JW if they were your dying grandparents?
by EndofMysteries inthis is a serious question, trying to decide the right thing to do.........i do believe in god, i am sorting out what i believe and true from lie and such.
have question on how atheist and just ones belief in god would respond to this.. .
if you have a grandparent, (or even some relative) who spent their entire life as a jw.
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VoidEater
Treat it like a child and the issue of sex: do nothing more than answer their questions, honestly, shortly, directly.
Other than that - you're not going to have the time to support them to a new worldview.
Do you really think a loving God is going to hold their brainwashing against them?
...make them respect people who have a different view
That should always be a gift, I would support that. Removing prejudice and bias is always freeing (which is perhaps what the truth making you free is about).
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30
"The Vincible Ignorance of Atheism"
by leavingwt inone evangelical's perspective on atheism, and 'red meat' for all.
the vincible ignorance of atheism.
david harts recent essay on the new atheists has been receiving a great deal of attentionand criticism.
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VoidEater
We have to abandon the politically correct notion that atheism is intellectually respectable.
...and grant that belief in any god or gods or fairies or pink unicorns is "intellectually respectable?"
Sorry, that's a pretty biased statement and requires a whole constellation of presumed context to not be laughable.
Without being brain-washed taught a particular religion, all religion is equally mythical. But once hooked - well, suddenly everyone else is crazy.