there are a large number of very smart people here.
a vast array of intelligences has a power and scope quite out of the ordinary.. ask a question you've always wanted to know (not necessarily religious in nature; just in general) from trivia to personal inquiry......let it out now.
somebody will know the answer!
Why do we smile?
We are herd-ish animals and rely on a wide range of non-verbal communication to get along. Smiling tells others we are welcoming and available. Why "smiling" is the particular mechanism of communicating that is harder to say, but may be related to how difficult it is to eat someone while you are smiling - and the most "authentic" smile also involves the eyes, which would limit predator-like vision.
his through a darkened pane snippets were a welcome respite from the ubiquitous political and doctrinal wrangling on jwn.. do come back soon, coco.
your forlorn alabama friend.
sylvia.
I hope he tries the pasta recipe I sent for Penn al Forno - I'm not sure where the recipe came from, but it's a bit different from everything I found currently on the internet. It's one of my favorites (no, I'm not the cook of the house), and these days I think of him when eating it.
I love his artwork, and while we've not met I somehow feel a presence I think of as he when meditating upon it.
And what a writer!
Even now, I reflect upon his contemplations of the woods he walks through, and the desert I am in seems far away...
i find myself feeling angry.
i'm starting to realize that the anger i feel at this religion seems to feed on itself.
soon, i will be tried for my 'crimes' by men who honestly don't believe themselves to be policemen.
Christopher:
I understand.
For what it's worth, my experience of "God" is that there are no expectations, no demands, no judgments - none of those things come from God.
They come from within ourselves, and from those around us.
It is heart wrenching to have your loved one turn away from you, and to make you feel the interloper in your own home. I don't know if this means the relationship and the living situation are each beyond repair, but I do know that the first step in any life is liking the company you keep when you are alone. You need to value yourself and your needs as equally as you value another's.
Being "alone" can be daunting. Getting your feelings and understanding your needs and vlauing your own self can be a hard row at first, and may require professional therapy.
But do hang on to the fact that your relationship with yourself is primary - without that, you can only be a hollow shell actng out the expectations of others.
And if the one you're with doesn't value you as an individual worthy of equality to themselves, what does that say about your position in their life?
Love -ve
i've often said that the term/description "atheist" tell us so little.
the author below provides some descriptions that are more meaningful.. .
upon reviewing the list, i'm of the opinion that "religious atheists" are very common, but they are also likely to be "closet atheists".. .
Ah, an area where I am explicitly "narrow"...and still "friendly"!
i remember seeing the wt.
magazine's frequent use of the word "minimusize" in a positive light.
and there was the sound and smell of ground coffee that was in the background.
It's a vision of the future - the WTS will change their stance on "apostasy" and start welcoming questions, welcoming the Berean. You, Minimus, are to be the archtype upon which a new GB oracle will be inspired. Coffee will become the WTS sacrament.
This will happen within our generation (tm), any day now.
Lions will be available in the library for petting.
it is common, as a thought-stopping mechanism amongst jehovah's witnesses, to use phrases like "don't question jehovah" or "don't question the organization".
often, as evidenced in a recent watchtower study article, biblical examples are given like that of diotrephes, who opposed john in the first century, or korah, dathan, and abiram, who questioned moses' authority and were barbecued in the wilderness.
these are pointed to as examples of those who questioned jehovah and suffered condemnation or even death as a result.
SD: I am, again, quite taken with your evidence and style...thank you.
within the past decade, two elders stepped down in my old congregation.
actually one was taken off for commiting adultery and therefore reproved, but the other one simply stepped down for no apparent reason.
also, in another congregation i used to attend for a short time, i was shocked to hear of another elder stepping down, again for no apparent reason.. i am wondering if there has been an increase in the number of elders stepping down for no obvious reason and to see if this is a worrying trend causing alarm for the society.. i am thinking the past 10 years, particularly with the internet being available to so many people around the world today; but have you experienced many elders stepping down in your congregation or past congregation?
It was rare when I was associated. I think my dad is the only one I can remember stepping down. It caused a flurry.
i notice the jw's don't really donate to charities.
when i donated to the earthquake in haiti, my husband didn't really say anything about it.
silence usually means he doesn't agree with something because of his religious beliefs.
Growing up I was told, If you can give money to a charity, why wouldn't you instead give it to the Society?
how many fit this description provided by no longer held captive?.
as a nurse, i can tell you that their lives wont go well.
usually abused females end up neurotics and suffer from personality disorders, and more often than not, anorexic.
Dear Lady Lee: I hear you.
I sometimes think I had a small vestige of self worth only because my abuser got paid when he pimped me out. He even shared some of that money with me.
Amazing what determnation and therapy can do to improve things, and it's been two years since I've had a nightmare of that time.
i was born into "the truth" back in 1964. i made the big mistake of getting baptised when i was about 14 or so, purely to please my father as i saw how proud he was when my brothers were baptised....didn't work.. we moved to a new congregation when i was about 8, he introduced all my brothers to the congregation by name, a short bio of thier endearing qualities and how proud he was of them, when he introduced me it was "and this is our black sheep of the family, steve".. i remember living in fear at the fast approaching 1975....actually, living in terror is probably a more apt desciption.
all of you will full well know how it was instilled into us at every meeting and assembly how we are living in the last days.. as a 15 year old, a brother dobbed me in for kissing a worldly girl at school.
went through the marked process, judicial committy, disfellowshipped and the shunning which continues to this day by what's left of my family.
I also was born in (a number of years before 1964, though).
I watched 1975 appriach with actual interest - what was it going to be like, this End of this System of Things?
I feared nothing about it. I had been baptized at 9, was mostly dissociative (psychologically) from the horrors of my childhood, and was ready to start petting my lion.
By 1977 (allowing Jehovah two years to have gotten around to creating Eve and calling it a Day), I had decided Armageddon probably wasn't coming, and probably by the early 1980s it was out of my system for good.
