Posts by mindmelda

51

How many Elders does it take to change a light bulb?

by karter in

jw
friends

??????????????

?.

mindmelda

One to screw it in, while making sure everyone knows how much he's sacrificing for them, and three ministerial servants to kiss his arse while he's doing it.

29

Is It Wrong To Pretend??

by chron82 in

jw
friends

at the current time, my wife and i are just trying to fade away in order to keep family ties on my side.

last night my wife said that she feels bad about being affiliated with the witnesses at all.

i too feel bad about it.... i don't want to be responsible for misleading people.. i told her that in order to keep communication between myself and my family open, i can justify going to meetings.

Why the hell not? They don't think it's wrong to lie to other people to preserve their beliefs to those wordly people who are all trying to destroy them because they're Satan's dupes. Why should it be wrong to lie to them to preserve your own beliefs?

That's only reasonable if you still believe that they have some special worthiness that makes them too sacred and loved by God to be lied to. Do you think God is going to punish you for lying to Witnesses?

I can assure you, that doesn't happen. I lie to Witnesses all the time in my fade, mostly family members who live far away and so far, no lightening bolts. At least, not in the last 7 years.

290

What hope is there then?

by sayitsnotso in

if jws don't have the truth; if there is no paradise earth; if there is no end of this system; if death is all there is, then what hope do we have to look forward too?.

mindmelda

It's believing that there JUST has to be MORE than just living an fulfilling ordinary human life span that the WTS sticks in your head to get you to buy their snake oil.

What does there NEED to be to be for a human to be happy? Selling utopia is nothing new, not really. All you have to do is first convince someone that they need or deserve more than what is ordinary or that it's the big answer to all of mankinds admittedly numerous problems of various sorts.

But, how do you know that living forever is what makes humans happy? No one has ever done it, so how do you know that works? What's being played on there is the normal fear of pain, disease and death.

If we weren't afraid of it, we'd not do too much to help or keep ourselves alive. It's just normal to have a sense of self-preservation, but using that to convince people they'd be happier if they never died is pretty theoretical. There's absolutely no way to prove that, who would you use as a test case to prove the point,there's no human anyone alive now has ever met who hasn't experienced aging and death.

Imagine a world where no one ages or dies. The first thing you'd get rid of is procreation or we'd be up to our chins in humans! The only reason sex is so intrinsic to our nature now is we have to replenish the species or it'd die out. So, no sex necessary. Sounding great so far? Well hell no, because we have a lot invested in reproduction, nurturing children and families and all that, quite a bit of our nature is involved in making social connections that further all that!

But, no need for any of that in the deathless future world, unless you want to volunteer to jump into the oven ala Logan's Run at age 30 to make room for new humans or take your chances with some sort of afterlife.

I'm afraid that some sort of afterlife is the only metaphysics you can sell folks that doesn't involve a total reworking of human nature like some bizarro Star Trek future world full of deathless sexless unchallenged people who run around feeding Val...I mean worshipping Jehovah.

11

Darwin's Theory of Universal Common Ancestry Confirmed

by leavingwt in

first large-scale formal quantitative test confirms darwin's theory of universal common ancestrysciencedaily (may 17, 2010) more than 150 years ago, darwin proposed the theory of universal common ancestry (uca), linking all forms of life by a shared genetic heritage from single-celled microorganisms to humans.

until now, the theory that makes ladybugs, oak trees, champagne yeast and humans distant relatives has remained beyond the scope of a formal test.

now, a brandeis biochemist reports in nature the results of the first large scale, quantitative test of the famous theory that underpins modern evolutionary biology.. the results of the study confirm that darwin had it right all along.

mindmelda

Are there really people of a spiritual bent here that try to debunk evolution at this late date?

It's pretty much a done deal since the Human Genome project of the 90s, sorry.

I still can't figure out how evolution convinces people that there can't be superhuman entities, though. How exactly do those two subjects relate?

I'd like for someone to address how it's not logically possible for there to be entities from this dimension or others, who are godlike to humans, meaning having innate abilities that far supercede our own, such as the ability to directly transmute or create matter from energy or such things?

How exactly does evolution debunk that, or does it? I thought evolution merely addresses development of life on earth, not elsewhere or in other dimensions.

So, when someone says AHA! evolution is true, suck on that, anyone who believes in God or gods, is that even relevant? I'm asking because I can't see how one precludes the other, but I'd love to hear why it would.

31

Crazy things Sisters put on the Head when they Pray...

by Confucious in

jw
friends

i remember a sister that put a tissue over her head as a headcovering....

mindmelda

I remember older sisters from the 1940s who would never remove their hats or head scarves while in the KH, as apparently in some places, that was the custom that JW women always had to have their head covered during the meetings, so they could comment.

20

Yahweh: The Volcano God?

by cameo-d in

12and thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:.

16and it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.. 18and mount sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.. .

was yahweh the god of the volcano?.

mindmelda

Seems like that just as there are no atheists in a foxhole or during a final exam or an earthquake, there are none living around live volcanoes either. LOL

37

My Family Being Verbally Abused by MS

by daringhart13 in

someone talk me out of going to jail.. i just found out an ms called my sister and verbally abused her.

told her she was 'unspiritual and inactive and he doesn't have to listen to her'.......he then continued with what a 'crappy mother she is' etc.. i'm in a blind rage.

mindmelda

I'd report him to the FCC by way of your phone company. There are strict laws against using the telephone to annoy, harass, or stalk someone in most places.

86

Perhaps Had a " Ghost " Experience the Last 6 weeks on a Job ? You tell me

by flipper in

jw
friends

i've never been one to believe in " ghosts " .

i'm open to the possibility that there may exist something in the afterlife or spirit world- i just don't know what it is.

having been out of the witnesses over 6 years i had my fill of being a jehovah's witness and being told how " scared " i should be of satan or the demons.

mindmelda

Paranormal experiences are all subjective, no doubt about that. I think they're real in the sense that people do report them and experience them, but I still can't decide if they're unexplained mental differences or whatever.

I'm also one of those people who have nearly dead on intuition about other people's emotions and even thoughts. Most of the time, I can guess what people are thinking, if they're lying and how they feel.

I told a therapist that and he laughed, not derisively, but knowingly. He told me some people just have amazingly good abilities to read body language. The theory is that when humans were less verbal, we were like dogs and some other social mammals, a hell of a lot better at reading body language, scent changes (like smelling fear), pupil dilation, blinks, nods, shifts of posture...all of that combines. Some people train in kinetics, which is an actual branch of psychological science and they also get amazingly good at it.

But, some of us who are more right brained, which implies more connection to non verbal language skills, are also innately terrific at reading kinetics. It's so good that it seems like some amazing telepathic ability. My therapist actually terms it being empathic, being naturally empathic. I'm also more right brained than is average, by quite a bit, according to tests.

I just happen to have a little genetic throwback ability there that we probably all had more of at one time in human evolution. I pay for it by being less left brained, which means I have a harder time with some other things. Most people are dominately left brained or evenly divided.

Being right brained dominant means I'm much more intuitive in my thinking, but it also means I have a harder time with schedules, details and being objective, and I have no sense of organization AT ALL. Right brainers tend to never put anything away, because when we can't see it anymore, it disappears from our mental inventory. I can't find things easily or organize them. I also have moderate dyscalculia, more typical in strongly right brained people.

Dyscalculia is a learning disability which has the symptoms of poor numeric manipulation, poor mental arithmetic skill, and the inability to either understand or apply mathematical concepts.

I've worked very hard to be average in math, and finally started getting Bs in it. A learning disability is defined as being naturally intelligent but doing poorly at one thing due to an organic brain difference or disability.

I have to do math differently than most people and learn it with different techniques, and I can't do it in my head no matter what, it's like how dyslexics can't visualize letters. The same thing happens to me with numbers....they literally jumble, turn weird colors and invert in my mind, everything goes very LSD on me. It's some sensory weirdness bullshit that drives me insane. I do okay after much extra tutoring as long as I have a calculator or paper, but can't do anything mathematical by visualization or concept.

35

I continue to find it incredible....

by AK - Jeff in

that christians throw the old 'where did the matter come from if there was a big bang'?, while having no problem with thinking that god was always there!.

so the dust in the room had to have a 'maker'?

but the super-computer brain sky-daddy is just there and always has been?.

mindmelda

Would you like to borrow a cup of humor, Notverylikely, or don't they have that on your planet?

If you couldn't tell by the writing style that I was being somewhat facetious about Einstein, I'm afraid there's no hope for you in your project to learn Earth culture and customs.

Please return to the Vulcan Science Academy immediately for reassignment.

The fact that you don't even GET that I'm basically agreeing with you is hilarious, at least to me. I look forward to your posts, honestly. I'm aware that I tend to phrase things melodramatically and humorously, and part of humor is exaggeration ( I just hate explaining humor, it's so unfunny!). I exaggerate to be funny, not to be inaccurate, although I am. I just don't expect anyone to take me this SERIOUSLY!

I can be deadly dry, dull and accurate too, but I'm easily bored. But, if you want deadly dull, bring it. I can do that too, I've written a lot of deadly dry essays in the course of things too. I just had no idea I was being graded or that we weren't just bullshitting on an internet forum.

Yes, I know that Monseiur Henri was one of a few who had postulated relativity. Science tends to converge like that as knowledge on a subject accumulates over time. You'll find that several people will utilize the same groundwork to come up with the same idea, experiement or invention at roughly the same time.

More than one person came up with automobiles, steam engines, telephones, light bulbs, airplanes and god knows how many other things at around the same time because of converging information and sharing knowledge.

However, there's still a body of scholars out there that think Einstein faked it, was a big plagiarist and based most of his work on Poincare's. I merely reported that, I didn't say it was the gospel truth. Who the hell could really know, since it was one of those things.

35

I continue to find it incredible....

by AK - Jeff in

that christians throw the old 'where did the matter come from if there was a big bang'?, while having no problem with thinking that god was always there!.

so the dust in the room had to have a 'maker'?

but the super-computer brain sky-daddy is just there and always has been?.

mindmelda

Oh, you mean how I don't find NASCAR fascinating because it's just one big left turn? LOL

I just meant that I've never been able to figure out why people catagorize information the way they do as regards to relevancy. To me, everything I learn is pretty fascinating, even if I don't necessarily put stock in it.

I've decided not to make up my mind about the importance or accuracy of information until AFTER I've analyzed it now, not to make up my mind in advance. I think that I had enough of that tactic as a Witness. Everything being filtered through my advance assumptions is what made me listen to drivel for too many years.

I just try to take a "wait and see" approach now to information, and I decide for myself what is relevant or accurate knowledge or not, and don't let other people make that decision for me.

Just because some guy who seems pretty smart has decided that this is the way it is doesn't impress me anymore. I have to prove it to myself through my own learning process before I accept anything anymore.

I guess I should thank the WTS for making a total skeptic out of me. I don't accept anything until I've looked at it from every possible angle now, not because some egghead believes it's true.

For instance:

I bet you all still believe that Einstein first theorized relativity. He didn't. He made it popular and more understandable, but French physicist Henri Poincaré wrote hundreds of papers on it and 30 books long before Einstein.

Some people think Einstein was just that smart that in spite of not reading much of the information on physics out there that he just came up with relativity on his own, but there's a body of scholars who think old Al might have plagiarized poor Henri's work and taken credit for it.

It's interesting that Einstein sat studying and discussing the work of Poincaré for years, published a book that featured a theory that was startlingly similar to Poincaré's, and then didn't reference Poincaré once in the entire book. Wait, that isn't interesting? It's plagiarism. It's total bullshit plagiarism.