mindmelda

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Posts by mindmelda

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  41

  Belief in the Afterlife - where do you sit on the scale?

  by jgnat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am three-quarters through the book, the time paradox: the new psychology of time that will change your lifeby philip zimbardo and john boyd.

  it is taking longer than usual because i am earnestly applying the exercises as they appear in the book.

  which means i have to be ready to change my habits...but enough about me.. zimbardo's argument throughout the book is that a person's time perspective deeply impacts their choices and their ability to be happy.

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  mindmelda

  What difference does it make? I'll be dead.
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  104

  Witnesses are saying "END IS RIGHT NOW!"

  by free2beme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have witness friends telling me, that this is the end right now!

  that this globel issue of the nations of egypt, libya and others ... is the sign they looked for.

  now with what is happening in the usa, wisconsin to be exact, more trouble is rising and this is it.

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  mindmelda

  When HAVEN'T they said that?
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  125

  Human Sexuality 101: Everything a young girl needs to hear?

  by Check_Your_Premises in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  "body you" is very smart about a few, simple things.

  this is how you want it because "body you" is kind of a moron.. fact 2: all living things have two primary desires: to stay alive, and to have offspring.. this is a basic, defining biological fact.

  of course "brain you" doesnt think, "i want to talk to that cute boy because i want to procreate", but "body you" is!

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  mindmelda

  My dad told me a lot of that stuff when I was 13.

  But there is altruism in the human makeup, it's also a survival thing. Cooperation and reciprocation aid survival.

  I've been happily married 23 years because I pretty much expect men to be men and actually like them the way they are. When I want a girlfriend, I go talk to one.

  I think this whole thing written above is a little overly gender played, but where pure old reproduction is concerned, biology is admittedly rather sexist. It's the price we pay for necessary genetic diversity, sexual reproduction.
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  32

  My Trip to the Unitarian Universal Church

  by NewChapter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so, pretty much i no longer care to believe in a god.

  but, either because of my 20 years in a jw daze, or because humans just desire this, i miss the community.

  so, i went to a unitarian church this morning.

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  mindmelda

  I love UUC, they're about as non-religious as religion gets. One of my atheist friends can even stand to go to one occasionally with her family. Great place for ecumenicists who like the social aspect of religion without focus on one sort of doctrine.

  It's one of the few places where my combination astrologer/ Pagan, Christian, Buddhist, agnostic hodgepodge of ideas are tolerated. LOL
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  10

  Over 50 – No Pension, No 401K – What Now?

  by VM44 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this could be of importance.. over 50 no pension, no 401k what now?http://outofyourrut.com/blog/2010/03/25/over-50-and-no-pension-or-retirement-plan-what-now/.

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  mindmelda

  I'm in that boat, but a lot of other people besides Witnesses have lost a substantial part of their retirement and pensions in the recession and have had to go back to work or continue working.

  My dad ignored all the WTS advice and got a job with a good pension and 401K and was able to retire early. Didn't lose much in the recession. Living fairly comfortably albeit without some of the luxuries he intended.

  He was severely critcized by some of the other elders for setting himself up well during his working years, of course. One of many reasons he stepped down as an elder.
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  152

  Are you a TRUE Christian?!?

  by brotherdan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been thinking alot over the past few days on what makes a christian a christian, and i'm coming to some different conclusions than i ever have.... the watchtower likes to use the term "true believers" or "true christians".

  i'm at a loss here lately.

  you are either an atheist or you are not.

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  mindmelda

  Every time I read more arguments between "Christians" about which ones are the true ones, the more it makes me want to become a Buddhist. *sigh*
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  5

  Jehovah the foreskin lover and David the Penises handler.

  by cyberjesus in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i was gonna write about how "jehovah's annointed king" saul requested 100 philistines foreskins (yeap from their penises) and how soon to be "jehovah's annointed king" david handle those 100 pagan-sinning-penises just so "jehovah's annointed king" saul was happy.

  but the story is too graphic.

  so instead you can go to your bible and open it in 1 samuel 18..... read on and make sure the kids are not watching.. .

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  mindmelda

  One of the more interesting ideas about circumcision I've read by an anthropologist is that some of the Pagans that the Jews were fighting with worshipped phallic images and removing those foreskins of enemies was an insult to their gods.

  It might also be the reason that the Hebrews starting removing their foreskins to set themselves apart religiously, preventing enemies from taking similar trophies in honor of their gods.
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  36

  Are You A "Dictionary Atheist"?

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there is more to .. atheism than simple denial of one claim; it's actually based on a scientific attitude that values evidence and reason, that rejects claims resting solely on authority, and that encourages deeper exploration of the world.

  atheism is not solely a negative claim about gods, but is based on a whole set of positive values ... that denial of god thing?

  it's a consequence, not a cause.

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  mindmelda

  Smugness is an emotion, no one is immune to it.

  Well, it's true that "on a quantum level" is sometimes an alert to someone trying to baffle you with scientific sounding bullshit, hoping you won't know it, but I say to that educate yourself about it enough to figure if you're being bullshitted. That's your responsibility in life, one of many.

  I'm pretty well educated on the subject, but just from my own reading in scientific journals. I can't do the math, but then, neither could a professor of physics I talked to about it. *G*

  I do indulge in some alternative medicine practices, but I assure you, when I needed my gallbladder removed, I had it done by a surgeon, not by a psychic healer.

  Do I believe in the metaphysical? Yes, to some degree, but I think the more intriguing and plausible aspects may be just science we don't understand yet.

  Am I a believer? No, not in God, not in the traditional Christian sense. Just in universal energies and such, as I'm quite a bit more Eastern in my thinking now. Not really a Buddhist, but I've been influenced by it strongly as TM and other aspects of it have worked for me.

  I know a very well educated woman in the so called "anti-vaccine" movement, a doctor, but that's a misnomer for some of these people, just as anti-abortionists will mislable their opponents "pro-abortion". There is no pro-abortion movement, only pro choice, which does not define people promoting abortion, merely promoting choice.

  What some doctors and patients/parents want is a rescheduling and modification of vaccinations at an older age, when the immune system can better utilize and tolerate them, and better research as to what the other components of vaccines do to children. Vaccine are not tested on children, for obvious reasons, but administered to them. They contain surprising components, among them used to be a form of mercury, thimerserol, which is otherwise considered a poison in certain amounts, but was also removed from other medicines as a preservatives, too. That was quietly removed from vaccines when it was discovered infants cannot tolerate mercury even in small amounts.

  Other vaccines were never well tolerated by MANY children, like the pertussis vaccine which had to be completely reworked into a killed vaccine from a live one, as too many children had severe reactions.

  My son was one of them, he was born in 92. He received one pertussis vaccine and had a 104 temp and neurological reactions. My own doctor ordered he not be given it again. The Td, is now commonly given the first time for infants at three months, without pertussis, because this reaction was so common.

  I cannot tolerate the tetanus vaccine well. I ran very high fevers, become delirious and the injection site, my arm, swelled to twice normal size last time I had one. I have asthma, and I became quite short of breath too.

  Some vaccines are still live vaccines, like MMR, which is given only to older babies for that reason. I think vaccination to prevent disease is a good thing, but how can making it even safer, with less risk and equal effectiveness be a bad thing?

  There is nothing wrong with demanding that the medical profession improve medicines and make them safer, and not simply exploit the financial profit in medicine.

  But, yes, there are "anti vaccine" nuts out there, and it's a shame that legitimate greivances and questions of parents are lumped together with people who get more press because of their extremist views.

  There are three drugs which were on the market for years and considered safe by the FDA which are now being removed and class action suits compiled against.

  Perhaps if we were more skeptical of research, medicine and science being fallible we'd see less of this sort of thing . Easy enough to apply skepticism to something that doesn't appeal or is easily argued against because it's NOT in the realm of science, but when turned on our own sacred cows, well, maybe that's more difficult?
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  80

  What is it with all the men waking up but the wives stay in? Why is it the opposite for me?

  by Cadellin in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this is something i've thought about for a while now.

  it seems like the same story on this board over and over--the husband, who also might be an elder, ms, etc.--starts having doubts and researching, aka miseryloveselders and franklin massey and others.

  he starts to smell the coffee and realizes that this organization isn't what it claims to be.

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  mindmelda

  I quit going to meetings first, my husband persevered a bit longer, but unenthusiastically. He's more a creature of habit and liked some of his friends there, worked with them.

  I had friends too, but I got to where I couldn't go to a meeting without squirming every time a teaching I knew was DEAD WRONG was uttered from the platform. I'd sit through the whole meeting correcting it in my head.

  Very tiresome. I just couldn't do it anymore.
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  101

  The Danger of Credulous Research of Jehovah's Witnesses on the Internet

  by Spade in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  http://www.watchtower21.org/2011/02/danger-of-naive-and-credulous-research.html.

  it's been my experience so far, that anything a person wants to find out about jehovahs witnesses, they can find out from jehovahs witnesses.

  any and all information ever published by jehovah witnesses is accessible to all.

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  mindmelda

  I got all my doubts about WTS teachings directly from the pages of their own literature, all on my own, pretty much. My parents became Witnesses when I was about 12, and I studied diligently, and was never completely convinced about some things, like the 1914 teaching.

  I was even well known in my congregation for giving quite detailed and scholarly answers at the Watchtower because I spent hours pouring over the Bible and studying.

  I always disliked Field Service admittedly, and never converted one person in my 36 years of being a Witness (even though I'm not shy and gregarious and have no difficultires talking to people in general), I just felt rude and intrusive doing FS, and regular meeting attendance was hard for me because of some health issues, but I always studied, trying desperately to convince myself that I had "the Truth".

  I learned to parrot the teachings in public and to others early on, because I did not want to alienate my parents, who were enthused about their new religion. I was always a "good kid" who wanted to please my parents. I continued to do that for years. Finally I became totally inactive, depressed, and thought there was something totally wrong with me, that Jehovah hated me and had rejected me because I could not quit doubting.

  I never looked at one word of apostate literature or spoke with one EVER until I had compiled so many doubts and questions that the "mature" Witnesses sent to study with me at my request, and they would not and could not answer for me that I finally, with great fear and hesitation, looked elsewhere.

  I discovered that the "true-believer" exists in all religions and is merely a person who cannot accept any questioning of his chosen beliefs or philosophies, opinions, politics, whatever, and that is that, everything must be concrete, black and white and without question in his world. It's not peculiar to Witnesses, I have met true believers in every religion and walk of life.

  They are not my favorite people to be around, I prefer flexibility,tolerance and ecumenicism. Lousy qualities for a Witness, I know. No wonder I was unsuited for it.