Posts by mindmelda

98

It might be better to not even have the Internet. April 15th WT

by life is to short in

ok i was just blown away when i heard this today while driving, at first i thought it was the some old same old but then it went on and it seems like it is on a different level.. the subheading is "guard your heart by exercising self-control.

on page 27 par 17 it says "one way a person could wonder into the foolish course of the "young man in want of heart" is by aimlessly flipping though television channels or surfing the internet.

whether intentionally or not, he might chance upon sexually stimulating scenes.

mindmelda

You don't have to make people live in a commune when they're mentally in one. Or a prison is more like it.

Seriously, in several European countries all homes by law will have to be wired for the internet in the next decade, and in the Netherlands, homes are 99% covered.

Why? Because all information will be through the internet at some point. It is cheaper and more effective to have all information through one medium, TV, telephone and internet.

But, any high control group hates access to media by their members because they have access to unfiltered information. Back when the telephone became commonplace, the Society was warning members about it the same way they're warning about the internet, until they found it would be useful for their own purposes. Same with the radio. Television was beyond their means, so they villainized that, and now the internet.

They can't control content on the internet, of course, but who can, really? And that will have it's drawbacks, but it's also a good thing in so many ways.

I know some people who are not Witnesses who choose not to have television but its because they rarely watch it, and they can watch what they want of TV on disc or internet, not because they're media-phobes.

8

Pat Robertson's Faith Healing

by whereami in

jw
friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiqihx0v0gu .

i receive it!!!!.

mindmelda

A Russian martial art called systema gives people such an absolute knowledge of the body's nervous system and how to manipulate it with specific and quick finger punches that you'd almost swear it was magical.

One of the things you can do is eliminate pain temporarily by blocking sensation. Anyway, I always wonder if some of these fakers have found out ways to do something similar. Or they get people so worked up with adrenaline and endorphins, they feel little or no pain for a while.

Of course, it's not real healing, just a temporary cessation of pain or symptoms.

73

Why so many Atheist VS. Christian discussions here?

by mindmelda in

i notice a lot of the discussions seem to be atheist vs christian here.

or is that just my perception?.

but, do the other people who are neither just not care to debate as much or are there just fewer or them, or both?.

mindmelda

too True VampireDCLXV, too true.

People can't resist waving their camp flags.

152

Are you a TRUE Christian?!?

by brotherdan in

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.

mindmelda

Much of Judeo-Christian thought, the more philosophical parts of it, shows definite evidence of Greek inflluences, and I'm sure that much of what is in the Bible is a convergence of thought from many middle eastern culture.

The similarities of the Bible to Babylonian/Chaldean and even Egyptian stories and tales can't be over looked. The Bible just had more staying power than a lot of other stories from that era, the Jews WERE scrupulous about preserving their laws, myths and culture through writing, as much as anyone can be. The Semitic peoples developed many things quite early in their history, among them writing. That's why their gods or God SEEM the oldest, the stories got written down earlier.

You can't read anything about comparative religion, such as Joseph Campbells "The Power of Myth" without being totally amazed at the convergence of thought between all myth, all religion. The only reason for that must be it all comes from the same place. From within us. If you're inclined, I guess it could also all come from the divine, but it certainly demonstrates the human psyche works pretty much the same regardless of culture, race and era.

( All this is probably why the JWs hate comparative religion classes, no doubt)

116

Does Genesis 19 condemn Homosexuality?

by brotherdan in

there are many "proof" texts that people (including jws) use to justify their rejection of anyone that is gay.

there are a few scriptures that you can pull up and try to make a case for show homosexuals why they are evil and wrong.. i've been researching more of these scriptures and i'm coming to some very different conclusions than many other christians hold, especially jws.

i wanted to talk about the first text used by many people to condemn homosexual behaviour.

mindmelda

Mary is write...there's no word that corresponds to homosexual or homosexuality in the Bible. Just phrases that might refer to certain sexual acts that might have been performed between two men, but not necessarily.

The Hebrews weren't big on sexual acts that didn't result in procreation, it seems to me. Polygamy, tolerable. Brother in law marriage, great stuff...breaking a promise to knock up your brother's wife for him to have an heir...death.

217

Feb. 15th WT - WT Society says DFed Ones are Lawless- Just Like Demons

by flipper in

jw
friends

i would assume that some or a good number of us here as normal humans in this society - consider " lawless " actions to include murder , robbery, extortion, rape, child abuse, war , terrorism, etc.

the wt society has their own definition of what's considered " lawless ".

anything that's considered a disfellowshipping offense in the jehovah's witnesses is now considered " lawless ".

mindmelda

Commenting that someone is alienating people from Jehovah and his organization assumes a few things about me as I read it:

1. That I believe in Jehovah and Jehovah's godship

2. That I believe in Jehovah's organization has authority over me

3. That I should be afraid of lack of belief in either one

4. That I believe alienating anyone from them is something evil

5. That I care what the writer thinks I believe, or that I owe him any explanations of such

But, of course, there was always a lot of those kinds of assumptions going on last time I went to a meeting or read some WTS literature. I'd forgotten how group-speak it was, nice refresher.

116

Does Genesis 19 condemn Homosexuality?

by brotherdan in

there are many "proof" texts that people (including jws) use to justify their rejection of anyone that is gay.

there are a few scriptures that you can pull up and try to make a case for show homosexuals why they are evil and wrong.. i've been researching more of these scriptures and i'm coming to some very different conclusions than many other christians hold, especially jws.

i wanted to talk about the first text used by many people to condemn homosexual behaviour.

mindmelda

Leolaia, that guy is probably nailing some other dude in a truck stop as we speak. It's always the homophobes that scream the loudest that you catch sniffing coke off another guy's ass.

116

Does Genesis 19 condemn Homosexuality?

by brotherdan in

there are many "proof" texts that people (including jws) use to justify their rejection of anyone that is gay.

there are a few scriptures that you can pull up and try to make a case for show homosexuals why they are evil and wrong.. i've been researching more of these scriptures and i'm coming to some very different conclusions than many other christians hold, especially jws.

i wanted to talk about the first text used by many people to condemn homosexual behaviour.

mindmelda

Every scripture used to condemn homosexuality in the Bible turns out to have only the vaguest insinuation that it could be about that, and it's largely a matter of translation.

It was in the agenda of many religions to reinforce their already present bias with scripture, so they chose to translate certain words that way

The phrase Paul uses that gets translated as "men who lie with men" in Greek is also applied to a married woman in another scripture in the Greek New Testament but do you ever get that scholarly comparison from the WTS or some other Christian groups?

No, because it suits them to keep condemning homosexuality and having a scriptural excuse for it.

9

You think you are no longer being brainwashed and propagandized?

by Night Owl in

jw
friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wolo3w2fr60.

mindmelda

They can't even get the effing weather right...why bother? Haven't watched TV news in years.

73

Why so many Atheist VS. Christian discussions here?

by mindmelda in

i notice a lot of the discussions seem to be atheist vs christian here.

or is that just my perception?.

but, do the other people who are neither just not care to debate as much or are there just fewer or them, or both?.

mindmelda

I'm speaking of science as an authoritative collective, not scientific methodology, which I have no issue with, and never have. For god's sake, know it's a set of disciplines.

Unfortunately, in the minds of Joe Average, science is an authority, a collective, it's smart guys in white coats that use mysterious means unknown to them to figure out things. Frankly, people who say "science" in worshipful tones are as unthinking as those who say "Jesus" or "Jehovah" in such, if it's because someone else coerced them to think it by virtue of status or peer pressure. Some people simply accept science because they're afraid to look stupid if they don't. That's a poor reason to accept anything.

Science might as well BE magic to the ignorant. That is why you have to keep them from turning science into mindless religion too. Do you think evolution is a growing body of scientific evidence and theory trying to figure out how life changed and adapted to this world, or do you just think it's right because a guy you think is smarter than you, your 8th grade biology teacher, said it?

If you answered "B" then you're like a lot of the kids I've taught.

I haven't bitten any hands that fed me. I teach and have taught scientific method to my now grown kids, and I also taught them to think for themselves. I'm qualified to teach biology, psychology, physics and chemistry on a high school level and have. I have also done private tutoring on those subjects.

I'm glad I'm not living in a cave, have electricity and central heating, know how magnets work and wish we'd better utilize science to solve some of our more serious problems, which it could better do if we weren't sharing the planet with people who would rather live in the Bronze Age by rules written down by men who were afraid to take a crap without asking the sky god first!

But if you can convince me that no scientist has ever been wrong ever because of abusing scientific methodology or succumbing to the profit motive, I'll start wearing a lab coat as religious garb, set up a statue of Stephen Hawkings and kiss it's toes daily, while pouring the blood of a chicken in a circle and dancing naked in front of it.