Posts by Introspection

7

What Path To Understanding?

by Undecided in

jw
friends

i have been looking for answers to life and death as has many of you.

i was wondering what is the best avenue to take.

do you just rely on intelligence, experience, some holy book, what others tell you, some miraculous heavenly voice, a dream, or are we up a creek without a paddle?.

Introspection

Hi Missie, I don't think I've seen your name here before so welcome to the board.

I wanted to add one more thing to this thread, regarding the idea of an absolute path. We all know that there are kind people from all religious paths, even non religious ones. Although I don't claim that is all of what spirituality is about, (which is of course different from understanding) I think it can be used as a gauge of a certain level of spirituality. If we accept this, then I think it can be seen that there is truth to the idea of all paths leading to the same place. I think it takes some kind of intelligence rather than just a formula you can put on paper. Of course, there is also your path, and while you might be able to generalize about stages or steps in terms of what most go through, everyone's life is different, even for those in a specific religious tradition.

25

sexism

by teejay in

jw
friends

my sister sent me this webpage: http://www.lizybordom.com/sleeping%20tiger/page_three/.

without boring you with the political aspects of the u.s./afghanistan dialog that ensued, i'd like to see how you feel about something else we talked about.

about the two photos at the top of the webpage, she said:.

Introspection

Ehh.. Well, although I can't get too excited about this particular topic, I just thought I point out it's all about identifying with a particular rather than the whole. I actually looked up the same definition at dictionary.com because I found myself drawing a blank when I was thinking of the word, and the thing that stood out for me is the word attitude. If a woman identify with the intellect or something else rather than physical appearance she's still identifying with one particular attribute rather than the whole person. Regardless of sex, race or species that's just rather limited to me. But in any given moment in time, most people will be guilty of that to some degree. It could be age or something from the past, like being EX-Jehovah's Witnesses.

22

Manic depression/bipolar disorder

by ChimpGirl in

am i the only one here who's completely crazy?

got diagnosed bipolar earlier this year, broke the news to mother (staunch jw) and she just said it explained a lot.

thanks, ma, you can stop blaming yourself for me now!

Introspection

BTW ChimpGirl, for what it's worth I was depressed for several years, and although I sought biological solutions, in the end it was clear that it was psychological, or atleast non-genetic. In any case, I'm not depressed anymore. Everyone's experience is atleast slightly different of course, but I guess if nothing else we can say we've all suffered..

22

Manic depression/bipolar disorder

by ChimpGirl in

am i the only one here who's completely crazy?

got diagnosed bipolar earlier this year, broke the news to mother (staunch jw) and she just said it explained a lot.

thanks, ma, you can stop blaming yourself for me now!

Introspection

I was thinking about the genetic factor too. One sister (who thought she's one of the annointed) from the hall I used to go to had what she herself diagnosed as bipolar/manic depression, and the psychiatrist she saw after she reached this conclusion diagnosed her with hypomania. I used to visit with her a lot and from what I can recall it isn't something she's had all her life, so I wonder about the psychological dimension of it all. Incidentally, she also suffered from an autoimmune disorder and even her therapist who was also a witness suggested that she look at the psychological aspects regarding her general health.

As far as something for clinical depression, if needed I would look into a nutritional supplement called S-Adenosyl Methionine or SAMe. It's supposed to act faster than some pharmaceutical antidepressants. Here's a link to an article with references, as usual you'll want to do your homework: http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag97/april-report97.html

7

What Path To Understanding?

by Undecided in

jw
friends

i have been looking for answers to life and death as has many of you.

i was wondering what is the best avenue to take.

do you just rely on intelligence, experience, some holy book, what others tell you, some miraculous heavenly voice, a dream, or are we up a creek without a paddle?.

Introspection

Hi Ken, I think you're on the right track, more so than perhaps even you realize. I do want to respectfully ask one question though, and that is did you pose your question as a purely rhetorical one?

11

Reaching JWs with humor..

by Introspection in

jw
friends

i was thinking, since the main problem seems to be that witnesses usually won't open up.

well, there seems to be no shortage of funny human behavior, so why couldn't this work?

of course, it isn't a matter of laughing at them.. perhaps point out some behavior that wouldn't be readily identified with witnesses (but does fit) and go from there...

Introspection

Oh real subtle you guys.. Well, there is one other thing about it, which is having a good laugh at yourself. The thing is that necessarily includes your beliefs etc, and maybe by seeing that it'll make them think. "Gee, it didn't totally shatter their world and destroy their self esteem, they're really having fun.."

30

Positive Name For ExJWs...?

by ISP in

jw
friends

i don't like the word apostate.......because it simply is not the case in so many cases.

i think the term 'truthseeker' would be better and quite annoying to jws who think they are!.

come on you truthseekers!.

Introspection

Jehovah's Witnesses Witnesses..? Or, Bob.

11

Reaching JWs with humor..

by Introspection in

jw
friends

i was thinking, since the main problem seems to be that witnesses usually won't open up.

well, there seems to be no shortage of funny human behavior, so why couldn't this work?

of course, it isn't a matter of laughing at them.. perhaps point out some behavior that wouldn't be readily identified with witnesses (but does fit) and go from there...

Introspection

I was thinking, since the main problem seems to be that witnesses usually won't open up. Well, there seems to be no shortage of funny human behavior, so why couldn't this work? Of course, it isn't a matter of laughing AT them.. Perhaps point out some behavior that wouldn't be readily identified with witnesses (but does fit) and go from there...

34

Would you like to live on Gilligan's Island?

by Mindchild in

jw
friends

well, this may be a bit of a strange post, so brace yourself.

lol!.

do you think you would enjoy living on a modern day version of gilligan's island with a few good friends?

Introspection

For some reason, I thought of Fred Hall when I was thinking of Gilligan..

18

Destruction of Families: A False Prophecy

by JosephAlward in

the author of the matthew gospel was by far the most unreliable of the bibles writers, as evidenced by his appalling lack of understanding of the old testament and his willingness to imagine that it was filled with prophecies of the coming savior.. he was wrong about jesus triumphant ride into jerusalem, about jesus being born of a virgin, about his being born in bethlehem, about being called a nazarene, about herod ordering the slaughter of the innocent children after jesus birth, about judas thirty pieces of silver, and many other events in the life of jesus because he evidently completely misunderstood or misrepresented stories in the old testament.

readers dont have to take my word for it.

the evidence is on display in the articles in the false prophecy section of the directory at the web site at .

Introspection

Well, thank you for retracting that statement about what I believe. Unfortunately my previous post was lost when I clicked reply, so I'll try to make this one short.

I think it would be worth pointing out that there's a difference between meaning something literally and not meaning it at all. Basically, my point is simply that a statement like this has to be seen in a larger context, and basically that is renunciation, or being in the world but not of it. (however, as I said this is not limited to Christianity) To take the example of someone who choose to leave the witness religion, he may not choose to leave the family, but obviously they're not going to like what he has to say about the organization etc. In fact, as we know it is usually the witnesses who shun the one who leave. Now you can say the person who left caused the division, heck maybe it was an apostate site like this that "caused" the division in their family, because the information they gained would be a necessary cause, right? But isn't that a rather limited picture of what's actually going on? Someone can say "www.jehovahs-witness.com breaks up families" or something, or hey take it a step farther and say ex-JWs destroy people's faiths. "Apostates" don't come in peace either, I suppose.. I'm really not so interested in discussing how the bible is questionable here and there in terms of what some believe it to mean, (including bible writers, of course I don't know any of them personally) but since this is a rather broad principle that is not limited to the bible I felt it needed to be addressed as such.