Posts by Jewel

15

Is reality disturbing?

by sleepy in

jw
friends

23 years ago

has the change from witness style religous thinking to an atheistic viewpoint disturbed your brain?.

(this post is not about whether religion is responsable for morality , but about the change in the viewpoint and outlook from a jw to an athiest.

morality is used as an example.neither do i feel that you carnt be moral without a belief in a god.).

23 years ago

Jewel 23 years ago

Sleepy-

Are you seriously contending that religion has made human society more moral?

HMMM, Let's see:

The Inca and Maya offered their children as sacrifices in the name of religion. So did those who sent their children off on the Children's Crusade.

Religions all over the world have required human sacrifice. Even Abraham was willing to offer Isaac up when asked.

Thousands of people were killed in the Inquisition in the name of spiritual purity. Religious ferver inspired the inquisitors to particularly grisly heights of torture.

More thousands of people (on both sides) were killed during the Crusades.

The Bible speaks often of wiping out whole cities and civilizations in the name of religion.

Ritual prostitution was praticed in many ancient religions.

More thousands were killed in New York by terrorists who were sincere in their belief that they were perfoming the work of their god.

Proseletyzing has been responsible for the desctruction of hundreds of indigenous cultures.

Hitler felt his religion justified his organized attempt to destroy all Jews.

Humans have used religion as their excuse to slaughter each other in Bosnia, the Middle East, Africa and dozens of other places on the Earth.

Religion was the reason for the destruction of the library at Alexandria.

Thousands of people were burned or hung (or otherwise murdered) to rid the world of "witchcraft" (read anything not Christian) in the Middle Ages.

Sorry, I'm not convinced that religion has had some type of "civilising" or "moralising" effect on human-kind.

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15

Is reality disturbing?

by sleepy in

jw
friends

23 years ago

has the change from witness style religous thinking to an atheistic viewpoint disturbed your brain?.

(this post is not about whether religion is responsable for morality , but about the change in the viewpoint and outlook from a jw to an athiest.

morality is used as an example.neither do i feel that you carnt be moral without a belief in a god.).

23 years ago

Jewel 23 years ago

I've seen this before, too, but have to say that I agree with you Elsewhere.

Why does lack of an "authority" require amorality? I have always felt that the ability to develop a system of morals and ethics in the absence of a "higher power" forcing one on me shows that I am NOT an animal or a machine, but a thinking and reasoning creature.

Why don't I do evil? Not because I fear punishment but because I am not evil!

Why do I love? Not because I have been commanded to love but because I feel love and compassion for my fellows.

To not do bad things because you're afraid of punishment is to be a child. To not do bad things simply because they are bad and you have chosen to be good is to reach a higher level of being.

To me this means that I DO have control. I am not dependent on some higher being to serve as a parent and tell me right from wrong. I have choice and since the choices are mine, they are much more telling about me as a person than simple obedience ever could be.

When we raise our children, we start out as their "higher authority". "Don't get in the road." "Don't touch the hot stove." But my goal as a parent is to show my children how to begin to think for themselves-to form their own values and exercise them as individuals independent of me. If I have to supervise my children, dictate right and wrong, tell them how to think, enforce good behavior when they become adults I will have failed.

Jewel

Edit-I'm not an atheist (though I tried!) I'm slowly becoming more pagan. One of the things that suddenly "fit" for me was the belief that I am responsible for my life, that I don't need a set of rules to be honorable but that my honor has to come from within...

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14

Atheist- What will you do?

by hannibal in

jw
friends

23 years ago

the other day i was watching a program on death row.

inmates, and funny it seemed that most if not all seemed .

to have "found god".they talked about jesus,and there at .

23 years ago

Jewel 23 years ago

My Mom's been an active Witness for years and years, but this is why I don't try to give her my feelings about the whole thing. She lost a five yo daughter to a brain tumor many years ago and my father died suddenly when I was five. She's 75 years old now and I know that this religion gives her comfort. She actually believes that she'll see her little girl and husband again. It makes me very sad.

I would love to believe that there is something after death, but I just don't know. I don't think an imminent death would change that.

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14

I`m Inactive

by Beans in

jw
friends

23 years ago

i have heard many people say that they are "inactive"!

if a catholic or protestant aren`t going to church or only go on religious holidays they still consider themselves part of that faith.

so if you call yourself inactive are you still a jehovahs witness?

23 years ago

Jewel 23 years ago

>>Is this something that is part of the exit from the BORG, are you still hanging on by a thread and has the so called tied by association bug still got you?<<

No, it meants they haven't gotten anything ON you------yet.

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21

"PEACE & SECURITY" has been decla...

by proplog2 in

23 years ago

declarations of peace occur at regular intervals.

wars end and.

treaties are signed.

17 years ago

Jewel 23 years ago

Hard to worry about "Peace and Security" when India and Pakistan are holding nuclear weapons at each other's throats...

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14

Ozzie's Weekend Poll #6

by ozziepost in

jw
friends

23 years ago

so, you've read the sunday paper, and it's time to 'put your feet up' with another fun poll.. this weekend's topic is:.

what have you changed since finding out the truth about 'the troof'?.

1. handed in all my ties to the p.o.. 2. put all my skirts in the charity bin.

23 years ago

Jewel 23 years ago

Let's see:

2,3,4,7,9,10,11,15,16

Plus...

When I knock at a door now, I'm always hoping they're home because it's somebody I want to see

Subscribe only to magazines I'll actually read

Have friends who are Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Pagan, Agnostic and atheist

Celebrate: Christmas, birthdays, Easter, Imbolc, Yule, Beltaine, the Solstices,-I've got lots of celebrating to make up for

Don't hide books that I'm afraid would be disapproved

Don't buy pantyhose by the gross (pun intended)

Don't even own a "bookbag"

NEVER use the "S" word (submissive)

Don't have to start the day with the mini-lecture daily text (maybe that's why I'm STILL not a morning person)

Buy calendars without quotes from the Bible

Feel free to teach my kids to question everything-books, TV, newspapers, authority (except mine, of course...)

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35

Grammar For Farkies

by non_trias_theos in

jw
friends

23 years ago

case---a particular form of a nominal, pronominal or modifier that expresses a syntactical relationship between other morpho-phonic forms found in a sentence.. adjective---a part of speech that modifies a substantive by means of suffixes such as -er and -est or by functioning syntactically in a predicative or attributive way.. declension---a class of words belonging to one language with the same or a similar system of inflections.. gender---a grammatical category used to classify nouns, pronouns, adjectives and sometimes verbs.

grammatical gender is not necessarily associated with actual gender.

23 years ago

Jewel 23 years ago

<<Case---a particular form of a nominal, pronominal or modifier that expresses a syntactical relationship between other morpho-phonic forms found in a sentence.>>

Wrong-"case" as used in grammar, is a particular form of nouns, pronouns or adjectives showing a syntactical relationship. The only part of this one that is, maybe, correct is that an adjective could be considered a modifier.

<<Adjective---a part of speech that modifies a substantive by means of suffixes such as -er and -est or by functioning syntactically in a predicative or attributive way.>>

Wrong-and adjective is used to describe (therefore, perhaps modify) a noun or pronoun. There are thousands of adjectives that do not use -er or -est, though "lamer" and "lamest" come to mind in the currect discussion.

<<Declension---a class of words belonging to one language with the same or a similar system of inflections.>>

Not sure about this one-you've got some of the right words, but they don't seem to be in the right order...a declension is a group of nouns, pronouns and adjectives with a particular inflection and used to indicate the case of the words. For instance, in Latin, the inflection of a word tells if it is a subject or direct object.

puella, serva, columba, pictura, terra, pupa, and bulla are all nominative and therefore would be subjects.

puellam, servam, columban, picturam, terram, pupam, and bullam are all in the accusative case and would indicate that the words are being used as direct objects.

Declension also indicates gender. All of the words in the lists above are in the First Declension in Latin and therefore are feminine.

The following lists of words are in the Second Declension and are therefore masculine.

architectus, humanus, publicus, fungus

<<Gender---a grammatical category used to classify nouns, pronouns, adjectives and sometimes verbs. Grammatical gender is not necessarily associated with actual gender.>>

Just like the use of big words is not necessarily associated with intelligence.

Darn it, I know I've said not bait this "rational substantive", but it IS kinda fun....

Jewel-off to conjugate a few verbs

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22

JW Display at the Mall

by saltiest in

jw
friends

23 years ago

this afternoon while wasting time at the promenade mall, in temecula, ca (southern cal) i had a hard time containing my laughter.

just in front of me were two women behind a table full of wbts literature.

what caught my eye was a young people ask sign.

23 years ago

Jewel 23 years ago

++If Krishna fought Jehovah on the World Wrestling Federation's Saturday Night Slapdown, who do you think would win?++

LOL! Around here, the question is: If Gandalf fought Dumbledore who would win?

My kids are Harry Potter fans and though I love those books, they can't compete with LOTR. They always vote for Dumbledore and I always say that Gandalf would WHUP him...

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7

Careful which way you look, Jehovahs about.

by sleepy in

jw
friends

23 years ago

well you never know.. lots wife got turned into a giant lump of salt for just looking in the wrong direction.. did this account ever make sense to you?.

the watchtower always tried to jusify it by saying she must have looked back longingly.it that really a good reason to kill someone?.

especially after you have just saved them.. then david sleeps with someone not his wife has her husband killed and his kid get the punishment!.

23 years ago

Jewel 23 years ago

One of the stories that always bothered me was Dinah. I read this one to my kids from the Bible Story Book to get their take.

Apparently Dinah (daughter of Jacob and Leah-the wife he didn't like but managed to have ten sons with) was hanging around with the girls of "the land". Shechem sees her somewhere around and "took her and lay down with her and violated her". In the Bible Story book this is said to be a rape, though I couldn't find in my Bible where there was any mention of force. It does say he was in love with Dinah and wanted to marry her. So his father goes to Jacob and asks if Shechem can marry Dinah. Shechem says, "Let me find favor in your eyes and whatever you will say to me I shall give it. Raise very high the marriage money and gift imposed upon me, and I stand willing to give according to what you may say to me; only give me the young woman as a wife."

Always seemed to me he wanted to do the honorable thing here. So her brothers say that Shechem and all the other Hivite men have to get circumcised. Shechem and his father talk the others into this (I always thought that seemed like the ultimate in friendship) and while all the men are "aching", Simeon and Levi (Dinah's brothers) proceed to murder her new husband and father-in-law. The rest of the brothers decide to get in on the act:

"The other sons of Jacob attacked the fatally wounded men and went plundering the city, because they had defiled their sister. Their flocks and their herds and their asses and what was in the city and what was in the field they took. And all their means of maintenance and all their little children and their wives they carried off captive, so that they plundered all that was in the houses."

Genesis 34

The moral (or punchline)according to the WTBTS is that this is all (drumroll) DINAH'S fault. You couldn't really blame her brothers, they just got mad and went a little far. If Dinah had stayed home and not had worldy friends, none of this would have happened. You can't blame Shechem (even if it was a rape)because if she's out there walking around in public and talking to worldly people, apparently she was asking for it.

After I read the story I just waited for a response. The kids sat there for a moment and then my middle one says, "If that isn't the dumbest thing in the world! How was it the girl's fault that all these guys were nuts?"

Made me feel like I'm raising them right...

Jewel

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9

Catholic church = all other churches

by FRUSR8TD in

jw
friends

23 years ago

has anyone ever noticed a trend in this?

i was haveing a conversation with my wife on some things and she asked me "well what does your preist think?

"....i had to explain that i went to a church that has a pastor not a preist.

23 years ago

Jewel 23 years ago

For Witnesses, the religious world is divided into four groups:

1-Themselves, the only true Christians
2-Christendom-every other Christian religion in the world, but especially the Catholic religion
3-Jewish people-once Jehovah's people but now no better than 2 above. Maybe worse actually because they killed Jesus
4-Pagans(which equals Satan Worshippers-or anybody who reads a Harry Potter book-same thing)-everybody else.

Jewel-who just got (another) lecture from Mom about the dangers of letting my kids read J.K. Rowling...Sigh

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