so what science fiction writers do you like?
poor places
JoinedPosts by poor places
-
50
MOST DRAMATIC MOMENT in Science Fiction History?
by Terry insomething old, nothing new: count zarth arn, watch out!
-
-
-
23
Brothers, did you like being asked to say a prayer?
by sacolton ini dreaded it!
i've seen brothers freeze-up doing prayers with long uncomfortable silences to think of what to say.
sometimes my mind would just go blank and i would panic at the thought if i paused.
-
-
poor places
I can give public prayers pretty easily. The thing that gets me is saying the same thing over and over again. It's impossible to avoid saying things like, "Thank you, dear God, for the chance to be at this meeting. Please help us pay attention. Also bless our ministry and let your name be sanctified." Etc, etc. It's hard put any feeling into a public prayer because you can't say personal things without embarrassing yourself. So these prayers are boring and by rote.
-
146
What Stupid Things Were You Counseled For?
by minimus ini've always been told that i have a very good personality, that i'm humorous, etc.. one elder called me over and said that i was "smiling too much".
the other elders talked to the elder who counseled me and he came back to say that i should be like i was .
.
-
-
poor places
Let's see. There are so many moments of counsel to remember. This list is only about 2% of the things I've been counseled on.
--length of my sideburns (shouldn't come more than halfway below the ear)
--forgetting to bring a pen in field service
--driving too fast in service
--accidentally driving through a stop sign in service
--not commenting enough
--not being neat enough in general
--having a lousy field service presentation
--saying "um" too many times during a talk
--not shaving
--saying things that aren't totally true in a talk
--messing up various kh jobs at various times in my life
--listening to inappropriate music
--hanging out with a girl alone in the kh
--not flossing often enough (just kidding!)
And the list goes on and on. After a while you get counseled by so many people on so many topics that you just dream about living an unregulated life. You wonder why these people are so obsessed with keeping everything about you up to standard, especially when you aren't even bothering them about anything. It's more than enough to drive you bats.
-
-
-
poor places
Can someone please explain the "borg" joke? Are we talking cyborg here or what?
-
16
a question for experts on disfellowshipping
by poor places incan you be df'd for atheism?
if you only tell the elders that you don't believe in god, and as a result will be decreasing your activity, will they reprove you and/or df you if you aren't repentant over time?
pretend that you aren't telling them anything about your feelings regarding the organization or governing body.
-
-
poor places
Can you be df'd for atheism? If you only tell the elders that you don't believe in God, and as a result will be decreasing your activity, will they reprove you and/or df you if you aren't repentant over time? Pretend that you aren't telling them ANYTHING about your feelings regarding the organization or governing body. You only talk about your lack of faith in God.
Obviously I'm looking for a way of talking to elders and decreasing my activity without getting punished.
-
71
How Do You Feel Being Thought Of As An "Apostate"?
by minimus indoes it bother you if witnesses regard you as an apostate?.
-
-
poor places
I would imagine that a lot of the people who are saying they don't care what JWs call them don't have any close family members in the organization. It's easy to say that you don't care what some acquaintance thinks of you, but your own mother and father? Your brother and sister? Apostates are associated with evil in the mind of JWs. It's not pleasant to have family think of you as an evil person.
-
116
Would Witnesses REALLY drink the "Kool-aid" if the faithful slave told them to? Yes or no?
by Witness 007 ina "spiritual leader" tells his followers the must put on rebok running shoes and "drink the cool-aid" to join a ufo in the tail of a comet and "go to a better world" so, afew dozen young people do just that to get "beamed up" to the mothership.
heavens gate cult 1990's.. my mother says "she is faithful to the organisation till her death" which makes me wonder if they ordered a mass suicide like the reverend jim jones did to escape a "great tribulation"....how many witnesses would really drink the cool-aid?...
without a gun pointed at their head of course!.
-
-
poor places
Be realistic, guys. Very few Witnesses would literally drink the Kool-Aid. A lot of the Witnesses I know aren't even dedicated enough to go out in service regularly. You're telling me they're going to commit suicide? Many Witnesses would be disturbed that the religion they love went haywire, (I think I mean more haywire), but they wouldn't continue believing in it.
-
43
Do you remember the moment that you stopped believing that it was "The Truth"?
by freeflyingfaerie inwas there one incident or epiphany that struck you hard?
or was it a slow...gradual awakening (no pun)?.
my coming out of the jw coma (as i like to call it) began at a family rendezvous in the beautiful florida gulf coast.
-
-
poor places
I find the comments in this thread really interesting because I've never been able to pinpoint a time when I lost faith in the organization. As someone born in the "truth," it's hard to recall a time when I didn't question some aspect of the organization or even God. I remember believing in all of it as a very young child, of course, because that's what mommy and daddy said, but it's harder to remember after that. I kind of slogged through my high school years; I went through the meeting and service routine, but I don't know how much I believed. Faith is a funny thing. You can have it on Monday and sort of lose it on Tuesday. Something good happens to you and you feel like God is looking after you. Something bad happens and you're not so sure. A brother gives a riveting talk and you think the organization is great. A brother counsels you and you're not so sure.
I've always wondered if their are certain "risk factors" that make a person more susceptible to losing faith in the org and/or God. Why do some people grow up with steady faith and others lose it right off? Any thoughts on this?
-
5
a potentially interesting JW experiment
by poor places inso it would be pretty interesting if someone got df'd at an early age--20 or 30 or so--and kept attending meetings for the rest of his or her life without getting reinstated.
imagine jws in the presence of a df'd person for sixty years, without acknowledging the person's existence.
they'd watch the person grow older and more feeble, and all the while they'd believe that the person is going to die because of the d'fing.
-
-
poor places
So it would be pretty interesting if someone got df'd at an early age--20 or 30 or so--and kept attending meetings for the rest of his or her life without getting reinstated. Imagine JWs in the presence of a df'd person for sixty years, without acknowledging the person's existence. They'd watch the person grow older and more feeble, and all the while they'd believe that the person is going to die because of the d'fing. Or would the JWs in that person's congregation start to question the nature of d'fing, how silly it is, etc?
I guess they wouldn't! But it would still be pretty interesting. Who wants to be the first to try?
-
1
a literary wasteland
by poor places inisn't it amazing how many pages the wts has printed about the bible over the years?
if bros and sisters neglected reading these publications and just focused on the bible, can you imagine how much more well-versed and enlightened everyone would be?
i think the isaiah's prophecy books are longer than the book of isaiah!
-
-
poor places
Isn't it amazing how many pages the WTS has printed about the Bible over the years? If bros and sisters neglected reading these publications and just focused on the Bible, can you imagine how much more well-versed and enlightened everyone would be? I think the Isaiah's prophecy books are longer than the book of Isaiah! And even harder to read!
Think of how much money the WTS would save if they just printed Bibles instead of these heaps of Bible-based stuff.
On a side note, it's incredible how little attention is paid to sustained reading of the Bible. The reading that most bros and sisters get is fractured in the extreme. It's a verse here, a verse there, followed by commentary from the WTS. Or it's five or six chapters for the weekly Bible reading. That's the most you get, unless you read the Bible on your own, which is an eye-opening experience, to say the least.