Posts by SweetBabyCheezits

213

My Lord spoke and told me to post

by watersprout in

jw
friends

my lord spoke to me for the first time yesterday and this morning he told me to post my experience.. i know there are going to be ones who will call me names and thats ok. i will accept whatever you feel you need to say.. here goes.

i heard a voice calling ''my child'', this happened while at the zoo so i was taken off guard!

i replied ''who is this?

SweetBabyCheezits

@Inkie...

"Why would you choose to question such a one knowing that they “seem like a good, spiritual human”?"

The keyword here is seem. Our judgment of others is easily contaminated by presupposition. I've misjudged people before, as to both 'good' and 'bad'. I once knew a man who 'seemed to be a good, spiritual human' and yet he was a pedophile who confessed (I read court documents) to raping his own 5 year old daughter. He was the farthest thing imaginable from a good person.

"How do you test? You test by “love.” That is the determining factor. Is what is stated originating from love? If not, then it does not originate from God. Easy."

The "love" test was also adequate for Annie Moore, one of the victim's of the Jim Jones cult massacre:

"His love for humans was insurmountable," she wrote, "and it was many whom he put his love and trust in, and they left him and spit in his face." - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27743208/

She was duped into suicide by a person who seemed motivated by love. Emotions are a wonderful thing but shouldn't be used to critically analyze such circumstances.

What steps do you suggest be taken?

From what I understand, hearing voices is not normal and is more likely symptomatic of a mental health issue. Since I'm not a psychologist, the first step I suggest for the hearer of voices is to consult a professional (see HC's comment above) who has experience and training to help. They would be better equipped to diagnose and prescribe after hearing WS's story and surrounding events, details, etc...

But the first step for the person who accepts the hearer's account at face value, I'd recommend a book on critical thinking. Seriously. I'm in the middle of a couple myself.

64

Ok Hearing Voices..... Terry I might need your help LOL

by Darth plaugeis in

ok. so your a christian.... you love the bible.. damn you live your life by this book right?

serpent or satan????.

the serpent was cursed and many believe the snake had legs at the garden of eden.... and part of the curse was to crawl on it's belly.. so again .....what did the snake do wrong???.

SweetBabyCheezits

Answer: Because myths are allowed to violate simple logic.

Question: Why?

Answer: Because God allows them to.

Question: Ok.

213

My Lord spoke and told me to post

by watersprout in

jw
friends

my lord spoke to me for the first time yesterday and this morning he told me to post my experience.. i know there are going to be ones who will call me names and thats ok. i will accept whatever you feel you need to say.. here goes.

i heard a voice calling ''my child'', this happened while at the zoo so i was taken off guard!

i replied ''who is this?

SweetBabyCheezits

Or as one skeptic put it, "Before we try to explain an extraordinary event as being out of this world, we should make sure we've exhausted all possibilities that are in this world."

WATERSPOUT, I've got some questions for which I'd like to get your input if you'd be kind enough. I'm honestly trying to understand....

Do you accept every claim others might make of hearing the voice of God, so long as they seem like a good, spiritual human?
How do you determine which ones to believe and which ones to write off as being in a state of psychosis?
Should a person not question himself when he hears such a voice?
Would a person who is in a state of psychosis realize it?
What steps have you taken to eliminate the possibility that your mind was the source of the voice?

If nothing else, I'd like to know the answers to these questions in case I ever hear a voice.

213

My Lord spoke and told me to post

by watersprout in

jw
friends

my lord spoke to me for the first time yesterday and this morning he told me to post my experience.. i know there are going to be ones who will call me names and thats ok. i will accept whatever you feel you need to say.. here goes.

i heard a voice calling ''my child'', this happened while at the zoo so i was taken off guard!

i replied ''who is this?

SweetBabyCheezits

Not that anyone is asking but I tend to agree with Thomas Paine. From The Age of Reason....

"Revelation, when applied to religion, means something communicated immediately from God to man.... But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and consequently they are not obliged to believe it.
It is a contradiction in terms and ideas, to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second-hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication- after this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner; for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.
When Moses told the children of Israel that he received the two tables of the commandments from the hands of God, they were not obliged to believe him, because they had no other authority for it than his telling them so; and I have no other authority for it than some historian telling me so. The commandments carry no internal evidence of divinity with them; they contain some good moral precepts, such as any man qualified to be a lawgiver, or a legislator, could produce himself, without having recourse to supernatural intervention.*
*It is, however, necessary to except the declaration which says that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children; it is contrary to every principle of moral justice. When I am told that the Koran was written in Heaven and brought to Mahomet by an angel, the account comes too near the same kind of hearsay evidence and second-hand authority as the former. I did not see the angel myself, and, therefore, I have a right not to believe it."

42

no more lurking...hello eveyone

by Evidently Apostate in

jw
friends

about a year ago i went through a mild meltdown.

it hit me fast i had panic attacks and became angry with all the control in my life.

(being a jw) i had just found out i was being screwed on a real estate development project by another self righteous jw i have known for a long time but this was a big loss (about 4 months pay plus expenses).

SweetBabyCheezits

Geez, foam is such a... a negative word. We prefer to say that we froth at the mouth now. It's new light.

Welcome aboard!

284

To new Christians on JWN

by brotherdan in

i wanted to make a few comments to those of you that have recently begun to question or have already left the wt and made their way onto this site.

this site is a great resource to learn how others are coping with leaving the organization and moving on into a fulfilling life.. i wanted to write this post because i think reading something like this would've been helpful to me to understand where a lot of people that comment on this site are coming from.

you are going to hear from a wide range of people that have moved on to a diverse range of beliefs.

SweetBabyCheezits

BD, I had faith in the Bible even after leaving the WT.... until recently when I decided I must analyze my own cherished beliefs and scrutinize everything equally to make sure my judgment isn't clouded by bias.

In a search for truth, presuppositions adopted as a child have to be set aside. True critical thinking requires it. For example, I had to ask WHY I believed so strongly that the Bible was the inerrant word of God and work my way back to the time when I adopted that view.... as a child. And, as difficult as it was, that's exactly what I did (and am doing). I'm not saying that's your case, but it seems to be a common thread among many Christians I know.

If raised as one of JWs you should sincerely question if you ever really learned how to use critical thinking. I had not. Certain beliefs had been cordoned off in my mind from the hard questions and they were still in hiding even after my mind was opened to the fact that the Society is just a publishing corp.

I've got a lot to learn still and I suspect I won't ever have verifiable answers to all my questions, but I'm content with the direction I'm headed. And I feel like I'm much better equipped to analyze information without bias contaminating it.

You suggest atheists need a cop-out so they don't have to feel guilty. Please tell me you recognize both the generalization and the red herring here. For example, my parents will believe I'm leaving the organization for any reason BUT the real reason. They can't accept that I am searching for TRUTH instead of a foregone conclusion so they use a red herring to rationalize it away. "Oh, you just WANT to live your life without God." "You want to lead an easy life." "You must've had an affair and don't want to own up to it." (Seriously, my mom suggested the latter this past weekend. Of all the things to accuse, that is the only one the really angered me. It also proves to me how grossly deluded she is.)

An atheist could easily turn your argument around and say that Christians only believe there's a God because emotionally/mentally they can't handle the thought that this life is all there is. They're scared of the alternative. But that's a fallacy. Atheists can't paint with such a broad brush and neither can you.

Also, Bible or no Bible, to say that an athiest can't find REAL contentment in life is the fallacious "No True Scotsman" argument. See the video below. If you can dispute the logic here, please let me know.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheraminTrees#p/u/16/_HJrAaGJudw

(If anyone can embed the above vid, please feel free. I'm a retarded agnostic.)

33

Bible Contradictions

by brotherdan in

i will go out on a limb and say that this has probably been discussed alot.

but for my own personal benefit i'd like to hear everyones "favorite" bible contradiction.

i'd also like to hear any refutes that anyone has to any of these contradictions.

SweetBabyCheezits

A PDF poster of Bible contradictions:

http://www.project-reason.org/gallery3/image/105/

I found this last night. Haven't had a chance to review all of them so I'm not saying some, most, or all can't be rationalized. Of course, it seems to me that most Bible contradictions can be rationized away if that's what one wants to believe. The question, to me, is whether they should be.

13

Excellent YouTube video for those raised in JW home (or any dogmatic faith)

by SweetBabyCheezits in

jw
friends

there are some really intelligent videos from users, qualiasoup, and his brother, theramintrees, on youtube.

this one tells an analogous story that deals with being raised in a religiously dogmatic household..... http://www.youtube.com/user/theramintrees#p/u/0/kaiprrzvnjg.

SweetBabyCheezits

BTTT, because it's worthy. (In my opinion, of course.)

13

Excellent YouTube video for those raised in JW home (or any dogmatic faith)

by SweetBabyCheezits in

jw
friends

there are some really intelligent videos from users, qualiasoup, and his brother, theramintrees, on youtube.

this one tells an analogous story that deals with being raised in a religiously dogmatic household..... http://www.youtube.com/user/theramintrees#p/u/0/kaiprrzvnjg.

SweetBabyCheezits

Yeah, thanks for pointing that out. I'm usually the guy who posts everything second... just so you know.

13

Excellent YouTube video for those raised in JW home (or any dogmatic faith)

by SweetBabyCheezits in

jw
friends

there are some really intelligent videos from users, qualiasoup, and his brother, theramintrees, on youtube.

this one tells an analogous story that deals with being raised in a religiously dogmatic household..... http://www.youtube.com/user/theramintrees#p/u/0/kaiprrzvnjg.

SweetBabyCheezits

Thanks for embedding, TS.