cool video
I always liked Carl Sagan
maksym
JoinedPosts by maksym
-
5
Are there higher dimensions? If so, what is in them? (Part - 1)
by Fernando incarl sagan's cosmos - tesseract (7 minutes)he was a well spoken genius with a gift of making it plain and simple.... .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwl_zi9jnke.
.
-
-
-
11
Why don't they adapt to other cultures? (an American religion?)
by hijosdelawatch ini guess the majority of you haven't noticed that being an american, canadian, british, australia... (being involved in the anglosaxon culture) but there are situations in other cultures that make jws seem a bit bizarre.. since the watchtower is quite rigid and bureaucratic, it's reluctant to adapt to different cultures.
so sometimes even the brothers feel very uncomfortable adopting all this "watchtower culture" and even not knowing what to do in some situations.. for example, here in spain women keep their maiden names.
but for some reason, it's the watchtower culture to adopt a particular system.
-
-
maksym
I'm aware also that the WTBTS when printing their literature for other English speaking countries outside of the United States will continue to use American spelling and not English spelling. I'm not sure though.
Perhaps someone in the U.K or Australia could verify.
At least this is what I've been told.
Peace
Maksym
-
37
What are the most frustrating subjects to talk about with a JW...
by Tuesday ini was just wondering what everyone here found the most frustrating to talk to jws about, list as many as you feel..
-
-
maksym
The Trinity,
Hell, and
The soul
peace
Maksym
-
403
Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?
by snare&racket inthis saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.
despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.
i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!
-
-
maksym
God bless you tec for your perseverance.
I enjoy your posts!
In Christ,
Maksym
-
2
beyond rationalism
by maksym injust wanted to know if could something exist and be true without empiricism or science.
so the question is like love.
can we empiricanly define love or morals or ethics without empiricism.. .
-
-
maksym
Just wanted to know if could something exist and be true without empiricism or science. So the question is like love. Can we empiricanly define love or morals or ethics without empiricism.
Can Love be defined without empiricsm? Can science define love on a petri dish?
-
403
Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?
by snare&racket inthis saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.
despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.
i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!
-
-
maksym
I did an A in philosophy, politics, science, and otherwise. I have a 4.0 in all my studies.
It is very interesting to know that what people write here can be judged on many principles.
It is no doubt that you were spiritually abused. You and many others are like a lost sheep.
Can you accept the fact that you went into one relgion and came out athiest as being the ultimate scenario for truth? Why? Why one religion?
This is stupid, it is like a person comparing a Ford to all other cars when one has only driven a Ford.
New CHapter- my question to you is....have you only driven JW theology?
Why not go elsewhere besides science.
peace
maksym
-
403
Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?
by snare&racket inthis saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.
despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.
i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!
-
-
maksym
Interesting Mak. Your theory is that it is 'easy' to go from WT to atheism. Your theory is that the bible cannot be understood without someone wiser to direct us. And who would that be? And who taught them? Who was first? -New chapter quoted
Jesus taught the Apostles and they taught others before them. It is similar in a college university system. Information and knowledge is handed down through generations to teach the ones after them. I'm sure you will agree with this since you are in the educational system like me. Scientific knowledge is passed down so others can learn and build upon it.
This theory of mine does not mean that there must be someone wiser to direct. Many times in modern day science we have had people that contributed to great formulae and principles who were not schoold formally that has contributed to science. Yet those people never taught or were schooled. Many scientists and great inventors of society today were discoverers on their own. It is the same in understanding the Bible and the Kingdom of God. You may be an Isaac Newton or Albert Eistein of today in faith and God. It does not take another person to eductate you before this happens, but in most cases we as individuals are not on that par. You go to school to learn about others that came before you. Do you rely on them to further your career? Can you succeed without your education or on the discoveries of scientist, mathemeticians, historians, etc, before you. I care to say not. You are you and will prosper regardless of others. No one needs another to interpret scripture but it is most required for most people to go to the great theologions, the spiritual people of the day to get insight. You would not do otherwise in science.
So your theory is that this entire work was written out as fact, but should not be taken as such, because a rational mind cannot understand it. Therefore we must have faith in the understanding of other humans in order to have faith in the god presented. In other words, god cannot be understood by writings that were inspired by him, but only by more knowledgeable people who think they can offer the best interpretation.-quote by New Chapter
The Bible can be understood by anyone. So can science and our world around us. But I can use the same argument against you to say that we must go to school in order to learn about geology, microbiology, anatomy, history, paleontology. I don't have to tell you that others before us paved the way in order for us to understand the world in science around us. Great scientists and experiments proved certain principles and those principles were passed down to further generations. It is the same in the Bible. Understandings of the Bible came from great men and women and were handed down to others. These were known as the Church Fathers, of which are Augustine, Ignatius, Basil, etc.
What makes my interpretation any less valid than another's interpretation-quote by New Chapter
Nothing. There is no reason to believe me or you in any interpretation. I think this is cool you confronted me on this question because this is what I use to confront Jehovah's witnesses with. What I tell them is that they are right. The Bible is an organization book. It is meant to be interpreted by a consensus of the church. I know that may sound strange to you coming from a distructive cult but it is how it is meant to be. You see, the Bible was written to be placed in the authority of the Church. I place my authority in the Church. Those individuals that wrote the Bible and those they taught after them gave them the concepts in how to teach others. That is a vague and short answer but if you want to learn more on this just write me. The idea is that everyone has their own interpretation. The hobo on the street to the minister preaching in the crystal cathedral with 10 thousand adherents. The Bible is just one component in the church. Did you not put your trust in the Jehovah's Witnesses theology? Did you not believe at one time they were the true church on earth and would lead you to salvation? Therefore you put your trust in their interpretions. You did not rely on your own. I follow this pattern yet I have believed the church to be elsewhere and the truth to be elsewhere.
One does not have to study every Christian faith to conclude it's all false. One only needs to investigate the premise and the truths around us and decide if they hold up. When someone walks up and says, look you don't understand because no one has taught you, let me teach you, and shut down your rational brain---well alarm bells go off big time. CULT my rational brain screams. But your brain says 'listen to those that know better." CULT-quote from New Chapter
All I can say is you need to have this awareness. Be careful. Be cautious. There is a great comfort in knowing that 2+2 equals 4. And there is a great comfort in verifying scientific evidence put to an experiment. Things in our natural world tested in empirical science give comfort. These things cannot be argued. They cannot be messed with. Christianity does not need to be studied. It needs to be experienced and sought after not analyzed or put to the test or hypothesized or theorized. That is the physical world we live in.
Anyways, New Chapter...have you ever studied psychology. I was a major in psychology after I left the Wathtower. One thing I know is that animals behave differently after abuse.
Is there any reason that a person after being severely beaten by religion would have side effects?
Science tells us that people in concentration camps, war zones and abuse trauma suffer for long periods of time often changing behavour to compensate. Soldiers in concentration camps never seem to be the same once the return to normalcy.
Heres is the big question for you. It seems like everyone here on this forum suffered from a huge amount of "spiritual" abuse. How is it any different? We were in a concentration camp! Where do we go? What happened?
I think we were abused and treated unfairly. I think that we were made to believe in things we could not understand and now we believe in things we can understand, that is, science and what can be proven, because....nothing else can be proven and I have been fooled.
Don't leave the Bible and religion because you were abused by it. Seek and you will find the answers. Be humble. Soften the heart.
Wish you the best
Peace
Maksym
-
403
Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?
by snare&racket inthis saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.
despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.
i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!
-
-
maksym
Dear Snare and a Racket,
I read your OP and thought it was very nice and came from your heart. I often wonder how any person from the religion of the Watchtower could just go from them, to nothing, or Atheism in one swell swoop. However I have noticed a few things in your post that are of concern.
Most people who leave the Wathtower never go and investigate other Christian religions, or more importantly look toward DIRECTED studies of the Bible outside of what they were taught in the Watchtower. Have you done this?
Most people, as I have assumed from your post, read the Bible on their own and try to make a more clear path. This also is a problem. The reason is we enter into THAT Biblical reading with a bias. The Bible cannot be read alone. A person also needs to be aware not to read into those verses with their previous "baggage" or former religion, yet alone with their modern day ethics and morality. Also we cannot read into the Bible by ourselves without having some training on hermeunitics and exegesis. To do so is a story in vain.
When we as a people come to the Bible, before we even open one page, we automatically come to understand certain conclusions before the book is even opened. The example I give is that most witnesses think the Bible is a literal book, and in that what it says is always to be taken literally. Also for that matter, with the exception of symbologies, is a directive book.
We also seem to think that the the good Book is made for our interpretation of ethics and values. When we read the Bible in this way we tend to be lost or confused.
It is easy to be an Atheist when you leave the Society of Watchtower propaganda in a philisophical kind of way. I believe or theorize that it is because everything must make SENSE. We must justify OUR morals today with what we have been taught. I also believe that the Watchtower is a place where empiricism and rationalism rule. The only difference is that in our society today God and the supernatural Biblical world cannot be empiraclly defined. So, if the entire Bible was presented to you in rationalism then, who is to stop a person after finding said teachings contradict, to go to absolute empiricism and rationalism and the defining philisophical positions one holds as the worldview.
It is a no brainer.
You have gone from everything making sense to again everything making sense. The only difference is you have changed your authority figure to define that path for you. It is still empiricism, only under a different tune.
From Watchtower Science to Modern Science.
Maybe you have chosen comfort.
Peace
Maksym
-
32
Wasn't Armageddon Supposed to Happen in the First Century?
by losthobbit into me it's pretty obvious from these verses.... matthew 23:36, matthew 24:34, mark 13:30 and luke 21:32.
...that jesus, talking to his disciples, told them that armageddon would happen in their generation (the first century).
just wondering if everyone else sees it this way, or have i missed something?.
-
-
maksym
losthobbit wrote:"To me it's pretty obvious from these verses...
Matthew 23:36, Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30 and Luke 21:32
...that Jesus, talking to his disciples, told them that Armageddon would happen in their generation (the first century). Just wondering if everyone else sees it this way, or have I missed something?"
All those verses are in reference to "the generation".
This Generation, (Mathew 24:34 and elsewhere), refers to all believers in Christ at all times, the generation of the Church, and not merely to those alive at the time of Christ. Mathew 16:18 ties in nicely in saying the Church would not die out also. This wicked system would therefore be cut short or "no flesh be saved". This generation and end times starts at Pentecost of 33 A.D an goes until Christ returns in power and Glory at the end of the age.
Peace, and hope that gives you something to think about
Maksym
-
36
University after leaving the Watchtower?
by SweetBabyCheezits inhello, you sexy sassy posters of jwn.
i'm starting this thread in the hopes of finding... uh, hope.... and sharing it with others who are in a similar boat.
i'm looking for input from anyone who meets the following criteria:.
-
-
maksym
My first two years of undergraduate work was done online. I could do my studies while my everyday life seemed mostly unaffected.
It takes commitment and dedication, and also there will be some time constraints but it is certainly doable.
As far as money goes; using community colleges in your local area will be cheaper and sometimes grant money will pay nearly all of it.
My neighbour, with a husband and two kids, went to school and got a degree and owes nothing just because of grant money she recieved. She worked a part time job to help support her husband and family.
Secondly, it really helps when you have family or others around you as a support network cheering you on.