Posts by Half banana

41

Do you have JW-related dreams (nightmares)?

by compound complex in

greetings, dreamers:.

i guess it's never going away: daytime carryovers of jw-related stuff seeping into my dreams.. the majority of these dreams take place at conventions but with really weird trappings.

last night i dreamed i arrived at the site with no books, no lunch, nothing but my car keys.

Half banana

Coco, over the years I have many times had the same sort of dream, either I am giving the prayer at the meeting but I’m no longer a believer, or I am out in field service and spouting the JW party line but guiltily conscious of knowing that it’s a load of rubbish. In real life I escaped the Borg before I felt pressured to do these things.

But may I tell you about a vivid dream I had at the time I was waking up from the JW delusion:

I was walking along a country lane late one evening and came to the gap in a well trimmed hedgerow which was the entrance to a field. Instead of a proper gate there was a thin pole across the opening and two men guarding the entrance. There was a bonfire in the field surrounded by people but to my horror a man was being held by his outstretched arms and legs by four others and he was being roasted as it were over the fire. I shouted for them to stop what they were doing and the two guards immediately came together and quietly explained, in the manner of JWs justifying some other Biblical madness, that it was quite alright because the man who was being scorched was happy to have it done to him.

This was nearly thirty years ago but the dream meaning was clear to me then; that a JW colludes with the organisation to be a dumb servant and actually enjoys suffering because privately it confirms his subordinate role and gives a clear definition of his or her faith and the relationship to the organisation......or make of it what you will.

4

100 million year old Australian dinosaur has same skeletal structure as us

by doubtfull1799 in

since leaving the faith i have come to accept the facts and reality of evolution.

and of course i've read much about comparative anatmony and how it helps us to see the links between our common evolutionary ancestors.

however, its another thing to see it live in 3d.

Half banana

And then there are those hominins which outwardly look human, well almost human, but instead of the modern flexible thinking brain they function using the so called 'lizard' brain. I understand there are some living specimens found in upstate New York.

29

Tuxedo

by Phoebe in

do you think the gb live in big, posh houses??.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4diruxmqh4.

Half banana

Thanks Phoebe, very interesting. It's called feathering your nest. . . but don't let the rank and file know about it.

23

Why the meetings are boring and uninspiring

by UnshackleTheChains in

each individual may have their own views as to why they feel the meetings are boring and uninspiring.

in my case i find the midweek meeting so, because of the constant emphasis on pitching watchtower literature.

its just monotonous and one big yawn.. i watch other christian faiths where they open up a chapter of the bible and discuss it's contents.

Half banana

Beautifully put Freddo

19

CL&M part Jan 4 - annual meeting service report - our outstanding experiences

by loneranger in

jw
friends

this was the first part in the "living as christians" section of the meeting tonight.

speaker had two pioneers on the stage to relate their outstanding experiences for 2017. we have 23 pioneers and over 160 publishers in the hall.

our territory is densely populated with single family houses, apartments and condominiums.

Half banana

What upbuilding experiences! How Jerhoova is blessing his people!

It's no wonder they are leaving the org............get out while you still have a functioning brain.

66

Since leaving the JW Organization, who is believing?

by Issa in

jw
friends

i left the jw organization last year during summer.

maybe some of you can relate.

who of you are agnostic or an atheist?

Half banana

Not a believer here because I am without evidence for an almighty creator spirit.

Just one point to make; when quasars (quasi stellar objects) were discovered in astronomy they were found to be ultra powerful energy and light sources about 10 to 14 billion light years distance from Earth (nearer ones have been found since) each one despatching energy of unimaginable potency.They are galactic cores fed by super-massive black holes. One light year, bye the way, is 5.88 trillion miles distance and a trillion has12 zeros.

It is laughable to imagine that the ox headed idol of the Hebrews called Yahweh (later Anglicised as Jehovah) could have the slightest connection with quasars.

13

Would you sacrifice yourself?

by Half banana in

under roman rule, which covered a large part of the civilized world around the mediterranean, to be a trouble maker or a magician or an insurrectionist was a capital offence.. to live back then in a civilised society was a boon.

naturally for the sake of law and order certain compliances had to be met to as part of the social bargain to be a roman citizen.

among them were included the requirement to respect the “genius” or spirit of the emperor, not to be an atheist and to respect the roman gods.

Half banana

Yes Xanthippe, we humans do things because we see some benefit in doing them. We might help a friend or family members but what's the point of literally sacrificing yourself? I have been asking myself what is the motivation for martyrdom? Why did they go so willingly to their deaths?

In the first place they were convinced by a story and saw others happily living by the hope it generated.

But is there some perverse node in our psyche or even in the cerebrum which gets turned on by certain types of religious thinking? I reason that the idea of belief in a certainty of religious hope is made 'real' to believers by others demonstrating it by laying their down lives --and taking pleasure in doing so.

Marcus Aurelius saw those happy delusional faces willingly go to their deaths and called them exhibitionists, and perhaps that is closer to the fact of the matter?

13

Would you sacrifice yourself?

by Half banana in

under roman rule, which covered a large part of the civilized world around the mediterranean, to be a trouble maker or a magician or an insurrectionist was a capital offence.. to live back then in a civilised society was a boon.

naturally for the sake of law and order certain compliances had to be met to as part of the social bargain to be a roman citizen.

among them were included the requirement to respect the “genius” or spirit of the emperor, not to be an atheist and to respect the roman gods.

Half banana

I was in St Albans today. After a lunch at the Fighting Cocks pub (twelfth century) I went into the cathedral, which began in the eleventh century in the Norman style. It houses the shrine of the first British martyr Alban, probably a third or early fourth century victim of the Church. He sheltered a proselytising priest fleeing persecution and whilst housing him for a few days got infected with Christianity-- and pretty soon had his head severed from the rest of him for pretending to be the priest to save him from execution. A week before he was not a Christian and could have kept his head on his shoulders. Moral: never house fugitive priests.

The early Christian cult was as Marcus Aurelius said, full of morbid and misguided exhibitionists. Christianity was all about Jesus dying painfully and the religion promoted the notion that followers would do well to imitate him literally.

At least half of the "patrists" or Church Fathers were executed, some like Ignatius happily looked forward to being torn to death by animals in the public arena. The effect of all this courageous--or was it foolhardy? martyrdom was profound and in no small measure propelled the credibility of orthodox Christianity eventually towards Imperial approval.

Ultimately insofar as JW doctrine is built on Roman Church doctrine, dying a martyr's death in imitation of Christ, was part of the success (if you can call it that) of Christianity. Let's hope martyrdom never goes mainstream again.

48

Evolution doesn't happen today...WRONG...

by HowTheBibleWasCreated in

last year i had a brother tell me that one proof evolution is false is that he doesn't see it happening today... i was going to bring of viruses evolving so fast that new vaccines must be developed each year but felt he was too closed minded to receive it.

today i was listening to the audio book of 'an ancestors tale- richard dawkins' and noted oe point that shined through.. here is evolution happening>>>.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/05/2/l_052_05.html.