Half banana

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Posts by Half banana

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  116

  What is behind your choice of forum user name?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious how we all think.. what prompted or influenced your choice of username for this forum?.

  there are some really amazing names, and it would be great to hear the stories behind them.... mine was nothing fancy.

  i just felt "stuck in a rut too" along with so many others.

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  Half banana

  @ Wake, Stephen Letts has had to withdraw from giving any more talks at the summer conventions this year, he has severe sunburn on his tongue.
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  116

  What is behind your choice of forum user name?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious how we all think.. what prompted or influenced your choice of username for this forum?.

  there are some really amazing names, and it would be great to hear the stories behind them.... mine was nothing fancy.

  i just felt "stuck in a rut too" along with so many others.

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  Half banana

  @Wake, I hope it has! but then evangelists are at least 90% vegetable to start with.
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  116

  What is behind your choice of forum user name?

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious how we all think.. what prompted or influenced your choice of username for this forum?.

  there are some really amazing names, and it would be great to hear the stories behind them.... mine was nothing fancy.

  i just felt "stuck in a rut too" along with so many others.

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  Half banana

  Bananas and humans are Eukaryotes that is multi celled life-forms. At the crudest level of popular science it is now said that we share 50% of our genes with bananas. But comparisons are virtually meaningless, bananas have more protein coding genes than humans do and quantity of gene sequences do not result in biological complexity. If you compare numbers of DNA sequences then the 50% figure is unlikely to be true but if we compare the basic biochemistry of cells of bananas with humans, it is found that we have similar requirements. Since herbaceous plants, such as banana, and Homo sapiens evolved from the same source and share functional cell maintenance and replication genes, we can say we are all half banana. I liked that thought.
  
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  39

  How do you get over all the things that you missed? The stuff you can't get back

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  look my life is not bad but sometimes i just think about all the normal things i missed out on.

  and no i'm not talking about christmas and birthday parties.

  i'm talking about your first kiss happening in your twenties instead of your teens.

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  Half banana

  RT, I think your idea of free tuition probably will only apply to Scandinavian lands and then only in their own language. Germany Is probably going to re-introduce fees for non EU members and France does at least have cheap university fees but of course in French.
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  39

  How do you get over all the things that you missed? The stuff you can't get back

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  look my life is not bad but sometimes i just think about all the normal things i missed out on.

  and no i'm not talking about christmas and birthday parties.

  i'm talking about your first kiss happening in your twenties instead of your teens.

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  Half banana

  I'm with you JW rogue, I missed out on early sexual experience and higher education. To some degree I did make up for both in my post witness life but the timings were not ideal. I devoured with relish a number of adult courses at universities but frankly it would have been so much more useful to have had the foundational bricks in place at the earliest opportunity. To extend the analogy; it is easier to lay the foundations of a building down at the start rather than the more tricky business of underpinning it later. I'm forced to look back and know that regrets of wasted time don't help the present.

  A couple of months ago I spoke with a leading British philosopher, a polymath, a living library with a phenomenal memory to boot. Whilst not imagining I would be at his level, had my parents directed me to expect success in the world and nurtured my earliest learning, I'm sure I could have enjoyed some worldly success--but I'm not complaining!

  As it was, I thought I knew better than my parents (who were not witnesses) and instead I was prepared to be taught by the brainless operatives of the brainless JW cult that higher education was undesirable, if not downright wrong. I stupidly believed them, it was therefore my fault.

  So we cannot change our past but if we have children, we can give them two things: unconditional love as the first requirement and an expectation of a happy, successful life based on a good education. Higher education can be a ticket out of the depressing social values delivered by both JWs and by poverty-- if it is done with positive goals in mind including financial independence and control over your own life.
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  66

  Do you think the general public cares about former Jehovah's witnesses?

  by Christian Gutierrez in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was wondering if you guys think if the general public cares about our stories or if they even care what the watchtower does to people??

  ?.

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  Half banana

  I would imagine that the general public view former JWs to be as nutty as they think practicing JWs must be.
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  13

  searching

  by dogisgod in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  can someone please help me find the video from the society regarding not advancing children's talents?

  it's about a child who is very good at something musical and has been invited to participate in a special advanced course but his father explains how that is worldly thinking.

  something along those lines..

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  Half banana

  A good friend of mine who was a headmistress in a London school told me about the most outstanding pupil she ever came across in her long teaching experience. The girl always got top marks and it was expected naturally that she would go to university and flourish and have a distinguished career in whatever she chose.

  Alas! the girl did not want to go to university since she was a JW. She gave the impression to my friend that there is something like one in her religion in the USA and she would attend that. I really don't know what she meant, perhaps Gilead school but whatever happened the cult deprived her of self fulfillment and stole her life. . .like it does for all its followers.
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  42

  “Tree of good and bad” means what?

  by venus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if “tree of good and bad” were literal, it would mean adam and eve would know what is “good and bad” only after eating of that tree.

  however, even before eating of it, they would think “it is good for us to eat of this tree” which means they are already endowed knowledge of “good and bad.” that means “tree of good and bad” is symbolic of something.. since religious organizations interpret this differently, each reader has to adopt his own conclusion.

  for me it looks like this: one thinks of good and bad in relation to himself—if something is beneficial for him he would say it is good for him, and bad for him if it is not beneficial.

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  Half banana

  Get with it people! We are talking about a story not fact, not truth, not reality. It never happened-- it is pure myth.

  It simply reflects certain aspects of the human condition. It is an imaginative tale about obedience in fairyland. For goodness sake please stop talking about these things as if they were historical.
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  42

  “Tree of good and bad” means what?

  by venus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if “tree of good and bad” were literal, it would mean adam and eve would know what is “good and bad” only after eating of that tree.

  however, even before eating of it, they would think “it is good for us to eat of this tree” which means they are already endowed knowledge of “good and bad.” that means “tree of good and bad” is symbolic of something.. since religious organizations interpret this differently, each reader has to adopt his own conclusion.

  for me it looks like this: one thinks of good and bad in relation to himself—if something is beneficial for him he would say it is good for him, and bad for him if it is not beneficial.

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  Half banana

  It is I think, a mistake to give every incident a profound meaning in a mythical story, and most certainly not to reckon that it is from God. Incidents and objects in myth are often explanations attempting to reconcile contradictions.

  Adam and Eve clearly never existed and neither did the fabled tree. Nevertheless it is possible to unpick the events, characters and components of this story as a creation myth which points to the mythical creator's right to determine what his innocent creation must and must not do. This is something we were all confronted with as we grew up; we all asked ourselves-- but not necessarily at one moment, the basic philosophical question: what is the best way to live our lives? What should we do and what must we not do?

  The Biblical story has been used by Jews and Christians to capture the allegiance of young people in turning them towards "God" as ultimate authority.

  I might add that since the Age of the Enlightenment, "reason" has proved to be a more reliable authority.
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  3

  Blood as the seat of life: The blood paradox among Afro-christians. 

  by TheWonderofYou in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  i find this an interesting read.. https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/perc.2016.14.issue-1/perc-2016-0003/perc-2016-0003.pdf.

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  Half banana

  An interesting assessment of Zimbabweans beliefs on blood as ritual and a good reason for the ready acceptance of Watchtower doctrines in the region. (Zambia to the north haas even more JWs per capita than Zimbabwe).

  They also have one of the worst governments in the World.