Mindchild

Joined 24 years ago

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Posts by Mindchild

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  12

  Why is it stressful to be a Witness?

  by Mindchild in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  23 years ago

  i would honestly appreciate any feedback of why, in simple terms, you feel there are stresses to being a witness.

  the source of stress you have in mind doesn't have to be gigantic.

  i'm looking to catalog a list of all the things causing stress to witnesses.. here is a list of ten things i could think of, and there are probably many more.

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  23 years ago
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  Mindchild 23 years ago

  I would honestly appreciate any feedback of why, in simple terms, you feel there are stresses to being a Witness. The source of stress you have in mind doesn't have to be gigantic. I'm looking to catalog a list of all the things causing stress to Witnesses.

  Here is a list of ten things I could think of, and there are probably many more.

  1. Where is Armageddon?
  2. What happened to the generation now living?
  3. Why is the work slowing down?
  4. Shunning.
  5. Imbalance of sexes in congregations (2/3 women)
  6. The number of unhappy Witnesses
  7. Hypocrisy of some congregations
  8. Child molesters in congregations
  9. Restrictions on Freedom.
  10. Voluntary oath of poverty being a Witness.

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus

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  25

  Secret Agenda

  by ItsJustMe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  23 years ago

  more than likely this will sound like a naive question to some of you, but what is your theory as to the wbts' secret agenda?

  i don't see any of them living it up....as far as i know all the governing body lives at bethel year round, eating in the cafeteria with everyone else.. what would their reason be to collect & hoard money, or belong to the un?

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  23 years ago
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  Mindchild 23 years ago

  What??? You don't believe that they are following some sinister and evil plot to take over the world???

  As much as I dislike what the Borg has done to me and others, I don't see them following any grand conspiracy or out to make huge bucks. These people believe in what they are doing. The sad part is that they are victims of both groupthink and mind viruses. In their search for truth, over a century ago, they followed an emergent path that made them more vulnearble to thinking that they were being guided and directed by God. Even though the evidence kept slapping them in the face, they ignored it and kept on doing the same thing more urgently. Eventually they created a conceptual reality so strong that everything on the outside became evil and dangerous, which allowed them to become more in denial of the real world.

  They are advanced victims of a mental disease that causes mental blindness. I'm reminded of Einstein's famous quote: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

  Skipper

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus

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  22

  What happens when you die????

  by kevin221 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  23 years ago

  question to throw out to anyone who cares to answer.. what do jw's believe happens when they die.

  jon always told me that when life was over, that was it, no heaven no hell just nothingness.. is that what jw's really believe?

  he didn't like to talk about it with me because he thought it would upset me.. thanks for any input,.

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  23 years ago
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  Mindchild 23 years ago

  The holistic pattern of what you are as a living individual becomes ineffective to sustain your living existence. Parts of your body can live on in other individuals if you so desire, such as transplants, but no human consciousness as we know it extends with the transplants. Believe it or not, the Witnesses once thought that if part of your body was removed and implanted in someone else, (such as your heart) that you would be in effect living through that person. Go back and read the old Watchtowers about heart transplants for more about this bizarre concept.

  There may be one way to be reborn again and have a resurrection of your consciousness but it is highly speculative. It involves a special preservation and deep-freezing process of the body and is known as cryonics. People who are thus frozen in liquid nitrogen remain in a state of little decay until the day they hope that science will be able to not only repair the cause of their disease or death but will also be able to undo the damage caused to cells by freezing them. There is some credibility to this hope, even though no people have been thawed out and revived. Regardless, the odds are not favorable at all as there remain many unknowns as to both if the technology will get here to do this (said by some to be as soon as 40-60 years) and if so, would anyone want to bring back to life someone dead from the past.

  Of course, if you have nothing else to loose and you are going to die anyway…a long shot is better than nothing at all.

  Skipper

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus

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  29

  How does anyone know matter didn't always exist?

  by D wiltshire in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  23 years ago

  a few days ago i was told matter didn't always exist.. i was told this by several persons who spoke with much certainty.. they said matter came from a singularity.. this as you know raises more questions than it answers.. have they any proof that singularities even exist?.

  how come people state things as a fact, that they have no solid proof for, and expect others to just beleive them.. and if you don't accept their beleif, you are said, not to be intelligent.. isn't that a case of attacking the straw man?.

  instead of the argument?.

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  23 years ago
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  Mindchild 23 years ago

  DW,

  Thank you for your clarification but you might be advised not to strike matches in a room full of gas fumes! LOL!

  There are a lot of people who enjoy discussing the merits of truth telling tools, belief systems, and memes. I think you can even call people who get into this subject: postmodern radical constructivists.
  
  We do create models for reality. Some of us buy prepackaged models called "religions" and try to fit that into our conceptual experiences with different results. Others choose to use more logical tools, such as science or logical constructs as truth telling tools. All known mental tools have limitations and areas of applicability. For instance, I cannot use science to disprove that invisible dancing pink elephants inhabit Kingdom Halls after hours. I see no evidence for this being true however, and give it little relevance but by knowing that all models of reality are flawed, I cannot say that this is absolutely impossible, nor can you.

  A lot of people feel uncomfortable with a small amount of uncertainty. Fortunately, you can learn to live with it and science does a great job of answering the important and relevant questions. There are lots of things we don't know but there are many things we do and they follow a coherent pattern that guides us in discovering new things.

  In closing I wanted to offer a thought now about testing people in their adherence to a particular belief. We are more or less hardwired to construct models of reality. We have emotional attachments to our models and our ego fights to maintain that status quo. Even scientists get caught up in their pet theories and are reluctant to let things go until the evidence is overwhelming that their theory comes up lacking and better models are more useful. Typically, I find that if someone has a rather strong emotional reaction towards you questioning their theory, model or paradigm of reality, it could be that subconsciously their model is rather weak and the Ego is just doing the standard protect the self bit. This doesn't apply if you are being a pain in the ass or getting on someone's nerves. LOL

  Reality just isn't like it used to be.

  Skipper

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus

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  100

  The Watchtower's Official Explanation of the Scand

  by Kent in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  23 years ago

  [h3]here is the watchtower's official explanations on the un scandal![/h3.

  the letter is, naturally - on the watchtower observer as well!.

  yachyd da.

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  23 years ago
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  Mindchild 23 years ago

  Doesn't their reasoning suggest that if someone opened up a whore house across from Brooklyn headquarters and put in a library section for public use, that it would be okay for Witnesses to come over and use the facilities?

  Of course, if the library card had a naughty picture on it, or worse yet, if apostates found out about it, then it is a no-no.

  Don't tell me those guys going to the UN only read the books either...they were reading the babes in the mini-skirts.

  Skipper

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus

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  29

  How does anyone know matter didn't always exist?

  by D wiltshire in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  23 years ago

  a few days ago i was told matter didn't always exist.. i was told this by several persons who spoke with much certainty.. they said matter came from a singularity.. this as you know raises more questions than it answers.. have they any proof that singularities even exist?.

  how come people state things as a fact, that they have no solid proof for, and expect others to just beleive them.. and if you don't accept their beleif, you are said, not to be intelligent.. isn't that a case of attacking the straw man?.

  instead of the argument?.

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  23 years ago
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  Mindchild 23 years ago

  DW...Abaddon did a great job for explaining my own thoughts but I just wanted to add that I wasn't upset with you, only wondering if you were really looking to question Epistemology (the discipline relating to telling what is true or false) or if you wanted to discuss cosmology.

  Skipper

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus

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  6

  EX JW Group Theatre Company

  by Celtic in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  23 years ago

  would anyone be interested in a bit of trans international cyber theatre?

  i was thinking of how it might be possible to put together a theatre company from ex witnesses that through dance and choreographed movement in creative theatre performance might teach something of the issues at hand here, that individually we are all dealing with.

  any script writers in the house, for me to talk with?

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  23 years ago
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  Mindchild 23 years ago

  Celtic,

  How do you propose that this be done...over the Internet? Is it a participatory video? Is it a text dance that would appear in chat or in posts? Your ideas?

  Skipper

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus

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  17

  Bizarre Urban Myth...have you heard it?

  by Preston in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  23 years ago

  i remember a couple of years ago when i was out in field service i heard a story (haven't we all) about a district convention in california where the speaker was invited to give a talk, and as he was standing before the platform, he unexpectedly began to tell a slurry of sex jokes, profanities, and stories about his sex life.

  everyone in attendance was shocked, and after he was removed from speaking, an elder had to inform the audience that what happened was completely unexpected and uncalled for.

  being that i was a jw at the time i had no use for critical thinking, so i thought every word of it was true.

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  23 years ago
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  Mindchild 23 years ago

  Hey Farkel...I did the art work for you on your book
  

  Skipper

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus

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  53

  Two sex questions

  by Seeker4 in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  23 years ago

  ok, have had enough to drink tonight so i will toss these two questions out.

  will discuss this a bit more tomorrow.. 1. how many of you had sex outside of your marriage after leaving the witnesses?

  provide whatever details about how and why that you're comfortable with.. 2. funny question: had a friend write me today that probably more jws per capita enjoyed oral sex the night they read it was a "conscience matter" than any other group in the us.

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  23 years ago
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  Mindchild 23 years ago

  Seeker,

  I would like to suggest a rather interesting and shocking book on human sexuality.

  Sperm Wars by Robin Baker (2000)

  Here is a quote from the dust jacket:

  Synopsis
  Robin Baker puts forward the thesis that evolution has programmed men to conquer and monopolise women while women, without even knowing they are doing it, seek the best genetic input on offer from potential sexual partners. Facts of life presented include: 10 per cent of children are not fathered by their "fathers", less than 1 per cent off a man's sperm is capable of fertilizing anything - the rest is there to fight off other men's sperm, "smart" vaginal mucus encourages some sperm but blocks others, and a woman is far more likely to conceive through a casual fling than through sex with her regular partner. Baker describes fictionalized scences and then explains the science behind the actions to demonstrate how our everyday behaviour fits into a pattern of evolution.

  I suggest this book without reservation to any man or woman who wants to understand their sexual instincts and how these instincts surface in our lives.

  Skipper

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus

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  29

  How does anyone know matter didn't always exist?

  by D wiltshire in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  23 years ago

  a few days ago i was told matter didn't always exist.. i was told this by several persons who spoke with much certainty.. they said matter came from a singularity.. this as you know raises more questions than it answers.. have they any proof that singularities even exist?.

  how come people state things as a fact, that they have no solid proof for, and expect others to just beleive them.. and if you don't accept their beleif, you are said, not to be intelligent.. isn't that a case of attacking the straw man?.

  instead of the argument?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 

  23 years ago
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  Mindchild 23 years ago

  D. Wiltshire asked me...
  Are you absolutly sure of this?:

  Are you playing Devil's advocate and want to question everything or are you looking for information about an issue important to you?

  In science, very few things are 100% sure. We use varying degrees of probability for looking at the validity of theories. For instance, there is a very tiny probability that Fred Hall is actually an alien from a distant galaxy. We cannot say with 100% assurance that this is not the case. It is however very unlikely, considering the difficulties of this actually happening. So, very few things are indisputable. You look for and work with a trail of evidence. When the evidence suggests something else is more reasonable, you look in that direction to see if it matches the collective knowledge you have already assembled.

  Skipper

  All great deeds and all great thoughts have ridiculous beginnings--Albert Camus

  Link