Posts by Panda

28

How do I find God if I want to find him?

by Singing Man in

yes, i have many times asked this of my self.

after leavening the witness's its been hard, i think ewww i am no good cause unless i am attending the kingdom hall i won't have gods grace and he won't hear my prayers or anything.

boy they sure had me, being raised a witness sticks with you long after you leave in ways you think it never would and in ways you just can't can't flush.

Panda

I found G.O.D. Gene Organizing Device (DNA sequencing)

The natural world is awesome. The universe is vast and fantastically beautiful even when you aren't a scientist. We have photos of star clouds ... 20 years ago who ever saw star clouds? But they were there. And considering that we are made of the stuff of stars, how great that feeling of attachment to ... well .... everything (which includes stuff we don't even know exists yet). As the old Enlightenment philosopher/scientist said, "What is, is possible." Occam So every new discovery is new only because we didn't know of it's existence until this finite moment. Like discovering Pluto (Planet not dog) because we knew about the effect of gravity pulling on nearby planets, so something was there... another planet, by golly it is!...

Everyday, every decade humans learn so much more about ourselves and our vast environment.

The glory is just there infront of you, around you. As you push your body through the atmosphere feel the negative ions cheering your skin. I see this as good.

Panda

32

Did You Think "Jehovah" Was Responsible For Everything Good In Your Life?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i've heard all my life, that anytime something good happened, we should thank jehovah for doing it.

if something bad happened, like being attacked by the "demons", it was because a person didn't have the complete "suit of armor" from god.

i know many of the "friends" that credit jehovah god for giving them a sunny morning, a pay raise at work or an end to their cough and cold.....were you one of those that believed jehovah was behind everything that happened in your life?

Panda

Yes Minimus, I believed completely the WTS line that Jehovah was all good and I was bad and Satan was badder. I believed that the FDS would make sure to educate me and help me to become a better person. I was a dub. I had little tiny nigglings about stuff like homosexuals being bad.. I'd grown up around gay men and women. I never realized they were gay until I was a teenager so I always just accepted relatives and my Mom's friends for who they were, human beings. But I always was able to push those nagging doubts aside until I started college and several new friends were gay and I thought OMG what kind of belief is this homophobic thing?

"Chaka and the walls came down."

23

What has religion done?

by God is Dead in

jw
friends

you spoonfed us saturday morning mouthfulls of maggots and flies disgised in your sugary breakfest cerials.

you made us clean ourselves with your fears.

these things have hardened in our soft pink bellies.

Panda

GID, Yes religion has caused tremendous harm. Governmants have caused tremendous harm . But why? I say because of the power involved in maintaining control. Power is the reason for the Julius Ceasars and Rupert Murdoch's of the world.

Every bit of art and music is really built on previous art and music. That's why we can still play ancient instruments because we understand their concepts.

My feelings on religion? Religion is the opium of the people. Did Lenin say that? Religion is all about the "feeling". Which is fine if you keep that feeling where it belongs ... with yourself and other believers. In China religion is allowed but proselytizing is not. I think thats good. I hope that the Alabama ten commandments stay gone. But I think the old folks praying at the courthouse is fine and they shouldn't be arrested for that. I think I'd actually like to have a conversation w/ them, they've had a long life and as a historian I'd want to interview them to learn about how they got to believe what they do.

The world isn't ready for us Bright's (the new name for atheists because we aren't anti-god since we don't believe there ever was anything but the manmade concept of godhead). So welcome to the Bright side GID.

Panda

32

The Watchtower Says It's Creature Worship To Excessively Applaud a Speaker

by minimus in

jw
friends

how many rotten governing body members gave horrendous talks and got a standing ovation?

how many of them just walked on stage to an automatic round of applause?

...notice the words from the 1951 watchtower on page 392----"a mild yet subtle form of idolatry that must be guarded against is the practice some make of applauding excessively when their favorite speaker or some prominent individual among the lord's people addresses an assembly.the mere stepping og this individual upon the platform sometimes brings a round of applause.

Panda

I remember clapping at the end of assemblies. So that had to be almost 10 years ago. So they want money, your heart, your brain, your virginity, your youth... did I miss anything?

14

kill the victims

by peacefulpete in

a small question that haunted me as a jw was why did jehovah kill all the humans in the flood who had become depraved and violent but let the demons who ostensibly brought perversion and violence to the world go free to do it again after the flood?

is this some kind of discrimination?

(it's a story)

Panda

Most ancient cultures have a flood myth. I used to live in Oregon so raining 40 days is no biggy. Someone mentioned the recent research of the Baltic sea. But we also know that flooding rivers continue to kill huge numbers of people every year. Flooding brings good soil and irrigation (the Nile) but kills too.

I'm reading a really old book 1st published in 1882, written by TW Doane and titled Bible Myths and their parallels in other ancient religions

The author mentions Genesis 4 "And it repented the Lord that he had made man." But later In Numbers 23:19 it says that"God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent."

Doane points out the contradictions in the Bible flood account and suggests the reason being that more than one author was involved. One a Jehovist and the other an Elohist, thus the difference in the second instance of mentioning "clean" beasts etc.

The Chaldean myth was told both by Chaldean historian Berosus and on Assyrian tablets now in the British museum. Also the Hindu version has a rainbow seen at the subsiding waters.

The Chinese book of Qing says the waters reached the mountain tops. The Parsecs (later Persians with the Aryan mythos) said it was wicked that God destroyed except for a few to re-people the world.

The Greeks said Zeus saw the wicked humans, caused a deluge, saved Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha (stleast the greeks named her!) AND Deucalion didn't leave the ark until a dove returned to him w/ an olive branch.

The Celts had drayan and Droyvach who had a boat made for them by the"heavenly Lord".

The Mexican legend had the ark land on a mountain. In the USA ancient cultures of caddoes, Naztarny, Zuni, Colhuacan Mixteca. Each of these had a local high place which the locals could point to and say "that's where they landed and waited for the bird."

How did they all have these traditions? Because geology and now anthropology have shown that local deluges were frequent. Some may have been saved by raft or simple boat and reaached safety on a higher elevation.

133

HARSH FINAL COURT DECISION IN VICKI BOER V. WATCHTOWER TRIAL

by hawkaw in

jw
friends

i have some unique and troubling news.

i just got off the telephone with scott boer, vicki boer's husband and before that vicki.

her honour, justice anne molloy, has just ruled on the legal cost issue in the boer case.

Panda

What do her lawyers tell her to do. They advised against the out of court settlement, they surely should find a way to rectify this situation. Molloy is a wacko judge who has zero understanding of what he/she has done.

How can an out of court settlement be considered in the court case? The case would've been dropped but the recquizate gag order should obviously be untenable for an abuse victim.

Stupid Judge.

Evil WTS lawyers.

84

tink's first major break-up

by tinkerbell82 in

i'm officially single.

i don't know how to feel exactly.

thank you to everyone who has been so sweet and kind and supportive of me, you have no idea how much it's meant to me.

Panda

Tink, This is an old song from your great grandparents day:

Set me free why don't ya babe, get out my life why don't ya now

You really don't want me, ya just keep me hangin' on......ooooooooooo

You don't really need me ya just keep me hangin on .....

Why don't ya get outta my life and let me live alone

Why don't ya be a man about it? Why keep me hangin' on.... dooodotadooodooodotadoooo

Whoa oh ohhhhh

Set me free why don't ya babe, get out my life why don't ya now

You don't really want me you just keep me hangin' on.....

Both the original by the Supremes and later by the Vanilla Fudge.. Yeah that's what I'm talkin' bout.

20

Do You Think Birds Live in Denial?

by Happythoughts in

jw
friends

.

you heard that song: "i'm like a bird, i only fly away.

i don't know where my heart is, don't know where my soul is.

Panda

I'm as free as a bird now,

And like a bird I cannot stay ...

Who sang that one? Neil Young?

Animals other than human don't deny their existence unless they are driven to insanity by inhuman experiments.

20

Do You Think Birds Live in Denial?

by Happythoughts in

jw
friends

.

you heard that song: "i'm like a bird, i only fly away.

i don't know where my heart is, don't know where my soul is.

Panda

I'm as free as a bird now,

And like a bird I cannot stay ...

Who sang that one? Neil Young?

Animals other than human don't deny their existence unless they are driven to insanity by inhuman experiments.

34

Hoovahs at my Door ! (NOT Vacuum cleaners)

by refiners fire in

jw
friends

its true!!

oh happy day.

first time in 10 years.

Panda

Refiner, Thanks for this update! Way to go

I was someones RV for awhile but I wouldn't talk about her literature, only what I'd heard JWs believed. She never could give an answer, but said she'd look it up. Never told her my name. But in the next 10 years I'm sure they'll come by.

But, please give us the full on those discussions....Please.....