i ask this question out of interest, because as a jehovahs witness for some 26 years, i have always felt that there is an 'all work, no play' culture within the organisation.
the organisation doesn't promote social gatherings.
i could count on one hand each year how many get togethers we have had.
I miss my social life from when I was "in".
We did something socially several times a week. Lunch after Sunday meetings, games, softball, football. There was always a wedding, baby, graduation party to go to. We were originally one hall and broke off into 4 so we had friends from several congregations and always getting invited to some event.
Absent of events we had a close circle of friends that we always socialized with at LEAST once a week.
we all know the gb like to impose rules upon the rules... but did anyone else out there have parents that implemented rules upon those rules?
mine did.
my mum tended to copy whatever the elders wives were doing and took it to the extreme.
Had a struggling single mom so she didn't ban much. BUT I banned my children from:
Watching any TV in the mornings before school.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - because you know ninja's -this included tv shows, clothing and toys
No sports (playing) no watching boxing
Going to "worldly friends" houses
Smurfs cuz I grew up in the 80's
I'm sure there is more. Sorry kids who are adults now:)
my initial pangs of unease and doubt led me to research some things.
well, a lot of things really.
i've never felt comfortable using the bible to try to calculate dates (1914).
I also felt sad at first. It seemed like a waste of time and energy. I felt a little lost like what do I believe now type thing. Now I'm able to look back and be grateful for some of the things I learned like showing love and kindness to all.
I've adopted some of the Buddhist principals like do no harm etc. I'm still a little bummed I'm not gonna live forever and sometimes wish I could un-learn ttatt when it comes to that but I can enjoy my life now. It gets better hang in there.
there are many new posters here, and i'm very interested to learn why you chose your screen names.. .
one book i read, the mists of avalon, was very important to me.
among the main characters was merlin, who in the book, was called "taliesen".
I no longer have faith in religion period.
yes, we could have been born in an alley in calcutta or with the physical deformities associated with thalidomide.
instead, we were born into or introduced to a repressive, american, religious cult, that shielded us from the warmongering game of chess, the militaristic boy scouts, fornication-inducing sock hops, the twist, as well as the hokey pokey.
we heeded the warnings, avoiding the greedy self-worship associated with masturbation, decadent rock 'n roll and anything preceded by the word "extra-curricular.".
I also learned a lot about public speaking and I think the TMS gave me a lot of confidence in that area.
I learned to love people (when "in"I took to heart that preaching was out of love) show kindness and be forgiving and that has translated nicely outside of the "truth".
Oddly I learned acceptance as well. For example I believed with every fiber of my being that being gay was just proof we were closer to the end and these folks couldn't "help" it. I "loved" the people but "hated" the action. Once leaving it was a nice transition to just accepting people for who they are.
I'm grateful that I learned these qualities. Most of my family are harsh uber jw so I know I learned it from being "in the truth" and not by familial environment:).
i was contacted by my ex sister-in-law yesterday.
she asked me if i wanted to spend some time with my niece, while she went to her sister's baby shower.
it turns out my niece can't go because she's about to be disfellowshipped at the ripe old age of 14. .
this was a comment i made from another post, but i would like to hear some people discuss this.
i know the social justice warriors will scream i'm some sort of trump supporter for what i say even though i don't agree with his ideas and no i am not voting for him... i accept this is a go to for them.. i think we have fallen into a pc vacuum.. criticizing someones religion = racism!.
telling someone to not be so sensitive = misogyny!.
A good rule of thumb I try to use is... attack the post not the poster.
Seems like debate is healthy but once a post starts calling someone names even calling them sensitive it becomes perceived as personal. But thats just my thought.
maybe they can't help it?.
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/20365/20160325/science-vs-religion-brain-neural-networks-faith-reason-religious-non-religious.htm.
http://phys.org/news/2016-03-conflict-science-religion-lies-brains.html.
@elbib what I find so interesting about this new study though is that having a religious belief actually suppresses cognitive thinking and believing in science supresses morals much like your quote of von Braun "science does not have a moral dimension".
So my question is can one help it if their brain actually shuts down cognitive thinking? It appears from this one study that our brain can't marry the two because each of the the thoughts (science/religion) are from two different hemispheres of the brain and using one shuts down the other. Any way I just found that interesting and would love to have more info.
Perhaps this is what helps me not be so mad at myself for being hoodwinked:) for me to say I couldn't help it because my brain shut down all reasoning when I was a true believer:). It took months of fading before I started realizing that maybe what I was taught wasn't right. Almost like I had to be removed from the congregation for some time before my cognitive thinking kicked in.
maybe they can't help it?.
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/20365/20160325/science-vs-religion-brain-neural-networks-faith-reason-religious-non-religious.htm.
http://phys.org/news/2016-03-conflict-science-religion-lies-brains.html.
maybe they can't help it?.
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/20365/20160325/science-vs-religion-brain-neural-networks-faith-reason-religious-non-religious.htm.
http://phys.org/news/2016-03-conflict-science-religion-lies-brains.html.
