knocked on a door on a saturday morning.
a window opened on the floor above me.
a grizzled old man stuck his head out and said, " we're all heathens here!
I've got a good one that a householder could use.
"Oh perfect! I'm glad you're here. You see I'm in the process of summoning a demon to deal with unwanted solicitors, and I need two more people to stand at the points of the pentagram. The two acolytes I had for the position had an unfortunate accident when the last summoning went awry. So anyway, would you like to come in?"
alone, without my safety net of "god" being there to remember me when i die.
after much consideration, examining science, history and using logic, i have come to the conclusion that there is no "god" at least certainly no loving, personal "god.
" shortly before my final conclusion was reached, i read an excerpt from an expression attributed to marcus aurelius, .
He makes the statement "none of my views are based on what it is convenient to believe".
Any level of reflection should cause one to pause before making such a sweeping statement.
How does he know his atheism isn't based on convenience? He certainly doesn't want to believe it's based on convenience. But wishing doesn't make it so. And again, some reflection should cause anyone to pause before making such definitive statements about anything as complex as the brain, motivations and human psychology.
He rules out the possibility that God could tell him anything about himself that he doesn't already know. Which is remarkable hubris.
Well, perhaps he could have prefaced it with, "to the best of my ability I try to make sure that..." Other than that, his argument seems fairly sound and reasonable to me. He never said God couldn't tell him anything, in fact, the man in the video said that he couldn't tell God anything about himself that God didn't already know. (If God really is omniscient.)
i don’t know about any of you but does anyone else share my lack of impulse to worship anything?.
i became a jw when still at school and had been puzzled at the time by the posters outside of evangelical churches telling me to repent and come to jesus and be saved.. for me it was an irrelevance, i never felt like being saved...what from?
i was happy as an exploring type of child, i never knew of anything wanting to be worshipped and i didn’t need to worship anything either..
I always felt kind of guilty that I didn't really care all that much about the "sanctification of Jehovah's name." I tried to care, I was told it was the most important thing in the Universe, so I'd try to mention it in my prayers. Honestly, though, it was never high on the list of things I was hoping to enjoy someday. Heh, maybe that just means I was never a good Christian.
alone, without my safety net of "god" being there to remember me when i die.
after much consideration, examining science, history and using logic, i have come to the conclusion that there is no "god" at least certainly no loving, personal "god.
" shortly before my final conclusion was reached, i read an excerpt from an expression attributed to marcus aurelius, .
I am an agnostic deist. I find no comfort in human religions because I have yet to find one that doesn't require subjective assumptions and the acceptance of various logical fallacies. However, given my level of understanding with regards to the universe, I'm certainly in no position to completely close my mind to the idea of a creator. Until he speaks to me directly, though, (and speaks to me in such a way that I can be reasonably certain I haven't just suffered a psychotic break with reality, or am experiencing a hallucination caused by an altered state of consciousness) then I will have to use my best judgment to live me life and hope things work out okay.
As for how I have made peace with the thought that I will most probably cease to exist one day with no hope for continuing my sentient existence. Well, firstly I look to science to determine what I can know about where I came from and what will happen to me after I die. Science tells me that the atoms in my body were forged in the heart of a star and that the matter and energy in my body will go right on existing long after my brain has died. Even if there isn't a supernatural force responsible for what is before life and after death, I think that the demonstrable facts around these events are amazing enough to satisfy me. Additionally, I came to the realization that, just because what I do may not matter in 10 billion years, it still matters now.
in reading these posts, it sounds like a lot of you are very jealous of the wt.
society’s annual income and the money they/we have in the bank.
jehovah has indeed blessed us.
Not sure if he is trolling, or if he is legitimately this much of a deluded self-righteous hypocrite. Ah well, better safe than sorry, deploy hat wearing doggies.
i was baptized when i was 14 years old.
i hadn't had any real relationship with a girl up to that point.
but when i started going to high school i learnt the joys of experimenting with girls, so i did not stay a faithful member of the congregation for long.
I can't help but notice the similarities between our lives. I am also currently 21, I was baptized even younger than you (10) and had my first run in with a JC because of my libido too, (twice actually) I got reproved the first time and remained on restrictions for a couple of years, all the time praying that Jehovah would help me. (He never did. Go figure.) Then I later got disfellowshipped for another count of acting on the natural urges of a young man. Though, that was back when I still would have felt guilty for keeping something from the elders. Unfortunately, I am not also moved out of my parent's house, ah well hopefully a college education will end up being worth this torture for another couple of years.
i have made a poll to try to determine the impact of the wt's no blood policy on ex members.. if you are an exjw, please participate.. vote here:.
*oops...hang on here...i have to make a new poll...this one lets you vote more than once.
i will post the new one .
Once I realized the religion was nothing more than a sham I took the No Blood card out of my wallet.
.
you do remember the four day assemblies... sitting outdoors being fried in the sweltering heat,getting heat stroke in the middle of july in an outdoor baseball stadium.sitting outdoors from 9:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. was so much fun while you wore a suit,long sleeve shirt and a tie while your brain fried.
mom's who had children to take care of,lug strollers,feed all the kids,take them for bathroom breaks and try to not faint from the heat.. the sound and audio was always breaking and barely audible from the wind,airplanes flying over and (if you attended the cicero,illinois circuit )you would smell horse manure from the horse stables next door.. you know that you are a jehovah's witness.... when the only excitement waiting for the drama... where brothers and sisters dress up in ancient cloths,fake beards,fake rocks and fake soldier uniforms and wave their hands incessantly to pretend that they are acting out a drama.the excitement was unbearable!.
Even when I still thought it was God's organization I would inwardly roll my eyes at the disproportionate praise that was lavished on these movies and dramas. It made me think of the way a parent may praise their child's macaroni art as nothing short of a masterpiece.
i've heard many experiences about how jehovah answers the prayers of jw's - convention items about pioneers gas bills, car repairs, job opportunities.
now, if this is true, you are actually stating that god has directly intervened in your life.
taken action on your behalf.
Even when I was deeply in the Organization I rarely if ever prayed to God to help me through anything or believed that he was responsible for making anything in my life easier. Because I could never see why God in all his wisdom and power would help me with trivialities while people in other nations starved and died. The only exception to this was an issue I had that led to me being reproved and placed on "restrictions" for several years, and of course God never did help me overcome it.
haven't read this book but i guess it the watered down version of thier history.
what did the leave out and lie about in this publication?
?.
The Reluctant Apostate by Floyd Evans would be a good place to start for all the stuff they left out.
