Posts by rem

81

Anybody else had visions?

by philo in

jw
friends

when i was separating from my wife and leaving the jws, i had some visions.

for some strange reason, i decided not to eat for a day, then when i found my thinking clearer and my emotions mellower, i fasted for another two days.

so after the third day, i was walking down our street and i saw the houses burning after me, i felt this was an affirmation that marriage was decay and destruction, or wasteage.

Sorry, but I'm gonna have to side with FunkyDerek on this one. There have been numerous experiments performed to try and demonstrate ESP and so far there has been no evidence - not even a hint! Also, there is a million dollar reward out that has never been claimed for anyone who can successfully demonstrate this skill.

From all of the research I've done on this topic, the explanation seems to be human psychology. We remember the hits and forget the misses. We forget how many times we have those feelings that something really bad happened, and then nothing comes of it, but the one time it does happen it is proof positive for us. I have such feelings all of the time, but it is rare that there is anything I can connect the feeling to in real life. Every time I fly or my wife flies or my wife is out later than I expected I get a sinking feeling that something is going to go wrong. Nothing ever happens, but if one day something terrible happens - I could mistake that ordinary feeling for a premonition.

The mind is a very tricky thing. Many times we make much more out of something than it really is if there is some later event that seems to be related to the strange feeling. We can even reinterpret what we remember - memories are not concrete. People can influence the way we remember our experiences and the more times we bring back a memory, the more it becomes modified and expounded on. Details are added without realizing it. After a while, the real memory is forgotten and our new version is the truth in our minds. This is just a fact of how our not so perfect memories work.

There are a lot of anecdotes to support this phenomenon, but no positive quantifiable evidence at all. The same can be said about UFO's and Conspiracy theories. I think it's an interesting reflection of human psychology, though.

rem

p.s.: If some type of ESP were a real phenomenon, then I'm sure Vegas casino's would be bankrupt by now, or at least there would be rules against it. Also, the government ESP projects were all cancelled - I suppose they didn't work as planned.

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."
..........Bertrand Russell

90

For those of us who still believe in God...

by MrMoe in

jw
friends

i would like to know why you still beleive in god and what, based upon the bible, leads you to believe in god.. i likethe scripture that states the earth was a circle and hung upon nothing.

i also find that there is evidence the flood existed.

anybody know the stats of the "supposed" ark on mr. ararat?.

rem

JustAThought,

:What is the correct environment for the destructive types that he created?
If you were the creator of such ones, how would you answer this question?

I don't believe in a creator, so such a question is meaningless to me. But if I was a creator, then I would make sure my creations were happy in their environments. That would mean creating environments that would suit my creation so they could live harmoniously (for creations with the capacity for constructive and destructive behavior). That is not what we see on Earth today.

:Why did god not only create constructive types of people?
As you considered, or consider, or will consider having children, can you be sure to create only constructive ones? Why would you assume that God has such power? If you knew that there was a risk of having destructive offspring, as well as constructive offspring, would you forego having any children at all?

I don't know that I would try to compare Creation and Procreation. As procreators we do not have control over the tendencies of our children, but an original creator should have had the ability to control the range of behaviors in his creation. He should have easily been able to create only "good" things - things with only the capacity to do good. If he were to create "destructive" things, then it would be his responsibility to create an environment for these destructive things. Anything else would be irresponsible. In fact this is what we see today.

I gather that you do not believe in an omnipotent creator - maybe some type of alien creature who created us and our environment? Who then created the creator?

:In an atheistic world view, there are no need for such questions.
Is a world devoid of questions the goal?

That is not what I said and you know it. I said "such" questions - questions pertaining to good and evil. Those questions have adequate answers in an atheistic world view. There are many many other worthy questions to persue. Thank you for dodging all of mine.

rem

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."
..........Bertrand Russell

90

For those of us who still believe in God...

by MrMoe in

jw
friends

i would like to know why you still beleive in god and what, based upon the bible, leads you to believe in god.. i likethe scripture that states the earth was a circle and hung upon nothing.

i also find that there is evidence the flood existed.

anybody know the stats of the "supposed" ark on mr. ararat?.

rem

JustAThought,

So did god create certain people with general tendancies for evil/destructiveness, but did not provide an environment for them? He only provided an environment for the creative types? What is the correct environment for the destructive types that he created? Death? I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "environments". Why did god not only create constructive types of people?

In an atheistic world view, there are no need for such questions. The way everything is right now makes complete sense (good/evil) - no need for vague, mystical explanations.

rem

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."
..........Bertrand Russell

27

San Francisco Anyone?

by Tina in

jw
friends

pardon this off topic please.. i thought i could get some good input here.. i'm sending my son on a mini-break (vacation) for his birthday.. he's always wanted to see san francisco.

(yes,im still a mother hen too :>) he has just a few days so what would you recommend as a 'must see'?

what will really give the 'flavor' of sf?

rem

Hey Tina,

My wife and I live right outside of SF and I work in the city quite often. Your son is the same age as us. Maybe when he comes out here we can hook up and we can show him some sites in the city? We show visitors around the city all of the time! And maybe your son can show a couple of exJDubs how to party? :)

rem

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."
..........Bertrand Russell

14

Mary's baby?

by nicolaou in

jw
friends

aaaaarrgh!

like so many others, i'm trying to do the slow fade from jwdom.

don't need to give you all the details again but wanted to share something that has really started to bug me!.

rem

I don't think I want to know what you did with that yam, Wendy! :)

rem

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."
..........Bertrand Russell

31

Uh Oh! Now I've gone and done it. Warning: LONG

by betweenworlds in

jw
friends

here i was in happy-no one is really bothering me too much-lala land, until yesterday when i had to go and open my mouth.

a pioneer sister from our hall emailed me to inquire what was preventing me from attending the meetings, and asked what was holding me back from going.

(this is about the 5th or 6th email asking this question) welllllll, i guess i just reached a point where i couldn't pretend anymore.

rem

Bravo!

Those letters you wrote were excelent! You have a talent for explaining things clearly and concisely. I wrote a similar letter, but it was to myself. I gave it to my parents. My father turned it into the elders. They had a meeting with me, but I've not been DA'd or DF'd. They know where I'm coming from and their viewpoint is that as long as I'm not a threat to the congregation, I'm not an apostate. I just have MAJOR doubts.

My wife and I stopped attending meetings months ago and I've been inactive for over a year. The elders and the CO have stopped by from time to time. Thankfully I haven't been home. I think you may be able to avoid DF or DA even with this letter if you play it cool. But then again, maybe it doesn't even really matter. I've found that even though I'm not DF'd or DA'd I have little to no contact with my old friends. We've made new "worldly" friends and life has been great!

Wishing you the best,

rem

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."
..........Bertrand Russell

62

Working on a Logical Problem

by dunsscot in

jw
friends

dear good people of j-w.com,.

i am sitting in my office working on a problem and i need your help.

do you think that these sentences are true?.

rem

Duns,

I think maybe 2 is true, but 1 might not necessarily be true. H2O could also be solid (ice, snow) or a gas form. True, it is still technically water, but I'm not sure in what sense the word "water" is being used here.

rem

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."
..........Bertrand Russell

10

TRY AND EXPLAIN THIS!

by nicolaou in

jw
friends

just a bit of fun.. open microsoft word and select a new document then 'cut & paste' or copy the red text into it.. press enter and wait 3 seconds... .

you will instantly be elevated to almost godlike status if you can explain this!.

nic'.

rem

I'm not sure of what use this is, but it seems to be a function in MS Word that allows you to dump text into a document quickly. The first number is the number of paragraphs you want, the second number is the number of sentences in each paragraph. Each sentence will be "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." I've never seen this before. I'm not sure why it was included in the software.

rem

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."
..........Bertrand Russell

6

Life Should Be Like This - FAIR

by Francois in

jw
friends

i've posted previously about how unfair i feel life is, and many of you agreed.

the most unfair thing about life is the way it ends.. i mean, life is tough.

it takes up a lot of your time.. and then you die.

rem

I'm sure that there are some people who actually have gone out with a "bang". Sounds like a great way to go! :)

rem

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."
..........Bertrand Russell

8

paranoid android

by spider in

jw
friends

did you used to get people in your cong that were more sensitive to the demonic influences than others.some people just used to get bad feelings about an innocious piece of music.a tears for fears song did it for one of my old friends.then there are others that sense a satanic presence around inanimate objects.. satan was everywhere and in everything.kate bush was a witch - so was the girl out of fleetwood mac.some records had secret messages that if you tilted your head and turned three times said "worship satan" .

there probably are such messages in metal music but they used to be so paranoid it reached ridiculous levels.

"don't you hear it - listen again but slow it down more" .

rem

Paranoid Android - great song!

Yeah - there were always wierdos. One of my babysitters when I was really young freaked out about our Gremlins coloring books. She threw them out on the front lawn. She was spastic. It was great fun! :)

rem

"Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so."
..........Bertrand Russell