Sure, at least a cult with a fundamental literalist slant of the Bible. New religions can spring up that adopt a new tactic targeting others eg Scientology targets the individual who wants a more science-based religion (laughable, since most anyone who understands electronics enough to know what an eMeter is would bother: it's a $5k wheatstone bridge circuit).
King Solomon
JoinedPosts by King Solomon
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Were you a JW trophy wife? Not necessarily a serious thread.
by FlyingHighNow insal, it's funny but things were much more shallow in the dubs.
i noticed some of the ugliest blokes getting pretty little trophy wives so long as they had a job or were the sons of elders.
my dad (an elder) even went so far as to encourage me to come back to the dubs because i would easily pull a good looking wife .
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King Solomon
ahhh, you're a cutie.
The body language is interesting: you look much more relaxed and comfortable holding the little girl than you do when standing with either guy... To be honest, the last one (where he's looking at you with his arms around you, like an octopus) does kinda give me the creeps...
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So, I'm probably not an Infidel, per se..
by freeflyingfaerie init's becoming apparent that there are a zillion different names for a zillion different beliefs/non-beliefs out there.
without pigeon-holing myself under a particular definition, there are a few of which i can pretty closely identify with for the time being.
maybe agnostic, and then also appreciating the freethought pansies.
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King Solomon
FFF says:
A part of me really wants to believe this, that there is more meaning to the mysteries, beauties, and even suffering of this present life here. An intelligent design of some sort..
And it was exactly the same desire, the need to find an explanation for our existence, which led some ancient ancestors to come up with a story (in fact, MANY different stories) to solve the discomfort of NOT having an answer.
The old saying goes that "God(s) didn't exist, and hence man made God(s) in man's image, to fulfill His needs for comfort".
It worked, and was wildly successful beyond the earliest men's wildest dreams to reduce the mental anguish. However, God became kind of a pusht jerk, which allowed some men to take advantage of others. That's been a great secret, forbidden knowledge to even consider, let alone utter.
Of course, few people understand that the Jewish ritualistic system was desired not only to give a sense of community and cultural identity, but to allow the Priestly class to impose a tax of sorts on their neighbors. Thus it was a free hand-out for them (in the form of a portion of the animals slaughtered in the Temple that the "butcher" priests were allowed to keep).
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Why do people pretend good things about Jesus ?
by mP inive had a few discussions both here and in real life and often find people excuse the ot with all its vile, violence and only concentrate on jesus because he was good.
i try and assk them to show me an example and they of course they quickly tell us about the miracles, and thats fine.
however when you ask them about slavery, violence, women and so on they make excuses.
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King Solomon
Sab said:
But it's not the right of that person who succeeded to demand that everyone else succeed as well because they did without Christ. Circumstances are so different that it would be arrogent to think such a thing. So instead of just letting be, they say Christ is not divine.
Reality doesn't really care why you accept it, or even that you DO accept it, or ask your permission to be what it is: it just IS.
You choose to accept a fantasy, but hopefully a part of you understands that your rejection of reality IS only that: a self-induced delusion, a denial.
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Why do people pretend good things about Jesus ?
by mP inive had a few discussions both here and in real life and often find people excuse the ot with all its vile, violence and only concentrate on jesus because he was good.
i try and assk them to show me an example and they of course they quickly tell us about the miracles, and thats fine.
however when you ask them about slavery, violence, women and so on they make excuses.
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King Solomon
Well, we're beating a dead horse.
Tammy concisely answered "why people choose to believe in an idealized Disneyesque version of Jesus, despite the actual behaviors and beliefs indicated in the Bible:
Personally, I love Him. So I want Him in my life.
Here's some music for you, Tammy:
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418
Why do people pretend good things about Jesus ?
by mP inive had a few discussions both here and in real life and often find people excuse the ot with all its vile, violence and only concentrate on jesus because he was good.
i try and assk them to show me an example and they of course they quickly tell us about the miracles, and thats fine.
however when you ask them about slavery, violence, women and so on they make excuses.
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King Solomon
Tammy said:
But I have learned much from Christ. I have learned to forgive (more so than before). I have learned to be free (from lies, from religious trappings)... and also be free to love anyone and everyone, to let go of anger or impatience (I fail sometimes, but I let go so much faster than I ever did before). I have learned not to fear this world, or God, nor disease (i never feared death)... nor to despair, and I am learning more from Him all the time. I have learned to give, I have learned to speak without fear (still learning this one). I have hope and strength and peace and comfort in Him.
You are doing yourself a great disservice if you've stopped with Christ, IMO, and haven't studied the other philosophers whom have offered inspiration in the past, i.e. Aristotle, Plato, Mohammed, Buddha, Zoroaster, Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus, even poets like Kahill Gibran, etc.
Jesus certainly doesn't have a monopoly on the market of philosophy/theology, ethics, morals, etc. He wasn't the first, and hardly is the last.
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Why do people pretend good things about Jesus ?
by mP inive had a few discussions both here and in real life and often find people excuse the ot with all its vile, violence and only concentrate on jesus because he was good.
i try and assk them to show me an example and they of course they quickly tell us about the miracles, and thats fine.
however when you ask them about slavery, violence, women and so on they make excuses.
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King Solomon
Tammy ses:
And you, Sol, don't know Him. How can you? You don't even believe He exists.
So I am sure you will not mind if I do not put much stock in who you think He is. I would rather just get to know Him, himself.
If you haven't read a headline lately, there's no way of getting to know him now: he's been dead for 2,000 yrs.
Aside from the inconvenience of his being dead and all, you forget that once I DID believe in him; I felt his presence, his comfort, his love.
And you know what? It felt pretty damned goooood, basking in the warm glow of his loving kindness, warmth, grace, compassion, wisdom, mercy: all of it. I imagined him when I was being persecuted (like when two bullies who tormented me that year because I didn't salute the flag tried to prod me into a fight on the playground; I silently prayed for strength, and they gave up after I repeatedly said I wouldn't fight, over and over).
I imagined him when I did something I thought would please him and God, and felt he was proud of me. My own father lived away (parents were divorced), so he was maybe like a step-father, the proxy male-authority figure who was always there. I was raised by a single mom, and there were four kids in the house.
So I know what you feel, Tams: everyone here does, too! We ALL felt it...
Some here probably would continue feeling his warmth, but got DFed (which is a blessing in disguise: they were forced to go cold-turkey on their addiction to Jesus Juice™), others still sought the same high except from another Juice™ dealer (pushing another flavor of Juice™), and others felt disillusioned and rejected, condemned by the Jesus whom they loved, etc. Some don't experience anything except relief, some don't think about it, and others are angry, or riddled with guilt. Everybody has a different story.
Some of us listened to 1 Cor 13:11: "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." That's what happened to me: I grew up, and fortunately didn't have as strong family pressure to continue, so I grew up with a way to escape. I was a good reader, and read books that challenged the belief system (Orwell's 1984 comes to mind: required reading, if anyone hasn't read it).
My intellectual curiosity led me to a world I never imagined existed in the JWs, and I literally would have to experience MAJOR HEAD TRAUMA to ever consider believing in what I 100% KNOW to be a seductive but massive lie, built up over 1,000's of years, one that is SO GRAND that it's not fully comprehended by many people. I'd have to forget everything I've learned about the natural World, and the accumulated knowledge handed down to us from prior generations (Galileo, DaVinci, Copernicus, Descartes, Watson and Crick, Einstein, etc, etc) that I could never unring THAT bell.
Once you have gained knowledge of how things REALLY DO WORK (eg biochemistry, physiology, genetics, etc), there's no putting a mind back behind bars, asking it to believe ancient superstitions.
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Why do people pretend good things about Jesus ?
by mP inive had a few discussions both here and in real life and often find people excuse the ot with all its vile, violence and only concentrate on jesus because he was good.
i try and assk them to show me an example and they of course they quickly tell us about the miracles, and thats fine.
however when you ask them about slavery, violence, women and so on they make excuses.
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King Solomon
NC said:
Knock it off Sol, before I pound you into the ground like a nail.
But wait a minute: nails don't even need to be pounded to penetrate into...howwww, whyyyy, would anyoneeeee, dooo thatttt???? It doesn't even make sense! NEVER-mind....
That's interesting. Many southerners are still fighting for the rich white guys, and voting against their own interests, because we have a LOT of poverty in the south.
Not just in the South... Many voters support ideas like lower taxation on the wealthy, even though they personally have no hope of EVER being in that tax bracket. So why do they do it? It's called 'aspirational voting', thinking that if vote like they're wealthy, it will somehow translate into their actually becoming wealthy... Goofy, but it's really no different from those who think that if they really convince themselves that Jesus exists, then he WILL exist.
Sorry, but life is not fueled by our dreams and fantasies. Anyone who holds on to such delusions are simply setting themselves for disappointment after disappointment (at least, until they experience an epiphany that tells them that Peter Pan isn't real).
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Why do people pretend good things about Jesus ?
by mP inive had a few discussions both here and in real life and often find people excuse the ot with all its vile, violence and only concentrate on jesus because he was good.
i try and assk them to show me an example and they of course they quickly tell us about the miracles, and thats fine.
however when you ask them about slavery, violence, women and so on they make excuses.
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King Solomon
NC said:
Sol--you are good to go.
Is that a threat, just like you threatened others here today, and ran them off the board, too? You're NOT the boss of ME, or ANY of us!!!
That's the last straw: I'M OUTTA HERE, UNLESS the mods decide to do the right thing and take care of the problem on JWN, YOU, NC, the most HOSTILE poster on JWN, EVER!!!
EVER!!!!!
Oh, wait: I see you're talking about the other place. Never-mind.... Gotcha, thanks! ;)
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418
Why do people pretend good things about Jesus ?
by mP inive had a few discussions both here and in real life and often find people excuse the ot with all its vile, violence and only concentrate on jesus because he was good.
i try and assk them to show me an example and they of course they quickly tell us about the miracles, and thats fine.
however when you ask them about slavery, violence, women and so on they make excuses.
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King Solomon
Sab said:
How could you do this if YHWH didn't exist?
You cannot be that dense: you don't have to believe in something to understand it. I can explain the concept of Santa Claus, but it doesn't mean I believe in Him.
James said:
Somehow, the less I relied on a god to guide me, the more I discovered the natural flow of empathy and compassion. I was free from belief in the chosen and the damned. Humanity was now a whole. I was now free to love.
Paradoxical how that works, huh? Once you abandon those cherished old beliefs that actually aren't supporting scaffolds, but confining cages, things can open up...