I don't know what happened to him Londo. I read it in 1974 when I wa sixteen, my mother was horrified. All I remember was that he seemed to be very bitter but then I was a born-in mind controlled JW. Obviously I wish I had left then.
Xanthippe
JoinedPosts by Xanthippe
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24
Thirty Years a Watch Tower Slave
by Londo111 ini just finished reading this and enjoyed it.
however, if i was newly awakening or on the verge of awakening, i dont think this book would have helped me a great deal.
brother schnell has some good thoughts, however, he is short on detail and description, and even shorter on proof and documentation.. it is interesting reading about the transition of the bible students from a small group of independent noncomformists into an organization characterized by total conformity.
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The Atheist "Good News " !
by Phizzy insam , "kate wild", asserted that i am an evangelist for atheism, o.k then, here is the atheist "good news".. "there is no god, now relax and enjoy life"..
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Xanthippe
Welcome alonein321 by the way just noticed it was your first post - interesting book.
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50
The Atheist "Good News " !
by Phizzy insam , "kate wild", asserted that i am an evangelist for atheism, o.k then, here is the atheist "good news".. "there is no god, now relax and enjoy life"..
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Xanthippe
A Manual for Creating Atheists
I do enjoy a tongue in cheek title. It reminds me of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time.
Key concepts in his book are:-
- Do not treat an encounter as a debate, it’s an intervention there will be no winner/loser.
- Use Socratic questions to examine opening up the idea of critical thinking.
- Steer your conversation away from the concepts of gods or religion, concentrate on how people know things.
- Never walk away or give up on anyone!
- Consider the word “faith” to mean “pretending to know things you don’t know.
- No not allow the conflation of faith and trust.
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Every JW should pay attention to Steven Pinker's lecture: A History of Violence
by cognisonance incame across this lecutre (or alternatively you can read the transcript) in a class from yale on moralities of everyday life:.
a history of violence edge master class 2011some excepts:.
"believe it or notand i know most people do notviolence has been in decline over long stretches of time, and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence.".
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Xanthippe
Thanks Cognisonance, very uplifting. Michel de Montaigne's words about the Reformation still haunt me, 'people slowly roasted for beliefs they neither know nor understand'. He was not being metaphorical. Life and religious choices have become much less violent.
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Why Trolls Start Flame Wars
by Bangalore inwhy trolls start flame wars: swearing and name-calling shut down the ability to think and focus.http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/02/trolls-start-flame-wars-swearing-name-calling-web-shuts-ability-think-focus.html.
internet psychology 101psychological studies show that swearing and name-calling in internet discussions shut down our ability to think.. 2 professors of science communication at the university of wisconsin, madison dominique brossard and dietram a. scheufele wrote in the new york times last year:.
in a study published online last month in the journal of computer-mediated communication, we and three colleagues report on an experiment designed to measure what one might call the nasty effect.. we asked 1,183 participants to carefully read a news post on a fictitious blog, explaining the potential risks and benefits of a new technology product called nanosilver.
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Xanthippe
Of course, if a significant percentage of people have sociopathic or antisocial tendencies and this can be demonstrated to have been the case for some generations, then there's a good possibility that these people serve a purpose in society. For instance, empathy is not helpful as a survival trait when your tribe is starving and you can only find food by killing the neighboring tribe and taking theirs. So you can see how there could be selective pressure in favor of a few sociopaths even while there is also pressure in favor of empathy that promotes healthy relationships and glues tribes together. There can logically also be pressure towards creating a sort of personality that is capable of being both kind and cruel, so that a person is not all one extreme or the other, and their behavior is determined by the needs of the situation. We can probably see a little of this in each of us if we're being honest.
Fascinating Apog I have been thinking about the evolutionary basis for this behavior and its survival value. That really is helpful, thanks.
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Starting from a false Premise.
by Phizzy inwe often see "starting from a false premise" enacted on here.
believers will start from the basis that there is a god.. bible believers will start from the basis that it is the word of god in some measure, and worse are jw apologists, they pre-suppose that the first two are a given, and that their beloved property company posing as a religion is god's organization.. none of those premises have been proven, some have been disproven, but we are supposed to go along with them.. now, you may be happy to debate on that basis, in fact it is probably good "exercise", but in the end i find their arrogant, unproven assertions begin to really annoy me, and then i stick in what is known on here as a "cofty", which is a short, succinct comment that points out the big hole in their presentation.. the only thing you find then is, either the apologist cuts and runs, or totally ignores your "cofty".. i think, even if we enjoy debating for a while with such people, at a certain point we need to call them out on their false premise, or premises, otherwise a j.w lurking here may simply accept the words of the apologist and gain nothing in the way of truth..
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Xanthippe
What no unicorns!
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Why Trolls Start Flame Wars
by Bangalore inwhy trolls start flame wars: swearing and name-calling shut down the ability to think and focus.http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/02/trolls-start-flame-wars-swearing-name-calling-web-shuts-ability-think-focus.html.
internet psychology 101psychological studies show that swearing and name-calling in internet discussions shut down our ability to think.. 2 professors of science communication at the university of wisconsin, madison dominique brossard and dietram a. scheufele wrote in the new york times last year:.
in a study published online last month in the journal of computer-mediated communication, we and three colleagues report on an experiment designed to measure what one might call the nasty effect.. we asked 1,183 participants to carefully read a news post on a fictitious blog, explaining the potential risks and benefits of a new technology product called nanosilver.
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Xanthippe
Very interesting Bangalore. The only way to protect ourselves from any kind of propaganda is to say, who are these people, how do they know that, if they are so sure of the facts why are they yelling at me? Psycopaths are more prevalent than was first thought, something wrong with their amygdala probably at birth, no empathy, with their casual acts of cruelty.
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15
Our 10th Wedding Anniversary today.
by quellycatface inhello everybody peeps.. i got married out of the troof.
they said it wouldn't last etc.. hasn't been easy.
my hubs is still my best buddy.. and i ain't a jw no more.
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Xanthippe
Happy Anniversary, you showed them!
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The Christian versus the Agnostic
by Separation of Powers ini think by most accounts, my previous posts have testified to my moving towards an agnostic stance.
i just don't know and i can't believe for belief's sake.
i came across a quote i thought quite timely in my journey.. .
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Xanthippe
Just don't know....Just don't know. You know what I do know? I am now totally ok with NOT knowing. - SoP
I think that's a great place to start, learning to live with uncertainty is important. Craving for certainty drives people into religions. Find answers to your own questions at your own pace. The more we find out the more we realise just how much there is to learn. It's fun, not frightening, in my view.
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Do Facebook "Friends" That Constantly Brag, Irritate You?
by minimus inthere are a few people who are fb friends that constantly brag about themselves, their looks, their accomplishments, their bodies, their job---etc.. one particular person is too close to ignore but it's never ending.
i am thisclose to telling her, to please stop it.. any thoughts?.
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Xanthippe
I know a guy from Sweden who tells me that in Swedish culture you don't show your success. If you're good at something, you don't let on that you are. He told me that positive, upbeat, cheerful people are viewed with suspicion and he even had a name for this way of looking at things. FHN
FHN that's what the UK is like, how interesting that Swedish culture is similar. Brits moan constantly, dislike successful people and are suspicious if you are cheerful.