Posts by Xanthippe

40

Are you a good person?

by Xanthippe in

jw
friends

something happened this week to make me think about this again.. it feels like all bets are off and i really don't know what a good person is anymore.. when i left the jws i was so sure i knew what it meant to be a good person.. this has been revised many times since.. i tend to favour the utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.. sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.. no idea where i'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than i thought!.

any thoughts?.

Xanthippe

Fernando psychology does not have a perfect standard. There is no normal.

a right and clean standing is imputed as a free gift by grace. This opens our heart up to the transforming power of love.

We are gradually regenerated, and naturally become "good" or at least better than before.

This just sounds weird to my ears, like standing in a Borg regeneration unit. We naturally become good? What we have our minds wiped?

So in the vid the guy who devoted his life to helping others but looked at pornography was rejected by heaven?

Same old nonsense.

On the sixth day God created man with a penis.

On the seventh day He said don't touch it!

And on the eighth and on the ninth ..................

11

Seriously? 2,000 years of continuously diverging opinion about "interpretation" isn't enough time to sort it out?

by suavojr in

jw
friends

the current jw's who are inside (the conscience class) will have to endure another year of jw's pretending to please jesus with their bad imitation of the lords supper.

2000 years of people who could never be sure they had "the truth.

" what are the chances it'll come out in the next 2000?.

Xanthippe

To think that an all powerful, knowing god capable of creating the universe and all that is in it is only capable of speaking to his 'most' important creation through a few old men over a thousand or two years and in such a ridiculous, confusing, meaningless manner chock full of riddles as the bible???? I mean really, is this the BEST she can do? - DJS

Yes DJS and from this muddle of interpretations and Chinese whispers comes the idea that truth is difficult to find and life is all a test, god is testing us and our determination to find where he's hiding, Keep on knocking etc etc. Better to keep on reading and thinking.

40

Are you a good person?

by Xanthippe in

jw
friends

something happened this week to make me think about this again.. it feels like all bets are off and i really don't know what a good person is anymore.. when i left the jws i was so sure i knew what it meant to be a good person.. this has been revised many times since.. i tend to favour the utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.. sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.. no idea where i'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than i thought!.

any thoughts?.

Xanthippe

LOOKING like a good person i and shiny. BEING a good person is sometime dirty and hard. PRODUCING good can sometimes be a balance between worlds of light and dark. - BackseatDevil

This I find interesting BsD. I hate it when people are all appearances but no substance but I agree it can be a dirty world and sometimes producing good is not a straight path. Politicians know this, charities working in under-developed countries with corrupt governments know this. This has made me very thoughtful.

40

Are you a good person?

by Xanthippe in

jw
friends

something happened this week to make me think about this again.. it feels like all bets are off and i really don't know what a good person is anymore.. when i left the jws i was so sure i knew what it meant to be a good person.. this has been revised many times since.. i tend to favour the utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.. sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.. no idea where i'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than i thought!.

any thoughts?.

Xanthippe

When I was a preteen girl, self sacrifice was everything...You take care of yourself before you rescue others. - Band

I love the old joke, self sacrifice is all very well but what's in it for me.

On the other hand....sometimes doing something for someone else makes us feel better so it's win-win. We were made to feel as JWs that helping others always had to be selfless, altruistic, give until it hurts. Why? I'd rather give until it feels great and then when it doesn't feel good anymore, stop. What's wrong with that?

I always remember to put the toilet seat down for my wife. - Rub a Dub

Rub a Dub, lol. A good way to end a discussion on trying to understand a will o' the wisp concept like goodness.

40

Are you a good person?

by Xanthippe in

jw
friends

something happened this week to make me think about this again.. it feels like all bets are off and i really don't know what a good person is anymore.. when i left the jws i was so sure i knew what it meant to be a good person.. this has been revised many times since.. i tend to favour the utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.. sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.. no idea where i'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than i thought!.

any thoughts?.

Xanthippe

mynameislame, yes it is tricky. How much should you try and help others? I like your thoughts about Scrooge, perhaps he was just guilty of being grouchy, although I think there was more to Dickens' stories. Much more social commentary. There was a huge amount of poverty in Victorian England and an enormous gap between rich and poor. Have you read Hard Times? I like that you say there is no such thing as selfish, it's true that what drives our actions are gaining pleasure and avoiding pain.

40

Are you a good person?

by Xanthippe in

jw
friends

something happened this week to make me think about this again.. it feels like all bets are off and i really don't know what a good person is anymore.. when i left the jws i was so sure i knew what it meant to be a good person.. this has been revised many times since.. i tend to favour the utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.. sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.. no idea where i'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than i thought!.

any thoughts?.

Xanthippe

I have an passionate disdain for questions like this (and the thousands of posts asking something similar each year). - BackseatDevil

Really? I haven't seen any.

Do I view myself as a good person or do I attempt to be a good person? Not particularly. I view myself as a decent and just person first, and sometimes to achieve that balance one cannot be “good” 100% of the time.

You see I find this interesting because you're describing yourself as decent and just but not always good. I'm having a problem with all of these words, these labels. Can't you see that? Haven't you read the thread? I am not saying I'm a good person, are you? I'm saying can someone explain to me what they think a good person is because I'm not sure anymore. The word good, the concept of goodness does not compute for me anymore.

The fluctuation makes me neither good nor bad... I just... AM.

Exactly the place where I am at the moment. People just are what they are, concepts of being good or bad are now striking me as weird.

40

Are you a good person?

by Xanthippe in

jw
friends

something happened this week to make me think about this again.. it feels like all bets are off and i really don't know what a good person is anymore.. when i left the jws i was so sure i knew what it meant to be a good person.. this has been revised many times since.. i tend to favour the utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.. sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.. no idea where i'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than i thought!.

any thoughts?.

Xanthippe

Clarity lol. It's 11pm here I am going to bed in a minute, work tomorrow

I am actually getting somewhere with this and also Band's thoughts have helped me because I believe I see people who protect their own interests as selfish. That's my cult upbringing. It's that I need to deal with - tomorrow.

40

Are you a good person?

by Xanthippe in

jw
friends

something happened this week to make me think about this again.. it feels like all bets are off and i really don't know what a good person is anymore.. when i left the jws i was so sure i knew what it meant to be a good person.. this has been revised many times since.. i tend to favour the utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.. sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.. no idea where i'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than i thought!.

any thoughts?.

Xanthippe

stuckinarut2, interesting, but aren't humans supposed to realise that at about age three? Isn't it part of separating from your mother psychologically and becoming a separate entity? If that is just reality then what is goodness?

Wiki says about enlightened self interest that it is a philosophy in ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others or the group or groups to which they belong ultimately serve their own self interest. It has often been simply expressed by the belief that an individual, group or commercial entity will 'do well by doing good'. (Can't get copy and paste on here to work tonight )

It contrasts it with greed which is unenlightened self interest and altruism which is acting in the interests of others without the expectation of material gain and sometimes at the expense of your own interests.

Perhaps furthering the interests of the groups we belong to, family, workplace, town, country and human race is just common sense and benefits everyone?

40

Are you a good person?

by Xanthippe in

jw
friends

something happened this week to make me think about this again.. it feels like all bets are off and i really don't know what a good person is anymore.. when i left the jws i was so sure i knew what it meant to be a good person.. this has been revised many times since.. i tend to favour the utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.. sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.. no idea where i'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than i thought!.

any thoughts?.

Xanthippe

Observe your genuine thoughts and feelings and reactions to things without judging them.

That's good advice Cofty, sometimes our thoughts can be shocking but they are just thoughts. They are not going to kill anyone, even if we might feel like it.

It has been a long time since I thought there is an ultimate standard of goodness but I do think I am not alone in wanting to feel good about myself. I am quite sure this is a normal human feeling because when we feel guilt or shame about our actions it can be crippling. So it must be important to feel I am 'good', whatever that means.

For me good has come down to motive and intention. 90% of people are decent good people ...we are left with a difference in nature and nurture altering an individuals oersoective of the world.

Interesting Snare. Nature/nurture does alter everyone's view of the world even if only slightly. Perhaps if a person's 'nurture' has been in a cult it can be difficult to see everyone as basically good. I really try to and most of the time I succeed.

If you contribute to the well-being of your fellow humans, that should make you good, somewhat?

prologos, yes that is what I have felt for a long time. Today I feel, who has the energy for that anymore?

Does it even matter? Is enlightened self interest better for us? Better for the world?

40

Are you a good person?

by Xanthippe in

jw
friends

something happened this week to make me think about this again.. it feels like all bets are off and i really don't know what a good person is anymore.. when i left the jws i was so sure i knew what it meant to be a good person.. this has been revised many times since.. i tend to favour the utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.. sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.. no idea where i'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than i thought!.

any thoughts?.

Xanthippe

Something happened this week to make me think about this again.

It feels like all bets are off and I really don't know what a good person is anymore.

When I left the JWs I was so sure I knew what it meant to be a good person.

This has been revised many times since.

I tend to favour the Utilitarian approach, the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

Sometimes you have to stick your neck out and say this is not good for me no matter what others may feel they need from me.

No idea where I'm going with this maybe this is a breakthrough in my life or maybe that glass of wine was stronger than I thought!

Any thoughts?