Xanthippe

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Posts by Xanthippe

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  219

  An important difference between atheists and true believers

  by Hortensia in

  1. social
  2. current

  true believers, whether christian, muslim or whatever, want to convert you, they want you to believe what they do, and they're willing to go to extremes to make it happen.

  atheists don't really care what you believe, and don't go out of their way to convert someone.. http://ow.ly/vn1jz an example of what believers in power do to suppress any difference in thought.

  http://ow.ly/vraeo an example of why believers want to suppress different ideas (because they can't win in a fair fight, that's why).

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  Xanthippe

  Please offer one single quotation that suggests otherwise.

  In the book, Hitchens contends that organised religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children" and sectarian, and that accordingly it "ought to have a great deal on its conscience." Hitchens supports his position with a mixture of personal stories, documented historical anecdotes and critical analysis of religious texts. His commentary focuses mainly on the Abrahamic religions, although it also touches on other religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.....

  He ends by saying that he would not want to eradicate religion if the faithful would "leave him alone," but ultimately they are incapable of this.
  (Emphasis mine)

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Is_Not_Great

  I here cite wikipedia because I returned God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens to the library after I read it.
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  219

  An important difference between atheists and true believers

  by Hortensia in

  1. social
  2. current

  true believers, whether christian, muslim or whatever, want to convert you, they want you to believe what they do, and they're willing to go to extremes to make it happen.

  atheists don't really care what you believe, and don't go out of their way to convert someone.. http://ow.ly/vn1jz an example of what believers in power do to suppress any difference in thought.

  http://ow.ly/vraeo an example of why believers want to suppress different ideas (because they can't win in a fair fight, that's why).

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  Xanthippe

  Nobody I have ever encountered wants to ban religion.

  Richard Dawkins wants to see an end to religion and Christopher Hitchens felt the same way. To say you have never encountered anyone who wants this when you regularly quote these people is at the very least rather dishonest.
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  75

  FORGIVENESS ... You owe it to your health

  by ABibleStudent in

  1. social
  2. physical

  i'm cleaning up my home of unnecessary magazines/newsletters that i have accumulated over the years.

  while i was working as an employee i did not feel like i had the time to read them.

  now that i'm not working as an employee but work as a volunteer to network and maintain workplace skills, i seem to have more time to read.. after reading many threads by former jws, i thought that the following article might help some to heal.

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  Xanthippe

  Talesin I didn't mean to be insensitive. I was picking the very worst things I could think of because we all know people or have read about people who have lived through these things and survived.

  I didn't mean they are insignificant by saying shit happens, I meant life has been terrible for the people of earth for a long, long time. The recent phenomena of cults in the last hundred years is just one of the causes of suffering.

  I had five years of clinical depression and spent every day wishing I was dead. My brain chemistry went wrong. Shit happens. When people find out my husband dropped to the ground of a brain hemorrhage and was gone in minutes from 75% brain damage probably due to an aneurysm, these days I honestly find that the words, these things happen, pop into my head as a reply to them.

  I am not being insensitive, I am being a survivor. You can only react that way if you've been there.
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  28

  Remember this picture?

  by Zoos in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i went to a small non-denominational church yesterday - first time in a church since i left the borg 4 years ago - and this is how i observed several of the members singing.. .

  boy... do those people love to sing.. .

  i try not to judge the sincerity of others but i was a little put off by the experience because it looked fake, showy display-ish.

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  Xanthippe

  Could be arthritis.
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  75

  FORGIVENESS ... You owe it to your health

  by ABibleStudent in

  1. social
  2. physical

  i'm cleaning up my home of unnecessary magazines/newsletters that i have accumulated over the years.

  while i was working as an employee i did not feel like i had the time to read them.

  now that i'm not working as an employee but work as a volunteer to network and maintain workplace skills, i seem to have more time to read.. after reading many threads by former jws, i thought that the following article might help some to heal.

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  Xanthippe

  So what if you had spent five years in a concentration camp.

  Been sexually abused your entire childhood.

  Or forcibly conscripted to fight for your country.

  Shit happens.

  We can't do anything about most of it.

  What Robert is saying, I think, is that do we want to be eaten up with bitterness our whole lives and spend hours every day thinking about something we can't change, until we are too old to enjoy ... anything?
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  219

  An important difference between atheists and true believers

  by Hortensia in

  1. social
  2. current

  true believers, whether christian, muslim or whatever, want to convert you, they want you to believe what they do, and they're willing to go to extremes to make it happen.

  atheists don't really care what you believe, and don't go out of their way to convert someone.. http://ow.ly/vn1jz an example of what believers in power do to suppress any difference in thought.

  http://ow.ly/vraeo an example of why believers want to suppress different ideas (because they can't win in a fair fight, that's why).

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  Xanthippe

  People who believe fairy tales are true. Argh. - Hortensia

  Odd thing to say if you used to be a JW.

  I like the point that atheists have had to give up some comfort in order to face reality. It's true. Reality includes each person's demise, life isn't forever. It's a sad truth, but one we can face and then we can get on with enjoying life as much as possible. - Hortensia

  Two things come to mind here

  1. Some people leave the JWs very late in life and find in very difficult to give up their comfort zone if they are already at retirement age and feel their life has been wasted. To go on reading and studying and facing harsh reality is very difficult for them. Some, like my MIL would rather just go to church when she feels like it and keep her vague mainstream belief which isn't hurting anyone - it gets her through the last few years of her life and the death of her son.

  2. I don't think it is so that every true believer that belongs to a church that teaches life after death is prevented from having a good life in the present. Not all churches teach about Christ's coming and an eschatological view of the world. We tend to make this mistake because we were raised in an eschatological cult. Eschatology, belief in the end of the world, is a very specific branch of theism. My MIL certainly enjoys life in the present, that is her personality. What she believes about life after death, I have no idea, we don't dicuss it.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology
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  21

  The Golden Rule, proof that a higher intelligence did NOT write the Bible

  by jws in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the golden rule, matthew 7:12:.

  so in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets.. .

  a whle back i had a management course.

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  Xanthippe

  Very true about Confucius, Plato, Buddha all saying similar things to the golden rule, plus they said it earlier.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule

  The big change that this way of thinking brought in, in about 500 BC was empathy, particularly for people who are not of your family, tribe, town. Enlightened self interest starting, the beginning of civilisation as we know it.

  Now however we are moving on as your training course highlights, treat people as they want to be treated. The rise of individualism and how we now value it.

  Did you know the word individual didn't come into the English language until the 1830s?

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individualism
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  13

  First year without Memorial

  by sp74bb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my first year after more than 20 years.... it seems strange.

  happy fellings but at the same times feeling some loniness.. is your first one as well?.

  veterans: how do you feel after some many years?.

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  Xanthippe

  Veterans: How do you feel after some many years?

  After 25 years I wouldn't even know when it was if I didn't look on this forum. Weird ritual in crazy cult who think they are never going to die. And they think we are mentally diseased!
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  39

  A few International Conv instructions (more ways to control)

  by doinmypart in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a few official instructions jw delegates are being told leading up to the international conventions.

  congregation secretaries are holding conference calls and then relating the instructions to the congregation.. atlanta - do not drive to convention, parking will not be available.

  take public transportation; attendants will be on all public transit and able to assist.. dallas - attendants will be on site at all hotels to make sure delegates leave the hotel at their assigned times and take their assigned route.

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  Xanthippe

  My poor mom struggled, I don't know how she did it.

  I do, well I know why she did it, because of the promises made to her. She was the same as my mother who took four children to conventions, spending money we needed for clothes. All because she thought one day we would have a beautiful big house in the country with a lion on the lawn. How sad.
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  219

  An important difference between atheists and true believers

  by Hortensia in

  1. social
  2. current

  true believers, whether christian, muslim or whatever, want to convert you, they want you to believe what they do, and they're willing to go to extremes to make it happen.

  atheists don't really care what you believe, and don't go out of their way to convert someone.. http://ow.ly/vn1jz an example of what believers in power do to suppress any difference in thought.

  http://ow.ly/vraeo an example of why believers want to suppress different ideas (because they can't win in a fair fight, that's why).

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  Xanthippe

  Well my little old mother-in-law, 82, ex-JW now Anglican church-goer, isn't trying to convert me away from atheism. She probably finds her belief comforting after the death of her son. It's a sweeping statement to say that most true believers want to convert you to their view but atheists don't. Big world filled with many, many different types of people.