Posts by Xanthippe

18

Can you spot the circular reasoning here?

by DATA-DOG in

when i used to read the bible on a regular basis, i loved "paul's" writings.

anyway, can you see what is actually being said in the following passage?

" if anyone thinks he is a prophet or is gifted with the spirit, he must acknowledge that the things i am writing to you are the lord's commandment.

Xanthippe

This is what drives us nuts ...the catch 22.

Round and round we go!

*

No matter how easy it is to explain all the wt failures,

and the shunning & blood policies ....the watchtower has

set-up and prepped the deluded dubs with 'get out of jail'

clauses - clarity

Clarity this drives me nuts too, that they have an answer for everthing and all their beliefs are tied up so tightly that it's a wonder anyone gets out.

If you say the 1914 prophecy has not come true and it's now been 100 years, they are primed to say they are not serving Jehovah to any particular date and to make you feel guilty for pointing it out because you are so selfish and don't love Him.

If you say what is wrong with a university education they say young people are bringing themselves into the danger of sexual immorality at college. Never mind the fact that the WBTS want to keep people uneducated and stupid so they can't see the contradictions in the teachings. Why do you want an education, do you want to be 'puffed up with pride' and be 'devoted to the reading of many books which is wearisome to the soul?'

I know, makes me want to spit too!

60

Goodbye JW net

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

forgive me for indulging in a goodbye but it would feel wrong not to,.

i hope the discussions and atmosphere here do not change for it is a bubbling brew of doubt, bravery and sincere hunger for answers.

these are healthy ingrediants for humans and especially for a jehovah's witness.. this forum offers not just the ability to ask without consequence, but it also offers the means to be real.

Xanthippe

Well done Snare. You should be so proud of yourself and all that terribly hard work done with very little family support. You did it mate!

Be happy. Have a great life.

37

Clean the JUNK out of your vocabulary and it follows, you will clean up your ability to THINK

by Terry in

there are certain "junk" words that litter our brain, pollute our vocabulary, and play fast and loose with our reasoning.. one of those junk words is spirit.. the words means nothing, but extrapolations of its metaphorical pretense are everywhere!.

we have five sense connected with our body link to brain.. hearing, vision, taste, touch, sense of smell.. with those five we are in touch with things as they exist.. reality is what it is.. through technology, science has been able to amplify our senses with microscopes, telescopes, x-rays, mri's, space probes, atom smashers, etc.. but--i assure you--none of this has produced evidence of "spirit.".

the last thing that happens when you die is this.

Xanthippe

The idea of gods and goddesses inspiring writings and the arts comes from Greek mythology but then Paul had a classical education so he would have known that.

The Muses, the personification of knowledge and the arts, especially literature, dance and music, are the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne(memory personified). Hesiod's account and description of the Muses was the one generally followed by the writers of antiquity. It was not until Roman times that the following functions were assigned to them, and even then there was some variation in both their names and their attributes: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Euterpe (flutes and lyric poetry), Thalia (comedy and pastoral poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore(dance), Erato (love poetry), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), and Urania (astronomy).

Three ancient Muses were also reported in Plutarch's Quaestiones Convivales [8] (9.I4.2–4). [9] The Roman scholar Varro relates that there are only three Muses: one who is born from the movement of water, another who makes sound by striking the air, and a third who is embodied only in the human voice. They were Melete or Practice, Mneme or Memory and Aoide or Song.

Gustave Moreau, Hesiod and the Muse (1891)— Musée d'Orsay , Paris

However the Classical understanding of the muses tripled their triad, set at nine goddesses, who embody the arts and inspire creation with their graces through remembered and improvised song and stage, writing, traditional music, and dance.

In one myth, King Pierus, king of Macedon, had nine daughters he named after the nine Muses, [10] believing that their skills were a great match to the Muses. He thus challenged the Muses to a match, resulting in his daughters, the Pierides, being turned into chattering magpies [11] for their presumption.

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

20

A fawn comes bleating, . . .

by compound complex in

jw
friends

at my open screen door, in search of mama.. i come into the living room (from the kitchen), we exchange glances for a moment, and he beats a hasty retreat.

i am not mama.

.. meantime, finches gather 'round the four birdbaths in my garden and splash about and share the latest birdland gossip.. .

Xanthippe

I live in a wood.

Lucky man! I go to the local National Trust property to see deer. They have red and fallow deer in the woods there.

I do have an ash tree and a field maple as well as some smaller trees in my garden so I get plenty of birds. Gold finches, long tailed tits, robins, starlings, blackbirds and once a woodpecker. I have a tiny pond so I see frogs usually and dragon flies.

Enjoy your wood CC.

20

Do you intend to die?

by new hope and happiness in

as far as i know, all of us are going to die.

our hope, our stories, and the fantazy of " good people" telling tales of heaven, or a new system, or future reassembling of our consciousness is not likely?

do you still cling to it?.

Xanthippe

I am not afraid of death, it's something I don't have to sit an exam for, have an interview or get any qualifications for. One of the few things I don't have to worry about or strive for. On the other hand I keep myself healthy and am at present losing weight beacause a heart attack or stroke is not a good way to go. I've lost a stone, ten pounds to go and I'm back to my twenties weight. Keep your weight down and your bones healthy for a good old age.

41

favourite words...in any language

by new hope and happiness in

jw
friends

i mean " courting" certainley sounds more dignified than " hanging out with a new squeeze".

" comely" is a word i think should be used more often".

i am going to try and use " jabberwockey" in a sentece today.. anyway do you have any favourite words, in any language?.

Xanthippe

onomatopoeia

stromboli

snozzcumber (Roald Dahl's BFG)

Pa Tak (Klingon)

43

Pets aren't people, says speaker at Regional Convention. Fido and Mimi better watch out! And instead of drinking wine or beer go do some gardening or play golf.

by oppostate in

a big discussion driving back from the regional convention about what exactly was meant about pets.. the warning was obvious to me.

don't get pets, they cost time and money and you would do better to spend your time and money supporting the organization and going in field service.. as to the wine and beer, because the bro during his soliloquy admitted that the first thing he would like to do is relax after a hectic day at work with a glass of wine or beer, his conscience was traumatized.

however he came up with a perfect idea, he'd go tend the garden (obviously a solution for a married bro) or hit some golfballs at the driving range (maybe he's not married).. maybe jesus should have told the wine guzzlers at cana to sober up and go till the fields.. .

Xanthippe

Magnum, love your kitten rescue story. We have rescued two strays that took shelter in our garden. I re-homed one with a work colleague but my daughter decided she was keeping the other one. He was a sorry sight, so thin and starved. He's made a lovely big tabby now and seems none the worse for his ill treatment, very affectionate. So we added him to our cat family, and then there were four!

Yes they can feel sadness and be lonely and even jealous which doesn't surprise me as we evolved too and we feel all those things.

75

Party in the kingdom hall!

by StephaneLaliberte in

check it out and download before i am forced to take it down!.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf_rfrusa1c.

Xanthippe

Magnum I don't think we did see the same one as you noticed the one you watched is a shorter version of the one in the op. I watched the longer one. To me they have been abused by a mind control cult. Many will still get out. Many were dragged along as small children as I was and know nothing else, by design, because of the information control. I just see human beings. I am treated condescendingly too by my JW family but I do believe that if they ever get out they will be mortified by what they've done to me.

I don't think a lot of those people were actually having fun. They were just going along with the crowd. They don't know how to actually have fun. They just go along with the group; they give in to peer pressure. - Magnum

Yes exactly but peer pressure is very strong especially when you have been fordidden friends outside the group from childhood on. The GB who have been allowed to meet a wide range of people, have travelled all over the world and some who have degrees, they are responsible for controlling the information to these ordinary people.

75

Party in the kingdom hall!

by StephaneLaliberte in

check it out and download before i am forced to take it down!.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf_rfrusa1c.

Xanthippe

Watched it with the sound off - it's late here. Interesting just watching the pictures. Just people havind fun, brightly dressed, eating with their friends, kids having fun. Lovely people trying to enjoy their lives. They deserve better than all these lies. I'm not bitter about these lovely people who just want to enjoy life but they are weighed down with rules. That's all, I'm having trouble putting this into words, it's late.

28

Advice Needed

by HeyThere in

so my situation is changing and i am trying to figure out the best way for me to handle this.

i am an unbaptized publisher married to a dub who was inactive when we met and when we married and during the course of our marriage, and just went back active a year and a half ago.

he is a full believing dub.

Xanthippe

I'm glad most of your family aren't in the religion HeyThere. You have a good support system. Your marriage is important and beliefs run deep so softly softly sounds good.

Perhaps you could stop FS on the basis of you don't feel it's right to preach something you're not sure of but without the formal need to announce to anyone you are stopping? I like the idea of sometimes going with your husband to meetings to show him how their attitudes to you will change which they will.