Posts by Xanthippe

52

how can navigate if our desire is for absolute truth...

by Ruby456 in

jw
friends

or do we give in to social constructivism?

to relativity?

or is there a way to be real and then to say whats real that everyone agrees to?.

Xanthippe

edit: the problem with dictionary definitions is that they are too simple and too black or white although these can point you in the right direction. wiki is better cos it provides a general discussion

Lol Ruby I just have to smile. Dictionary definitions of words are too black and white but they can point you in the right direction? So we all end up with a different idea of what a word means? Meanings of words are standardised so that when we talk to someone we can understand them, surely?

So the wiki page on Xenobiology you linked to, what do you get from this discussion?

52

how can navigate if our desire is for absolute truth...

by Ruby456 in

jw
friends

or do we give in to social constructivism?

to relativity?

or is there a way to be real and then to say whats real that everyone agrees to?.

Xanthippe

Was reading something on xenobiology as this includes the kinds of life forms that astrobiologists look for and they need to keep open that other life forms may not be like those on earth so they look for what they term living entities. - Ruby

If you are talking about life on other planets or in other parts of the universe being totally different to us, Ruby, you might be interested in Richard Dawkins' book The Magic Of Reality.

In the chapter Are We Alone? Dawkins discusses the possibility of life forms with X-Ray vision and life forms that can communicate using radio waves but without any device, having evolved to do this just with their brains.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/262525/we-alone

52

how can navigate if our desire is for absolute truth...

by Ruby456 in

jw
friends

or do we give in to social constructivism?

to relativity?

or is there a way to be real and then to say whats real that everyone agrees to?.

Xanthippe

the third thing that can enable us to guard against suggesting absolute truth as a form of objectivity is to consider that language tends to complicate and obscure - but we have to use words.

Not if you use language properly. For example you are talking about scientists looking for automata on other planets. What do you mean? Machines? Robots? Computer?Somehow you get hold of a word Ruby and it seems to mean something in your own head that is different to the dictionary definition.

Automata automatons and such like - I guess these would be self organizing systems that are self sufficient but that we would not class as life that we see on earth.

No an automaton would be :-

a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being.

19

Share Your Favorite Shakespeare

by compound complex in

jw
friends

give me my romeo; and, when he shall die,take him and cut him out in little stars,and he will make the face of heaven so finethat all the world will be in love with nightand pay no worship to the garish sun.. -- romeo and juliet 3 ii.

Xanthippe

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 18

137

Mouthy has Passed Away

by Simon in

jw
friends

update on mouthy (grace gough)this is graces granddaughter.

i wanted to send an update that today my beautiful grandmother passed away - surrounded by friends and family.

- may 22 1927 - sept 2nd 2016. mouthys_granddaughter.

Xanthippe

She suffered so much from loss of family so I'm glad she had family around her when she passed. Thanks for letting us know Simon, she was a lovely character.

18

Do you recognize?

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

gorby has had a personal paradigm shift lately.. from one point to an other i "feel" and "think" different about the jw subject.. - no more interest in doctrine.

- no more interest in things that happen 100 years ago into an religion.. - no more taking statements too serious.

it doesn't matter me at all what a generation doctrine change is all about, it doesn't matter me at all that brother elder said "blablabla boe!".

Xanthippe

I get it Gorby. The tangled up doctrines do my head in. Oops sorry British midland idioms. I'm glad you're surrounded by good people. Life's good when beliefs don't matter. We're all just people trying to do life the best we can eh?

58

Reading The Bible Again After Leaving

by pale.emperor in

at the moment i dont beleive in anything.

im pretty much an open book, but my critical mind is very alert to bullshit.

but anyway i decided to re-read the bible with a non jw filter.. i researched online first which is supposed to be the best translation out there.

Xanthippe

It's a precious time finding the freedom to do your own research and think for yourself. I almost envy you this new feeling of starting again. We did this, read the Bible with a nonJW Hebrew and Greek interlinear from a Christian bookshop and some encyclopaedias (pre-Internet). I actually still have that interlinear and still feel an affection for it because it helped me on my way. Thanks for letting us know how it's going I was getting worried when you didn't come back to your other thread.

27

Are you sad or angry?

by raven in

after exiting the org, i mean cult, how have each of you felt personally about the lies you had been taught, the hurt from feeling betrayed by these people, actual hopes of once believed false teachings, rose colored lenses of seemingly just and right doctrines that turned out to be a bunch of horse $#!+, the shunning of family and friends?

right now i am going through the motions, i've just moved to a new home, which means hopefully no more elders searching for me at my previous address.. i can't help but feel sad though right now because of the fact that although i am not df'd ( maybe the elders will do it in absentia assuming i've been avoiding them and the 2 jc's they've invited me to as well as the last handwritten letter at my door before i moved ) my mom treats me as though i am dead to her, she says " i am living the life of a disfellowshipped person, and until i come back to jehovah this is how things will be because this was my choice to leave jehovah " ok i get it, but i don't- everyone has free will, so yes this was my choice but it is also her choice to shun me, especially after the "shun unrepentant wrongdoers" talk at the rc, funny how they come out with these talks to reel members back in.. she claims that she has an obligation to jehovah of which she promised to him after she was baptized not at 11, 13, or 17 ( young ages ) but fricken 26 years old.

i absolutely hate this organization and everything that it is, it's taken away my family and most importantly my own mother.. i always thought that a mothers love was to be unconditional, but hers for me is only conditional.

Xanthippe

Raven, cults that make mothers treat their children as if dead are absolutely despicable. I feel your sadness in your post. Just don't let it make you feel as if you're not worthy of being loved because your mother rejected you. That is a deep pain.

You have your partner, he loves you. Your new home and your new job! You achieved all this while leaving the cult and coping with your JW family, well done you! Stunning accomplishments. You should be proud of yourself.

It hurts, bring shunned by a mother. It will turn to anger, yes, eventually but anger gives you strength to cope. Really it will. Hang in there, nobody knows what the future holds, she may change. She may not, mine didn't, but you should have a great life anyway and know that lots of people have done it and made it. You'll be fine, look how much you've achieved already. Just be kind to yourself while you still feel sad, this takes time.

10

This religion has a chance of survival

by Socrateswannabe in

the jws could survive as an organization due to one vital human need: recognition.

for decades this religion glorified the older ones and really didn't do much for the younger folks, hence the younger people left in droves.

if you're middle-aged or older, what was the average age of the elders in your congregation or your circuit overseer, as you were growing up?

Xanthippe

Again,any shift in those who hold power involves men - no change though in their more passive roles for women who comprise well over half of the rank and file.

Steve2 what I didn't understand until I had a child was that women are very motivated by the incredibly strong need to protect their children. So as the Borg keeps creating this bunker mentality in the R+F it target women's protective instincts.

I was terrified of the great tribulation when I was in. Public talks about torture and how many of us would be dragged away to prison until 'it touched Jehovah's eyeball' or something and then he brings the big A.

I can imagine how frightening that is for women with young kids. So must stay faithful to be protected and save their kids, I guess.

45

What Songs Best Fit you when you learned TATT and Afterwards?

by Wasanelder Once in

the work of john lennon best fit my situation.

first, i found out.

i found out.

Xanthippe

When I first learned TTATT? Queen's I'm going slightly mad!

For a while when I still believed in God but stopped believing in Divine intervention, I identified with Bette Midler's God is watching us from a distance

Now, it depends. On good days, Louis Armstrong's What a wonderful world and We have all the time in the world.

Some days Oasis, I'm outta time.