Posts by Xanthippe

18

Does This Site Ever Change The Mind of “Spiritual “ Jehovah’s Witnesses?

by minimus in

jw
friends

do you think witnesses who come here believe that in fact they don’t have the truth, after all.

or are we just preaching to the choir?

?.

Xanthippe

When my husband was an elder I felt things were just not right. I couldn't put my finger on it but I was worried enough to look for the elders book in our bedroom and when I found it I was shocked to find a section on stalking people suspected of adultery, even sitting outside their houses half the night. I felt it was wrong but did it anyway, I was that worried.

If the Internet had existed I'm sure I would have googled stuff and I was very 'spiritual', believed every word, pioneered for years. Unfortunately for me their was no one to ask. Now with everyone being told to buy tablets and become tech savvy I think they've shot themselves in the foot.

Why wouldn't you just google questions if you were upset, even if you were spiritual? To be honest I think it's more likely if you were genuine, really believed it because if I was still in and seeing all the money grabbing and constant doctrinal changes I'd be very upset.

10

More Kindness, Less Judgment

by compound complex in

jw
friends

i am comforted by the realization that my little life has not been lived totally in vain.

there's been a lot of good stuff come my way.

most of my mistakes were not life altering.

Xanthippe

I would have fed and clothed those in need instead of wishing that, somehow, they would be warm and well fed;

I still regret not supporting Bandaid and Liveaid over the Ethiopian famines. Still remember ignoring collecting boxes in shops because 'Jehovah will take care of that'. Ordinary people took care of it, people who put me to shame.

12

Daughter gets fondled -- mother's loving strategy takes back seat

by FatFreek 2005 in

nightmare on elm street.

mother to elder: tiffany, my daughter, shocked me last night.

she told me she was fondled by our hispanic neighbor after she babysat for their children.. elder: that is terrible to hear, sister.

Xanthippe

Beautifully written Fatfreek. This is exactly the way they think, we protect our children but not if it brings our precious organisation into disrepute. What about their precious babies, little girls and boys!

142

Panpsychism - a philosophy with a future

by slimboyfat in

at one time scientists believed that living things and non-living things were made of different material, accounting for the unique properties of living things.

this idea is called vitalism and is no longer popular.

what does remain popular (in fact is still the dominant view) is a similar idea that things that experience the world (humans, frogs, mice) are different from things that don't experience the world (potatoes, rocks, snowflakes).

Xanthippe

What I meant to say is that the idea that consciousness arises from unconscious matter is just as unprovable as panpsychism. This may be difficult to grasp because reductive materialism is pretty much taken for granted in our culture. But just because it's taken for granted doesn't mean it's true, or that it should be let off the hook in terms of requiring evidence.

I totally understand what you've been saying about panpsychism SBF and find the above very interesting. We do take the rise of consciousness for granted. Nobody understands it.

I did understand what you said about the leap to consciousness in animals may be a matter of degree, a leap forward in the life of subatomic particles. I know you're not saying rocks can think, talk or mow the bloody lawn and I think it's really annoying people keep going on about rocks.

Personally I am interested to know what else you have to say and what other links you can give on here. I think people are reaching for something here that is fascinating. Who doesn't want to know how consciousness is possible?

2

Reverse Advent

by jhine in

as christmas approaches l thought it would be good to share this idea about a reverse advent calendar .

this probably isn't a new thing , but it's the first time that l have heard of it .

we all know about advent calendars that have chocolate or little presents behind each door .

Xanthippe

It's a great idea Jan, someone at work told me about it. You don't have to belong to a church either, simply take the food to a local supermarket that collects for the food bank.

78

Work Christmas functions: Being a Bible Student (unbaptized)

by rulehayl in

jw
friends

hi all,i have been studying with the witnesses for more than 6 months and regularly attend both midweek & weekend meetings, and i am nearly at the end of the "bible teach" book.

my boss is adamant i attend team christmas functions.

she knows about my studying and potential baptism next year, and has suggested that i attend and just not participate in activities like kris kringle.

Xanthippe

Your study conductor is following the organisational directives to separate you from your work colleagues. Have they tried to separate you from you nonJW relatives as well? This is what cults do.

Soon you will have only JW friends and then even if you hate all the rules, believe me you haven't heard them all yet, you won't want to leave. Why, because you will have become isolated from all the people you know except the people in the cult. Read up on cult's isolationist behaviour.

5

Confusion with 'Message of Judgement'

by Listener in

there has been some discussion regarding the change in the jws message so i thought i would have a listen to the recent annual meeting to try to get an idea as to why the jws are not clear on the matter, once again.

it's strange that the annual meeting hasn't been put on jw org tv to date.it looks like the confusion stems from a talk given by tight pants tony and i've written out a part of that talk.

his talk was titled 'making our blows count'.

Xanthippe

They want people to come along and get baptised pronto to bump up the baptism figures. No studying with people for years, that does nothing for their stats.

6

Stranger Things on Netflix

by Cimarrona in

i've been knee deep in this netflix series "stranger things," which is a science fiction show about a group of adolescent friends in a town where a government lab has been doing experiments.

it took me like a year to get around to watching it.

but so glad that i finally started.

Xanthippe

Watched both seasons with my daughter. Nice ending to the second season.

26

January 2018 Message of Judgment - What Is This?

by dubstepped in

jw
friends

i've now seen a couple of references to this and did a little digging before leaving for work.

i saw someone on reddit in july saying that someone on the inside said a change was coming in 2018 with the jw message, and i've now seen two references to this in the past week.

help a former brother out.

Xanthippe

That Watchtower threatening being taken out of the book of life if you don't attend the memorial in 2018 sounds like they're setting it up as a loyalty test to trap faders.

16

Where in the bible does it say that the governments will turn on the religions. Like the Dubs always say this will happen

by goingthruthemotions in

i have not been here in a while, just trying to move on with my life all the while dealing with a very pimi brainwashed wife.. so the other day she started saying that we will have to go our own ways when things get worse with this world.

she has said this before because she believes that the government will turn on religion and the great and powerful wizards (guardians of doctrine g.o.d.

) will call everyone and tell them where to go.. thank god, (no pun intended) i have been out of the loop for such a long time.

Xanthippe

This all depends on the beasts in Revelation standing for whoever the Bible reader or their church chooses to say they stand for. In the first century I've read they thought the wild beast was the power of Rome. During the Reformation it was the pope and Catholicism.