Posts by Xanthippe

23

Reflecting On Death

by Charles Gillette in

jw
friends

reflecting on death.

i can't remember, maybe steve jobs before he died.i thought i would share it with you and see what you think about it, and i'm quoting i think from his book.. "i'm about fifty-fifty on believing in god.

for most of my life, i've felt that there must be more to our own existence than meets the eye.. i might be overestimating the odds 50/50 out of a desire to believe in an afterlife.

Xanthippe

IS it so small a thing
To have enjoy'd the sun,
To have lived light in the spring,
To have loved, to have thought, to have done;
To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling foes;	5

That we must feign a bliss
Of doubtful future date,
And while we dream on this
Lose all our present state, Matthew Arnold Live well now and don't worry about things you have no power to change, including death.

47

Did you actually read the bible end to end?

by Ultimate Axiom in

in my ten years as a witness i never read the whole bible end to end, what with four magazines a month, the book study, meetings and talk preparations, there just wasn’t the time.

i knew all the important references to ‘prove’ the various jw doctrines, and the cherry picked chapters that help foster the idea that it’s a good book, but that’s not reading it.

well after nearly forty years out, i decided i would do it.

Xanthippe

Yeah I did read it through, didn't think I could preach to other people about it otherwise. So many weird stories, incest, rape, murdering children and even domestic animals in the land of Canaan. Apparently God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. You can keep the God who permitted all that.

68

The paranormal.

by Lost in the fog in

i know that a lot of the people on here have turned their backs on the idea of a deity deciding that god does not exist.

but what about the unseen spirit world generally such as poltergeists, jinns, voodoo, etc.

if you have become agnostic, atheist, or just don't care since leaving, do you think that there are spirits out there or have you decided that is also hokum?

Xanthippe

They have a brain and a mind limited as it might be.How are we or science to explain this behavior?

I don't understand, what behaviour? If they experience things they can't tell us about how would we know? What are you trying to say?

For the record I have no evidence at this time of my research to accept that the physical body brain and all of its organs cease to be when death comes to it.

Okay, that's interesting, your research would probably be classed as anecdotal here as I've mentioned but as you say declaring we don't know everything at this time is fine. I feel I'm missing something here so perhaps you could clarify?

68

The paranormal.

by Lost in the fog in

i know that a lot of the people on here have turned their backs on the idea of a deity deciding that god does not exist.

but what about the unseen spirit world generally such as poltergeists, jinns, voodoo, etc.

if you have become agnostic, atheist, or just don't care since leaving, do you think that there are spirits out there or have you decided that is also hokum?

Xanthippe

I agree unsure, the universe is mind-bogglingly huge and must surely contain wonders beyond our imagination. Other inhabited planets perhaps, weird life forms that don't conform to our understating of 'life' as yet, etc.

Some of us have had experiences of unusual phenomena and if we try to describe them to others it understandably becomes a case of saying that is anecdotal and not scientific evidence. That's fair enough, that's exactly what it is.

For those to whom it has happened though, it is real and they don't deserve the name-calling. But it has ever been so when anyone in the past described phenomena that he or she can't yet prove. This is how much of accepted science has developed.

21

Should calling someone 'Nazi' be made illegal?

by LoveUniHateExams in

a rabble-rouser called james goddard and a crowd of pro-brexit people called anna soubry 'nazi' recently.. the same crowd also called owen jones a few names.. i don't know these people but they seem to be unsavory people - they were certainly not behaving themselves.. the met police are looking into the matter, to see if the crowd did anything illegal.

a journalist asked the police officer if calling someone 'nazi' is illegal.

the officer said 'that's what we're looking into'.. first, this crowd behaved badly, no question.. what i find fascinating, though, is the speed of response from authorities.. calling people fascist or nazi has been going on for decades.

Xanthippe

Yesterdays Times says Soubry asked the police officer standing nearby for help from the name-calling and he said it's democracy.

26

Elders encouraging young ones to live in a fairy tale

by Addison0998 in

so one of the elders at the meeting tonight addressed to parents in his talk, “if your child wants to flip burgers for the rest of their life, because that’s is the only job that will allow them to have a schedule for full time service, you would want to support them the best you can.” he has also said told parents that if their children already have plans to go to college, even in the near future, they should try to do everything to stop them.

there’s so much ranting i could do about that alone, but to make matters worse, this is a considerably well off man.

he has his own buisness, a nice house with an additional room he added on last year, and him and his wife just took a lavish european trip.

Xanthippe

but spiritually mature Christians would be expected to make decisions consistent with their circumstances, which might include college if they can afford to do what some in their congregation cannot do. - djeggnog

You know this isn't true, WT apologist. If you are a 'mature' Christian, e.g. an elder, you will likely lose your position if you encourage your kids to go to university.

26

Elders encouraging young ones to live in a fairy tale

by Addison0998 in

so one of the elders at the meeting tonight addressed to parents in his talk, “if your child wants to flip burgers for the rest of their life, because that’s is the only job that will allow them to have a schedule for full time service, you would want to support them the best you can.” he has also said told parents that if their children already have plans to go to college, even in the near future, they should try to do everything to stop them.

there’s so much ranting i could do about that alone, but to make matters worse, this is a considerably well off man.

he has his own buisness, a nice house with an additional room he added on last year, and him and his wife just took a lavish european trip.

Xanthippe

Yeah when I was pioneering and living in a freezing rented apartment all the elders had big houses and several cars. To add insult to injury the elders asked me and my pioneer husband to put the circuit overseer up when we'd only been married two months. Because we had plenty of money to feed them!

25

Hello

by Hendrixgrip in

hi, this is my long overdue introduction.

i’ve been visiting this site since probably around 2011. in that time, i’ve taken a lot from these discussions and never contributed anything.

i’m not sure that i have much to contribute these days because i just don’t pay too much attention to wt land.

Xanthippe

I knew I was putting my deliriously happy marriage at risk by pushing my wife, but I couldn’t tell my kids “I was so happy and I didn’t want to jeopardize that, so I let you get trapped in this lie.” How could I ever look at them again?

Welcome and much admiration for your courage. It's so easy to ruin a vulnerable child's life but you stood up to this cult to save your kids' future.

45

Jehovah's Witnesses... Who sent the Star of Bethlehem?

by JW Answers in

jehovah's witnesses... who sent the star of bethlehem?.

the watchtower teach their followers that the star of bethlehem was sent by non other than satan... however as we take a look at the scriptures by comparing spiritual things with spiritual we begin to see that the star of bethlehem was not sent by satan, but used for the glory of god.a seasonal message to end the year.. watch now here :.

Xanthippe

That's a great sci fi plot Blondie, thanks. Arthur C Clarke is one of the greatest sci fi writers of all time and I do think sci fi short stories are often the best.

12

november 2018 study wt

by days of future passed in

i always get curious when someone posts an article from the wt.

so i end up going there to look around at the whole article and find other things that are curiouser and couriouser.. certainly, god’s thinking is superior to that of today’s world.

living by his thoughts will bring us the greatest happiness and success.

Xanthippe

Such viewpoints overlook the Scriptural view that our families and self-worth thrive when we love Jehovah above all

There's the rub, how the heck can they know what their God wants? How do you love a person you can't see, someone you talk to but he never answers. As with all religions somehow the priest class interprets what He wants and it always seems to be, give up your time and money to show you love Him, or rather..... give it to us.