Posts by Xanthippe

4

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE ON JWN!

by ÁrbolesdeArabia in

jw
friends

please post ideas how we can have a peaceful day with no family conflict.

i invited some family over and hope they can sit back and enjoy a good meal with non-contraversial topics!

i wish you all a great thanksgiving and don't run off to walmart at 6pm!

Xanthippe

Happy Thanksgiving from the UK, enjoy yourselves

546

non believers what if your wrong ?

by unstopableravens in

i do not wish to debate anything here like i have said in the past i have much respect for most on this forum (believers and non believers) i am simply wondering if the atheist or non god believers every worry about what if your wrong?

it seems that many who were jw for so many years attach jehovah/yahweh with the watchtower and since the wt is wrong than god does not exist.

i ask this question only because i care about people and salvation thats why i want to help as many as possable come out of this cult,and since i truly believe in god i dont know what is in the cinscience of those who dont.

Xanthippe

Unstopableravens - I love that name. What does it mean? Sorry I've not read all of this thread - had a really hard day at work. I understand that it is easy to think that someone stops believing because of the 'pendulum effect' - which means someone has had a bad experience of religion so they swing in the opposite direction. I understand that is a very human response but that is not what happeneed to me.

First we found Crisis of Conscience at the libraray so we left the JWs and became Christians. Then we found books on evolution - I particularly remember pictures of Neaderthal skulls with the huge eye ridges. The JWs said only bits of bone and teeth had been found - not true. Sorry I can't give you the book details because it was a library book. We were pioneers so we had no money to buy books. So we became agnostic and eventually, after seeing all the evidence for evolution, we became atheist.

Not a knee-jerk reaction to religion, that's what I am trying to say. It was more of a, let's look in the library and see what we can find. We, my late husband and I, even prayed first - then we went to the library and found COC. That's how it happened UR. Thanks for caring about me, I appreciate it.

54

When You Were Sitting During The Meetings What Were You Really Thinkng About?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i used to listen to all the stupid comments and wonder if i could sneak out of there and scram!

even after i resigned as an elder, i went for a while and eventually began missing more and more meetings.

but while i was there, i'd listen to comments, chuckle to myself how dumb it all was and then go home with the knowledge that my days were numbered there..

Xanthippe

I used to zone out totally from childhood on. Problem is that whenever someone starts to bore me now my mind just automatically zones out and I miss what people are saying. Quite useful at work in boring meetings but can be anoying when I miss something important.

69

Atheists and Theists... what do you want from us?

by tec in

jw
friends

this is a spin from palm's thread on a truce.

but i think, instead of getting people to sugget ways that a truce could work... how about we list answers to this:.

atheists: what do you want from theists?.

Xanthippe

I am an atheist tec but I don't want anything from theists. As I said on the other thread haven't those of us who have been JWs had enough of prejudice and people being rude to us about our beliefs? Just because I have stopped believing in god or religion it doesn't mean I insist everyone feels the same.

Of course all types of fundamentalism are dangerous, we all know that on this board. But I agree with tal, whatever gets you through. I don't mean that in a patronising way either because I have been through a whole range of beliefs that were right for me and got me through at the time. In the future I may change my mind and believe something else, who knows? I guess now someone is going to make that comment about not being so open-minded that my brain falls out!

39

Don't tread on my dreams

by Xanthippe in

favourite poem anyone?.

here's some of mine.

had i the heavens' embroidered cloths,.

Xanthippe

Tal, more Byron please!

sizemilk, thank you for that wonderful poem and the story behing it. Yes that's why I love poetry too because it expresses something profound that often can't be said in any other way. This is a poem that was supposedly written by a lady the day before she died. It was on the waiting room wall of the psychologist I went to see when I left the JWs. I've tried to follow her advice. Not easy.

I'd Pick More Daisies
By Nadine Stair, age 85If I had my life to live over,I'd try to make more mistakes next time.
I would relax.
I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have on this trip.
I would be crazier.
I would be less hygienic.
I would take more chances,
I would take more trips.
I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets.
I would burn more gasoline.
I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans.
I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones.
You see, I am one of those people who lives prophylactically and sensibly and sanely, hour after hour, day after day.

Oh, I have had my moments
And if I had it to do over again,
I'd have more of them.
In fact, I'd try to have nothing else.
Just moments, one after another,
Instead of living so many years ahead each day.
I have been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a gargle, a raincoat, and a parachute.

If I had to do it over again,
I would go places and do things.
I'd travel lighter than I have.
If I had my life to live over,
I would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall.
I would play hooky more.
I wouldn't make such good grades except by accident.
I would ride on merry-go-rounds.

I'd pick more daisies

34

Please tell us about your weather.

by compound complex in

literal or figurative .

rain, at long last, has penetrated into the interior of our land and my soul.

the burning sun of a protracted summer had effectively removed my resolve to get necessary things done.

Xanthippe

All of the UK is grey and rainy today, Coco. On Sunday it was beautiful. A very frosty start but a clear blue sky and lots of sunshine. I wrapped up well and went for a walk in the woods at a National Trust place near where I live. The woods are full of red and fallow dear and squirrels stashing their supplies for the winter. From the woods I could see the reservoir in the distance where people were sailing. Lots of white sails on calm water against a clear blue sky. It was absolutely gorgeous.

699

A truce between Atheists and Non-Atheists?

by palmtree67 in

jw
friends

ricky gervais tweeted this 11/14/12 and i totally agree with it:.

"there are good atheists and bad atheists.

there are good believers and bad believers.. no god has ever changed that.".

Xanthippe

Palm, life is hard enough without fighting over beliefs. Surely it is what people do, how they act that matters? I do think there should be a truce between atheist and non-atheists on this board. How can someone who used to be a JW and go d2d trying to convert people and putting up with all sorts of rudeness from people, then change their belief and be rude to people on this board who don't share the same ideas? Do we have such short memories?

39

Don't tread on my dreams

by Xanthippe in

favourite poem anyone?.

here's some of mine.

had i the heavens' embroidered cloths,.

Xanthippe

Thanksgiving Time

by Langston Hughes (1921)

When the night winds whistle through the trees and blow the crisp brown leaves a-crackling down,
When the autumn moon is big and yellow-orange and round,
When old Jack Frost is sparkling on the ground,
It's Thanksgiving Time!

When the pantry jars are full of mince-meat and the shelves are laden with sweet spices for a cake,
When the butcher man sends up a turkey nice and fat to bake,
When the stores are crammed with everything ingenious cooks can make,
It's Thanksgiving Time!

When the gales of coming winter outside your window howl,
When the air is sharp and cheery so it drives away your scowl,
When one's appetite craves turkey and will have no other fowl,
It's Thanksgiving Time!

13

Religious Genital Mutilation

by Joe Grundy in

i never was a jw.

i am an atheist.

(i keep introducing my posts that way, but it's for the avoidance of doubt).. on an entirely different mb, someone just raised the issue of fgm.

Xanthippe

My local Amnesty International group just brought FGM to the attention of our member of parliament. She came to one of our group's meetings and she said the government is aware of it. Problem is little girls get taken out of the country during school holidays and it is done back in their home country because it's illegal in the UK.

39

Don't tread on my dreams

by Xanthippe in

favourite poem anyone?.

here's some of mine.

had i the heavens' embroidered cloths,.

Xanthippe

Thanks for the daffodils Rip. Great poem!

Tal, I love Byron's She walks in Beauty and you beat me to it with the Robert Frost. I used to think of the last two lines when my daughter was a baby ------ and miles to go before I sleep

Zid, 'For we found that city life is a constant round of strife' , yep I'm with Badger Clark on that.

Wow NewChapter thank you for your friend's poem. It is very powerful and gritty isn't it?

You guys, I just love The Cremation of Sam McGee! That's the beauty of boards like this which are international you get to hear things you've never heard before.