Posts by Xanthippe

7

A WRITER (me) looks at the "character GOD" from the standpoint of bad writing

by Terry in

i pay attention to what other writers write about writing.

writers always have limits--even writers of fiction.. do you choose to live in a world where pigs fly and deuces are wild?

that would be an imaginary world.. do you choose to live in a world where god rules?

Xanthippe

All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players.

144

just happy to be alive....can barely move ☺.. a girl who just got her license , and a new suv....thought it might be cool to pass the person in front of her....at a curve......on a two way road!!!!!😠😠😠.

very mad puppy.

Xanthippe

Get some rest and you'll soon feel all brandnew x

7

A WRITER (me) looks at the "character GOD" from the standpoint of bad writing

by Terry in

i pay attention to what other writers write about writing.

writers always have limits--even writers of fiction.. do you choose to live in a world where pigs fly and deuces are wild?

that would be an imaginary world.. do you choose to live in a world where god rules?

Xanthippe

Yes I found the God of the OT to be very 'human' a jealous God, cruel enough to insist on the death of babies and the animals of people who inconveniently lived in the 'promised' land. Just like the very 'human' Greek and Roman Gods. Conversely I thought the Jesus of the NT was just a non-person, barely there, two-dimentional. Poor characterisation indeed.

Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad just before we left really helped me wake up. Just because we have found Troy in modern Turkey does that mean Achilles existed and had miraculous escapes from death because of being dipped in the river Styx? Or that the Trojan war was started by Paris carrying off Helen, the daughter of Leda and the God Zeus?

So why be excited about finding Ur or the Hittites? It doesn't make the Bible stories true. Ancient people loved to mix up mythological heroes with real events. They loved to claim a hero or God for their own city or country.

It's still excellent writing though, I love Homer. The wine dark sea. White-armed Hera and all those strong, beautiful warriors. Who wants to read about ugly people doing boring things anyway? Now we have soap operas for that.

12

The soldiers on guard at Jesus tomb didn't become believers, why in the hell not?

by James Mixon in

you are on guard at jesus sealed tomb.

all of a sudden a great earthquake occurs and an angel.

wearing a dazzling outfit descends from above like lightning and this angel single handedly rolls away.

Xanthippe

They would have been treated as apostates from the cult of Mithras if they started believing in Jesus. They would have been shunned, crucified and then put on bread and water for a week.

162

Do you still believe in God?

by FormerlySandL in

i never thought i would admit it, but i don't.

i might superstitiously have some kind of doubt but digging a bit deeper in my heart i really don't believe in god.

as a human i could never just sit and watch people be tortured, live years of abuse, suffer from illness and disabilities and all the other awful things people have to endure day after day without doing something about it.

Xanthippe

If we have good heart - even if we are total unbelievers but are sincere in that unbelief - then that is fertile ground for following when truth becomes apparent, truth which we have missed during our earlier years. When God intervenes, the question of religion will be pointless, as the Christ will guide us without the need for a "middleman". The problem is whether we - individually - will want to.

Good evening Acts. That's great. I have a good heart and I am totally sincere in that unbelief. If God intervenes with Christ I will be happy to hear their guidance when truth becomes apparent as you put it. Meanwhile - I am an atheist.

40

Narcissistic personality disorder and the dubs

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

i've recently started to research npd.

having identified several of my family members as having it ( no wonder we're such a ¿***#@**!!!!

up family)there's huge similarities between the borg and individual members of the cong as well i've noticed.the over whelming love of self, the need to believe in a grandiose fictional version of themselves, always striving for more power and wealth, being unable to stand any criticism, and then there's the manipulation of the victims too.i could be wrong i guess but what thoughts do you guys have about it?

Xanthippe

Isn't there something a bit odd about a classification system that so freely uses the word "tendencies" to hedge its bets? We wouldn't say "I've not actually got a cold but I've got cold like tendencies today". I do wonder what's going on in psychology.

Thank god they hedge their bets now. Rufus May is a British clinical psychologist best known for using his own experiences of being a psychiatric patient to promote alternative recovery approaches for those experiencing psychotic symptoms.

I saw a BBC documentary about his work called The Doctor who Hears Voices. May was helping a young doctor who was hearing voices, without revealing her identity which would have ended her career. She got better because it was a temporary list of symptoms or 'tendencies' caused by working long hours as a junior doctor, she was not schizophrenic. The mind doctors are being much more cautious about diagnoses thank goodness.

162

Do you still believe in God?

by FormerlySandL in

i never thought i would admit it, but i don't.

i might superstitiously have some kind of doubt but digging a bit deeper in my heart i really don't believe in god.

as a human i could never just sit and watch people be tortured, live years of abuse, suffer from illness and disabilities and all the other awful things people have to endure day after day without doing something about it.

Xanthippe

I stopped believing in God for the same reasons as you FSAL, because of the cruelty of the free will, proving Satan a liar argument. I tried to read 'Acts' take on that argument just now and found after five seconds my brain started to seize up. It's illogical nonsense twisting reality in knots to try and explain why the world can contain so much suffering and yet there's still a loving God.

40

Narcissistic personality disorder and the dubs

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

i've recently started to research npd.

having identified several of my family members as having it ( no wonder we're such a ¿***#@**!!!!

up family)there's huge similarities between the borg and individual members of the cong as well i've noticed.the over whelming love of self, the need to believe in a grandiose fictional version of themselves, always striving for more power and wealth, being unable to stand any criticism, and then there's the manipulation of the victims too.i could be wrong i guess but what thoughts do you guys have about it?

Xanthippe

I think my FIL has NPD. Converted to JWs at 21, made an elder in his twenties, congregation overseer in his thirties. Ran departments at Twickenham convention. Was determined to be a circuit overseer even though he had two small kids. They kept telling him no. No education to speak of, he even missed a lot of primary school during WWII. Manual worker, his wife did his accounts.

I'm not a psychiatrist but I do wonder if someone with a genetic dIsposition to the disorder is damaged by being given positions with a huge amount of power over people's lives by this cult. Especially when they've not had to work their way through education which grounds people I believe to a certain extent. He always thought he'd beat the system, that he was blessed. He was looked up to by so many people yet disliked by other elders because he couldn't stop telling them what to do.

Even now after he's been out years he thinks he's lucky and you don't have to work hard, you have to manipulate people into doing what you want. He got someone to lie about him having a bachelors degree and had them write a letter of recommendation so he could get on an MBA program.

He wrote these atrocious essays that his tutor sent back again and again and let him rewrite them! He couldn't get through the pass mark on the essays which was only 40%. Somehow he got his tutor to explain what he needed to write and mark them over and over until he got it right. Got an MBA without having a first degree through lying and manipulating people. Then got a lecturer's job but couldn't hack it and retired. He said at his first lecture he was amazed the students didn't clap.

I keep away from him as much as possible. He damaged his kids severely. His wife runs around after him like a skivvy and he talks to her as if she's stupid. I don't need need toxic people in my life any more. He knows everything anyway, why would he need me around, except to applaud his genius.

21

Evolution is a Fact #20 - Lucy in the Sky ....

by cofty in

when donald johanson and his colleagues returned to the afar region of ethiopia in 1974 they were full of optimism.

it was their second season searching for human fossils around hadar.

the previous november johanson had found a fossilised knee joint that was dated to more than 3 million years ago.

Xanthippe

Really interesting link thanks.

21

Evolution is a Fact #20 - Lucy in the Sky ....

by cofty in

when donald johanson and his colleagues returned to the afar region of ethiopia in 1974 they were full of optimism.

it was their second season searching for human fossils around hadar.

the previous november johanson had found a fossilised knee joint that was dated to more than 3 million years ago.

Xanthippe

The main point is that there is a whole series of pre-human species that show all the progressions from small-brained walking on all fours to large brained bipeds.

Yes I understand but Johanson is talking at length about where Lucy fits in and the problems they had at the time with potassium-argon dating of volcanic tuff. I just wondered if knowing what evidence we have now would shed any light on it for me. Thanks for that cofty.