one part of the watchtower study really got my goat!.
i know its not original thinking but , paragraph 17 of study article said .
"jehovah's longsuffering is lasting longer than some have anticipated, however that is no reason to give up, to do so would be tantamount to criticizing god for being longsuffering".
Xpat
A bug got into J's perfect ego party. His royal egoness will not rest until all offending freedom is suitabley bbqed, making ascend a pleasant odor to the divine nostrils, forever and ever. How better to demontrate the intensity of his love for his very own creations.
SS
skip starbuck aka mindchild .
many years ago on a spring day to pleasant to be outdoors pioneering, something strange happened to two jehovahs witnesses.
have you ever wondered exactly what it was inside religion that makes people kill each other?
Mindchild
>Can we be happy being "belief" free or a close approximation to it? >Maybe.
Thanks for putting up this thread. You are probably right. I guess i was exploring the taoist concept of living in the moment, from moment to moment. The realisation that everything is fleeting, as time itself, thus accepting and letting go. We are all in some type of flowing time/event river. Learning how it works, one blends into the workings, rather than fighting it. Have you ever looked at the tao te ching? Just wondering out in type.
SS
i used to love using illustrations in my talks (student, public whatever) even now i still use illustrations to help student's i teach in some of the courses i run.. i was thinking about something that happened to me while working for a private wealth company owned by a major canadian bank.... .
one day while the ceo was away from the office i caught a mistake going through the system involving a transaction for one of the clients and a subsequent presentation to said client regarding the changeover being undertaken.
the mistake, while approved and already initiated by those responsible, could have cost the company several tens of thousands in penalties and if finalized would have called into question this client (worth over $45 million) staying with the company.. tho not really my job, i initiated corrective measures, spent the night re-doing much of the work involved.
Sounds about right.
skip starbuck aka mindchild .
many years ago on a spring day to pleasant to be outdoors pioneering, something strange happened to two jehovahs witnesses.
have you ever wondered exactly what it was inside religion that makes people kill each other?
Mindchild
I enjoy this thread. I was wondering if you had thought about what the ideal state should be with regard to memes. For instance, would the ideal human be meme free, or would it be best for him/her to be run by an 'ideal' meme? Next question, what would a meme free person be like? Would he be religion/dogma/politic/faith free? Would he be a person who likes himself, who is generally happy and has a general liking for his fellow persons, kind of like an amiable intelligent animal? If evolution is true, then that is what we are anyway. Would he be agnostic as regards everything eccept what he can readily sense? I'm attempting to take an objective look at this issue.
Thanks SS
i think it is fair to say that whoever wrote genesis had a very limited scientific understanding of the world in which he lived.
most of nature was a mystery to him.
let us examine what he did "know"; namely, god lived in heaven, which was in the sky.
dorky
>There is a huge group of trees by this desert that give off a dust that is edible, sometimes stacking several inches high.
Pollen, maybe? But anyway, this theory sounds a bit fishy.
SS
skip starbuck aka mindchild .
many years ago on a spring day to pleasant to be outdoors pioneering, something strange happened to two jehovahs witnesses.
have you ever wondered exactly what it was inside religion that makes people kill each other?
mindchild
I'm enjoying you ideas. I was just thinking of how the religious group known as the world wide church of god changed from a cult similar to jws to mainstream protestantism after the founder died. I would suggest that in some ways the wt is going in that direction as well: loosening field service requirements, allowing blood fractions, making voting a conscience matter in some countries, making political/religious/economic alliances/connections, efforts at political correctness, compromises of members. If this does turn out to be their future direction, it would be much less traumatic for all concerned.
Thanks SS
skip starbuck aka mindchild .
many years ago on a spring day to pleasant to be outdoors pioneering, something strange happened to two jehovahs witnesses.
have you ever wondered exactly what it was inside religion that makes people kill each other?
Food for thought. It would appear that faith is a disease of the psyche.
SS thinking
i seriously doubt that anyone could actually live strictly by the jw rules and "suggestions" give by the society and the congregation.
like the catholic church, there are now so many rules you cannot follow them all.
unlike the catholic church, the dubs to not allow you to use your head and deviate when you want.. i remember my first wife struggling to live by dub rules.
Skep
You know what this means don't you?? .. That's right, NOBODY GETS INTO THE NEW SYSTEM ALIVE. An empty paradise, w 144000 heavenly idiots w nothing to rule, except animals. Jesus scratching his head, thinking, maybe i shoulda included more in my covenenant. Oh well, at least the angels won't be tempted to materialise anymore.
SS
dear brothers,.
we jehovah's witnesses number into the millions.. when my watchtower came in the mail the first thing i looked at was 'questions from the readers' as i felt this would be where 'new light' would probably be found.. lately, i've noticed that there are not too many issues have any questions from readers.
how could this possibly be, with millions of us?
Outaservice
If new light comes in questions from readers, does that mean readers bring the light to the society?
SS
many have argued that articles in awake!
in recent years show that watchtower was letting itself be told what do by the purple beast, namely, promote the united nations in its writings.
i can understand how many might quickly find support for this claim, for there are, indeed, many articles in awake!
Joe
In response to some of your questions: the wt has in the past encouraged jws to be law abiding, paying taxes and cooperating w govts generally, except for issues such as flag saluting, singing the national anthems, or govt limitations of their proselytising work or meetings. However, in the past, the un or league of nations has not been accepted by the wt as just another govt body. It has cultivated among jws a hatred/loathing for them. It is difficult to get accross to you the complete wt picture re the un. And so, I have cut articles or chapters expressing wt feelings on this from wt material dating from 1963-1988 and pasted them together to make one long essay. It is material like this that we, in the past, accepted as coming from god. Remember that this is only SOME of the wt anti-un propaganda that we had previously eagerly absorbed.
As the essay is fairly long, i hesitate to post it all here, unless i check w simon first. It's 221 kb. I'm not going to post only parts of it, because small appropriate quotes are already available on sites that have been referred to you. If you would be interested, i could email it to you in the format of your choice.
SS
