schnell

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Posts by schnell

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  32

  Beardless Jesus. Why?

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  beardless jesus in watchtower publications between 1930s and 1960s.

  a simple detail 'deliberately' left out.

  the question is why?.

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  schnell

  For them it was propaganda. However, that obviously was not the only beardless portrayal.

  

  
  
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  4

  Prayer vs. Meditation

  by schnell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  whenever i prayed, it was always done consciously and ostensibly to another person -- a higher, spirit person -- called jehovah.

  the subject was always something about me, even if it was for someone else.

  if i prayed to thank jehovah for my meal, it was about me.

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  schnell

  Whenever I prayed, it was always done consciously and ostensibly to another person -- a higher, spirit person -- called Jehovah. The subject was always something about me, even if it was for someone else. If I prayed to thank Jehovah for my meal, it was about me. If I prayed to ask Jehovah to help someone else, I would perhaps feel guilty if I did not do so even though I believed Jehovah already knew what was needed, and thus it was about me. If I added at the end about the kingdom coming as in heaven also upon earth, I did so because I believed I should and I wanted the new system, and thus it was about me. All of this, every shred of it, is conscious effort and ultimately self-centered, and this carries a negative connotation and guilt to the god I'm praying to.

  When I meditate, I usually close my eyes. Sometimes I open them. I focus on breathing. I count my breaths. In a few minutes, my mind and body have calmed down. I feel a smile. I feel my place in the space where I'm sitting, and I notice things. I at first try to squelch all my thoughts, and focus on breathing. At some point though, I let them off the leash and my thoughts go absolutely wild. Then I bring them back in and focus some more. All of this is ultimately self-centered, except there is no guilt to that connotation whatever. It's mindfulness, really. Indeed, I am quite happy to be myself.

  A final note: If I am in a group that insists on having a prayer before a meal, I have noticed that I survive the night perfectly in tact no matter what it is I'm thinking of during the obligatory prayer. No lightning, no leprosy. Hilarious.
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  123

  Why do some Jehovah's Witnesses choose to be atheist or agnostic?

  by Cassaruby in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  "traumatic as the initial transition may be, it can lead to the development of a truly personal relationship with these two greatest friends [the father and the son] .

  .. "whatever sense of 'belonging' that membership in some religious system may create, it can never compare with the power and beauty and strengthening benefit of the intimate personal relationship the scripture presents .

  from reading joseph campbell i've come to understand that there are functions to religion or mythology.

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  schnell

  
  
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  6

  Hope deferred

  by life is to short in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  proverbs 13:12 "hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

  i have heard this before from dave ramesy about finances and how if you can never see an end in sight to get out of debt, if you always are making nothing to live on and getting nowhere with no hope of it ever changing, you just give up.

  thank god's it's friday and oh god it's monday breaks your spirit.. i was reading this book by henry cloud and he expounds on this and says "there are few sicknesses of the heart like hope deferred.

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  schnell

  My favorite was when they'd say we shouldn't pursue our dreams and businesses and ideas in this system, since we can do that in the NEXT system...

  Living for the future. That's all that is.
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  24

  Scriptures rarely mentioned

  by dothemath in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a couple of examples of scriptures hardly ever quoted is 1 tim.

  2:12- "i do not permit a woman to teach, or to exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence".

  or verse 11- "let a woman learn in silence with full submissiveness.".

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  schnell

  @fastJehu, but was anyone there to hear it? Did it make a sound? :P
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  27

  the Book of Enoch and the Nephilim

  by schnell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've heard all my cognizant life that angels from heaven looked upon the daughters of men, took wives, and their wives bore giants called nephilim.. i've heard all my adult life about the book of enoch and why it's apocryphal and to be avoided.. so tonight i was curious enough to download an e-book and have a look, since dothemath had the thread about rarely used scriptures and the book of jude directly quotes from the book of enoch.. if jude quotes from enoch, shouldn't both or neither of them be canonical?

  if you consider jude canonical, then enoch should be too.. hey, how many fallen angels were there again?

  two thirds of heaven, right?

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  schnell

  Hmm. I didn't know that about Marcion, very interesting.
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  27

  "Don't listen to apostates!!"

  by Schnufti in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  next time a jw says that to me, i will ask him to read the following from "what does the bible really teach":.

  watchtower itself uses this illustration.

  so why is it that they throw apostates out of the congregation?.

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  schnell

  @Vidiot naturally!

  Hey, remember the early 90s article about how sarcasm is like a bad thing? I sure do.
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  27

  the Book of Enoch and the Nephilim

  by schnell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've heard all my cognizant life that angels from heaven looked upon the daughters of men, took wives, and their wives bore giants called nephilim.. i've heard all my adult life about the book of enoch and why it's apocryphal and to be avoided.. so tonight i was curious enough to download an e-book and have a look, since dothemath had the thread about rarely used scriptures and the book of jude directly quotes from the book of enoch.. if jude quotes from enoch, shouldn't both or neither of them be canonical?

  if you consider jude canonical, then enoch should be too.. hey, how many fallen angels were there again?

  two thirds of heaven, right?

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  schnell

  @David_Jay, the problem with Paul's quoting Greek poetry is false equivalence. The Greek poets were not writing about the Jewish or Christian god or any other characters from Jewish lore. The author of Enoch was. The greater point, of course, is that these books are not inspired by God (and I mean an actual deity rather than a metaphor). This is shown again and again and again. Defining God as a metaphor for something universal, psychological, and political within and all about us does not really help.
  
• 
  27

  "Don't listen to apostates!!"

  by Schnufti in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  next time a jw says that to me, i will ask him to read the following from "what does the bible really teach":.

  watchtower itself uses this illustration.

  so why is it that they throw apostates out of the congregation?.

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  schnell

  And you're right, no wonder the Org hates XJWs more than virtually anything else, and also why they've historically concentrated so hard on compelling members to stay even if they had doubts. It had never really occurred to me before, but the WTS must have a very deep-seated fear of schisms and mass exoduses (exodi?).

  From their perspective, the simple act of people leaving has seriously threatened - and therefore continues to seriously threaten - the Org's very existence.
  

  And I'm sure that fear is for the followers' own lives, for the coming day of destruction... Even though, if they ever did announce, "WE ARE IN THE GREAT TRIBULATION! E'RYBODY IN THE BUNKER, HIDE YO KIDS, HIDE YO WIVES..." then they would have another schism. People would wake up and leave. Again. And hence, all this talk about the GT/A is one big bluff.

  I would take the name Road Hammer, but I mostly drive Internationals, so nah. :P
  
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  29

  Is it OK for JW employees to sell lottery tickets?

  by Iamallcool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i do remember reading an article that it is not ok for jw to sell cigarettes at gas stations, etc... i was wondering what about lottery tickets?

  they do sell lottery tickets at few restaurants around my home.

  if jw works there and rats me out to the elders, i would not give a damn about it but i still prefer not to hear from the elders about it..

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  schnell

  @tepidpoultry Oh god I love that one about the Jeopardy question. It is so stupid. As I reasoned with my roommate at the time, "Why should we validate our belief in our translation of the Holy Bible based on a game show?"

  Another one that irked me was an email that spread like wildfire to JWs about the movie Avatar. It mostly centered on the word, "avatar", which apparently this JW family had only just discovered. Thus the pretty mediocre movie had PAGAN ORIGINS!!!1. And holy shit did people believe it. It was the dumbest shit.