Posts by Silverleaf

21

JWs and the Amish

by Silverleaf in

jw
friends

this morning's paper had an article on the amish [nothing in depth, just about how they sell their wares at local markets] but it brought to mind the ideas of the amish - they want no part of the world, they don't like to call attention to themselves, don't baptize little children, and they shun those who leave the faith.

i was just wondering if anyone here could shed some light on how jws view the amish.

are they impressed?

Silverleaf

Hi all,

This morning's paper had an article on the Amish [nothing in depth, just about how they sell their wares at local markets] but it brought to mind the ideas of the Amish - they want no part of the world, they don't like to call attention to themselves, don't baptize little children, and they shun those who leave the faith.

I was just wondering if anyone here could shed some light on how JWs view the Amish. Are they impressed? Do they think of the Amish as being too strict? Has anyone here ever known anyone who witnessed to the Amish or done so themselves?

Just curious,

Silverleaf

3

Any Mini-Bottle Collectors? (fluff)

by Bendrr in

jw
friends

finshed unpacking my miniature bottle collection and putting it on some shelves today so thought i'd post.. i started collecting miniature liquor bottles a few years ago.

a friend was selling stuff from her deceased grandmother's estate and there was this collection of around a hundred mini bottles.

i bought the bottles and got interested in the hobby.

Silverleaf

I have a small but growing collection of mini whiskey and bitters bottles - they're in different colors and shapes like houses and fish. I inherited a few from an aunt and found the rest at flea markets. No corks or original contents though, and I have no idea if they're worth anything.

Silverleaf

53

Who are animal lovers here??????

by LyinEyes in

jw
friends

and no i don't mean the man, the poster animal!!!!!!!!!!!!!

although he is loveable............... i love animals, i have two dogs, a black lab named snoopy and a pug, named pug.

sometimes we call him pig, or dig, or mama's little baby.

Silverleaf

I've always been an animal lover - I've had cats, dogs, parakeets, fish and guinea pigs. When I was a kid I took in any baby animal I found to take care of - nursed a few baby birds back to health and took care of a baby field mouse for a while. I probably drove my mother nuts.

Now we have a 4-year old Dalmatian named Saber - he's a big baby, very spoiled, thinks he's one of the kids. He moans when he wants something and we don't move fast enough to get it.

Silverleaf

5

Happy Lammas, if you survived it...

by The_Bad_Seed in

jw
friends

just thought i'd wish all of those wiccans out there and in here a cool, happy, and safe lammas.

don't get naked with your friends without the spf 3000 today -- you'll likely end up a bunch of fried love poppets.

to all the rest of you, myself included, happy august 1st.. today is hotter than a mexicans lunch, again, here in fetid and festering southwestern ontario, mercury having risen to 39 degrees celcius with the humidex at 48 in this part of the province.

Silverleaf

Thanks Bad Seed, Happy Lammas to you! Blessed be.

Silverleaf

21

4000 SITES, 600 PICTURES - UNIVERSE PEOPLE of Ligh

by COSMIC_PEOPLE in

jw
friends

www.cosmic-people.com * www.universe-people.com * appeal to all people !

* wake up !

* radiate love !

Silverleaf

I like the Twinkie ship. And I've been to the planet Dhoh - many times.It's very nice there.

Silverleaf

16

Is God that clever?

by sleepy in

jw
friends

is the god of the bible, as bible accounts tell us and according to witness theology clever or a bit daft and wasteful?.lets look at a few things.. god creates man.so in someway man is designed by god.now for some reason which is either a natural law which god cannot break, an error on his part or done on purpose, man is able to become imperfect.so either god could not forsee this or he carried on despite knowing what would happen if man turned imperfect.. was god right to do this?if you were god would you have carried on?was it right that if only the first two humans managed to become imperfect or made by god imperfect that all humans from then on would now be so cursed?is god using a dodgy programme or does he have no power to do things differently?.

then god sets laws for humans.it is up to god what man can and can not do.truble is these are exactly the things humans what to do if imperfect.could god have changed things round a bit making it easier for humans to follow his laws?

in fact those cursed with imperfection had no choice in the matter.and are punished for following their instincts.it goes so far that god says unless you follow my laws (which are impossible to follow fully as we are imperfect)i'm going to kill the lot of you?in fact i already know that hardly any will survive.. if you are an imperfect human , unable to follow god through no fault of your own, you are considered wicked.but apart from that apparently god allows some other creature with his mates to to mislead these poor humans with devious plans.they are so good that you cant even tell satan and his demon friends even exist.yet god allows tham to causes havoc among his humans.. aparently only those who manage to find out god exist through a book written thousands of years earlier , without any supporting evidence of being genuinly written by god, and only those out of that number who come across a tiny religious group , lead by a bunch of men who can not prove god is using them, and who sell their magazines by going door to door are going to be saved.. does this make sense?why does not god make it easier for humans?why allow them to be bullied and mislead by super powerful creatures?why make the "truth" so hard to find , so difficult to believe?why punish people for things they can't help doing?.

Silverleaf

Hi sleepy,

You wrote: "God creates man.So in someway man is designed by God.Now for some reason which is either a natural law which god cannot break, an error on his part or done on purpose, man is able to become imperfect.So either God could not forsee this or he carried on despite knowing what would happen if man turned imperfect."

Your post puts into workds my thoughts exactly. It doesn't make sense for an all-knowing, all-powerful God to have messed up so badly that his creation needs to be destroyed and reworked. It's just absurd. But as for the paragraph above, if you apply it to humans - sometimes the urge to create or procreate is so overwhelming that we do it anyway despite the risks, even when we know there could very well be insurmountable problems with our offspring. The difference between man and God apparently is that humans don't fault their children for birth defects.

Silverleaf

14

Bin Laden, Everybody give your honest opinion!

by Legendary U.2.K. in

jw
friends

my views on mr. laden: i dont agree on what he plan out'on 9/11, i still love him tho, we all are brothers & sisters, we all are living under one roof = god the father, earth... i respect him as a human, what he plan out was wrong, but i'm not mad at him, cause satan is the main cause for violence, there bin laden is not my enemy, satan is... also i just wanna say: that i looooooove bin laden clothes, for real, the muslims, and all the other people in the other country's, there dress style is coooool.. with their long beards, and long robes, they remind of the prophets, and all the old time people, moses, noah, jesus, peter, job, etc.... very cool......edited by - legendary u.2.k.

on 17 july 2002 6:52:30.

Silverleaf

A real opinion on Bin Laden? He is camel dung. The date of his death should be made an international holiday.

The Taliban is a refuge for cowards. It has given Islam a bad name and thus far Islam hasn't done much to reverse that tarnish.

Silverleaf

34

We need a little controversy !

by lucidentity in

jw
friends

it is always interesting to note the blasphemy and the be-littling of higher powers.

how dare you all question god?

how dare you all think that with your puny little brains you have conquered the mysteries and understandings of life?

Silverleaf

lucididentity, you wrote:

"he needs to know if you are faithful to him..how is he going to do that?..."

Maybe He will do that by being - oh - I don't know - OMNICIENT???

In case you're wondering, that means 'all knowing.'

Silverleaf

had it up to here with fundamentalist self-righteousness

34

The Bible: It does'nt make sense

by Leander in

jw
friends

as i was exercising this morning i was thinking about my decision to step down as a ministerial servant and also to stop attending religious functions of any kind.

i've often felt that jws were somewhat flawed in their interpertation of the scriptures, but this morning it kind of hit me all at once that no 2 religions are going to have the exact same beliefs even though both religions might be using the same translation of the bible.

this disturbing fact raises quite a few thought provoking questions:.

Silverleaf

You pose good questions:

Q. If God really wants us to know him, why would it be so difficult for mankind to get a similar or correct understanding of his word the bible?

It would not. A true God would not place his important teachings in a book that has to be translated, interpreted and misinterpreted by a certain group of people. A true God would place the answers in the earth and the world around us so that anyone could understand them.

Q. Why would Satan be allowed to corrupt or alter God's word when there are honest people truly seeking to learn about God thru the bible?

A true God's word would not be corrupted. The idea that God created a being to oppose him and torture mankind is absurd.

Q. Why are there no miracles, prophets or divine influence in modern times the way it was in bible times? Especially considering that our time period is one that has the greatest need of any other period in human history?

I think there are miracles. Humankind has walked on the moon, eradicated certain diseases, life thrives often where it would seem impossible but it does, the universe continues. It is all miraculous. One of the greatest miracles is human intelligence - any religion that speaks against education or higher learning is obviously a false one.

Q. If angels were persuaded to leave heaven and join in with Satan, why would God banish Satan and all his demons to the Earth where imperfect humans dwelled? If angels who lived in the very presence of God fell prey to Satan what hope is there for humans?

It doesn't make sense that an omnipotent God would create a being to oppose Him and allow the fallout of this battle to effect humans. It's absurd. It also doesn't make sense that an omniscient God would need to 'test' humanity by allowing evil to rule to separate the wheat from the chaff. An omnicient God would know the good from the bad without a 10,000 year test.

Q. Why have humans through-out bible history been punished with death, yet Satan and his demons have lived for thousands and thousands of years? Also has there been any human who has sinned against God the way Satan has?

Because imperfect men wrote the Bible as a means to explain the inexplicable, justify their wars, their prejudices and their mysogeny and keep their children and their enemies in line.

JMHO,

Silverleaf

20

What Are Your Beliefs?

by MoeJoJoJo in

jw
friends

i am very curious in what everyone believes as far as religious beliefs.. since leaving the org, i feel i am still in a limbo state, i'm not quite sure of what i believe yet.

i believed a lie most of my life which i'm sure most of you can relate with, so its not so easy for me to jump right into something else.. i do feel there is a superior being who created us all.

i am still trying to sort things out.. so if you care to share, are you atheist, pagan, christian, etc.?

Silverleaf

Hi MJJJ,

I was never a JW but considered it when I was engaged to one many years ago. I never felt comfortable with Christianity because it didn't make a lot of sense to me, then I read the Bible and discovered that it REALLY didn't make any sense. I've always thought I must be pagan - a bad thing according to JWs- so I didn't pursue my beliefs until my DH started researching Wicca. I picked up a book on Wicca and finally found things that made sense to me. I don't consider myself Wiccan - I call myself a Pagan Universalist most of the time and my beliefs have evolved a lot in a last few years and are still evolving.

Basically I see our creator as the mother goddess - a truly loving spirit that created the earth for Her children. Like human parents, She cannot and must not do everything for us, we have to learn some hard lessons on our own and She is there to guide us and love us even when we screw up. We don't have to sing special songs or spend certain days of the week worshipping Her [unless we choose to]. We live our loves to the best of our abilities and be the best people we can be and that's enough for Her.

I do believe in reincarnation - it just makes sense to me that souls would live forever, and keep coming back to live different lives and learn different lessons. I have no direct evidence of this, but it makes more sense than having one chance at eternity and being able to condemn yourself to oblivion for making one mistake. I belive those of us who truly sin - commit unforgivable acts such as murder, child abuse, etc, will face their actions in the afterlife, not with torture and damnation but with complete clarity of thought so they can fully understand their wrongdoing. I think shame is a far worse punishement than anything else.

I believe in celebrating life at every opportunity and learning about all the paths we can take. There is no one true religion and no path is right for everyone but I do believe the destination is the same.

Silverleaf