after leaving, i still couldn't wrap my head around evolution (after the years of seing "intelligent design" in everything around me).. there's a series of videos that give a good intro to evolution and critical thinking.
they've probably been posted here before, but, for any new members, these are worth watching.. evolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdddbyilel0.
critical thinking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6olpl5p0fmg.
I do not judge anyone. But I see what I see.
Some are reasonable, and some who like to sound reasonable are anything but.
For the record, I believe in God, and there is no conflict between religion and science. Creationism is just silly and denies facts, but the story of the creation in the Bible is not fact. Only people like Jehovah's Witnesses think it is.
well things were actually pretty boring.
i mean really boring.
that's the price of fading i guess.
Data Dog, you said the CA was really boring but as I read through all of this I felt a sick chill.
It makes me shudder, these days, but I don't always know why. My wife spotted it. She showed me the places where something almost sounds OK but deep inside you know that they are saying something that sounds true but it is really an outright lie. They switch truth and real facts round.
It makes me shudder too, because for so many years we went to every CA, every DA and every DC, just as expected, just like all the rest of the congregation. I've read every word, Data Dog, but in fact I wish I hadn't, because it brought it all back.
In places, as I read what you have written, I felt as though I was there.
I wonder how many people who are there feel deep down uneasy but don't know why.
after leaving, i still couldn't wrap my head around evolution (after the years of seing "intelligent design" in everything around me).. there's a series of videos that give a good intro to evolution and critical thinking.
they've probably been posted here before, but, for any new members, these are worth watching.. evolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdddbyilel0.
critical thinking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6olpl5p0fmg.
I beleve, cyberjesus, and it is very hard to know what all the fuss is about on here.
It seems perfectly clear to me that some people are just out to make trouble, while others are being very reasonable. But I am not going to be so dense as to name names on a board to which I am rather new.
can jws be df/da for giving their kid a blood transfusion?.
We know a family where that happened.
And another family where parents refused a baby a transfusiion and he very nearly died. he didn't die, but they were prepared to take the risk.That isn't faith. It is child abuse.
It is a sick religion.
are you moving on?.
i see some have a very hard time in life because of their witness past..
Not in ruins, and my wife and I have each other, and our own family are supportive, so we are very lucky compared with so many.
But certainly it has made a great difference to our lives.
random discussion today ended up in my wife mentioning when she saw halley's comet (1986?
) and all of a sudden i had a total recall moment!.
when it came by, rather than make the effort to watch it, i flippantly said "nah, i'll see it next time!".
Prologos, you must have a big hallway! Doesn't a coffin take up a lot of room, or is it a miniature?
http://www.amazon.com/crisis-conscience-raymond-franz/dp/0914675249/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=utf8&qid=1354095941&sr=1-1&keywords=crisis+of+conscience.
http://www.amazon.com/search-christian-freedom-raymond-franz/dp/0914675176/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=utf8&qid=1354095976&sr=1-1&keywords=in+search+of+christian+freedom.
http://www.amazon.com/combatting-cult-mind-control-best-selling/dp/0892813113/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=utf8&qid=1354096024&sr=1-1&keywords=combating+cult+mind+control.
There is a very good book by William James, called something like "Varieities of Religious Experience".
My wife and I were advised to read this last year, and it helps to give us a broad view of how religious thought develops and how different people experience the concept of God. William James was not as far as I know a member of any particular church. At least, that is not how he writes. He was a philopopher or a psychologist, I forget which.
in a discussion with some other dear ones, the question was asked as to what such ones put their faith in.
in response to one comment that"one can't function without faith," another disagreed, stating ones can, that "many do so every day... the ones who have trust" (in things like the sun rising in the east versus the west).
that trust extended to "faith" based "on nature and the natural order of things.
Guest, you have articulated exactly the process of thought that my wife and I have been going through.We both like what you say, with such intensity and sincerity too.
New Chapter, in the congregations we have known, college education was condemned. We watched intelligent teenagers discouraged from pursuing their talents and interests, and taking up menial jobs while they wait for Armageddon, which was going to be just round the corner.
Acting like anything above an 8th grade education is held in contempt is not accurate either.
It was a very accurate description of what we saw happen over and over again.
There is plenty wrong with the WT, but misrepresenting or blowing out of proportion what they stand for, just because you disrespect their beliefs, is a bit uncalled for.
It sounded honest and accurate to me. The JW's we have known have indeed loved to read, but not anything that was disapproved of by the Watchtower. They were, in reality, victims of a mind-deadening system. New Chapter, why did you react so sharply and call Guest's interesting post harsh criticism? I really do not think it was.
in a discussion with some other dear ones, the question was asked as to what such ones put their faith in.
in response to one comment that"one can't function without faith," another disagreed, stating ones can, that "many do so every day... the ones who have trust" (in things like the sun rising in the east versus the west).
that trust extended to "faith" based "on nature and the natural order of things.
Guest, on the previous page you wrote
"he can and will guide any who wish through the darkness so that they do NOT stumble."
I like that thought. This is along the lines that my wife and I have been thinking. We've also noticed that the JW's have got into the habit of using the word stumble in a way completely different from normal English.
while i am no fan of mother teresa after reading some of the revealed facts about her life and work - i thought this was just a little out of the realm of polite conversation (but was interesting):.
atheist group at dartmouth plans anti mother teresa event.. .
http://www.campusreform.org/blog/?id=4503.
I have read the whole of this thread, and the whole of some other much longer threads, because I wanted to find out what is behind some of the things I see going on here in this forum. They are not what I expected to find here.
Chariklo. I don't know quite what you are talking about in some places, for instance about another forum, but even after just a few days quietly reading through a lot of posts I can see some of the things that are happening here.
I do not like to see a woman like Mother Teresa, so good and kind, having her name drawn through the mud like this. It's really not at all good.
You have not distorted anything. You have simply said what you think, and the first reply to your post says very much more than the words it contains.
Even if nobody else agrees with me, and even though I am very new here, I will still say what I see and speak as I find. Mother Teresa was a good woman who was a human being and so she won't have been perfect. But she was still a very, very good person.
Why do so many people want to spoil what is beautiful and lovely?
