snare&racket, I really appreciate your thoughtful and philosophical replies. Let me ask you a question? Do you believe that people that have these chemical imbalances have a choice? Can they choose not to act on these base desires that give a chemical reward?
Posts by Sevan
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72Paranormal Warning
by Cold Steel ini've heard some weird stories coming from jws about the paranormal.
i know about the warnings about items that come from unbelievers -- those don't interest me as much.
what i am interested in are actual experiences in stories of the paranormal you've heard or experienced yourself.
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72
Paranormal Warning
by Cold Steel ini've heard some weird stories coming from jws about the paranormal.
i know about the warnings about items that come from unbelievers -- those don't interest me as much.
what i am interested in are actual experiences in stories of the paranormal you've heard or experienced yourself.
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Sevan
We are not lions hunting for prey to survive. That is not even a related scenario to what I'm talking about.
There is no survival benefit for a mother to torture her child. So, yeah, I can't compare the two in your scenario. It is apples and oranges.
I get that there are mental imbalances that contribute to these actions, but they do not completely explain them. Because there are a lot of people that have psychopathy and schizophrenia and other disorders that choose not to act on their more base thoughts and desires. And it still does not explain the extreme degree of cruelty that is seen. Actions that are unfathomable and unimaginable. I've read a lot in psychological textbooks about psychopathy and it is still not well understood and the extreme actions of some are not well understood.
I agree that religious ideas are often easy answers for topics that are difficult to comprehend. I agree that it is a sign of intellectual curiosity to try to find the scientific answer and to do academic research. However, I also believe that philosophy and religious ideas have a place in our understanding of the world and of the human race. In our understanding of morality and love.
I want to believe in a loving, benevolent creator. To believe in a reason and purpose. Yet, if I think deeply about the madness and chaos in the world, it its hard to understand why God would let such things continue and I don't find the Biblical answer completely satisfactory.
I want to believe that this is not all there is. I want to believe that the 1 year old baby girl that was raped to death will live again and be loved outside of this cruel world. That the poor 13 year old boy that was caged, starved and beaten to death will know that he is valuable and his life does matter. His name was Christian and I'll never forget reading about him. I've kept him in my heart all these years. Hoping that someday in the resurrection I would meet him and tell him how loved he was and that I could be something of a mommy to him. This world is just such a heartbreaking place for so many innocents. I want to believe there is love, beauty and joy on the other side for them.
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21
Plastic Surgery
by raven inhi everyone- i don't have much of an update on my current situation ( refer to previous posts ) august 1st has past, (the day the judicial committee was supposedly held against me- and that i didn't attend, no word on anything as of now, thankfully i am moving to a new home next week which means no more elders sending me spooky jc invite mail!
anyways, i'm getting off the main reason why i'm posting.. so i have tendency to drift off into thought and have discussions with myself, ( i'm not crazy i swear!
) i was thinking today, have we heard any more updates on appearances?
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Sevan
Mommy make over is breast lift/augmentation and tummy tuck/lipo.
My husband's ex secretly got that done a couple of years ago. She still won't admit to it, even though it's really obvious as she looks totally different and she got huge implants, lol. The most annoying thing about that is that she had us watch the kids for a full two weeks while she recovered and we were killing ourselves with child support payments. (she bought a brand new car right before that too). Hard not to be resentful when you are working your butt off to get by paycheck to paycheck and this lady that is taking a huge portion of that paycheck and working super part-time (only 15 hours a week) is living a lifestyle that you could only dream of. But I digress.
The reason women get the surgery is that being pregnant/breastfeeding really does a number on a lot of women's bodies. It's a pretty popular surgery combination to get after having kids.
I'll consider getting it myself if I'm not able to get my body back with exercise after I'm done having babies.
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72
Paranormal Warning
by Cold Steel ini've heard some weird stories coming from jws about the paranormal.
i know about the warnings about items that come from unbelievers -- those don't interest me as much.
what i am interested in are actual experiences in stories of the paranormal you've heard or experienced yourself.
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Sevan
Ok, I hear what y'all are saying. It is just the level of cruel evil things that some people do that are hard to understand. Like what possesses an 8 year old child to torture and kill an innocent animal? Or a 17 year old boy to rape, torture and kill a little child? What would cause a mother to starve, torture, beat and kill her own child? All these evil things and worse are things that people have actually done. How does such things even come up into their mind?
I guess the demon idea always made more sense to me because I could not imagine people being so evil and vicious on their own, especially after such a short time on the earth. The demons, ostensibly, have had thousands of years of complete darkness from love and goodness with which to hone their cruelty and viciousness. This idea has always made more sense than people just being that evil on their own.
I have spent decades reading and watching about crime trying to figure out that never ending question "why?" Yet, I never can get a satisfactory answer. It is all so senseless. There is never a real answer as to why people do these things.
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32
Poor Sisters
by Darryl ini really felt for you sisters i mean i really did.
when you showed up at the sunday meeting and found out the subject of the talk was going to be -and i can't quite remember the exact wording- but something to the effect of marriage and headship, or honoring and obeying your husband, or something like that how many of you wanted to jump right back in your car and head home.
i mean 45 straight minutes of beating down you poor ladies and telling you that you are not worthy of making one decision, taking the lead in anything, don't question the man be obedient and keep quiet.
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Sevan
And for any Bay Area residents:
Yes I know the Cow Palace is technically in Daly City, but I said San Francisco for the benefit of non-residents. Close enough.
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32
Poor Sisters
by Darryl ini really felt for you sisters i mean i really did.
when you showed up at the sunday meeting and found out the subject of the talk was going to be -and i can't quite remember the exact wording- but something to the effect of marriage and headship, or honoring and obeying your husband, or something like that how many of you wanted to jump right back in your car and head home.
i mean 45 straight minutes of beating down you poor ladies and telling you that you are not worthy of making one decision, taking the lead in anything, don't question the man be obedient and keep quiet.
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Sevan
Smiddy, that is Sam Herd's talk. That is the same talk where he talks about how women's brains are smaller than men's brains and that women don't have the brain capacity to lead and are overly emotional. Then in the *same* talk, he told sisters that are smarter than their husband to play dumb. So one minute sisters are too dumb to lead and the next they are smarter than their husbands and should play dumb so as not to insult their fragile egos.
I remember that talk. Sam came to the Cow Palace in San Francisco and gave that talk sometime either 2006 or 2007 at a convention I went to. Sam Herd and Stephen Lett especially love coming to Cali for Circuit Assemblies and Conventions. We get some of the other GB members from time to time, but we've had those two a bunch of times.
Anyway, that was one of many talks and articles over the years that made me really mad or that I could see was unbiblical and illogical.
Yet, you have to understand the cognitive dissonance and the high stakes of leaving. It has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with FOG (fear, obligation and guilt) and personal relationships. I just kept hoping they would change and kept telling myself that I should "wait on Jehovah." I let myself believe that I could take the good reminders and ignore the bad. That I didn't have to believe everything to still benefit and be of benefit as a JW. Recently, I realized that the GB was not going to change and that "waiting on Jehovah" was an exercise in futility as Jehovah is in no way involved in this organization. That is why I left. Thanks to all apostates that helped me leave. You really are doing good work!
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72
Paranormal Warning
by Cold Steel ini've heard some weird stories coming from jws about the paranormal.
i know about the warnings about items that come from unbelievers -- those don't interest me as much.
what i am interested in are actual experiences in stories of the paranormal you've heard or experienced yourself.
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Sevan
I hear what y'all are saying. I had a very difficult childhood and was badly abused, so it's possible that some of my experiences were due to my fragile emotional state as a child.
However, let me ask y'all this: without Satan and the demons, how do you explain all the true, inhumane evil in the world? Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot? Sadistic serial killers and serial rapists? People that torture and starve innocent children and animals? Evil that is so grotesque and unfathomable. Evil that it seems impossible for a human to possess? Do you think that it is possible for humans to actually be this evil and inhumane on their own, without any demonic influence? How? Why?
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72
Paranormal Warning
by Cold Steel ini've heard some weird stories coming from jws about the paranormal.
i know about the warnings about items that come from unbelievers -- those don't interest me as much.
what i am interested in are actual experiences in stories of the paranormal you've heard or experienced yourself.
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Sevan
Satan gets blamed for a lot that is just people doing evil things.
However, I myself have had supernatural experiences, so have countless others. I am a very sane and rational person.
There is a vast universe and probably other dimensions that we know nothing about. So to say definitively that the supernatural does not exist, I feel, takes a lot of hubris. Just because we have not discovered something or cannot scientifically prove something, does not mean it does not exist.
Love, for example, cannot be measured or proven, but it is a very real force that permeates our universe.
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19
Shunned by family
by Ruth inmy fiancé is an ex-jehovah’s witness.
when he was 18 years old, his 17 year old brother was killed in an accident.
his parents having previously lost an infant daughter were understandably distraught and were therefore highly susceptible to an organisation which seemed to be able to supply definitive answers where more mainstream religion seemed to fail them..
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Sevan
Also, see John Cedars videos on shunning on YouTube.
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19
Shunned by family
by Ruth inmy fiancé is an ex-jehovah’s witness.
when he was 18 years old, his 17 year old brother was killed in an accident.
his parents having previously lost an infant daughter were understandably distraught and were therefore highly susceptible to an organisation which seemed to be able to supply definitive answers where more mainstream religion seemed to fail them..
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Sevan
But beyond that, the whole concept of shunning as a way of bringing someone back to Jehovah is all kinds of illogical.
Consider this: if you really believe in God and Armageddon and believe the JWs have the only true religion, you will come back regardless of whether your family talks to you or not. Your family talking to you is irrelevant if returning is a faith based decision. Your family not talking to you is not going to somehow make you suddenly believe in God and the JWs. The whole concept is ludicrous.
The only reason that family shunning causes some people to come back is that they miss their family, not because they believe. It is due to the psychological torture and emotional abuse. Not due to faith.
Maybe if his parents understood what they were actually doing, that they are actually being brainwashed into participating in group psychological torture of their own child, not doing anything godly or loving, not helping their child spiritually, maybe that would help. Maybe if they understood the many scriptures that show how unbiblical and un-Christian the JW shunning policies actually are.
Jwfacts.com has a good break down of the scriptural issues. I plan to eventually write up my treatise of the Biblical issues with shunning that is a little more concise and digestible.
Good luck and let us know if you make any headway.