Virtually everything the extremely conservative Paul wrote was a dig at the Epicureans, much of it slanderous.
For details have a look at http://newepicurean.com/st-paul-vs-epicurus/
Posts by ed60
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13The Apostle Paul was taught a Myth !! not the "Truth".
by Phizzy inthe exact chronology of paul's damascene experience cannot be firmly established, but certainly a number of years had passed since the death of jesus.
perhaps only three or four years, maybe more.
we do not have an accurate history of this time.. but, it is evident that by the time paul was converted a cult of jesus was flourishing within judaism, hence his opposition, as it seemed very subversive to his pharisee mind.. what was this cult built upon ?
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12
How about a Lapel Badge ?
by Phizzy intt a tt.
i am sure you guys can come up with something better ?.
sorry, i had a better design that didn't get copied across, maybe big j thinks its a bad idea, so he's messing with copy and paste today ?.
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ed60
It ain't so much 'paradise' I have a problem with it's just how you define 'paradise' that I have a problem with.
It's not always what you're doing... it's who you're doing it with that counts.
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134
Your Most DREADED Dub Word
by GetBusyLiving ini wanna hear the word that made you either physically nauseous or burst out in uncontrolable laughter.
please demonstrate it in a sentence as well.
mine was 'enthused' (my fingers were shaking as i typed).
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ed60
The hierarchical ones
Bethelite, Bethel-brother (as in Sue's going to marry a B-B...), CO (commanding officer?), CO's visit (stand by your beds), Body of Elders (Corpus Shifty), PO (Pope), pioneering, pioneer (pie and beer), spiritually mature (Ha ha!), Ministerial Servant (MS - a muscle wasting disease), Governing Body, Anointed (Brother Rutherford had a drinking problem - he was well anointed), Accounts Servant, Service Overseer, Attendant, DO (doh!), hours of service, field service report, branch overseer... BO! (Smelly lumberjack), microphone attendant (MA master of arsing around).
And they always refer to the United Kingdom as Great Britain in the Yearbook. Not sure why that annoys me but it does.
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38
Really bizarre part on the meeting last night
by stillin inon the service meeting there was a part covering a couple of pages from the tms guidebook chapter on warmth and feeling.
rather than coaching the r&f on how to make a school talk sound warm, it focused on the people that jws meet in their ministry.
basically, the part could have been labelled "how to fake warmth and feeling.
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ed60
jgnat: If a person says a lie often enough, they start to believe it. So the WTS pattern of "faking" belief in front of strangers helps the brain come up with reasons why they might believe. The put-on belief system is reinforced. Not for the sake of the poor househlder, but for the poor fuller brush salesman.
Autosuggestion and hypnotism are used a lot in JW life in a negative way. It's ironic that the governing body counsel against seeing a hypnotist and yet many of their meeting arrangements use elements of NLP and hypnotism with autosuggestion for homework.
Perhaps if Witnesses understood a bit more about these topics they would see how the meetings actively use the same techniques and see the hypocrisy of the governing body in stating that Witnesses should not use them - they do this by mystifying and demonising a natural psychological phenomenon.
I do not believe that autosuggestion or hypnotism are necessarily always bad (e.g. the placebo effect), indeed I am grateful that I learned about and became aware of these techniques as I have also employed them (along with other therapies) to deprogram myself from the cult's way of thinking. Safe to say I am very much a believer in a 'plastic' changeable brain - it sure beats the alternative!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosuggestion
Coué still believed in the effects of medication, but he also believed that our mental state was able to affect and even amplify the action of these medications. He observed that his patients who used his mantra-like conscious suggestion, "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better", (French: Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux), replacing their "thought of illness" with a new "thought of cure," could augment their medication plan. According to Coué, repeating words or images enough times causes the "subconscious" to absorb them.
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Higher Education...in the news. Pew research
by ldrnomo inhttp://www.npr.org/2014/02/11/275297408/going-to-college-may-cost-you-but-so-will-skipping-it.
use this the next time a jw tells you there is little advantage to going to college..
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ed60
The GB's reasoning behind not wanting people to go to uni/college is that in going to college it is inevitable that there will be regular exposure to reading and analysing information from a number of sources and then giving an opinion on what you have found out in the form of an essay, thesis or dissertation. This is one of the key skills that people take with them from university, regardless of what they study. It is how real 'truth' is discovered and falsehood is discarded. Real truth stands up to scrutiny.
The Jehovah's Witnesses want people to be easily led and dogmatic, they certainly don't want people asking too many difficult questions or developing the sort of skills you have to develop at university. You can "make sure of all things", as long as you only use WTBTS publications (and even if you do that they have to be the most recent ones). Also, at uni you learn critical thinking and debating skills and then it is that much easier to start to escape the quagmire that is Watchtower theology / world-view. Plus at uni you're surrounded by ordnary people from lots of different walks of life and the contrast is dramatic.
Of course, should anyone ever point out the gaping holes in their ideology they are labelled 'apostate' and kicked out PDQ. The WTBS is one of the most closed minded institutions on earth. It's GB's way or the highway. At least the highway is free.
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Really bizarre part on the meeting last night
by stillin inon the service meeting there was a part covering a couple of pages from the tms guidebook chapter on warmth and feeling.
rather than coaching the r&f on how to make a school talk sound warm, it focused on the people that jws meet in their ministry.
basically, the part could have been labelled "how to fake warmth and feeling.
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ed60
http://www.prem-rawat-talk.org/forum/uploads/CultCharacteristics.htm
This link is good. It shows all the experts definitions of destructive cult behaviour on one page.
Love bombing is mentioned. Just use a search engine.
Is Hassan's website. He mentions it there too.
The witnesses have always made a big deal of welcoming new people into kingdom halls. I can remember articles and items about it when I was in.
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Really bizarre part on the meeting last night
by stillin inon the service meeting there was a part covering a couple of pages from the tms guidebook chapter on warmth and feeling.
rather than coaching the r&f on how to make a school talk sound warm, it focused on the people that jws meet in their ministry.
basically, the part could have been labelled "how to fake warmth and feeling.
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ed60
Love bombing is what Steven Hassan calls it. Have you read his books?
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Patterson New York JW Tourist Destination
by Pete Zahut ini saw a photo on facebook of a jw couple i know, apparently you can now get your photo taken with the stars of the jw animated children's videos, at patterson.
i've tried to share it here but it isn't showing up.. basically, you stand in different cartoon scenes of the door to door activity, holding a bookbag and the hand of one of the children's characters from the viedo.
the houses are pastel colored, the cartoon brothers are wearing brightly colored shirts and ties , no jackets.
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ed60
#RottenRiley
If I wanted to visit a bunch of fake people pretending to be Christian... I could just go to any Kingdom Hall
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How do JWs Not see how barbaric YHWH is? Its what started my awakening.
by BU2B inif one reads genesis from the first chapter through the end with an open mind, it is clear that not only is it not true, but that god is potrayed as a cruel, petty, childish micromanaging tyrant.
if one continues reading the ot this is just further solidified.
how do jws not see the obvious?
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ed60
#Island Man
Except who are we to judge what is in another's best interest? It's a value judgement after all.
Granted, it's difficult to define in an axiom. I find it more useful to see it as getting the balance between my own liberation (self worth) and connection (my place in the wider world) in harmony. There is a sense of it in love your neighbour as yourself, or as I prefer, learn compassion for yourself and you'll be able to show it towards your neighbour. The translation 'love' might not be accurate enough to do the original words justice.
I believe the psychologist with that long funny name I can't pronounce beginning with C calls it 'flow'. Others harmony, balance, enlightenment or peace.... the list grows.
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72
On a Scale of 1 to 10---How Devoted Were You To Being One of Jehovah's Witnesses?
by minimus inas i grew up in the religion, i was a 10. i wanted to be made a "servant" because that was instilled in me from infancy.
i diligently studied ever piece of watchtower literature and defended my religion intensely.. when i got into my 30's, i started to see little cracks in the watchtower's surface but decided to "wait on jehovah".
then i started to research a little more critically and realized i couldn't defend the prophecies, the treatment of people and the hypocrisy that was becoming more obvious, that especially an elder can see.. it was a gradual thing---from a 10 to a zero!.
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ed60
It varied. Depended on how scared or guilty they'd made me feel during any given week and on how organised I'd forced myself to be to be a good slave.