They have the right to do what they like—as you appreciate your right to do what you like. Surrounding tries to turn us into something we are not which we may feel as strange. But we can make this situation itself into an accomplishment: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). Me and my twin sister are in two different extreme as far as our beliefs are concerned—yet we live in harmony because we have decided not to comment on each other’s beliefs. I even go a step further—I do not even think about her beliefs. Beliefs are food to the mind. You can live together just like family members who are mixed—vegetarian and non-vegetarian.
Posts by venus
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19I feel like I am going crazy at times ...
by CovertsadJW ingood evening , .
i feel like i am going crazy - it’s so hard not being able to talk to the ones i love about how i really feel - meaning the “ truth “ is a big lie and a big waste of time.
it’s so weird - i can’t talk to my wife , or kids about how i really feel and it’s causing me probalms that i recognize.
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17
Celebrations?
by Freedom rocks indoes anyone celebrate valentines day since leaving the borg?
and which other celebrations if any do you now take part in?.
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venus
I celebrate all festivals because purpose of all festivals is to give a break from the hectic, mundane life style. Interestingly, the word for festival in many Eastern languages is utsav (meaning, that which elevates your mind) just like mandir (temple) which also means the same.
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22
Dead Wrong (A Tolerance for Ambiguity)
by TerryWalstrom inwhat is your level of tolerance for ambiguity?.
ambiguity is a clunky, uncomfortable word, imho.. .
ambiguity means "open to more than one interpretation".
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venus
Much depends on the context. Henry Ford is right when he said: "'Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right."
Hence I don't worry much about this; I transcend everything--then life becomes humorous. For example, if you keep going to North, you would reach South. Even conflicted isms end up in harmony. Christianity teaches a virgin (Mary) gave birth to a child; Hinduism teaches a virgin (Kunti) gave birth to 6 children; atheism teaches that matter (virgin) gave birth to 8.7 million life forms.
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8
Did the Jews invent themselves and Israel in response to Hellenism
by Crazyguy inafter alexander the great died a greek family called the ptolemy’s took over egypt and the area we call israel today.
they instituted a new form of god worship for their empire the worship of the king and a new god named serapis.
serapis was a combination of several egyptian and greeks gods combined into one god.
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venus
It's all fabricated. If God had given a promise such as "I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.” (Gen 13:16) why is it not fulfilled even now? Another proof is that Genesis mentions that early humans lived nearly 1000 years for which no fossil record exists. This is obviously because inventors felt tired of finding details to fill 4000 years history, hence they simply wrote Adam lived for 930 years, Methuselah lived for 969 years etc.
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18
Is it ethical to have children?
by joey jojo inthis was a news article recently in an australian newspaper that caught my eye.. the premise was that to have a child is to inflict an extra human being onto the world and also, to inflict the world (with all its problems) onto the child.. there is a lot to say about this but from jw point of view, i have always believed it to be incredibly hypocritical that jw's have children in 'this system'.
all my life at the meeting i heard how little time we have left, how sick the world is, how i was probably going to be persecuted and end up in a jail cell for being a jw.
why would anyone want to become parents in this situation, particularly if they are confident there is only 'a short time left'?.
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venus
You can compare this to loading into a cargo ship. There is nothing wrong in loading goods to a cargo ship. But when it has crossed all the limits and ship is about to sink--at this point it is wise to think whether one should continue to load.
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18
Bible Prophecy and the GB
by Lost in the fog inofriends, having followed many of your posts on this website, i am convinced that the prophecy of the last days as penned in 2nd timothy 3:1-7 is actually now being fulfilled by the present governing body.. .
2 tim 3:1… but know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here.
(definitely, we all face hardships from the gb policies.
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venus
Excellent post.
This and some of the recent posts (such as if one among GB raise an issue, would he be permitted to prove his point as Jehovah did with an angel; praying in the name of Michael; if imperfection and death automatically follow sin why not that in the case of Satan ...) show that real enlightenment happens here.
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27
Fear of Dying
by SplaneThisToMe indid anyone else develop a weird fear of dying and death after leaving jw?
i recently left and have realized for the first time in my life that i’m not going to live forever.
anyone else have these same feelings toward discovering your own mortality?
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venus
ZEB,
You are fortunate to have that experience. I liked your expression: “I had a sense of drifting fwd and all cares and woes were gone behind me I was no longer a man, a husband, a dad and the voices of the ambulance crew were as many meters away, the sense of peace I had was better than morphine.”
Near Death Experiences are proofs that appear spontaneously when the victim has no control over his body or mind. “774 NDEs per day are experienced in the United States [according to a 1992 Gallup poll cited by the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation].” That means an estimated 19 million. (https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-common-are-near-death-experiences-ndes-by-the-numbers_757401.html)
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30
Praying in the name of Michael the archangel instead of Jesus
by krismalone injust wondering what would happen if a brother saying a prayer in a meeting did it in the name of michael the archangel instead of closing the prayer with "jesus christ".
since jw's believe michael is jesus would he be counseled?
what if a brother used the name michael the archangel in their public talks instead of jesus?
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venus
Very powerful point you made. Problem is with Bible. If you take every verse as inspired, then you are in trouble because you will find verses negating each other.
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16
Session #8: "Bullet in the Head"
by Brian J inso at the phd today with my wife and me, and in slowly getting to the heart of matters (like peeling an onion if you ask me), the dialogue in part went like this: .
phd: if it came down to it, would you take a bullet in the head instead of giving up membership in your organization?
wife: absolutely, i would die for my faith.
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venus
God shows no partiality. Jews claimed they are the chosen ones which history shows God did not endorse. God knew that many would choose their faith according to their likes and dislikes which means no reasoning would work with them. It means God has permitted people to have their own faith which means we too must permit others to have their own faith no matter how unreasonable it may seem.
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27
Fear of Dying
by SplaneThisToMe indid anyone else develop a weird fear of dying and death after leaving jw?
i recently left and have realized for the first time in my life that i’m not going to live forever.
anyone else have these same feelings toward discovering your own mortality?
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venus
I have no fear of death because it only appears there is death. In reality there is no death. No friendship is without a self interest. No ism is without a self interest. Hence why not try ourselves for a conclusion on vital subject as life. Let us make a try:
I know I exist, I also know that I did not create myself nor did my parents create me. I came through my parents who, in turn came through their parents—a process that can have no beginning. If one has only one life, justice demands that everyone should receive equal life-span and equal opportunities for enjoyment of life. If life continues even after death, as in the case of Elijah who reappeared as John the Baptist (Mathew 11:14), everyone’s life situation can be different depending upon each one’s merit: “For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38) Death is very much like the sunset. When the sun sets here, it has already risen elsewhere. Likewise, death here is birth elsewhere. For life is eternal. In reality, there is no death. The human actually lives one continuous life, only it is broken up in segments here on this earth. This truth does don’t find favor among many people because it is not encouraging to powerful forces like religions (which thrive on the teaching of forgiveness whereas reincarnation teach there is no forgiveness), nationalism and patriotism (because such feeling evaporates when we know that we have lived in many other countries before), and family set-up (feeling of my-family, my-husband, my-wife, my-father loses its significance when we know that we have been members of many, many families before). The way we walk and breathe show that there is a pause and a start which are typical of death and life. The way cells being replaced show that the body is changing with a substratum that does not change.