the jws are against anything remotely pagan and they're certainly against witchcraft.
they say the bible condemns it.
scriptures such as exodus 22:v18 "you must not preserve a sorceress alive" (nwt) or as the king james version says "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live".
Ah, Christians won't comment because they hate everyone else, anyway...
at all the freshly offended Christians out there....
Xander F
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana
as the borg hammered us into thinking that anyone who had contact with the dead were in fact speaking to the demons, however, now we know that a lot of their teachings are full of sh*t.. i lost my dad at the start of this year.
a couple of months later i bump into a close friend who has known dad for many years.. this guy was stoked that he was getting married and mentioned how it was a shame dad wasn't around for the wedding.. yesterday i called in to see him and he told me something that had happened to him.. he was talking to his sister, who lives in another town, and she is active in some spiritual group.
she said she had never met jack, my dad, but that she has been talking to him and that he had a message he wanted given to this friend, her brother.. dad wanted him to get out of this relationship fast.. he never took it seriously and carried on as usual.. not long after that, this fiancee of his smashed up his 4x4, was on a restricted drivers licence and spent the money he gave her for his hire purchases.. so, his truck is wrecked, he can't claim insurance to get it repaired, he still has to pay it off, a lot of his possessions have been repo-ed and that basically he is in sh*t street without a shovel.. do you think it was a message from my dad ??.
Why don't they just say hello, instead of dimming lights and knocking books off shelves
And why doesn't your cat just tell you 'hey, the litter box needs changed' instead of peeing in the corner? Because, that is not a valid method of communication for your cat. Similarly, spirits, if they do exist, obviously don't have mouths. They don't even appear to be able to even move things very much. And, for all we know, they might see as much of our world as we see of theirs - IE., NOTHING. They get the same echoes or feelings of a presence of us as we do of them.
I mean, if you went into a room and 'felt a presence', how would you communicate? You couldn't do much, because you have no frame of reference in their world.
a spirit doppelganger
Myself, I don't think there is. As I mentioned, I think of it more as echoes or imprints left behind. Because of that, only strong feelings could survive.
There are many cases of people whose personalities have radically changed due to brain damage
But, something with special meaning to them before continues to have special meaning now. By finding such things is generally how personalities can be partially restored. I just think very powerful emotions can be passed on in some way.
In any case, I may be completely wrong, and it's just some funny breed of invisible space alien or something screwing with my head. But, there have been several times, when something very strange, DEFINATELY DID HAPPEN.
Xander F
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana
as the borg hammered us into thinking that anyone who had contact with the dead were in fact speaking to the demons, however, now we know that a lot of their teachings are full of sh*t.. i lost my dad at the start of this year.
a couple of months later i bump into a close friend who has known dad for many years.. this guy was stoked that he was getting married and mentioned how it was a shame dad wasn't around for the wedding.. yesterday i called in to see him and he told me something that had happened to him.. he was talking to his sister, who lives in another town, and she is active in some spiritual group.
she said she had never met jack, my dad, but that she has been talking to him and that he had a message he wanted given to this friend, her brother.. dad wanted him to get out of this relationship fast.. he never took it seriously and carried on as usual.. not long after that, this fiancee of his smashed up his 4x4, was on a restricted drivers licence and spent the money he gave her for his hire purchases.. so, his truck is wrecked, he can't claim insurance to get it repaired, he still has to pay it off, a lot of his possessions have been repo-ed and that basically he is in sh*t street without a shovel.. do you think it was a message from my dad ??.
There is definately something else beyond what we can see. We've had things happen, to, that were a little weird. The last one I can clearly attribute something unnatural to was a number of years ago when my wife brought a book home she had bought at work (it was a very old book, antique-ish looking, used in displays). Anyway, that night, when we turned out the lights, all our music boxes started playing. Turned them on, they stopped. Thought it was a fluke, turned out the light again. Again, the music boxes started. Light on, off they go.
Now, we were hardcore JWs at the time, and the thought of demons in our house terrified us, so we tore through everything we brought home that day, wife thought of the book. We chucked it outside, no more problems!
Now that I know the bible is fiction, I've started thinking about that incident...if it really WAS a demon, we were hardcore JWs...why the hell did it play the music boxes? What could it possibly have hoped to accomplish by doing that? Why not have daggers fly across the room at us? Or just voices whisper in our ear to plant subconscious thoughts?
But, since I know the JWs are wrong, what if they are wrong about death, too? What if this WASN'T a demon? The book was Victorian era, IIRC. What if it was just a lingering memory of a person who left this world some time ago? Someone who just liked music boxes?
I honestly don't even know what to believe about this. It just seems that when you stop making assumptions based on what you are told is the reason for things, a lot of possibilities open up.
(One thing, though, this and other experiences I've had - and many the posts here, it seems - seem to corraborate the thought that, if anything does survive after death, it is still only able to communicate with someone or to something that had special meaning to him/her when alive.)
Xander F
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana
a post made by alanf just made me remember about going to restaraunts with dubs.for the most part they don`t like to tip.my parents and the dubs they went out with were not poor people.my mom would have a fit if she saw my dad tip.most dubs i knew were the same way.did the dubs you were around,like to tip?...outlaw
There are a lot of online pages dedicated to how much to tip for what services.
For meals in the US, 15% of the bill is minimum. If service is good, 20%. The numbers are lower in poorer areas (10% and 15%, IIRC). For hotel rooms, it's like a dollar a night for the room maid. More if the hotel is 'nicer'. IIRC, you tip a bellman a dollar or two unless you have particularly heavy or overstuffed bags, or lots of them, then it's a dollar a bag.
Dunno how Canada works, though.
Xander F
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana
just curious if your parents still have contact with you after you have been df'd/da'd.
mine have stood by w/strong convictions not to have contact w/me.
they have to have some being that i have kids that they want to see (but that is very minimal).
Do they?
Dunno, is grass pink?
An old in-the-borg friend called me a couple days ago - I guess to 'confirm' I had drifted off - she told me my mother had been almost begging her to 'stay with Jehovah' and not to 'leave the truth' because it was so awful and hurt so much and just made everyone miserable, blahblahblah.
Which is funny, because she knows my wife and I are MUCH happier since we've left, so she must be talking about how much it bothers HER not to talk to me.
Uhh...happiest people...yup, sure thing...[8>]
Xander F
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana
a post made by alanf just made me remember about going to restaraunts with dubs.for the most part they don`t like to tip.my parents and the dubs they went out with were not poor people.my mom would have a fit if she saw my dad tip.most dubs i knew were the same way.did the dubs you were around,like to tip?...outlaw
Well, maybe my experiences were different, but all the JW families I knew were too poor to tip regularly, so they never got in the habit (IE., they don't eat out at all if they aren't away at a convention).
It occurred to me recently, even the 'wealthy' JW families (those that owned nurseries in our area) were lower-middle class at best. It's funny to think about, but my wife and I have more disposable income (and me at 23!) than any family I knew growing up in 3 different congregations.
Xander F
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana
syn had a funny little dittie about jw's and trekkies here:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=29001&site=3.
what do you get when you put a bunch of computer literate star trek fans together on a forum?
If He decides for us to explore the Universe by whatever means He gives us...so be it!
Don't worry about that now, you just focus on your field service and meeting attendance. PFFFT, interplanetary travel and speculation is bad for Witnesses!
You do realize, of course, that every single planet we know of is, in its current state, completely unsuitable for human life?
How do you propose we even travel there? I mean, without steel mills (and other high-quality metal mills), how are you planning on travelling anywhere?
And without either hydrogen plants or fissionable materials, how do you plan on powering the ships?
And, without the computer industry, how do you plan on guiding them?
Without factories and plants, how do you plan on building new, habitable, cities, where a baren wasteland capable of supporting no terran life exists now?
And what do you do when life is discovered, in some form, on other planets?
Xander F
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana
i have just received word the dateline program will re-air this weekend on msnbc.
msnbc is a news program along the format of cnn, dateline has a contract through nbc and when they have an exceptional program msnbc runs it again.
the program will is called dateline weekend edition which airs 2-3 times over the weekend.
I believe MSNBC is listed on DirecTV (for those of us in North America) as 'MNBC' and is channel 356 (or thereabouts).
Can't look far enough ahead in the listing to find the program, though, so I dunno when it will be on.
This is great news. While the online versions of the program are great, a lot of the impact was the visuals, and you can only really see that on TV.
Xander F
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana
"all of them witches" was the name of the book that mia farrow read in in the film "rosemary's baby" which eventually lead her to believe that ruth grodon, ralph bellamy, and several other actors from the 40's and 50's rooming in her apartment were satan-worshippin' wiitches.
in this day in age i think people who are witches in real life have to live with various stereotypes permeated from movies, t.v.
shows, and whatnot.
The warlock = witch vs warlock = oathbreaker debate is long and interesting.
In short, the word 'warlock' exists in no language prior to English. IIRC, the ?celts? have a word that sounds a lot like 'warlock' used to describe someone the churches used to infiltrate the covens to destroy them, hence, 'oathbreaker'. Whereas, the ?Vikings? have a word that sounds a lot like 'warlock' that means, male witch.
It seems no one is sure where the English 'warlock' came from, so itsa tossup. In short, it means whatever you want it to mean.
Xander F
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana
only one word is sufficient to describe this film =.
it is not religious persecution for an informed person to expose publicly a certain religion as being false, thus allowing persons to see the difference between false religion and true religion.
wt 11/15/1963 page 688 paragraph 3
I don't know, I get the feeling cause the first three were so new, people overlooked the flaws
See, I think so, too. (I am a fan, btw, just not a REALLY BIG ONE - the movies are okay, I prefer the Star Wars PC games)
I think the reason people are usually disappointed with the 'new' movies is that they were HUGE, OBSESSED fans of the original trilogy, and had a very definate idea in mind about how the first three should play out (supported in no small measure by TONS of unofficial background material and books covering the period). As a result, when Lucas finally did the original movies, and it was different, people got pissed.
Of course, there is also the amateur film critics who like picking apart the acting, dialog, etc.
No, this is not the best movie ever made. I think, however, for 'pop' movies, it's certainly the best out this summer so far.
Xander F
(Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana
