Diogenesister:
The amount of ignorance that most Americans today have of their founding fathers could fill "enough scrolls that the world itself could not contain them."
The one constant refrain is that the US of America was founded on Bible principles. And that the Founding Fathers were all Fundamentalist Christians. Who were against abortion,for tax breaks for large corporations, and believed that (Fundie) Christianity is the one true religion (no matter what is actually written in the Constitution...)
Captain Schmideo2
JoinedPosts by Captain Schmideo2
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14
Has anyone out here read Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason"?
by Captain Schmideo2 ini wish i had read this back when i was 18. it's an amazing take down of religious beliefs, the bible, and religion in general.
) a "reason"-able manner.take this quote, from near the beginning:.
when also i am told that a woman, called the virgin mary, said, or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation with a man, and that her betrothed husband, joseph, said that an angel told him so, i have a right to believe them or not: such a circumstance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it: but we have not even this; for neither joseph nor mary wrote any such matter themselves.
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Captain Schmideo2
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14
Has anyone out here read Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason"?
by Captain Schmideo2 ini wish i had read this back when i was 18. it's an amazing take down of religious beliefs, the bible, and religion in general.
) a "reason"-able manner.take this quote, from near the beginning:.
when also i am told that a woman, called the virgin mary, said, or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation with a man, and that her betrothed husband, joseph, said that an angel told him so, i have a right to believe them or not: such a circumstance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it: but we have not even this; for neither joseph nor mary wrote any such matter themselves.
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Captain Schmideo2
I wish I had read this back when I was 18. It's an amazing take down of religious beliefs, the Bible, and religion in general. But it does this in (can I say this?) a "Reason"-able manner.
Take this quote, from near the beginning:When also I am told that a woman, called the Virgin Mary, said, or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation with a man, and that her betrothed husband, Joseph, said that an angel told him so, I have a right to believe them or not: such a circumstance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it: but we have not even this; for neither Joseph nor Mary wrote any such matter themselves. It is only reported by others that they said so. It is hearsay upon hearsay, and I do not chose to rest my belief upon such evidence. It is, however, not difficult to account for the credit that was given to the story of Jesus Christ being the Son of God. He was born when the heathen mythology had still some fashion and repute in the world, and that mythology had prepared the people for the belief of such a story. Almost all the extraordinary men that lived under the heathen mythology were reputed to be the sons of some of their gods. It was not a new thing at that time to believe a man to have been celestially begotten; the intercourse of gods with women was then a matter of familiar opinion. Their Jupiter, according to their accounts, had cohabited with hundreds; the story therefore had nothing in it either new, wonderful, or obscene; it was conformable to the opinions that then prevailed among the people called Gentiles, or mythologists, and it was those people only that believed it. The Jews, who had kept strictly to the belief of one God, and no more, and who had always rejected the heathen mythology, never credited the story. It is curious to observe how the theory of what is called the Christian Church, sprung out of the tail of the heathen mythology. A direct incorporation took place in the first instance, by making the reputed founder to be celestially begotten. The trinity of gods that then followed was no other than a reduction of the former plurality, which was about twenty or thirty thousand. The statue of Mary succeeded the statue of Diana of Ephesus. The deification of heroes changed into the canonization of saints. The Mythologists had gods for everything; the Christian Mythologists had saints for everything. The church became as crowded with the one, as the pantheon had been with the other; and Rome was the place of both. The Christian theory is little else than the idolatry of the ancient mythologists, accommodated to the purposes of power and revenue; and it yet remains to reason and philosophy to abolish the amphibious fraud.
Pretty ballsy stuff to be written 213 years ago.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/manybooks_pdflrg_new/painethoetext03twtp410pdfLRG.pdf -
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Wills - A disgruntled father making a final point
by Listener inan unusual and amusing will was contested in an australian court a few years ago.the deceased man separated from his wife in 1959 and shortly after the wife was baptized as a jw.
in the following years their four children also got baptized.
apparently this enraged the deceased for the remainder of his life, who was himself a catholic.his will included two conditions that his four children were required to fulfill before they would qualify to receive their share of the inheritance.
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If you read the bible w/out instruction, what would you think?
by TTWSYF inanyone reading [or did read] the bible without someone else telling you what it meant?.
would you be leaning towards the jws or baptists or lutherans or what?.
just asking.
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Captain Schmideo2
It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.
- Mark Twain
The two Testaments are interesting, each in its own way. The Old one gives us a picture of these people's Deity as he was before he got religion, the other one gives us a picture of him as he appeared afterward.
- Mark TwainWhen one reads Bibles, one is less surprised at what the Deity knows than at what He doesn't know.
- Mark Twain
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Learn To Speak Like A Jehovah's Witness
by pale.emperor infor those who were never a jw, here's a fun guide to passing yourself as one:.
privilege [priv-lij] - a duty nobody would volunteer to do which is assigned to you without your say so.
such as cleaning the toilets, picking up other brats candy wrappers in the back row and being stuck on locking up duty for the 7th time in a row.. df'd [dee-eff'd] - disfellowshipped.
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Captain Schmideo2
Pagan- Any custom or practice that has roots in pre-Christian (or non-Fundamental) practices, like Birthdays and Holidays. Does not apply to Wedding Ceremonies and all the standard accoutrements (ie:White wedding dress, bridesmaids, wedding rings, kiss the bride, wedding reception, because then you would see the young women leaving in droves).
Memorial "Talk"-In which an "Elder" spares about 90 seconds reading from the obituary printed in the local newspaper about a member who served faithfully for his entire life, after which the remaining 28 minutes 30 seconds is spent standing on the corpse while the talk shifts to promotion of the "unique" beliefs that the JWs have and which the deceased is supposed to have held. This is followed by:
The Get-Together after the Memorial (see "Pagan" above)- In which the relatives of the deceased are supposed to pony up sandwiches and other items for those that were at least thoughtful enough to show up for the Memorial "Talk". Expect better eats if the deceased was from a "well-to-do" situation.
Talk- A verb that is turned into a noun, and is actually referring to a sermon (but that's a Christendom term, so it's not used.)
Christendom-Literally, the Kingdom of Christ. Was used in the past by kingdoms and nation-states in the past as a self label for "Christian" (as opposed to Muslim or other pagan) nations. Now used as expression of loathing by JW's, as in "those nations that claim to be Christian, but they are not. They are 'Christendom'. -
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Ever notice this contradiction?
by stuckinarut2 inso witnesses love using the scripture that says that "narrow and cramped is the road to life, and few are the ones finding it" as proof that they have the truth.
yes, a small number.. yet they also love boasting about the "increases in numbers coming into the truth" as proof of jehovah's blessing of the society!.
so, which is it?
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Captain Schmideo2
Alternative Kingdom Melody #1 "Good Things Bad Things"
Pretty much sums it up.
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where have the demons gone?
by aboveusonlysky indoes anybody remember some of the sensational demon stories jw's would tell back in the day?
i was a kid in the early 80's and i remember a few times hearing of people having real life encounters with demons.
for example, one sister claimed that before she became a jdub she would regularly talk to demons and they would even fix stuff like her washing machine!
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Captain Schmideo2
Yesterday morning, I was woken from my sleep because something was rocking my bed back and forth. This force also moved through the house and shook my son's bed and the chair my wife was sleeping in.
Pretty scary stuff...for seismic forces from an earthquake! (Not something we used to have in my state previously, but thanks to the practices of the Oil and Gas industry, has been very common this decade). -
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I need help, I'm falling in love with a JW girl
by nebula-- inso i met her at my last job that i worked & we started off as friends.
i didn't know her faith at the time & i honestly couldn't have cared less, seeing as i'm agnostic.
after about a year, i began developing emotions for her & sure enough, we ended up dating for a little while.
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Captain Schmideo2
If you think converting to please her is a good idea, it's not.
The JW life is a commitment to more than just going to the meetings. You will be expected to give up so much of your previous life (bad, good, or relatively harmless) just to meet this crazy standard that the Org expects of its members.
Passion fades with time, what is left over better be built on honesty and truthfulness. Going through outward motions just to achieve her as a prize will make you happy for a little while, but eventually, you are going to need something more in your life than "faking it". -
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My son just got a serious job offer
by Captain Schmideo2 inand it looks like he will be accepting it.he will be teaching english as a second language in shenzhen, china.
it's with a company that works with the public school system out there.his salary includes an apt (most likely shared) that has utilities and internet included, and looking at cost of living (after the rent he isn't paying) it looks like he will be able to put money aside every month.not bad for a kid his age-travel to the other side of the globe, meet new people, get paid, and get experience.
i am going to miss him..
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Captain Schmideo2
Actually, Fortune Cookies are not Asian, they were invented in San Francisco.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_cookie
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My son just got a serious job offer
by Captain Schmideo2 inand it looks like he will be accepting it.he will be teaching english as a second language in shenzhen, china.
it's with a company that works with the public school system out there.his salary includes an apt (most likely shared) that has utilities and internet included, and looking at cost of living (after the rent he isn't paying) it looks like he will be able to put money aside every month.not bad for a kid his age-travel to the other side of the globe, meet new people, get paid, and get experience.
i am going to miss him..
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Captain Schmideo2
...and Skype is one of the few apps that isn't blocked by The Great Firewall. :)