Posts by JamesThomas

3

The Bible Is a Worldly Book

by Satanus in

since the wt religion is loosely based on the bible, therefore it is part of the world.

nyah nyah, wt and it's claims about not being part of the world.. s. ps, the bible is worldly, because it was produced by jews that was very much like the rest of the world at the time, in that they were as violent as other nations and were supersticious.

also, the bible was finished and promoted theoughout it's domain by the world power, rome.

JamesThomas

Perhaps Terry, has driven this one home already.

j

26

I Don't Believe in God, or wait, Maybe I Do. . . a little wisdom please?

by Pioneer Spit...oh, i mean Spirit in

i am conflicted as to whether i can or even want to believe in god.

(using capital g out of respect) i can't separate love of god and my jw life.

i pioneered for 10+ years, and thank goodness for that, because i can now easily memorize anything and read upside down.

JamesThomas

Pioneer, listen to your own wisdom. If you choose to believe in God, and yet your heart can not accept the murderous frolics of mutant deities, then don't believe in them! Cast off your Bible programming and it's tiny little gods. You've outgrown archaic tribal myths and fictitious "holy" characters.

I suggest you take your heartfelt desire for knowing your Source and sustenance, out into nature and inward into the depths of your own sense of being and existing. Stop believing that what the word G-O-D points to is an objective thing or entity, and thus so tiny as to be absent or separate from the intimacy and immediacy of your own existence. Open yourself to discovery and realization of the true depths of Reality that beliefs only hide.

Awaken from the slumber of believing.

alt

j

123

Out of Mythic into Rational consciousness, the EX-JW Journey

by jst2laws in

i have been absent much for almost a year, reading, learning and breaking out of boxes, figuratively.

i'm hoping that sharing some thoughts and asking some questions might be fun, and maybe helpful for a few.

have you wondered how two people can look at the same information, go through the same experience as you, perhaps even be party to the same conversation yet come away with an entirely different perception?

JamesThomas

Hey there, Steve. Always nice to see you here.

When I was a JW, it was not so much a state of unconsciousness, as that I was so heavily identified with beliefs as who and what I was, I only allowed in those things which supported and sustained "me".

May I suggest that there is no real evolution or arising to higher consciousness, so much as removing or seeing through, what blinds us; which amounts to everything we believe "self" and universe to be.

Remove what is false, and Truth -- remains.

j

12

Baptism, spirit and superstition

by thinker in

recently i started researching the bible concerning that most controversial topic: baptism.

i learned from the bible that there are four types of baptism.

there is water baptism, aka "john's baptism", which most of us think of when we hear the word "baptism".

JamesThomas

Thanks, Terry. You showed us a beautiful warmth and life of it, that otherwise may have been missed.

j

20

THE WAY IN IS THE WAY OUT

by Terry in

jw
friends

i got in officially in november of 1963 when i was baptised at the cleburne, texas assembly.

judicial committee cut me loose.. the way in consisted of having jehovah's witnesses demonstrate to me that there was considerable false information and hypocricy in christendom.

i lost confidence in what i had been told, taught and believed.. today, i believe that is also the way out of jehovah's witnesses!.

JamesThomas

Well spoken and sensible post as usual, Terry.

free yourself from believing in the fairy tale

You and I are on the same track here. Where indeed does the fairy tale, really, really end? and what remains when it's does?

j

12

Does God exist ?

by moomanchu in

a man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard .

trimmed.

as the barber began to work, they began to have a good .

JamesThomas

When there is a building afire, and so an obvious need for help and assistance, a firefighter does not ask that the trapped and injured come to him or her, but rather rushes to the needy risking life and limb for total strangers.

It would make more sense if the Christian god worshipped these people, rather than so many blindly worship a lesser god.

j

15

Favorite Christmas Music

by jayhawk1 in

jw
friends

what is your favorite christmas music?

do you go for the classic stuff?

dr demento stuff perhaps?

JamesThomas

I recently purchased a Christmas music CD by one of my most favorite artists Dana Cunningham. I love it. Her piano is so beautifully and deeply contemplative as to be most rare.

j

53

The term apostate is used freely on this forum, don't you find it offensive

by avidbiblereader in

jw
friends

i find the term apostate used freely towards those who have left the org, by both witnesses hiding and also ex witnesses calling themselves that.

don't you find that offensive.

i have been out for over 6 years and the last thing i consider myself is an apostate.

JamesThomas

Religious folks are often fearful of and imprisoned by, certain words and thoughts. A lot of people her have removed many of these invisible chains.

Perhaps the problem only exists in your cute little noggin.

j

8

a HUGE reason to pray..

by candidlynuts in

jw
friends

mogadishu, somalia residents of a southern somalia town who do not pray five times a day will be beheaded, an official said wednesday, adding the edict will be implemented in three days.. shops, tea houses and other public places in bulo burto, about 124 miles northeast of the capital, mogadishu, should be closed during prayer time and no one should be on the streets, said sheik hussein barre rage, the chairman of the town's islamic court.

his court is part of a network backed by armed militiamen that has taken control of much of southern somalia in recent months, bringing a strict interpretation of islam that is alien to many somalis.. those who do not follow the prayer edict after three days have elapsed, "will definitely be beheaded according to islamic law," rage told the associated press by phone.

"as muslims we should practice islam fully, not in part, and that is what our religion enjoins us to do.".

JamesThomas

Truly I say unto you, that all who sincerely believe in, and place above themselves as master and most high, a deity which kills, may come upon a day when they too join in the fun.

j

15

A Challenge - An Illustration to explain suffering????

by IMHO in

i mentioned this in passing in a previous post.

i think it deserves its own topic.

any takers?

JamesThomas

Bebu:

Why should you even have to explain this to anyone? Isn't it a bit ironic?

Yes, seems to be. Is this a valid reason to discount serious investigation into innate wholeness?

What I am referring to -- the actual conscious realization of the wholeness and purity of Self -- is a radical shift of reality which makes a liar out of the mind and it's interpritations of "self and reality" up to now. Little wonder the mind quickly and easily comes up with excuses to discount all mention of innate wholeness.

It is important to not judge this, but rather just watch the dynamics of the mind. So that in this watchful awareness -- even of the minds discounting of innate wholeness -- there is examination happening, and things being exposed.

What can happen is that the entire construct of what the mind has presented as "self" and "other", is seen for what it is. When what is false is identified, then what remains -- is true.

Please do not put too much merit in words. What sees the words? Look deeper, here.

j