Posts by JamesThomas

18

CAN WE BE BETTER THAN THE GOD WE SERVE?

by Terry in

be careful what you say god is and what he wants; you may be saying more about yourself than you realize.. it may well be our personal taste in religion is revelatory of our basic character.. _____.

look at the devout islamist whose worship consists of blowing people up or cutting off heads.. contrast that to those hindi who sit with legs folded in their own lap contemplating bliss.. now contrast both the above to somebody who believes service to god is visiting the sick in hospitals.. _____.

instead of there being 3 different gods served--there might only be an extraordinary unveiling of each person's heart and mind!.

JamesThomas

You are right on Terry.

Let's take one example: would your everyday Jehovah's Witness take up a sword and cut open and slaughter the husband, pregnant wife and three young children next door? FUCK NO! But they worship an idea of “God” that is supposedly the “most high” in all things including love and morals, who will do such a vile act many billions of times over at Armageddon.

Countless people worship an idea of the "divine" which is void of the heart-felt caring, empathy and compassion that lives here and now intimately in their own hearts. How very, very sad that such a disconnect can exist.

Major insanity happens when we believe that our beliefs are real! Beliefs which are just thoughts of the mind that have absolutely no connection with Reality.

18

Why are people so dramatic

by rebel8 in

jw
friends

i want to retire.

i'm quite a ways off from the age to collect social security and all.

i don't hate working--i actually like it.

JamesThomas

Most of us are inflicted with a dreadful disease: an inability to realize that we can witness our thoughts and connected emotions as separate from the pure, silent, witnessing consciousness – and so it is clear we are not the thoughts and mind generated stories.

Blind to this, most people unquestionably believe that they and others truly are the thoughts and stories created by the mind; and so then fight and protect their imaginary "self" and "universe" as if it is everything -- when, in fact, it is nothing at all.

14

Why can't I just leave?

by Trapped in JW land in

some of you may know my situation.

i'm still going to meetings, but i am a closet apostate and homosexual i. only keep going to meetings to please my family and some friends.

i guess i could tell my mom i no longer want to be a jehovah's witness and stop going to meetings, but i'm too scared to do it.

JamesThomas

There is a great lesson for you here in that as we allow fear to guide and rule our life, rather than our true feelings, there is very often (if not always) a lot of confusion and suffering to be found.

10

OPINIONS vs. FACTS . . . CONSCIOUSNESS vs. EXISTENCE

by Terry in

JamesThomas

Life in the “everyday world” matrix says that when you drive into the wall, you die (the bricks are solid objects that you can not move through). Inside the box everything is inside the box (even our thoughts...so nothing changes there). Inside the box you see death and blood on the walls, because that is the rule of the box.

So what's the big deal? Come on Terry, give us something beyond the extremely mundane.

Perhaps something along the lines of: IS THE WALL SOLID? If you took all the atoms within that big “solid” brick wall that your car ran into, and removed all the empty space within the atoms you would then be left with something so small that you could not see it with the human eye; and what you are left with science can not in fact say is made of solid “matter” either. So, is there a “wall”? What really exists since matter is not made of matter?

What IS TRUE???

What is the ONE invisible thing that every person has and shares in-common, that all our entire life's experiences exists in?

What is this wondrous pool which is closer than close? Where can IT takes us???

15

DO Jehovah's Witnesses "love" their enemies? Does mainstream Christianity?

by Terry in

*** w52 10/1 599 a strong refuge today *** .

11 haters of god and his people are to be hated, but this does not mean that we will take any opportunity of bringing physical hurt to them in a spirit of malice or spite, for both malice and spite belong to the devil, whereas pure hatred does not.

we must hate in the truest sense, which is to regard with extreme and active aversion, to consider as loathsome, odious, filthy, to detest.

JamesThomas

For people whose highest form of "love” is defined by a deity who kills countless men, women, and children because of some trivial offense -- what healthy, warm, or any significant meaning is there left to be found in the word – love???

38

Found my old baptism photo!

by nicolaou in

.

JamesThomas

Standing on its own, it's quite beautiful.

Looking deeper to what's beneath it -- not so much.

49

My Story: from JW Elder to Born Again Christian to Agnostic

by passwordprotected in

i first posted here on 3rd june 2008. at the time i was an elder, appointed the previous october, i was 36 and i was a born-in.

at the time i'd become disillusioned with the society due to the governing body's letter explaining why the book study in private homes was being abolished.

april 2008 saw me start questioning this decision, privately of course, and this eventually led me to this site, to jwfacts and to many youtube videos, all of which began to errode my faith in the leaders of the organisation.. in july 2008, having discussed my doubts with my wife, i attended the district convention, deciding to give the society one last chance to convince me it was the truth.

JamesThomas

Yes, not knowing.

Not attempting to know or understand or name -- but rather silently and openly being.

Being present right here, right now, embraced in the swirling cool-warm pool of life within and around.

Welcome home.

23

The End of The World Delusion

by cassuk11 in

being pushed by religion since the 17th century.

my question is why ?.

JamesThomas

Being pushed by religion since the 17th century. My question is WHY ?

Perhaps the foundational question here is, why did humanity shift from a living connection with universe and nature, into a mind generated belief system about it?

For example: if we knew intellectually all the knowledge ever written about trees, it would amount to nothing in the event of actually being with: touching, smelling, listening, etc, to the actual presence of a real tree. Religious dogma written on pages, degrades to its nothingness in the actuality of wind and rain.

Somewhere along the line, we forgot our natural, indescribable and wondrous connection with life, and started to create anecdotal descriptions of things and took them to be significant, valid, and all important....when they actually amounted to nothing but empty illusions and deceptions.

So perhaps the real question is, how real is the life we are living this moment?

57

Had an argument with my wife about tinkerbell :(

by BU2B in

one of my co workers mother made my 4 year old a blanket with the disney character tinkerbell on it.

as soon as i got it i knew trouble lay ahead.

i wanted to reason with her before my daughter saw it so as not to cause a disruption, but it didn't work out that way.

JamesThomas

How do we ever find it in our hearts to embrace, honor and celebrate a deity that will kill us and our children (at Armageddon) because of a cartoon character sewn onto a blanket? What a morally revolting and insanely superstitious way to live.

15

For JWS: Do you believe Jesus or only what you are told about Jesus?

by Kosonen in

that's the question l would like to ask every jehovah's witness: do you believe jesus or do you only believe what you are told about jesus?

(by the watchtower?).

if you only believe what the watchtower or the governing body tell you about jesus with their selected quotes from the bible.then in fact you don't believe jesus.

JamesThomas

Perhaps it helps to know that religion is basically a creation of the very, very limited human mind trying to grasp something it can't. So no two peoples beliefs are exactly alike.

In the end they are all just mind generated fabrications which have nothing to do with Reality.

Relax. No one religious person is better or worse than the other, or more or less insane.

The Source of existence is too big for the human mind to comprehend.