Posts by DJS

33

I wonder if you can be spiritual and religious at the same time??

by Deltawave in

ok again i would like to apologise as i did come across preachy.

i am not going to debate whether or not i am a bk as you have your opinions either way.

what i was trying to write though was my thoughts and feelings which i hope don't offend anyone on this forum.

DJS

Xanthippe: "DJS sounds as though you may be frightened of 'self induced emotions'."

I'm human like everyone else. I'm not afraid of my emotions because I learned a long time ago to control them -not perfectly but they don't control or rule me. I especially don't allow others to control my emotions, whether it is a preacher, a sports team, a co-worker or a girlfriend.

The only thing that frightens me is my ex-wife and lawyers, but that's another OP. Anyway, my point, as Viviane was stating, is that fear hasn't anything to do with it.

I'm not a robot, nor am I Spock. But, as I've pointed out before, Feelings and Emotions are all that are necessary to Believe. Spirituality is almost always associated with Believing something, and spirituality as it has been illustrated for thousands of years is almost completely associated with Emotions. The more we understand that and seek to identify WHY we feel and control HOW we feel we will be better off as a species and less like our primate cousins which lack impulse control. The more we allow our feelings and emotions to control us the longer religion and 'spirituality' will continue to imprison us and keep us from evolving as a species.

Thanks Viviane. I'm sorry for making the Terminator III analogy with you and Cofty (no I'm not -it fits and it was damned funny - you're the girl Terminator btw).

33

I wonder if you can be spiritual and religious at the same time??

by Deltawave in

ok again i would like to apologise as i did come across preachy.

i am not going to debate whether or not i am a bk as you have your opinions either way.

what i was trying to write though was my thoughts and feelings which i hope don't offend anyone on this forum.

DJS

Xanthippe:

Well stated: "The human spirit needs art, beauty, poetry, music, literature and to experience different cultures around the world. To raise us up from the everyday humdrum existence, to make us think, feel deeply and to fill us with the desire to improve this beautiful planet so that everyone can enjoy it instead of many spending their days scratching out an existence and unable to think of anything but their empty bellies."

It's just that some of us including me think that the best path to getting us all there is anything but religion and superstition; to many of us, that's what being 'spiritual' is - superstition and self induced emotions based on either what we make ourselves feel or how we are influenced by the feelings and emotions of others, aka "team spirit," "community spirit," etc.

21

Interesting Pew Stats on JWs--Alarming Trends for the Borg

by Cadellin in

someone may have linked to this already, but the this interactive page in the pew religion study is pretty interesting, especially when you look at the trends for jw between 2007 and 2014. here's what it shows:.

jws are increasingly non-white.

in fact, the percentage of white jws has decreased from 2007 to 2014 by 12%, while hispanic jws have increased by 8%.

DJS

Thanks Cadellin,

This places a rational face on the image we have expected to see. Old, poor, uneducated, female and non-white. Dark Lords, are you listening? You continue to rail against college and career while begging for $ all the more often - from poor uneducated women. How is that working out for you?

113

Are you religious or are you spiritual? Wake up to what?

by Deltawave in

there is a huge difference between been religious and been spiritual.

been religious is about been superior to others in the sight of god.

however, been spiritual is about self awareness, inner peace and unity with the natural world.

DJS

stillin,

DW may be exactly what you say he is; time will tell. Pardon me and a lot of us if we are suspicious of anyone joining the site and immediately posting a better way, an enlightened path, a clearer understanding. He's preaching even if it is nice preaching. I've stayed out of this OP other than to weigh in on my skepticism of DW's motives and to jab at Cofty and Viviane a bit. We should be nice to DW, and most of us are. But we should also be wary of anyone showing us a better way on their first OPs.

The premise of his OP sounds good on the surface, but he is essentially linking being an ethical, decent person with either religion or spirituality. So many of you are 'liking' what I consider utter BS. Being kind, decent, ethical, at peace with ones self and in harmony with nature haven't anything to do with either religion or spirituality. That's the only problem I have with the OP. Village Idiot illustrates what I'm saying with his clever pictures above (thanks VI).

And as those of us who are driven by evidence have pointed out many times, the more secular and atheistic a person, region or nation are, the more likely they are to be functional and ethical. So the premise of the OP is specious - it sounds good on the surface but it isn't backed up by reality.

Of course someone can be religious but not spiritual or spiritual but not religious. But linking either with the quality of a human and the life they live is the problem with the OP. They certainly can be linked; I suppose I would have 'liked' the OP and been less suspicious if DW had included reaching the same end result with a completely secular approach.

I am in awe of the beauty of nature. My relationships with my beautiful children and my amazing friends lift me up. Art, architecture and my girlfriend's ass inspire me (ok, her boobs too, but her ass is amazing). I live an ethical life, but I would never classify myself as either religious OR spiritual.

113

Are you religious or are you spiritual? Wake up to what?

by Deltawave in

there is a huge difference between been religious and been spiritual.

been religious is about been superior to others in the sight of god.

however, been spiritual is about self awareness, inner peace and unity with the natural world.

DJS

Cofty and Viviane:

113

Are you religious or are you spiritual? Wake up to what?

by Deltawave in

there is a huge difference between been religious and been spiritual.

been religious is about been superior to others in the sight of god.

however, been spiritual is about self awareness, inner peace and unity with the natural world.

DJS

Viviane,

It's amazing that, with zero exposure to the BK teachings, managed to pick a user name very specific to their teachings and then promote their very specific teachings in your postings, even promoting them as you attempt to deny them.

And all of this on their very first day with their very first OP. Yeah, sure. I'm not buying it. Not for a second. The scenario DW presented about sitting through a boring WT yesterday morning could have been crafted within a few minutes simply by reading a few posts.

But I'm with LisaRose, welcome to the forum BK-DW. I suggest that you cinch it up and prepare for Viv and Cofty. Good luck. You will need it.

35

behind the curtain: literature offer for the month

by Magnum in

i was an extremely sincere, zealous pioneer.

i really cared about the people in the field.

i thought their lives were in danger.

DJS

Blondie,

Thank you for the historical perspective. It seems that nearly every congregation had an overstock of these old, long, Franz-era books. That is too much of a coincidence for me to be a coincidence. I suspect that the ego and narcissism surrounding Franz and a few of the other old-timers drove most of this over-stock. I doubt seriously if it was a 'pull' from the congregations.

Franz and a few of the others had somewhat of a mystical prophetic force field around them for decades. That, IMHO, is what resulted in the overstock. The smoking gun of proof is if they printed even one of these during that period.

35

behind the curtain: literature offer for the month

by Magnum in

i was an extremely sincere, zealous pioneer.

i really cared about the people in the field.

i thought their lives were in danger.

DJS

Magnum

Ditto. I felt exactly the same. I thought it was a greedy grab for $ to get rid of an overstock of old material. I also thought it was driven largely by narcissism and ego - look how smart we are (or at least the top guy in the cult Fred Franz with his type/anti-type nonsense). I wonder if they continued printing this tripe; I suspected at the time that they did, which disturbed me. Like you, no one in the field was going to benefit from it.

12

Dating

by Indy98 in

i have been brought up as a jehovah witness and want to date this boy who isn't a jehovah's witness.

we have talked about the trials we could go through and i was wondering because i am a unbaptised publisher could i date him without any consequences?

DJS

Consequences? Certainly. You could: get pregnant, get an STD, become married to a loser, become a victim of domestic violence. Oh, you mean congregation consequences! Yes. Lots. To avoid such consequences: a. Stop turning in FS reports and being an unbaptized publisher; b. Stop going to meetings; c. NEVER EVER GET BAPTIZED (sorry for yelling); and d. Make your escape from the cult as quickly and quietly as you can.

Enjoy. But guard against those STD/pregnancy thing-ies.

11

It's a "lose / lose" situation!

by stuckinarut2 in

so the org is on a big "beg for money" drive right?.

so either they are running out of money and will eventually cease to have as much influence, or, it is evidence of a lack of backing from "god", so they will eventually fade away?.

either way, it's a "lose / lose" situation for the org!.

DJS

Vidiot,

I voraciously absorbed all things Tolkien several decades ago. And King supplies a lot of my sick humor. Glad you noticed.