by justsomedude 32 Replies latest jw friends
When I was a kid, what appealed to me was the idea that all of our fruits and veggies would be super sized. I'm not exactly sure where I heard that. I remember there being talk of peaches and plums being the size of grapefruits or grapes being the size of plums.
Of course it would revolve around food for me!
curlygirl
always seemed like it would be boring, eating bananas and chillin with elders. Once mom said I couldn't hunt in the new system, i quit caring.
In the beginning I loved the idea of paradise earth, all the animals and people living peacefully. But as time went on, I would think with dread about how in the new system they described, the organization would be in control and how rigid everything would be. I pictured it kind of like the Stepford wives. Everything very controlled and of course, Kingdom halls everywhere. And if anyone fell out of line, zap.......Jehovah...or someone, would destroy that person and they would be gone forever. Would the GB dole out corporal punishment on those that screw up? I knew that JWs don't really believe in immortality or real salvation, because a JW that survives into the new system, could still be wiped out later. None of it sounded like "good news" to me when you really think about what they are teaching.
Also, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to meet God. The more I read the words of Christ in the new testament, I realized I wanted to see him and be with him, a whole lot more than I wanted to be with the JWs and the organization.
NowImFree
There has been some great comments here. I really believed it, but served just as much for God as for paradise.
I could never get my head around the fact that God made plants die and animals die, so why wouldn't we? If we were meant to live forever and not eat meat, why don't animals live forever?
And how boring to just be farmers forever. Forever is a long time, long enough to know everything, and then learn it all again, and again, and again........
Like our dear Brother Prince used to sing when I was a teen "Forever is a mighty long time, but I'm here to tell you, there is something else, the afterworld". Sounds like an apostate to me.
The paradise is still something my 11yr old cries about at night. She thinks we arent going to make it to paradise because we stopped going to meetings, its heartbreaking to try and explain. To us it is just a big carrot they dangle in front of your eyes to keep you going and that worked for alot of years until you see past the carrot.
Mercedes x
I liked the idea of being immortal (sort of) and finishing some projects. Building the tower of orthanc maybe. I think it's those ideas that keep me so interested in trans-humanism. (expansion of human self through technology) And i am thinking strongly of having myself frozen at death. Not that i have any great thing to contribute to the future, i am just really interested in seeing how things turn out.
I never got excited bout the new system...in fact i never believed i would be there. I would miss the materialistic things, i always thought it would be so boring to live forever. A bit like Groundhog day nothing ever changing living the same day forever
No thanks
es
i always thought it really funny (and weird) that they would push these presentations where you'd ask the householder:
"wouldn't you like to live in a place similar to this artists' depiction of paradise?"
and the artists' depiction was so hokey and contrived and COLORFUL (like prisma color crayon drawings...)!!!
anyway, i always thought i'd kill myself before i ever even got to the/a paradise. and if there weren't any paradise, i'd never know. it's a good thing i didn't chose that route.
I never dwelled on the thought of a paradise earth. Never got into it. Born into it, thats all.
Never seemed real enough to be a motive that went beyond childhood. As a child though, you believe things easy ... thus Santa Claus.
