In Death lies Glory (page 2)

BluePill2

LoisLane: Thank you for your kind words. Actually I registered and started posting here around 2006 (under the pseudonym of "Trojan") but I lost the email associated to that account and the password to this site. In the meantime I had left Bethel and my assignment and a bumby ride started (that of fading and trying to save my family). That ended with me DA'ed myself and losing my family in the process. Here we are :-) having this conversation.

Yes, Witnesses have used funerals as infomercials. I have seen relatives and friends (non-JW) go out of the meeting place in a disgusted kind of way. They can see the sham, anybody else in the room can't. It's a different perception.

I attended once the funeral for a Branch Committee member and they made a complete show out of the "event", treating him like a rock star and shamesly using the "opportunity" to recruit as many as possible of the attendees.

That is also something that I absolutely hated, since I was a child, EVERYTHING. E V E R Y occasion is a "opportunity to witness". There is no normal social interaction or human feelings for others. Got invited for a non-witness wedding? Go to witness, to count time. Have a job interview? Recruit you Sucker! I had one elder telling me to witness during a job interview (that I desperately needed at the time!).

James Jackson

Waiting for Part 2 of your story as a former Bethelite, Missionary....

MissFit

Blue Pill thank you for putting in words what I was trying to clarify to myself. Seeing it in black and white makes it easier for me to understand the realities of our finite future.

The realities of the natural order of the life and death cycle is somehow comforting.

We were always taught that death was unnatural. So the naturalness of death is a concept I will have to work on.

Miss.Fit

tootired2care

Bluepill, that was very well done, thanks for this.

The point you make about humans coming to expect something completely to the contrary of the natural order of the universe is a powerful one. For thousands of years Religion/Bible etc. has brought us no closer to understanding anything, while in recent years, science has afforded us true insight into what is real and what is fantasy. The contrast could hardly be clearer. It's time for people to accept and embrace reality, and stop burdening future generations with stupid biblical and religious fantasies.

MissFit

Too tired: I agree. Knowing this is the only life we have will result in different life choices. We are temporary residents in life but will not have a do over like we were promised. We have to make every moment count now.

tootired2care

Missfit - absolutely, and if those choices are wise, we in a way do end up living on, when we make the life we have now count. I think of the ones who came up with great ideas that changed the world for the better; the ones whos writings inspire us, and echo into the future; those who have a legacy of really helping people in a tough time, or even just the future generations that can remember us a person who lived a good life.

Syme

One of my favourite writers, after discussing how the Sun will die in some 5 billion years, then proceeds to make the following analogy: Since even the Sun itself does die eventually, who are we to want to live forever? (I translated it, he said it better in his native tongue )

The writer suffered from cancer when he wrote that book, and died shortly after. He did not succumb to the easy solution of religion. Until the end he remained a fervent atheist and dialectical materialist.

Thanks again, BluePill.

Magnum

I have had some of the thoughts you mentioned since before my baptism. I always said it was just unnatural for humans to live forever because it violates eveything we know about the natural world and biology (and ultimately the laws of physics). You're right; everything dies. For humans to live forever would require constant divine intervention. I always said that even if we were perfect according to the JW definition, our teeth, knees, etc. would still would wear out.

Some JWs I mentoned that to said "no they wouldn't because we'd be perfect". I replied that being perfect doesn't make one Superman. I said that if you take two rocks and rub them together, they will eventually wear down. Same thing with teeth. "Perfect" teeth would just me made of basic elements such as calcium. They would still wear out and they woudn't renew as, for example, skin cells do.

It just doesn't make sense for humans to live forever in a realm where everything dies. Plus the issue of overpopulation can't be overlooked. JWs say things, as you mentioned, like 'Jah will control the population at that time'. Well, if he's going to interfere with the natural goings-ln, the laws of physics, why did he put us in a realm governed by those laws in the first place?

It never made sense, but I was told to wait on answers and that I would understand one day. It's been a long time and that day hasn't come.

MissFit

Magnum: I never worried about over population. I figured being perfect we would be able to figure out ways for space travel. Surely there would be other planets in the universe we could settle.

I just figured I wouldn't be worthy enough to make it through. So in effect I was on a death watch. I have lived almost 30 years looking over my shoulder, trying to be worthy enough and knowing I failed.

Now I know I must value the time I have left.

Miss.Fit

LisaRose

Well stated. My parents firmly believed they would never die, yet they did, just like everyone has since the beginning of recorded time. Anyone who thinks that anything different is going to happen to them is delusional.

In Death lies Glory

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