Paulapollos

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Posts by Paulapollos

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  25

  Most Jehovah's Witnesses dont want ex-JWs, dis-fellowshipped, disassociated to be successful!!!

  by Joliette in

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  or to acheieve any goals in their life.

  and how dare you try to enjoy your life in this sick and demonic world.

  dont you know that this world wont be here for long?

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  Paulapollos

  Sadly, you're absolutely right. A more envious, self-aggrandizing, anti-self fulfillment organisation, I have never seen.

  PP
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  61

  Have your faith been made stronger or made weaker since coming here?

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  me personally, considerably weaker.

  in fact i have.

  become an agnostic.. since i discovered this site over 6-7 yrs, we have.

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  Paulapollos

  CyberJesus,

  thanks. more an evolution then a transformation. you live and learn, I suppose. Well, some do. Are you still a believer?

  PP
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  61

  Have your faith been made stronger or made weaker since coming here?

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  me personally, considerably weaker.

  in fact i have.

  become an agnostic.. since i discovered this site over 6-7 yrs, we have.

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  Paulapollos

  Jam,

  Perhaps you should, if you haven't already, read Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins. I think it would speak to you, especially where you seem to be mentally. Maybe take the time to think on what he wrote there - it certainly helped me:

  "We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia....

  Here, it seems to me, lies the best answer to those petty-minded scrooges who are always asking what is the use of science. In one of those mythic remarks of uncertain authorship, Michael Faraday is alleged to have been asked what was the use of science. 'Sir,' Faraday replied. 'Of what use is a new-born child?' The obvious thing for Faraday (or Benjamin Franklin, or whoever it was) to have meant was that a baby might be no use for anything at present, but it has great potential for the future. I now like to think that he meant something else, too: What is the use of bringing a baby into the world if the only thing it does with its life is just work to go on living? If everything is judged by how 'useful' it is -- useful for staying alive, that is -- we are left facing a futile circularity. There must be some added value. At least a part of life should be devoted to living that life, not just working to stop it ending. This is how we rightly justify spending taxpayers' money e species and beautiful buildings. It is how we answer those barbarians who think that wild elephants and historic houses should be preserved only if they 'pay their way'. And science is the same. Of course science pays its way; of course it is useful. But that is not all it is.
  
  After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with colour, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn't it a noble, an s sssssenlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked -- as I am surprisingly often -- why I bother to get up in the mornings. To put it the other way round, isn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be a part of it?"

  [http://richarddawkins.net/articles/91-to-live-at-all-is-miracle-enough]

  PP
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  61

  Have your faith been made stronger or made weaker since coming here?

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  me personally, considerably weaker.

  in fact i have.

  become an agnostic.. since i discovered this site over 6-7 yrs, we have.

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  Paulapollos

  Knwsnothing,

  great video. Any idea what that piece of music is?

  PP
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  61

  Have your faith been made stronger or made weaker since coming here?

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  me personally, considerably weaker.

  in fact i have.

  become an agnostic.. since i discovered this site over 6-7 yrs, we have.

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  Paulapollos

  Zid,

  I wish I'd had your mind at 7.

  PP
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  61

  Have your faith been made stronger or made weaker since coming here?

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  me personally, considerably weaker.

  in fact i have.

  become an agnostic.. since i discovered this site over 6-7 yrs, we have.

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  Paulapollos

  Jam,

  You said, "The realization that this is it, no flying around in heaven, no resurrection and seeing love ones from the past, no living forever in paradise. This life , that,s it. The predicament, trying hard to beleive again in order to have hope. This site open my eyes, and once you have seen it,s very hard to go back into the darkness. Faith just don,t do it for me."

  Think about what you are saying, my friend. "The realization that this is it". Yes, this is it. This is what we have. This astonishing, miraculous planet, with its breathtaking variety of life. This globe, teeming with the consequences of billions of years of evolution. No directing force, no ultimate goal, except to survive and thrive - and yet, here you and I are, having a "conversation" about the "meaning" of life. Can you not see how breathtaking just those two concepts (self-awareness and exploration of meaning) actually are? Life survived at least five major extinctions in the history of our planet, and here you and I are, to have this conversation. What could be more mind-boggling than that?

  "no flying around in heaven". Jam, we are flying in heaven. We are rapidly expanding our understanding of the cosmos. Every month, every day it seems, our greatest minds are making further progress on the nature and origin of the real heavens, with verifiable facts. We are learning at an exponential rate - despite what the naysayers say. From quantum physics to the philosophical questions of whether there are indeed really "laws" governing the Universe, we are exploring the objective measurable reality out there, and here on Earth. Jam, we arebecoming like the "gods" of old, except that we are real.

  "no resurrection and seeing love[d] ones from the past". Now this, I understand. But I ask you Jam, what does this really say to us? Surely it is this - if we have loved and lost, then for God's sake, love those who are in your lifebefore they are snatched away. Love them fully, give them all you can. The brevity of our existence demands it. Related to that is "no living forever in paradise." You're right, unless longevity research takes a leap, you and I will not live forever. Nor will we see "paradise". So, surely, the answer is to make the best world you can now, for yourself, for those you love, and for others. We may not be able to create a paradise. But we can make the world a little fairer, a little more advanced, a little more open and understanding, a little more honest. We can do that for the people in our lives. That is real, that has meaning.

  "trying hard to beleive again, in order to have hope." Jam, let me ask you something. Do you accept what many scientists say, that in around 4 billion years or so, the Sun will expand and consume Earth? By then, our species will have either died already, or will die, during the changing climatic conditions or various other factors. Unless we have, by then, gained the power to control the very solar system, or have migrated, intelligent life on this planet will END in 4 billion years.

  Let me ask you - in view of that, does that make everything meaningless, hopeless? Does love, justice, kindness, friendship still matter? It is all going to be consumed. No-one will look back, and remember it. It will not last forever. It will vanish, like everything ultimately does. And yet, would you still help an african aids child, right now, if you could? Would you help feed a poor person, if you could? Would you help to discover a cure for cancer, if you could? Would you? Of course you would. Because things don't have to last forever to have meaning, to be important. Because you don't need fairytales to have hope. Because you don't need to live forever to make this world better. Because you don't need God to have meaning, my friend.

  Look around you. What we have, imperfect as it is, horrible and unjust as it can be, is still astonishing. Appreciate reality, spend your life actually advancing our species to the best of your ability - that, my friend, actually means something, and is far more real than the invented fables of superstitious, power-hungry, misogynistic, totalitarian priests from 3000years ago. When you actually think about it, you're already halfway to freedom, Jam - you said it yourself. "Faith just don't do it for me." And that is the way it should be. You don't need faith. Just open your eyes and embrace reality, my friend. There is nothing to be scared of out here.

  PP
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  31

  How the Watchtower corporation really works (beginning to end)

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in 1925, judge rutherford penned an article of extreme controversy titled the birth of the nation.. the editorial committee (russell had created) would not approve it.. .

  ruthford moved swiftly to remove them!

  he then hid his massacre cleverly:.

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  Paulapollos

  Excellent post Terry. Your point about free labour is well-made. I often wonder if the WTBTS is even aware of the true nature of their organisation - in other words, is the corporatism of the Society simply an unintended outgrowth of American capitialism, the cultural milieu that the GB have grown up in - or was it a conscious choice?

  I say this because, as has been said before, the organisation is a superb profit-making machine. Every single corporation would kill to have the type of bottom-line profit that the organisation has. Nominal "wage" costs, minimal maintenance of plant costs, favorable tax rates due to charity status, freedom from employment law in certain important jurisdictions - there is virtually no end to the superb conditions the WT "trades" in. I'm not sure if these developments were deliberate, in the sense that the WTBTS leaders set out to make financial gain - it would seem to me that the US constitution made religion free enterprise, and because religion is such an infective and persuasive idea, the conditions were ripe for cults like the WTBTS to simply take advantage.

  PP
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  61

  Have your faith been made stronger or made weaker since coming here?

  by jam in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  me personally, considerably weaker.

  in fact i have.

  become an agnostic.. since i discovered this site over 6-7 yrs, we have.

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  Paulapollos

  My "faith" in the Bible, as inspired or even truthful, and in Jesus as the character(s) portayed therein, (not to mention the so-called "good news of Jesus sacrifice and resurrection" I used to accept so fervently) have been utterly and totally debunked. Once and for all. I have never, ever, felt so informed, so clear-headed, and thankful.

  Sure, I sometimes think it was easier, more "simple" to live with blind certainties, however unverifiable. But then, I step back, and take a look at all the things I finally understand. I can't help but consider myself astonishingly fortunate to have escaped the shackles of "faith" with some intellect still functioning. The benefits, for me at least, have been frankly immeasurable.

  Jam, what predicament are you in? Why does it keep you awake?

  PP
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  269

  The Hubble, Yahweh, the Bible, and faith.

  by Nickolas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there have been several threads in which the views of the universe provided by the hubble space telescope have been discussed.

  i guess this will be another one.

  there's a new series being broadcast here in canada on the oasis hd nature channel entitled hubble's canvas.

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  Paulapollos

  Awen,

  what do you mean about "creationism"? I found your reply very interesting, but I was abit confused by that remark. You mentioned the importance of evidence, then creationism? What evidence is there for creationism, or intervention by God?

  PP
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  20

  Attention Governor Perry: Evolution is a fact - R. Dawkins

  by unshackled in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the washington post published this richard dawkins response to perry's evolution is "just a theory" comment.

  refers to him as an "uneducated ignoramus" and doesn't spare the republican party much either.... http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/attention-governor-perry-evolution-is-a-fact/2011/08/23/giqauifuyj_blog.html.

  q. texas governor and gop candidate rick perry, at a campaign event this week, told a boy that evolution is just a theory with gaps and that in texas they teach both creationism and evolution.

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  Paulapollos

  Fantastic to see Dawkins weighing in here. It's not just about evolution. That is just a symptom. It's about having a person in the most powerful job in the world - who will not accept scientific facts, if it clashes with his own, unprovable, religious belief system. Even though, in a subject like medical treatment, the guy will accept whatever the scientists say.

  Strikes me as very similiar to the Governing Body - who will accept proof from secular sources for 539BCE, then disregard that very same source when it comes to the 587/607 dispute.

  PP