Posts by scotoma

Cooperative effort does mean you make your talents available to the group. However, if they don't accept what you feel is your best contribution then its a bad fit.

The trouble with religion is that it comes on like the only game in town. There IS a marketplace.

13

THE GROUP vs the reality of the group=A CULT

by Terry in

jw
friends

basic principle of rational thinking:.

what man can test against reality he can disprove!.

what man cannot test against reality he cannot.. ____________________________________________.

scotoma

Terry,

I cross posted. I think we really agree, don't you?

I don't trust any group that would accept me as a member. _Marx- Groucho Marx that is.

13

THE GROUP vs the reality of the group=A CULT

by Terry in

jw
friends

basic principle of rational thinking:.

what man can test against reality he can disprove!.

what man cannot test against reality he cannot.. ____________________________________________.

scotoma

Terry,

I should have asked you what you disagree with.

I agree with your statement "One little slip and you are doomed to be excluded from your drug (certainty) and the group itself"

My basic premise just elaborates on what you said ie. we are conditioned to be in cults because of the historically authoritarian structure of the family.

Our family is our O-G that got us dependent on the family drug.

People need to grow out of the dependency on family.

The demand for unconditional love is unrealistic. I have never met anyone who loved me unconditionally. There are always benefits to the other person whether monetary or emotional.

When the benefits stop - the love stops.

It's called a transaction. A social transaction.

If you love your family more than yourself you are doomed.

If your JW family loves their "new family" more than they do you then it's time to move on.

Many have done that. This forum is really a JW Annonymous. It's a place where we can get off the dependency drug.

So, basically I'm saying I agree with YOU. And, agree with you that collectivism, like any -ism, is probably more bad then good. We just have to be cautious about affiliating with any kind of group whether for a living, special interest, therapeutic etc.

Once we know our own identity we will know when there is synergy between our identity and the group's purpose.

Family should be a place where you learn your identity. Unfortunately, we have these giant people running our lives and oftentimes our individual temperaments are different from these "giant authorities" and

we make poor adaptations to them and bury our core identity.

13

THE GROUP vs the reality of the group=A CULT

by Terry in

jw
friends

basic principle of rational thinking:.

what man can test against reality he can disprove!.

what man cannot test against reality he cannot.. ____________________________________________.

scotoma

Terry,

The concept of improving conditions and opportunities for family members was not the dominant aim for the hundreds of thousands of years of history.

There was no concept of the "good life". There was only "life".

It was about basic survival. Men beat their rivals to death to protect their offspring. And when their offspring grew up to challenge them they would beat them to death if they infringed on their territory.

The mere idea of "wanting things for your offspring you never had" is a thuggish agenda because they would have to take things from the weak.

What things would a hunter gatherer want for their kids that they never had?

Lifespan was about 30 years for most of human history.

The aim was to simply stay alive. A brutish father that had to physically struggle for his position in the extended family hierarchy would probably consider his

own children as competitors.

We enjoy a great life in the US because we are members of a very successful collective that has dominated all the others.

The reason cults emerge is because people who survived these last million years evolved in a milieu of graybacks and their coalitions.

Sociability is a blessing and a curse.

3

DNA Gamechanger: Could Be Huge

by metatron in

jw
friends

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exclusive-jawdropping-breakthrough-hailed-as-landmark-in-fight-against-hereditary-diseases-as-crispr-technique-heralds-genetic-revolution-8925295.html.

holy cow........ genetic revolution, indeed.

metatron.

scotoma

Let me know when they figure out how to add some length to teleomeres.

71

Trying to overcome my homophobia.

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

i had a music album by a gay guy before i was a jw and had no problem listening to it.

it's good music.

some of the lyrics are what you might call 'gay', that is there's some talk about boyfriends, gay bars, and queens and the intolerance the artist encountered as a gay man.

scotoma

If you want to see what theater would be like without gays just watch a Watchtower Convention Drama.

13

THE GROUP vs the reality of the group=A CULT

by Terry in

jw
friends

basic principle of rational thinking:.

what man can test against reality he can disprove!.

what man cannot test against reality he cannot.. ____________________________________________.

scotoma

We are all born into a cult. It's called F-A-M-I-L-Y.

Fathers are the ultimate thug leaders.

Women picked the biggest guys with the biggest shoulders to mate with.

They needed big guys, not to work hard and provide food, but to make sure the women and children would be protected from other males.

Males are not real good at providing food. The women hunter gatherers were in charge of that.

The men mostly sharpened their knives and spears and drank fermented beverages, halucinogenic mushrooms, and psychoactive herbs at "elder" meetings.

That's why the biggest competitor to cult-organizations is the family.

The Watchtower is always battling families with its disfellowshpping policies.

Family cults seem to be an evolutionary necessity. Organizational cults like gangs are just big families and not needed.

9

The Hope Of The World?

by metatron in

jw
friends

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/10/more-nsa-leakers-followed-snowdens-footsteps-whistleblower-lawyer-says/.

why do i post this and think it could be the most hopeful development in the world currently?.

there are some fringe opinions out there that i believe may be credible - in particular, the "breakaway group" theory of historian richard dolan which assert that parts of the us intelligence community know about some astounding technology - and are keeping it strictly secret.. just suppose that we enter a world-wide period in which the whole edifice of secrecy collapses as whistleblowers surge forward into public view.

scotoma

Adamah,

I brought up Art Bell. I believe he's no longer on the air. So don't blame Metatron.

I know you're asking Metatron to clarify himself but I feel caught up in this too.

The need to know is a basic organismic need and that's why we have a system of sensory receptors.

There are levels of knowing. You don't need to know the deep theoretical or technical issues but there are levels that aid personal orientation.

If someone reports in a scientific journal that they have evidence of cold fusion and no one is able to refute it the natural question is why aren't companies

building this stuff. I don't personally believe there are any such practical inventions but it is natural to want to investigate rumors of such things.

9

The Hope Of The World?

by metatron in

jw
friends

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/10/more-nsa-leakers-followed-snowdens-footsteps-whistleblower-lawyer-says/.

why do i post this and think it could be the most hopeful development in the world currently?.

there are some fringe opinions out there that i believe may be credible - in particular, the "breakaway group" theory of historian richard dolan which assert that parts of the us intelligence community know about some astounding technology - and are keeping it strictly secret.. just suppose that we enter a world-wide period in which the whole edifice of secrecy collapses as whistleblowers surge forward into public view.

scotoma

Metatron,

I would discard deathbed confessions on the grounds that it is impossible to debrief them properly.

I would discard anonymous revelations for the same reason.

If you can't question a witness they aren't a witness about anything.

It's the same thing with religious claims from mystics that "hear the voice of God".

I believe the current evidence from people who aren't on their deathbed are a sufficient "tip of the iceberg".

But this doesn't mean that you believe everything people say. Instead it makes you open to the information that these aliens might want to reveal.

They will prove to be whatever they prove to be.