Posts by Mindchild

118

VICKI BOER CAMPAIGN FUND

by Dansk in

jw
friends

if you'd be interested in donating $us10.00 or anything at all to a campaign fund for vicki please say so here.

this will help determine how strongly we can offer vicki support.. i'll start it off.

i'm willing to donate $us10.00 to the fund.. thanks.. dansk

I wanted to add a couple of ideas towards this issue as well. The first being about ways of generating funds. I don't have any objection at all to the direct contributions, as per Hillary Step's escrow fund. Having done fund raising work in the past, I might suggest a few quick and easy ways to get a bit of extra cash for each individual, which they can choose to contribute if they desire.

1. Have your store product rebate checks sent directly to the escrow fund. I buy thousands of dollars of products each year, and many of these have those annoying rebates. I honestly don't bother most of the time in mailing off the rebates because I either forget about it, get too busy, or it isn't large enough dollar wise to motivate me. I would love to mail my rebate coupons all together to someone who would fill them out and mail them off.

2. When I did the starving college student scene years ago, I learned the joys of intentionally switching long distance services each month on my home phone. As phone companies are very competitive and offer dollar incentives, I would typically walk away with $40-$60 per month in either free long distance or with a check. There is no law that says you can't do this each month, and I sure took advantage of it.

3. One great way to get larger amounts of money for a fundraising drive is to do a raffle or contest. This is completely legal in most areas. You put up a nice, but affordable prize, and sell the tickets. It works great if you have a lot of contacts with other people. This might lend itself to the ex-JW community but as far as I know, it hasn't been tried yet.

Skipper

26

Would You Ever Sue Someone or a Company???

by minimus in

jw
friends

i know some people that are "sue-crazy".

if they can sue a store or insurance company over anything, they will.

what would justify suing over a matter, to you?

Mindchild

ROTFL....ouch, I fell off my chair reading your thread. I'm going to sue you for damages...

Skipper

43

How to Help Vicki Boer Right Now

by Frannie Banannie in

jw
friends

get this harsh ruling to the media...pronto!!

go to your search engine and enter newspapers....it'll give you a ton of 'em....start clicking, emailing them a copied and pasted version of the canadian justice's decision against vicki boer in her case....get the word out....also, do the same regarding the tv news media...cnn, larry king, 20/20, 60 mins., 48 hrs., etc.....flood them with emails.... .

frannie b

Mindchild

Alamb and Waiting...

I think there is some promise for this being a good idea but I was wondering if we could expand a bit on this and see if there a way of using this principle more effectively. Do you, or anyone else, know of any group or individual the Watchtower Society would NOT take money from, would outright refuse it? If there were such "untouchable" sources, and the money was clearly and legally marked for payment of Vicki's legal fees, and they refused it....well hot damn. They would be forced to write it off then.

Years ago, I really pissed off a car dealership that sold me a lemon. I purchased a brand new Mazda sports car and it had continual mechanical problems that their repair shop couldn't fix. I eventually began paying the monthly payments in loose bags of pennies! This really angered the dealership and they told me they would refuse my payment if I did that again. Of course I did it again, and reminded them that it was a Federal law that they accept this cash payment because pennies were legal tender. They complained and moaned about it, telling me that it took hours of employee time to count and wrap the pennies. I just smiled wider. I do hope if those Watchtower bitches manage to get any money at all for their legal fees, they have to endure a similar fate.

Skipper

18

Vicki Boer, Watchtower Society and Money

by jschwehm in

jw
friends

i think the decision by the judge to force vicki to pay the society's legal fees even though she won the case is just fundamentally unfair.

this lady was hurt by her father and the society obviously did something that at the very, very, least was not helpful in her case.

it would seem to me that if the jws really are the christians they claim to be, that they would not be seeking to send this legal bill to someone who has already been through so much.

Mindchild

It certainly seems unfair to many of us here but do you see the larger picture? There is a clear message being sent by the Watchtower Society here to all apostates:

DON'T F**K WITH US OR WE WILL MAKE YOU PAY DEARLY

The way I see things, this slap in the face to Vicki is a way of telling all other potential victims who want to bring a lawsuit against the Borganization is that even if you win, you will lose. Our lawyers can punish you and ruin your life even more than you dreamed possible.

If this strategy is successful, IMHO this is only the first step in escalating legal actions against former Witnesses. We have already seen them go after individuals for copyright issues, but I think defamation of character suits (i.e. slander) are down the road.

The biggest thing they have going for them is the inability of the ex-JW community to unite into anything more than a few angry individuals. Hey, have you ever seen a herd of cats? The end result is that we are more like a few angry bees that manage to sting them once in awhile, but some of us get swatted with a rolled up Watchtower.

Skipper

4

The Challenge of Being Post Theocratic Men and Women

by Mindchild in

jw
friends

the defining moment that notified us of our expulsion from the borg to living in the real world caught a lot of us at unexpected times and different ages of our lives.

the borg hammer knocked a lot of us flat when we least expected it but what is important is not how you got knocked down but rather if you can pick yourself up.

it?s no secret that many ex-dubs are not able to get mastery over their anger and pain and end up victimizing themselves even more with addictions, or various strategies to avoid the difficult work of re-inventing ourselves.

Mindchild

The defining moment that notified us of our expulsion from the Borg to living in the real world caught a lot of us at unexpected times and different ages of our lives. The Borg hammer knocked a lot of us flat when we least expected it but what is important is not how you got knocked down but rather if you can pick yourself up. It?s no secret that many ex-dubs are not able to get mastery over their anger and pain and end up victimizing themselves even more with addictions, or various strategies to avoid the difficult work of re-inventing ourselves. There are of course many good examples on this discussion board and others of men and woman who handled this major life change remarkably well.

There are a lot of people here just discovering their freedom and pursuing the things they couldn?t do as Witnesses, that is to be expected in my opinion, but I think in time these distractions from your life course fade in importance and you set out to make a productive and happy life for yourself.

If you are at the later point?continuing on in your passage for a good and satisfying life?what do you use now for your guide? You don?t have the Watchtower now to tell you how to live your life. Do you just go with the flow? Do you use some kind of guide, be it religion, moral principles, psychology, or just march to your own drummer?

Just what is your life course or plan?

Skipper

87

SINGLE or MARRIED : What do you LIKE and DISLIKE

by frenchbabyface in

jw
friends

single or married or living with someone (if you can talk about).

what do you :like in your situationdislike in your situation.

for better understanding please tell us also your age.

Mindchild

Professional single dude here

The upside of single life as I see things...

1. I have far more in the way of toys when I want them and what I want.

2. The freedom to travel and explore without a lot of compromise

3. A wider variety of sexual experiences with different partners

4. The ability to pursue my interests, and take time off when I want

5. You can stash away a lot of money when you don't have a family to support.

The advantages of being in a committed relationship for me would be:

1. Being able to accomplish a lot more in the way of significant accomplishments with the right partner helping you.

2. Developing an intimate relationship and reaping the rewards of the love and closeness

3. Generally speaking, a good marriage adds to your happiness in life

4. When you have a loving partner, you have someone who gently (ok...kicks you in the ass) pushes you to take care of your health

5. The quality of your sex life increases dynamically as well as the frequency

6. It is easier to be passionate about life when you have someone close to you that shares your joy in living.

7. There are many practical investment and economic strategies that come from being married.

8. You develop parts of your personality and emotionally grow in a positive relationship

9. A good relationship helps you survive the s**t storms of life and you have someone else you know and trust to help you make good decisions.

10. Having somone to touch, to hug, to kiss, to get the occassional back rub is worth its weight in gold.

11. Your social life improves, not only do you have a new best friend, but you often get to meet his/her friends as well.

12. My kingdom for a woman that makes good coconut cream pies. hehe

Overall, while I really enjoyed single life, it is time for a change for me. I'm hoping to met a bright, cool, apostate babe to make happy for a lifetime.

Skipper

41

God and Man -- The Paradox....The Choice

by logansrun in

jw
friends

here's the deal: if you are an atheist you still must come to grips with the ultimate question, that is, why is there something rather than nothing?

even a universe with nothing more than a tiny electron floating about would require a reason as to why it exists.

our universe is one in which there are, almost literally, but not quite, an infinite amount of electrons (and protons, neutrons, etc.

Mindchild

Bradley...the answer to your question...

Does the idea of a Multiverse contradict Occam's Razor as much as does the theory of a God?

...doesn't present much of a challenge when viewed from the perspective of information science. Consider comparing the information content of a comic book vs. the entire Library of Congress, and in this illustration, the comic book would represent the information needed to create the optimal conditions for a universe supportive of life and God would represent the Library of Congress. Which has the most information content? Obviously, unless you want your God to be a dumb as a rock, this superbeing would need a near infinite information density. Especially if you want to believe in divine creation of life in all its forms, etc. It would be much more probable for a trillion dumb universes to pop up because of the nature of space-time lends itself to universe construction than it would be for one single God to pop into existence.

And if you want to play the "if" game, why just stop with one God...why couldn't there be 10, 1000, a million, a trillion Gods already in existence before time ever began. Now who is dodging the question? LOL

Without a universe already in existence, there could be NO God with a near infinite information density. Such a God, to even be able to develop any kind of thought processes, would need something external to interact with. If you want a simple example of what I mean, take a new born child and put it in a dark room with no sensory inputs. If you made brief interuptions in this horrific enviornment to feed this infant, and it somehow survived...do you think it would turn out to be a genuis or something more primitive than an idiot? It is simply impossible for information to grow into complexity without the right causative enviornment.

The Big Bang and the resulant causative development of the universe, is the only way an evolutionary development of intelligence or information density is possible.

Newsense... thank you for the input on Process Theology. Interesting stuff.

Skipper

52

What's Your DREAM ?

by frenchbabyface in

jw
friends

a little log house 1 bed located in a place like arizona (where it is just a bit green somewhere like flagstaff).

a cat - if i can take care of it .

a horse (but in arizona they live free so there i wouldn't have to buy one).

Mindchild

I guess I have two sets of dreams, one that covers the next 10-20 years and then another for the future afterwards.

In the first set:

Become a successful nonfiction writer

Do scientific research in astrophysics, geophysics, chronobiology, life extension and neuroscience.

Develop new business enterprises, innovations, and patents.

Become a global citizen, having citizenship in several countries, and own homes in Europe, Australia, Central America, and an island of my own somewhere.

Find and marry a stimulating woman who has a passion for life who is compatible with my dreams.

In the second set, I want to visit the Moon, live on and explore Mars, travel to Jupiter and explore the moons, especially Europa

I want to become superhuman by means of technological and medical advances and extend my lifespan for centuries or longer

Skipper

44

What God Really Wants

by Farkel in

i am thoroughly conviced that if the bible is to be believed as it is written, then god has gone out of his way to want all humans to be atheists.

he goes out of his way to convince people he couldn?t possibly exist, and if he does exist, he wants no one to follow him.

with the exception of the books of job, daniel and ezekiel almost all the other books of the old testament are full of gore, murder and genocide either from god himself, or upon the direct orders of god.

Mindchild

Time for the Farkel review....I give this post my thumbs up! Good job.

When I was a dub, I remember asking a few questions in the "bookstudy" about why there was so much really terrible stuff in the Bible. The canned answer was something along the line that this is the people he HAD to work with, faults and all...to show how wonderful and merciful of a God he was. Yeah right.

I like your spin on the Bible contributiing towards the validity of being an athiest. There is so much "negative" evidence in the Bible pushing someone towards being a nonbeliever that even without modern sciences as a tool, you could still make an intelligent decision.

Opps, better get out of here before the flame war starts.

Skipper

29

What to Believe In Now?

by Frannie Banannie in

prior to being borganized, i was captivated by bible scriptures and doctrines....but....after od-ing on scriptural content and doctrines according to the borg for over two decades, i began researching the scriptures to discover too many inconsistencies, even in what was alleged to be god's word.....the writings of earthling men, said to be inspired by god...... during the od-ing, i experienced quite a few personal spiritual incidents or events, which served at the time to confirm to me that the scriptures themselves were valid as to their veracity and content.....but.... after researching and discovering the inconsistencies in them, i've wondered if the spiritual experiences i had were inspired by what i had read and believed in the scriptures, as i had *believed* in those words.....like....hallucinations caused by strong belief or brain-washing....you know my drift, i'm sure.....i do know that some of the spiritual phenomena toward the end of my being borganized was leading me out of the borg...definitely...no questions about that....so....to me....even if there's the possibility that my experiences were caused by being immersed mentally and emotionally in scriptural content, the end result was good...and beneficial to me, since they did free me and open my eyes to the real truth of the matter....... now that i've discovered the inconsistencies in the scriptures and religious doctrines, i have only blind faith in god left to me.....even though i sense that he's here for me and listens and answers when i ask, it's sometimes difficult to deal with....i keep wondering if there isn't something or someone i should be putting my faith in....but the answer always appears to be "no"......i can't find god in a book.....i can't find him in a building or organization.....i don't know what tomorrow....or next week, next month, next year or the next century or millenium will bring to mankind...... could it be that life is once again becoming an adventure for which i do not know what the outcome is?

like it was when i was young?

if it is.....then thank god!....for to always know what and where i was supposed to be and what tomorrow and the future would bring was to live in fear....fear of not living up to my part in someone else's plan.....be it god's or mankind's.....i much prefer to "pioneer" my life....one day at a time....even if i don't know what to expect from it....should i seek enlightenment beyond what has been given to me?.

Mindchild

Hiya Frannie

The way you described things in your post, it looks to me like you are making excellent progress in your personal evolution. You have demonstrated skills in researching and analysis and you are not afraid to question "untouchable" subjects. Good on you for all this.

You know, I wish I had the benefit of all the condensed information you can find on this site and the benefit of so many people exploring new paths, but as it was I left the Borg over 20 years ago and it took me a few years to put all the questions to rest and come to terms with consensual reality vs. conceptual reality (the make believe world of the Witnesses).

Perhaps a good next step for you might be to discover why people have beliefs at all and what causes them to accept things that, from an outside viewpoint, look completely ridiculous. When you get to this point, you will discover the world of memes, mind viruses, and genetic influences on behavior. When you better understand the psychological dynamics involved in all of these factors then maybe you will be another victim of the "tragedy of knowing" and what that entails (uh, sometimes reality isn't as pretty and nice as we want it to be) but hey it beats being swept away with the crowds in collective stupidity (i.e. being a Witness).

May I suggest a good starter book on memes to further your exploration? You might enjoy the easy to read "Virus of the Mind" by Richard Brodie. Look up memes in the search feature on this site to get other book recommendations.

Kind Regards,

Skipper