please forgive if my english is a bit crooked :-) at least i understand quite well and i thank everyone here in the forum very much!
you were a big help for me within the last months.
i'm a born-in from germany, mid50, was 20 years elder, woke up a few years ago.
Immortal = eternal = no beginning or end
If we have a consciousness that is immortal, we have no beginning. Memories are illusions created by the brain which also create the illusion of past and future. Memories may be separate from consciousness. Our true Self is more like an observer of the eternal present.
someone is researching jehovah’s witnesses.
they happen to come on to this site.
do the witnesses have the truth??.
Post modernism and meta-skepticism are pathological.
Post Modern Credo:
This is the same thinking that gave us "2+2 can equal 5" and "personally held truths" replaced facts.
please forgive if my english is a bit crooked :-) at least i understand quite well and i thank everyone here in the forum very much!
you were a big help for me within the last months.
i'm a born-in from germany, mid50, was 20 years elder, woke up a few years ago.
I am not sure what to make of NDEs. On one hand I have found that only people living or exposed to Western cultures have NDEs with "going towards the light" and Judeo-Christian themes. Conversely I have read that there are cases where a person's consciousness continues for a couple of days after the dying.
There are those who claim our consciousness produced by our brain. Then there are those who claim that our brain just filters consciousness such as our eyes pick up photons and ears vibration. It makes sense since energy cannot be destroyed, only altered.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-well/201906/does-consciousness-exist-outside-the-brain
does anyone know when and how the change took place?
is the "day age" theory still the current position of watchtower?.
Listening to Protestant Reformationists argue over how long a "creative day" is sounds like people at a Star Trek convention arguing over General Calrissian's strategy at the Battle of Five Armies.
someone is researching jehovah’s witnesses.
they happen to come on to this site.
do the witnesses have the truth??.
The Watchtower publishes a list of reason they believe they have "the truth".
Write the list down, bullet point style.
Use facts to disprove each bullet point.
perseverance rover has been on mars for a few weeks.
its mission is mainly to analyse martian soil and search for signs of extinct life.. also, perseverance is the first martian explorer vehicle fitted with a microphone, so audio recordings of sounds on mars can be beamed back to earth and heard by us.. these sounds that you can hear in the video are happening nearly 35 million miles away.. pretty awesome, i gotta say ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzw9mhgwjhq.
It is rather amazing to say the least.
whether you are in the usa or another country, are you for it or against it?.
"Open borders" is a nice way of saying "wealth redistribution".
I am for open borders if all countries do it. I am opposed to open borders if not all countries do it.
I know that foreign nationals may only stay in Mexico 182 days of the calendar year (6 months minus a day). There are whole communities of U.S. citizens in Mexico taking advantage of the warmer weather and lower cost of living. They are not a burden to the Mexican taxpayers and contribute to local economy. So, good on both sides of the ledger. We only hear about one side of the ledger from either side of the argument in the U.S.
Sure, criminal aliens contribute some money to the local economy in the U.S. and pay some taxes. However, the amount that is contributed is less than the cost of tax payer funded government services used by criminal aliens. Then take into consideration the human impact. U.S. citizens are harmed or killed by criminal aliens. Sure, U.S. citizens harm and kill each other, but there are crimes that could have been prevented if the U.S. just enforced immigration laws.
We have arguments over low and stagnant wages in the U.S. which fuels the drive for raising the minimum wage. Minimum wage only applies to companies and businesses who hire U.S. citizens or those with a right to work in the U.S. Criminal aliens flooding the U.S. have made it near impossible for U.S. citizens in the trades and construction to earn a living. Why pay a skilled union carpenter $35.00 and hour when their is a never ending supply of people who will do it for $10.00, cash under the table, coming over the border illegally on a daily basis?
People are fleeing their nation of origin to come to the U.S. due to rampant violence. All they are doing is contributing to those who are carrying out the violence. Mexican drug cartels use these people fleeing their country for the U.S. because it makes them money. The U.S. would be better off sending cruise ships down to Central America to pick up these refugees and bring them directly to the U.S., bypassing Mexico all together. This would reduce the drug mules and human trafficking into the U.S. which in turn would cut into the profits of drug cartels.
apparently , some bright spark has created a new sexuality - super-straight - and posted it on twitter.
it's a new sexuality that means people who are exclusively attracted to cisgender males or females.
it was made because some people are saying you aren't straight if you don't date transgender people.
If I were asked if I am "super-straight" I would reply, "No. I am a human."
Of course I would then be labeled a racist for calling myself a human and not using a label from a spectrum of feelings to describe my self.
why do some people who were trapped in the wt and wake up after much frustration and anger that they were lied to, still believe in the bible god who allowed them and their families to be deceived and trapped for years.
i have an acquaintance who is a lot older than me and for the past 30 years he has been out of the watchtower religion and is sola scriptura.
sola scriptura is a theological doctrine that posits the christian scriptures as the sole infallible source of authority for christian faith and practice.
Pistol Pete:
Wonderful post! More people need to bring up discussion on Sola Scriptura and the other 4 main teachings of Martin Luther that took Christianity and put it on it's head.
I will point out one small thing - the Catholic Church rejects the concept of Sola Scriptura. The Church (Catholicism) does not believe the Bible should be taken literally in most aspects. The Catholic Church openly accepts evolution. Much of the Old Testament is looked at as merely allegorical works that contain some wisdom. There was even a Pope that stated that Christianity is not the only way to worship God.
The Bible is a disturbing book. Especially the Old Testament. Christianity, as a spiritual practice, is actually an amazing thing. Christianity as a religion of doctrine to be memorized and rules to be conformed to stifles the whole purpose of a spiritual practice. Unfortunately over 40,000 heretical sects of Christianity are so obsessed with this thing called "salvation" they miss the whole point - Heaven is on Earth. Life is a gift and happiness is now. We are just fine the way we are and the sooner we accept ourselves the sooner we get to living.
source - march 2021 announcements - - https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5085868283920384/2021-march-147-english-german-announcements-reminders.
this is a sobering reminder of what happened some 40 years ago when raymond franz and others were literally kicked out from the jehovah's witnesses for having pre-arranged private spiritual discussions.lesson: paragraph 7 is another example of the i and t in dr. steven hassan's bite model of the 21st century cult - information and thought control at its best!!!!
"my gosh, there must be a lot of independent meetings these days.
The Watchtower says that Witnesses may -
The Watchtower says that Witnesses may not -
As a child growing up as a born-in Witness I remember that Saturday morning were field service and after lunch was the family study of preparing for the following day's Watchtower study at the meeting. Dad was start the study by offering a prayer. Dad conducted the Watchtower study. We took turns reading the paragraphs and cited scriptures.
So, in short, the Watchtower no condemns what I grew up with.
I also remember as a child going camping with multiple families from the congregation. The whole camping party would have a Watchtower study together because we were out camping instead of being at the meeting. I am sure such an activity would also be condemned.
