truth_b_known

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Posts by truth_b_known

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  40

  Liberal vs. Conservative mental health study - what do you make of it?

  by Brock Talon in

  1. social
  2. current

  a pew study from 2020 (but one i just now came upon myself) reported that the more liberal you are, the more likely you are to have a mental health condition.

  the worst suffering group are white females, ages 18-29 where over 56% have admitted to be described by their own doctors as having a mental health condition.

  conservative females of the same age group suffer at less than half that number (27%).. while women tend to have more mental health problems than men (don't be mad at me for saying it, this is what the study reports) it is notable that liberal men have a higher percentage of mental health conditions than conservative women in the same age group.

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  truth_b_known

  ...people who question the veracity of the study, or they try to downplay it, or muddle the issue to deflect the import of what the study is actually saying.

  I always question the veracity of any study. As a student of psychology, I especially take interest. The links provided by the OP left me with more questions than answers. I did some digging and found another article on the study that provides more information.

  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unique-everybody-else/202103/personality-traits-mental-illness-and-ideology

  Brock Talon - The question you ask is answered in the article I provided. It is white persons who prescribe to "extreme liberalism" as political ideology that have found to suffer from mental illness at a higher rate. As Simon commented, that sounds more like Leftist ideology. Liberalism and Leftism tend to be interchanged as terms presently. They are not.

  In reading the OP links I had a hypothesis that 1) the mental illness diagnosis would be neuroticism and 2) that the link between religious ideology and the lower percentage of reported cases of mental illness with persons with conservative political ideology would be mentioned. Sure enough, the study showed that.

  Frederick Nietzsche correctly predicted by in the 1880s that rationalism would "kill" god and lead to one of two pathologies for effected persons - nihilism or utopianism through totalitarian government. Renowned psychologist/psychoanalyst Dr. Viktor Frankl calls these neuroticisms as the "existential vacuum." Neuroticism is a low level mental illness that is curable and does not require medication.
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  40

  Liberal vs. Conservative mental health study - what do you make of it?

  by Brock Talon in

  1. social
  2. current

  a pew study from 2020 (but one i just now came upon myself) reported that the more liberal you are, the more likely you are to have a mental health condition.

  the worst suffering group are white females, ages 18-29 where over 56% have admitted to be described by their own doctors as having a mental health condition.

  conservative females of the same age group suffer at less than half that number (27%).. while women tend to have more mental health problems than men (don't be mad at me for saying it, this is what the study reports) it is notable that liberal men have a higher percentage of mental health conditions than conservative women in the same age group.

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  truth_b_known

  Mental illness is a broad, generic term. What are the people in the study diagnosed with? The last link is the only one that mentions anxiety and depression. It claims that persons who prescribe to liberal ideology believe in equality and exhaust themselves with keeping score.
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  9

  Time Indefinite

  by StephaneLaliberte in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  from a very young age, i was always annoyed by this translation time indefinite simply means: time that has not been defined.

  where the new world translation uses "time indefinite", other translations use "everlasting" and "eternal".

  honestly, it makes much more sense to me "everlasting" and "eternal" as "time indefinite" would leave room for god to define that time later on.

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  truth_b_known

  Time indefinite is certainly Watchtower speak. Just like using underserved kindness instead of grace.

  Side note - Eternal means without beginning or end.
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  53

  Did you think this was it for the Watchtower-(Covid)- Well-They are coming back with even greater ZEAL!

  by pistolpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  so you all probably heard that the awake magazine is back, .

  https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/?contentlanguagefilter=en&pubfilter=g&yearfilter=.

  and one of my jw relatives said they were told by some elders that meetings and field service will resume before the end of the year.. they said this covid virus was a test, like when the romans breached jerusalem and retreated, only to come back later and sack jerusalem.

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  truth_b_known

  They said this Covid Virus was a test, like when the Romans breached Jerusalem and retreated, only to come back later and sack Jerusalem.

  This where I would ask, "So, when it does not come back, what does that mean?"

  It is also irritating to see the Watchtower portray the Great Tribulation as SWAT officers rounding up JWs from their homes. SWAT is deployed after a threat assessment. Arresting a group of people who likely have no weapons, weapons training, and are self-proclaimed pacifists hardly meets the threshold to deploy a SWAT team.

  Further, even the Watchtower has a talk outline defining the difference between trials, tribulation, and persecution. What appears in Watchtower publications, like the painting above, is persecution. The Bible states it will be a Great Tribulation like none before. Tribulations affect all people. Natural disasters, man made disasters, famine, and plagues are tribulations.
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  17

  What did Jesus Teach the "Kingdom of Heaven/God" is?

  by truth_b_known in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the books of matthew, mark, luke, john, and the beginning of acts are filled with what the authors purport are statements of jesus.

  jesus is quoted as making several statements about "the kingdom of heaven" or "the kingdom of god".

  those statements are often given as parables that start with a phrase something like "the kingdom of heaven is like...".

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  truth_b_known

  The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the beginning of Acts are filled with what the authors purport are statements of Jesus. Jesus is quoted as making several statements about "the Kingdom of Heaven" or "The Kingdom of God". Those statements are often given as parables that start with a phrase something like "The Kingdom of Heaven is like..."

  So there are many statements of what this kingdom is like. Jesus command his followers to go out and preach about this kingdom. However, after all these years, I still can't tell you what this kingdom is supposed to be based solely on Jesus teachings. It seems that when professed Christians try to explain what this kingdom is they have to refer to books written by the apostles after Jesus' ascension to heaven.

  Are there any statements purported to be from Jesus where he explains what this kingdom is?
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  10

  Disneyland

  by road to nowhere in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we just saw the disney ad on tv.

  pimi wife says we never took the kids.

  i wanted to reply that we used vacation for conventions and important stuff..

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  truth_b_known

  I recall on many occasions of hearing District Overseers at conventions compare taking the family to visit Bethel as the equivalent to going to Disneyland.
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  20

  wt's tale of the two mothers.

  by waton in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  in retrospect, for lurkerking fence sitters.

  , today's( may 30 ) study article.:.

  a mother un lovingly, on "apostate" advice, does everything, right and wrong to keep her daughter from becoming a wt slave.

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  truth_b_known

  Yesterday’s WT study article put forward some thoughts that I was not comfortable with. It dealt with enduring persecution with joy , particularly persecution from family. In my view that only encourages the persecution complex that too many dubs have anyway.

  The Watchtower has always proclaimed that the "persecution" of Witnesses is proof positive that they have "the truth". The Watchtower refers to Jesus statement that his followers would be persecuted as he was as a slave is not greater than the master. What they fail to see is that Jesus was referring to Christians being persecuted for being followers of Christ. What happens to Witnesses is due to their being a cult and their practices that violate laws.
  
  
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  20

  Do You Still Easily Believe Everything?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  to be a witness you had to accept whatever spiritual food was being dished out.

  even if it didn’t make any sense, we were expected to believe.

  now that we are out of the cult, do you find yourself a person who doesn’t just accept the status quo?

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  truth_b_known

  "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

  – Gautama Buddha
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  18

  God vs ET`s ,why is one more probable than the other ?

  by smiddy3 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  billions of people around the world beleive in a god of some sort or other who exerts some power or influence to some degree or other in lifes affairs .. i don`t think there would be anywhere near that figure that would entertain the possability of extra terrestial life elsewhere in the universe.. and i find that curious .. the ancients didn`t know that their were other humans on other continents on this planet until they ventured out and found them .. we live somewhere in the milky way galaxy with millions of suns and planets that orbit them.. our galaxy is only one of trillions if not zillions of galaxys in the known universe.. look at the diversity of life on just this one planet earth ,what possabilitys could exist elsewhere ?

  on alien worastronomers can use the hubble space telescope to view galaxies near the edge of the observable universe (the region of space from which light has had a chance to reach us within the last 13.77 billion years).

  by examining a very tiny portion of the sky, counting up the number of visible galaxies in the universe in that specific region, and then multiplying that number to account for all the regions of the sky, astronomers estimate the number of galaxies in the universe.

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  truth_b_known

  If you believe in God, why wouldn't God make life on other planets and galaxies?

  In some religions it is that way.
  
  
• 
  18

  God vs ET`s ,why is one more probable than the other ?

  by smiddy3 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  billions of people around the world beleive in a god of some sort or other who exerts some power or influence to some degree or other in lifes affairs .. i don`t think there would be anywhere near that figure that would entertain the possability of extra terrestial life elsewhere in the universe.. and i find that curious .. the ancients didn`t know that their were other humans on other continents on this planet until they ventured out and found them .. we live somewhere in the milky way galaxy with millions of suns and planets that orbit them.. our galaxy is only one of trillions if not zillions of galaxys in the known universe.. look at the diversity of life on just this one planet earth ,what possabilitys could exist elsewhere ?

  on alien worastronomers can use the hubble space telescope to view galaxies near the edge of the observable universe (the region of space from which light has had a chance to reach us within the last 13.77 billion years).

  by examining a very tiny portion of the sky, counting up the number of visible galaxies in the universe in that specific region, and then multiplying that number to account for all the regions of the sky, astronomers estimate the number of galaxies in the universe.

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  truth_b_known

  It appears to me that only Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) take issue with life on other planets. This is especially so with Protestant/Reformationist denominations of Christianity. They whole-heartedly prescribe to Luther's teaching of Sola Scriptura - by Scripture Alone, that is to say everything in the Bible happened just as it is written and there are no other writings to put faith in.

  Life on other planets goes against Sola Scriptura as the Bible makes no mention of it. This is where some serious cognitive dissonance come into play with many Christians. Even look into Jehovah's Witnesses. I heard whispers of thoughts of Witnesses who believed that dinosaur fossils were created by demons to try to get us to believe in evolution.