ExBethelitePIMA...........Religion and belief systems are a human equivalent to exoskeletons. They are rigid and confining on one hand but seemingly offer safety and protection on the other. As an animal or person grows the exoskeleton must be shed. This is for both animals and people, a vulnerable time. Sometimes they fall victim to the spores of extremism or fall to self-harm. Sometimes the exoskeleton molt fails to completely occur, and the poor creature drags a shell of their former life around. Unable to grow, unable to eat, they must hide in the shadows. Such creatures die in nature but humans have the unfortunate fate of continuing in that state, complaining about what's happened but unable/unwilling to complete the transition to a new life.
peacefulpete
JoinedPosts by peacefulpete
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37
If you were to design a new religion?
by ExBethelitenowPIMA inwhat the jw sect has become and is slowly becoming is far more near what i thought could be a good religion based on the bible.. no more counting hours and no more blindly following direction now they admit they are not inspired.. i would like to design a new sect inside the jws.
it has to be kept secret because the elders would not like it.. this new sect involves giving a tick every month or so saying you are still kindof active talking about the bible.. going to meetings occasionally and attending on zoom sometimes.
very rarely go to ministry groups but don’t ever do first call, just say you are doing street work and have a nice walk somewhere maybe the shops or the park.
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Another Inspiring Story
by peacefulpete in“i knew the repercussions of leaving” (chronicle.com).
she did not see any role models around her, and the organization’s requirements and expectations “steered me away from the things i wanted to do in my life.” at age 18, she decided to leave the religion, “even though it was hard, even though it was confusing, and scary … and painful,” to pursue her dreams and goals..
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peacefulpete
Phizzy, I'm doing well, thanks for caring. Honestly, I find myself having church dreams after posting too much here. lol. Dreams where I'm on stage to give a talk but have no idea what about. I step away from the computer, and it all happily fades away again.
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If you were to design a new religion?
by ExBethelitenowPIMA inwhat the jw sect has become and is slowly becoming is far more near what i thought could be a good religion based on the bible.. no more counting hours and no more blindly following direction now they admit they are not inspired.. i would like to design a new sect inside the jws.
it has to be kept secret because the elders would not like it.. this new sect involves giving a tick every month or so saying you are still kindof active talking about the bible.. going to meetings occasionally and attending on zoom sometimes.
very rarely go to ministry groups but don’t ever do first call, just say you are doing street work and have a nice walk somewhere maybe the shops or the park.
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37
If you were to design a new religion?
by ExBethelitenowPIMA inwhat the jw sect has become and is slowly becoming is far more near what i thought could be a good religion based on the bible.. no more counting hours and no more blindly following direction now they admit they are not inspired.. i would like to design a new sect inside the jws.
it has to be kept secret because the elders would not like it.. this new sect involves giving a tick every month or so saying you are still kindof active talking about the bible.. going to meetings occasionally and attending on zoom sometimes.
very rarely go to ministry groups but don’t ever do first call, just say you are doing street work and have a nice walk somewhere maybe the shops or the park.
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peacefulpete
Define "religion". Do you mean a collective of people who share the same values and beliefs? That is also called a "circle jerk".
Do you mean people who enjoy getting together for support and sharing of ideas? That is also called a "salon" group.
I've seen the ugly side of definition one, and the beauty of definition two. When I first left the church, I found a group of lovely people that enjoyed discourse and asking questions. We often had guest speakers on topics as diverse as attracting bluebirds to healthcare. The group lost a few key participants, and the host location was sold. I've often thought of trying to revive it, but it requires some dedicated individuals to keep it alive and interesting.
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Another Inspiring Story
by peacefulpete in“i knew the repercussions of leaving” (chronicle.com).
she did not see any role models around her, and the organization’s requirements and expectations “steered me away from the things i wanted to do in my life.” at age 18, she decided to leave the religion, “even though it was hard, even though it was confusing, and scary … and painful,” to pursue her dreams and goals..
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peacefulpete
“I Knew the Repercussions of Leaving” (chronicle.com)
She did not see any role models around her, and the organization’s requirements and expectations “steered me away from the things I wanted to do in my life.” At age 18, she decided to leave the religion, “even though it was hard, even though it was confusing, and scary … and painful,” to pursue her dreams and goals.
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How to talk to former Witnesses about their beliefs.
by Vanderhoven7 inmark jones writes.
there have been only a handful of occasions where a jehovah’s witness has successfully engaged me in respectable conversation with mutual respect.
one such person started off like this and (unfortunately) has become an angry little man over the years.
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peacefulpete
Ask the JW if they have doubts or difficulty with anything. If they say no, tell them you are available to talk if they ever want to be honest with themselves.
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Do you play the LOTTERY?
by Fisherman injw view gambling as a sin and sadly people get addicted to gambling causing them financial and health problems.
but is playing a couple of bucks a week on some lottery tickets actually gambling?
what do you have to lose?
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peacefulpete
Then maybe we should cast lots to decide what to do.
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Do you play the LOTTERY?
by Fisherman injw view gambling as a sin and sadly people get addicted to gambling causing them financial and health problems.
but is playing a couple of bucks a week on some lottery tickets actually gambling?
what do you have to lose?
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peacefulpete
Funny, my folks used to send in publisher's clearing house sweepstakes hoping of course to win the million dollars 💵. They said it wasn't gambling if it only cost a stamp and envelope.
What is gambling? Taking a risk? Is it greed? Is it investing on a longshot?
It's all semantics and splitting hairs. I have bought penny stocks. I have taken a chance and bought low priced cars sight unseen. I bought past dated milk half price. I bought tickets for Trout Unlimited dinners and won door prizes. I got out of bed.
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My Prediction Regarding New Space Telescope That Will See Back to 100 Million Years From the Big Bang
by Sea Breeze ina new space telescope launched a few days age that will supposedly be able to see to within 100 million years of the big bang.
wow... only 100 million years from the big bang.
that is pretty early given the 12 billion year age of the universe assigned by scholars who adhere to naturalism.
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My Prediction Regarding New Space Telescope That Will See Back to 100 Million Years From the Big Bang
by Sea Breeze ina new space telescope launched a few days age that will supposedly be able to see to within 100 million years of the big bang.
wow... only 100 million years from the big bang.
that is pretty early given the 12 billion year age of the universe assigned by scholars who adhere to naturalism.
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peacefulpete
From the Cornell article you posted:
Most surprising about these galaxies, considering their age and mass, was their mature metallicity – amounts of elements heavier than helium and hydrogen, such as carbon, oxygen and nitrogen – which the team estimated to be similar to our sun. Compared to the sun, which is about 4 billion years old and inherited most of its metals from previous generations of stars that had roughly 8 billion years to build them up, we are observing these galaxies at a time when the universe was less than 1.5 billion years old.
“We are seeing the leftovers of at least a couple of generations of stars having lived and died within the first billion years of the universe’s existence, which is not what we typically see,” Vishwas said. “We speculate that the process of forming stars in these galaxies must have been very efficient and started very early in the universe, particularly to explain the measured abundance of nitrogen relative to oxygen, as this ratio is a reliable measure of how many generations of stars have lived and died.”It's so tiresome to unpack the misrepresentations and half truths of creationists.
We sent the telescope out to learn and we are learning. It would be more than suspicious, and pretty boring, if we saw only what we predicted to see.