Thx
It truly does not matter to me if the church is true or not. It's an interesting question to consider and explore, but ultimately the answer isn't falsifiable. Not in an empirical way. So, other questions assume greater weight when I consider my relationship to the church.
For my part, there are two important questions: Did God truly command Joseph to take Helen Kimball, a 14 year old girl, to be his umpteenth wife, and, if so, am I okay with that?
Well, Joseph did in fact coerce a 14 year old girl to marry him at the age 37. He claimed it was God's command, and he staked not only her own salvation, but that of her entire family as well. That definitely happened.
Am I okay with that? No. Emphatically no. So, it doesn't matter if the church is true or not. Even if God did command it, and it was righteous for Joseph to do that, I'm absolutely not okay with those facts, and there doesn't exist a context in which I would feel anything remotely approaching good given the facts.
There is much else that makes the question 'is it true or is it not?' kind of unimportant. Helen Kimball was, for me, the anvil dropped from a great hight that obliterated my shelf. What Smith (and God, allegedly) did and said to her was gross. Thinking about it makes me feel gross. And anytime I think about the church in any context I always think about Helen.
No amount of good that Joseph may have done will ever negate what he did to Helen and dozens of other women and girls. The founder of the church was not good, and, true or false, the institution he founded is demonstrably as rotten as he was.
Charles Hugh Smith wrote it but his site izn't safe to link to apparently.....
Jehovah Witnesses believe that whatever practices or beliefs with a source or origin that is 'pagan' or 'idolatry' or 'worldly' is not True, hence False.
There are countless of these..birthday celebrations, Easter, Christmas, Halloween, New year day, Thanksgiving Day etc, etc.
CT Russell, I believe needn't any written introduction in JW historical origin. He integrated pyramidology into his Bible Student movement. He adopted Joseph Seuss's designation that the Great Pyramid of Giza was "the Bible in stone". He taught that it played a special part in God's plan during the "last days" basing his interpretation on Isa.19:19-20. He wrote extensive treatises on the history, nature and prophetic symbolism of the Great Pyramid in relation to the then known archeological history, along with their interpretation of prophetic and biblical chronology. However, the sect Jehovah Witnesses, an offshoot from Bible students of CT Russel abandoned pyramidology since 1928,
Nevertheless, CT Russel, and 1914 are still parts of the religion TODAY.
Now, the Pyramid of Giza monument that woke up my uncle some 15 years ago is missing just a day ago.. from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania cemetery. Why? For what? To where?
For more, on this please, watch a very interesting video with this link.. https://youtu.be/nEV-8tSkpcM
This is an oft repeated statement, popularized by Bush when he said this to Manmohan Singh. Bush said he wondered as to how Muslims being the second major community in India had such low rates of involvement with Al Qaeda.
The press went on to popularise this statement as testament that Indian Muslims are immune to terrorism. However, while it is true that Indian Muslims rarely joined Al Qaeda, the conclusion that this signifies Indians are not attracted to Islamism is simply false. Reason ? It is important to remember that Al Qaeda is not the ONLY TERRORIST GROUP.
Emphasising on this, I would like to dwell on the Jamaat E Islami to give you a background. Globally, there are 4 prominent large Trans-nationalist Islamist organizations which have come to power / shared power /exerted influence.
- Muslim Brotherhood - Egypt (wrecked havoc in Syria, currently doing the same in Yemen, Libya and Lebanon).
- Jamaat E Islami - India (is in a coalition with the UPA in Kerala through Welfare Party of India ), Bangladesh (1971 war) and Pakistan (various splinters)
- Milli Gorus - Held power in Turkey and active in Europe.
- Hizbul Tahrir - Swayed Public opinion in Indonesia to remove Basuki Ahok.
However, I shall be sticking to the recent political history of Jamat E Islami in brief to make my point.
The Jamaat E Islami was formed by Madudi as a religious organization with an end game to achieve an Islamic State which had overarching influence on every faucet of life. The idea was Iqamaat E Deen. It was emphasised by Maududi as an all inclusive state of life which was dictated by the state to conform to Islam.
The thought has since been discussed upon by various Jamaat E Islami scholars in India and Pakistan. The Jamaat E Islami held the unusual position of maintaining that India should not be split into Hindu dominated India and Muslim dominated Pakistan since the Jamaat maintained that it would be tantamount to an insult to the legacy of Islam since Islam ruled the whole of India once but now would be limited to half. However, Maududi accepted Pakistan as it came and migrated to Pakistan.
The Jamaat then split into 3 parts. Kashmir, Hind and Pakistan. The Jamaat E Islami Hind maintained its extremist stance of India converting itself to an Islamic State in order to liberate itself from Jahiliya (Pre Islamic polytheism). JEI was consequently banned with the RSS by Indira Gandhi. The ban was consequently lifted and the Jamaat E Islami Hind formed
... keep reading on reddit ➡
I post this confession of Mirza Badi'u'llah, the brother of Mirza Muhammad 'Ali so that the truth of the matter is made known. The false allegations of idolatry and polytheism are inventions and charges hypocritically made in an effort to refuse to consider 'Abdu'l-Baha even though Mirza Muhammad 'Ali knew that 'Abdu'l-Baha was appointed by Baha'u'llah as the Center of the Covenant and Interpreter of the Baha'i Faith.
The following are confessions from Mirza Badi-u'llah written in 1903:
[The hatred of Mirrza Muhammad 'Ali towards' 'Abdu'l-Baha}
>"One day I attained the honor of visiting His Holiness, "Him whom God hath willed," (Abdul-Bahá) and heard from His blessed tongue all that which proved the untruth of the statements made regarding Him (by the Nakazeen). Later I directed my steps to the house and conversed with Mirza Mohammed Ali, and pleaded with him to forsake all personalities and to follow what he commanded, hoping that he might cease opposing the Cause of God and disturbing His believers. The more I pleaded with him, the more he refused and the prouder he appeared. He said nothing save words and expressions indicative of hatred, jealousy and enmity against the confirmed Center of the Covenant. He further tried to conceal the matter from those connected with him and from outsiders, and to throw suspicions whereby my object might remain hidden.
[Mirza Muhammad 'Ali made false charges against 'Abdu'l-Baha.]
>Having observed these actions, behaviors, words and deeds, this servant utterly despaired and closed his eyes to him. After the lapse of some time I discovered that he had composed untrue statements, and by hints and symbolic writing endeavored to keep people ignorant of his intentions, and claimed that he was oppressed and persecuted, while the fact was that day and night he remained at home and was engaged in cursing and execrating the Center of the Covenant. He has written an announcement, wherein he made statements of his being wronged and his holding to the law. For the purpose of casting suspicions, he has written certain expressions, all of which are void of truth and far from the reality.....
[Mirza Muhammad 'Ali altered Writings of Baha'u'llah to falsely accuse 'Abdu'l-Baha.]
>Another question concerns the interpolation. It is as follows: For a long time, by means of allusions and hints, symbols and signs, he gave me to understand that he possessed a Tablet from the Supreme Pen concerning His Holines
... keep reading on reddit ➡Aren’t synthetic propositions typically true based on their conformity to the world but if they are before experience how do we judge their truth? What’s Kants opinion on this?
If someone relies on “my truth”, they are full of B.S. Truth is supported by facts and logic or both. “My truth” is filled of bias and influence and perhaps both.
There is no such thing as “my truth”. There is only true or not true.
Quite annoying whenever Steve makes exaggerated claims or states plain falsehoods about Singapore in a convo in a jknews video. Or the crew being uninformed about southeast asia in general, for that matter (in the typical Orientalist, murica good, other country bad fashion).
In the recent bali deportation video, they're all so clueless that Bali, being part of literally the largest country in the region and having the largest population of Muslims in the world, isn't 'queer-friendly'.
Anyway, Steve straight-faced said that the Singapore government doesn't 'let their people go to the casinos'. Lol. Cringed so hard at how he said this falsity so confidently.
Citizens and PRs pay an entry fee to enter the famous tourist-attraction casinos in the city centre. Foreign visitors don't need to pay. But anyone (citizen, PR, or foreigner) can enter the casinos.
Just because Steve had a superficial visit to Singapore and hung out with some literal kids for a short while, every now and then he likes to act like an IR/politics expert and opine on how 'authoritarian' and 'dictatorship'-like the country is. Whenever I hear the word 'Singapore' exit Steve's mouth, I already cringe to the core of my soul and eye-roll hard.
End of rant.
Ever had a reality check fail in a dream because everything seemed to be real? Couldn't put your fingers through your palm? Couldn't breath with your nose pinched? Hit your head when you tried to walk through a wall?
I've been a lucid dreamer for a long time and thought I'd share some things I've observed over the years. I've heard the above questions many times.
The primary issue is trying to 'check' something that your mind can easily fake. Your dreaming mind can create weird and bizarre worlds where the physics doesn't work like it does here, but it can also create incredibly realistic dreamscapes as well. And as many people who have tried to learn how to fly can tell you, overcoming your belief in gravity is half the battle.
So are reality checks useless? Not at all. Even if carried on this way, there is a chance that at some point the check will work and you'll recognise the dream for what it is. But there is a way to make them more effective. Our dreaming mind can be easily duped by its environment, but we can turn its attention to itself instead.
When doing reality checks throughout the day, stop what you are doing completely for a moment, if it is safe to do so. Feel your body, feel what it is like to be standing where you are right now. Feel what it is like to stand in that room, feel the sense of depth from the objects around you, see if you can detect a breeze or if it the sunlight feels warm on your skin. Now imagine, what if the world around you right now was a dream? What does it feel like to be standing in a dream being lucid? Feel it, don't overthink it. Try to keep your mind silent if you can. If this is a lucid dream it's a pretty realistic one, isn't it? Enjoy your moment of lucidity, soak up what it feels like to be lucid in a dream.
Now, look at your hands. Note the detail you can immediately see. Do you recognise them as your hands? Why? Are they pretty stable or are there things about them that are unexpected?
Did you do the check just now? Maybe you should give it a try.
If you like, you can also program an intent for the next time you are lucid. Perhaps when you were pretending that you were lucid dreaming for a moment, you decided that the next thing you would do is see how high you can jump! Whatever you want to do, just remind yourself of that now.
You might wonder, what good does 'pretending' to be lucid do? And what kind of reality check gets you to 'pretend' anything, sounds more like a falsity check, am I right? Yes,
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Maybe I'm just in a bad mood rn lol but a lot of the time social media feels so fake and ingenuine. I hate that I feel compelled to check all my socials even though I know it'll leave me annoyed and drained. Does anyone else feel this way?
