gumby,
evolution was my slide, as i have mentioned before. after evolution, and learning about scientific method, the rest was easy. i just applied the same tools of logic and research that i used on the watchtower doctrine, on the bible and god. like as in: "hmmm... that was interesting. i wonder if i can research the rest of this stuff too?"
but i wouldn't have done that if i hadn't have had a hunch that it was all a bunch of baloney: jws, xianity, islam, judiasm, god, angels, demons, ghosts, ufo's, karma, heaven, hell, etc. i think some people have had enough of a rollercoaster ride leaving the org, and others like myself, really get off on the thrill of shedding doctrine and faith. so it was easy, emotionally, to keep going. plus i had the hunch. leaving the org, but staying a xian, just doesn't address the problem of "evil" and "suffering" in my eyes, at all. so, obviously, i think one would have to be in denial to not continue on.
one day i decided i would follow a very simple rule in determining my worldview, because the last thing i wanted was to just replace charles taze russell with myself as far as just making shit up, you know? it basically goes like this: i will not believe anything for which there is no evidence. this is a luxury afforded us by the 20th century, that suprisingly few people take advantage of. i honestly wonder how Hume, Nietzsche and Sade did it sometimes, apart from their hunch. but this simple rule is how i can go from xianity to ufo's in a single sentence of things i dropped. and when there is no evidence for the existence of god, that cannot be explained more parsimoniously and naturally, then god is a belief i dropped. same with the so-called holy inspiration of the bible. same with the so-called inspiration of the WTS. as i researched all three, i saw that the simple rule above worked the same for all of them. it doesn't take a lot of research either, unless one is emotionally involved.
Slowly, there was a growing sensitivity to the suffering in the world; it's weight growing heavier and heavier, as if the load being carried was the worlds. A great hatred arouse within. A murderous hatred directed at the god which was passed down to me. It's as if my heart knew that the Biblical man-god was totally insufficient, inaccurate and make-believe, and the only way it could get the point across was to pull all my beliefs of what was real, my little paradigm, completely out from under me.
yes, exactly james, exactly. these are the words for this "hunch" i speak of. TS