Nice post Richard...
Mulan said "His concern is that people who read his books are left spiritually bankrupt, and don't read the Bible anymore."
D wiltshire said "I feel that Ray Franz's books have told us where to go, you just have to read them a little more closely and you will see (especially the Search book)."
Well, I agree with both the above statements, as they apply neatly to two of the possible outcomes for an x-Dub.
There are those who realised that religion actually is a snare and a racket, and that there probably isn't a god thing anyway. Either that or they were so alienated from god by the Borg they can't believe any longer. What explaination you prefer depends on how your beliefs ended up.
Then there are those who escaped the falseness of the Borg and found, errrrr, true Christian Freedom, (with or without the capitals). Either that, or they are so conditoned to believe in god they can't let go, even when there probably isn't one. Again, what explaination you prefer depends on how your beliefs ended up.
Personally I think Ray Franz is a good guy. He made a stand and I believe that right is on his side in many ways on the stand he took. He exposed organisational malpractise and culpable disemination of mis and disinformation. The doctrinal stuff is more of a remove for me, as I'm not a believer now.
Because of this I don't read the Bible any more. Despite this I don't feel myself to be spiritually bankrupt.
Maybe what I feel to be my spirituality is in a different currency to that of a theist (I am a humanist), and thus from their perspective I appear to be bankrupt.
ISoCF, as anewperson and D wiltshire point out, does give a compass bearing to Ray's personal beliefs, whereas CoC is more of a pure expose.
I was struck by Nathan Natas' comment about the attitude many Witnesses have;
"If this isn't the Truth, then there is no truth."Isn't that like saying that if Santa Claus isn't real, nothing is real?
If this isn't the truth, then SOMETHING ELSE must be the truth.
A good place to begin is with REALITY - the evidence of your senses.
I was reading the Beatles Anthology the other day; there's a bit where Lennon gets to ride in a helicopter with the Maharishi. George asked him why he had wanted to so much, and Lennon replied that he hoped tyhe Maharishi would slip him The Answer. Scouse irony aside, the idea that there is an Answer ('to Life the Universe and Everything', as Douglas Adams put it) is wonderfully cute.
Personally, unless there is an old hyper being existing in multiple dimensions who has 'a plan' (which I don't believe), I don't think there is an answer or 'truth'.
There are facts, that we can discern using our mind and senses.
But I find that assuming there is some underlying 'truth' just because we know some of the facts underpinning our reality is a big jump.
Maybe that's in my reading of it; I see the idea of 'truth' synominous with 'an answer to Life the Universe and Everything'.
Truth is a hugely loaded word, quite probably for all of us, as it indicates right or wrong as well as actuality.
E=mc>2. F=ma. s=u+1/2at>2. Photosynthesis. The Nitrogen cycle. These are all FACTS, as far as we know. There is no morality in biology chemistry or physics. Thus there is no truth.
For me, getting out of the Borg has been a discovery that you don't NEED a spirit in the sky to be spiritual. It's been a discovery that you don't need The Answer, or The Truth to have a happy life. That you don't need some hopeful anticipation of, in some way, not really dying.
I am alive. I was born, I will die. It is wonderful. It's more than enough. So maybe I am actually saying that for myself there IS a truth or an answer.
But I wouldn't capitalise them as they don't neccesarily apply to you, or you, or you.