Reading the Bible Made Me Leave "The Truth" – & Christianity

by Seeker4 28 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Carmel

  The followers of all the prophets engaged in hagiography. I remember when our family would get together with relatives and the story telling would begin. I'd hear stories recounted about me and my brothers that were "enhanced" to show those "heathens" how much better good little JWs were than the Mormon cousins. It's a reoccuring practice that stories about the "baby Jesus" never crying, probably never soiled His britches either, on and on. The same was true of all the others. So what do we make of the "myth making"? Is it a fundamental fault of the spiritual leader that the followers make up tales? What is the essential truthes taught, vs, what exagerations creep in in the telling of the story?

  carmel
• 

  ringo5

  No, but I have run the numbers, nand it appears that irreligion is by far more fatal than religion. Have you done that?

  
  
  If you have those numbers on hand, I'd be interested in hearing them...
  
  
  
  
  
  It always seemed to be the kind of worship that was way over the top, you know, GLORY, GLORY, GLORY, with the every living thing stopping everything constructive, and bowing down, prostrating themselves, or ripping their garments apart, because that was our purpose in life, that was why he created us.
  
  Just didn't seem like a very fulfilling existence to look forward to, and also didn't present God as someone that I would like to emulate.
  
  
  Good thread.
• 

  willyloman

  One thing I came to understand after I left the JWs is that the last thing the greatest being in the universe would need is to be worshipped.

  My thought, too. And once you realize that, it all unravels, doesn't it?
• 

  ICBehindtheCurtain

  Terry and Seeker4 I'm with you guys on this, I didn't completely open my eyes to the whole truth until I started really reading the bible in context. I read "The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine and that sealed it for me. I just can't believed how fooled I was for so many years and how many people still believe in this Book of fables and stories. If you look at the OT texts that supposedly support the idea that Jesus fulfilled all those prophesies you will see that they were taken out of context in order to prove that Jesus was the foretold Messiah, I was so amazed when I saw that, and to think that for over 2,000 years this belief has survived, unbelievable!!!

  IC
• 

  Stress Free

  Yes Seeker4 i'm with you on this. When I was an elder there were many times when I just couldn't understand there explanation of particular scriptures. The harder I tried to understand it from there viewpoint the more I got doubts, not only about the wts but the bible as well. As other posters before me have mentioned, I also had problems with the old testament. All those ghastly details of violence and war that was supposedly committed in the name of god, and jehoova would bless them, just didn't make sense to me. I started thinking of him as a violent god.

  Then along came the new testament and all of a sudden he is this all loving god, turn the other cheek kind of thing. I started thinking, hell he must have Schizophrenia. All this prompted me to I start studying ancient history and the early history of the bible without any wts literature. Then it all started to make sense, I have been wasting my life following a book compiled and written by men whom at the end of the day only wanted to control peoples lives.

  So did reading the bible help me leave "the Troof" and Christianity forever? Obsolutley!

  Stress Free
• 

  lowden

  IMAGINE...........No Religion Too......

  Now THAT'S Paradise!

  Peace

  Lowden
• 

  Seeker4

  Ringo wrote: "...it always struck me as odd that this all powerful Being would be so interested in getting us puny humans to worship him.
  It always seemed to be the kind of worship that was way over the top, you know, GLORY, GLORY, GLORY, with the every living thing stopping everything constructive, and bowing down, prostrating themselves, or ripping their garments apart, because that was our purpose in life, that was why he created us.
  Just didn't seem like a very fulfilling existence to look forward to, and also didn't present God as someone that I would like to emulate."
  
  How true! Can you imagine someone so unsure of themselves that they would require multitudes to sit around them and tell them how great they are? That's a sickness, not the doings of a perfect god.
  As a father, you want your kids to grow up and move on and do things with their lives, use their talentts and abilities in order to have a happy and satisfying life of their own.
  If as a father you just wanted your children to stick around you and keep telling you how great you are, you would be considered a psychopath. That's just one way you can see that god is a creation of man. The god's qulaities always seem to be the worst of human qualities. Anything that requires your devotion and worship should be avoided like the plague!
  S4
• 

  Terry

  
  Worship is a peculiarity on both sides of the issue for the worshipped and the worshipper.

  Would an entity accept something it did not crave out of need or necessity unless there was an emptiness that could never be filled?

  Whose fault is it that humanity is inferior to the god that created it?

  The game was rigged by the lack of equality from the get go.

  Apparently the bible God only creates inferiors. An insecurity, no doubt.

  From these inferiors it follows there is an inferior behavior to the perfect one expected and required. Somehow this is surprising?

  It must needs be punished! All for what? For being made deliberately inferior to a perfect creator on purpose.

  The minds that invented such a god were not up to their best logically.

  For humanity, the very act of worship declares an inferior status which cannot be mended except by groveling with gratitude.

  So, the destiny of an inferior human is sealed by being permitted to exist only if constant admission of puny status is foremost in all communications.

  God KNOWS what you need but witholds it unless you continue to knock at his door and beg for crumbs?

  Nonsense. Stuff and nonsense.

  Such a parent is the model of a fiend!

  This is a primitive and brutal myth and not much more than that.

  We can thank the devout and the incurious for perpetuating such a fraud.
• 

  Disillusioned JW

  justsomedude do you still visit this web site? I hope so because I wish to say the following to you. I think you should have kept your Bible which had numerous notes in it by you, or I think you should have made copies of the notes before getting rid the Bible. I think that because the notes are important. I have some NWT Bibles which I am keeping because of the notes I made into them, at least until I make copies (perhaps photocopies) of my notes.

  By the way folks, I found this forum topic by doing a search on this website using the terms of 'Bible' and 'contradictions'. A big part of the reason I am posting here and thus reviving this forum topic is because I hope more Christians who visit this website will read the posts of this forum topic. The first post of this forum topic and the post by Terry are excellent. I strongly relate to the first post.

  The more I study the Bible the more problems I see in it and the more I realize (and am reminded of) how much of the Bible is appalling. It motivates me to resell more of the books I own about religion, including Bibles. When I bought the vast majority of those books I was a Christian with a strong appreciation of the Bible, but now I am atheist who is extremely convinced that no personal God (including Yahweh/Jehovah) exists.