my mum used to be a JW, she was baptised after about 3 years and carried on for about another 2. she first started taking me to the meetings when i was about 8, and carried on week after week until she was disfellowshipped (she went a bit mad and left home, but that's by the by). the point is im 21 now and trying to make sense of the stuff i was brought up with for 5 years. a lot of it seems very strange to me. if anyone could shed light on one or two things i'd be most grateful (and some of it i might have wrong anyway).
- before noah's flood, all animals were vegetarian. obviously the questions here are endless.
- i was always told that JWs do not believe in wearing crosses because "you wouldn't exactly frame the shotgun that killed your dad." but i don't really follow this logic: the ransom sacrifice was the supreme gesture; the saviour of mankind. all christianity is built on it, so this argument seems weak. also, that JWs believe Christ was crucified with his arms upward rather than outstretched. what evidence is there for this and why does it matter? the cross symbol could still be valid, as i suppose a name plaque would have been nailed above him.
- how can the story of job be seen as anything other than morbid? obviously this is a criticism levelled at all christianity, but i still fail to understand. a similar question exists over adam and eve, and the snake. if God, in his infinite wisdom, created mankind to be perfect, why did they prove imperfect? it seems to me we cannot be punished for what is, fundamentally, an oversight on His part.
- the ransom sacrifice, and the whole thing about God biding his time before destroying satan. why? if God created everything?
- a key precursor to armageddon will be the banning of religion, and this will wipe out all but the jehovah's witnesses. how and why? governments of the east are founded on religion; the USA is founded on freedom of speech and association. and even if it did happen, how will the other thousands of religions die out and not JW? are you thinking that maybe an attempt (most likely by the USA i suppose) to ban religion will result in world war 3?
- after armageddon, only the faithful and the 'sheeplike ones' will be ressurected to inherit the new order. practically speaking, the process will have to be VERY selective, taking into account all past generations. or do you think that maybe a literal 'new world' will be created?
- what if these 'sheeplike ones' belong to another religion? do these good-natured people need to be free from any other religious orientation to survive armageddon?
- 144,000 will go to heaven. does the HQ keep a list of those claiming? because, from generations of billions of people, one of them lives about 10 miles away and one of them lives just around the corner. this strikes me as very odd. also, are all these people destined to follow the JW faith? i mean, they were selected before they were born, so what if they develop as unpleasant people? i'm interested here in official JW lines on destiny.
- just a minor note, those living within the new order will surely be driven mad with everlasting life. to me, the concept just doesn't seem reasonable. yes, on the one hand, life is a very profound concept and it seems so strange for it to be contained in the short time between life and death. reading up on jungian philosophies here has been driving me mad, and i do believe there is a point to it. creation is a perfectly valid logic. on the other hand, though, the adam and eve story surely tells us that we are not infallible. anyone granted everlasting life would go crazy. we can say, well things will be different, and mankind will be perfect, but how can we know? yes, satan will have been destroyed, but in the beginning, he served only to highlight mankind's inherent flaws. with everlasting life, these will surely be borne out again before long, and things will be back how they were. at the end of the day, who can say that this whole cycle hasn't happened loads of times already? it only takes one angel to go bad, spontaneously and for no apparent reason.
- and one tiny thing, is the songbook you use the same worldwide? and is it updated ever?
so that's all i can think of for now really. i guess a lot of it is just taken on faith, and is unanswerable (the old 'why does God allow suffering' enigma). the main one i really wanted to get my head around was the 1st one - cos my mum used to genuinely believe this, and i want to know what the official line is here. one thing i do like about the JW faith is their insistence that good-natured people will not expire at armageddon, regardless of their adhereance to it. but what about someone like me, who spent 5 years attending meetings, then decided it was pointless devoting your life to something there is absolutely no real evidence for? and decided that issues like pre-marital sex and drug use are questions of personal morality? they say "make the truth your own", and i believe that a truly wise and loving god understands my point of view. because it's impossible to know for sure what it's all about. i'm interested in all your views though, because i know that people far cleverer than me, and far happier than me, have adopted this stuff late on in life and hold it steadfast.