by Clam 16 Replies latest jw friends
I think I refuse to believe in any absolute truths anymore, so whenever someone challenges that I'm more than willing to poke holes in their absolute truth. As for truth in religion, I don't seek it at all, I took a quote from Abraham Lincoln which explains perfectly my attitude towards religion.
"When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, that is my religion."
Perhaps there is a problem in that generally we come to think up truth. Truth, becomes something conceptual and believed. Truth becomes an idea or image that is some how viewed as separate and apart from what we actually are.
The truth is that nothing the mind thinks up is the authentic and genuine Truth we seek; it's only interpretive abstraction. Giving great credence and importance to the minds mirage, we lose sight of the reality, actuality and truth of our own being within the immediacy of the present moment.
As long as we shrink and narrow truth down to a specific person or group of ideas, we are toying with realities antithesis.
j
I think finding truth is finding Jesus
My sentiments exactly. I always have felt there was not enough emphasis put on Christ which is the whole theme of the NT, everything revolves around him and not an org or gb or boe.
abr
"Keep on seeking" (going by the NWT for once) =>
- never believe you have found.
- never give up though...
Hi, Clam.
When I thought I knew the truth it didn’t make me a better person, it didn’t give me peace of mind or facilitate self discovery. If anything it released negative qualities such as arrogance and misanthropy.
In those respects, my feelings were similar, and yet quite different, than yours. "Knowing the Truth" gave me great peace of mind, and (within the parameters of what I now understand to be a very narrow and truncated world-view), gave me great confidence to explore self-discovery (or so I thought).
But, as with you, in conjunction with those same feelings, "it" gave me considerable arrogance ("What can these idiots possibly know?"), and misanthropy ("That fool is gonna die at Armageddon, and he's just too stupid to know it.")
I looked at the pictures in the Paradise book, and gleefully studied with parents and their children and told them, without hesitation, that this is what Armageddon is going to do to you if you don't accept the Truth that I am here today to share with you. And when the Truth book came along, there was the added "And you only have 6 months to learn what I'm telling you, or else the study is over, and I'll move on to a more listening ear." A virtual death sentence, as I saw it.
I can't say how liberating it has been to unlearn "The Truth," and that there isn't even such a thing as "The Truth."
Greetings Clam,
My sentiments tend toward those expressed by the Avid one and Renee. I need to look more fully into the JESUS we were told we believed in, but of which weak assertion we somehow could not convince ourselves or the householder. When I realized the outrage of JWs saying NO to Christ at the Memorial, I felt I had to determine if any "truth" lay down this avenue of faith, this road previously unknown to me. So, as to TRUTH and the search for it, I agree with your introduction. I am in no hurry, there is no panic, I am not afraid. [of Virginia Woolf]
CoCo
Thinking we have "the truth" tends to close the mind. No need to look further. On the other hand, admitting we have a very limited view of the universe and life in it tends to awaken our curiousity.
Closed minds are stagnant and at times dangerous. That is why religion has caused so much harm over the centuries and in our individual lives. It is very freeing to be open to new ideas. So, no I do not need to know "the truth" again.
