More Wondering and Self doubt (page 2)

cornish

Hi Vita,
You mirror my thoughts about seven years ago,I got hold of this book,'In Search of Christian Freedom by Ray Franz,'which is absolutely brilliant in answering the questions you ask and clearly shows how the watchtower has twisted the true message of the bible from obedience to Christ to obedience and subjection to a religious institution,unfortunately or fortunately as I see it you wont find the answers in any religion as very often the organizations agenda is to sustain itself as an organization not to serve its members but it should be the other way around.

cornish

Sozo
Did you post on Delphi forums,Jesus Witnesses at on time?

Outaservice

Vita,

E-mail me, I think I can help you.

Your friend,

Outaservice

Introspection

Vita, it can be confusing, but sometimes it takes some courage to question your beliefs. Support is nice, but people at where you are now (going through what you're going through) may not know what to do either. Listen to people who've "been there" for some ideas.

"But I see the tip of the iceberg
And I worry about you..." -Rush, Distant Early Warning

larc

OutaService,

If you are still reading, send me an e mail with your phone number. I would like to talk to you. P.S., I sent you an e mail with a similiar request.

NameWithheld

Vitameatavegamin: I hate to say this so bluntly, but you are falling victim to brainwashing techniques - all you know is what has been pounded into your head day after day with NO disenting views presented to you for years. Of course you mind will fall back into 'comfortable' places, thinking the answer to all life's problems are "More meetings, more service, more confession to elders". This is because that message has been presented to you for years.

It takes time and a lot of research into OTHER views to finally free your mind of the fear that you have been programmed into. For example, if you were raised Catholic, you would fear not going to confession lest you die with sins and go to hell/purgatory. Those fears would be VERY real to you, just as real as your current fear of dying at the big 'A'. If you were raised Muslim you might fear NOT dying in battle lest you not qualify for paradise. This fear would be as real to you as your current fears. Think how fearful those men who flew planes into buildings were. They truely beleived they were going to paradise. Do YOU think they are? Why not? Because you have not been indoctrinated into that beleif system. They were.

So are you really going to think that god/jehovah/allah/whoever really cares if you go knock on doors? Of perhaps his true will is that you kill infidels. Or perhaps it that you attend Mass weekly. You interpritation of 'gods will' is being based on WHAT YOU WERE TAUGHT. You don't KNOW that it's true, it's just easy to beleive it is true since you were taught from a young age. It will take time trust me to develope the ability to think beyond the box you have drawn around yourself. But once you do the world changes, and I think for the better. No longer will you be entraped by fear everyday of your life. No more guilt trips over every little 'infraction' you do. No more living you life for others.

Do you think if there was a god who created us like we are, giving us the ability to think for ourselves, and do what we want, he desires all people to be mindless little automen? Blindly following whomever designs to rule the current religion we are belonging to?

NameWithheld

One more thing, JWs are SO big on "We are the one true org, Jah directs us, blah blah, no one else has the 'truth'" etc. But yet youu are to read NO disenting views. You are taught to react with fear at all 'apostate' thoughts least your 'faith' be shaken. Why would god's true org be so fragile against attacks then? If it is so 'true' why is it so easy to see all the cracks in it? Why is it when anyone REALLY begins to examine the JW org it falls apart on them? If it were really the only tru org, wouldn't it REALLY stand out among mankind? And yet to the people whose lives it hasn't touched it is meaningless.

Yes JWs get all excited when Johnny Carson jokes about them "See we are world renown" but to non-JWs they are just a joke. All they know are these funny people come to their doors and bother them with mags. 99.9% never give a thought to the message being given, and in fact the average JW doesn't give a message they just want to place a mag/book. And people aren't reading them. The average JW cannot be effective in a real bible debate anyway, once the heat turns up the JW scurrys away saying "Their hearts weren't receptive". You think that god is directing such an ineffective work? I don't. The Mormons are growing faster than JWs, does that make them the 'one true org'? It would seem their preaching is more effective ...

Stacey

Namewithheld makes some excellent points in my opinion. I think that it is so true. We all know only what is in our view being JWs. What if you were raised Mormon, Jewish, Muslim, whatever... that is what you would know as "the truth"! There is so much more to see when you get out of your little box of belief. Why go with the "closest thing to the truth", when I think really there is no one religion that is "the truth". Fear is just a tool of any religion to keep you in their circle.

Once you get past that fear, life is good... life is limitless... sure there are still questions. But when you come to the point that questions are ok, and that maybe there are no definitive answers in life at this very moment, things change. For me anyways.

Just blabbing...
Stacey

NameWithheld

Yes Stacy, once your brain wraps itself around the fact that's it's OK to have question that perhaps you will NEVER know the answers to life gets much more rewarding. No more beating yourself silly trying to reconcile weird beleifs against reality ...

Yerusalyim

Vitameat,

When I find myself in an existential quandry full of loathing and self doubt, I take comfort in the knowledge that there's still a place like Albuquerque, NM.

YERUSALYIM
"Vanity! It's my favorite sin!"
[Al Pacino as Satan, in "DEVIL'S ADVOCATE"]

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