Very good post. Witnesses are taught, in a sense, to be skeptics. They do much more research and study than the average Christian. Unfortunately for the society, this sometimes backfires, as every once in a while someone will think too much, and realize it's all bogus. For those witnesses who continue to suspend disbelief, they feel like they've done enough research in the bounds of the society's rules.
Is it easier for a witness (vs Christian) to stop believing in God?
by Guest with Questions 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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nvrgnbk
This is a fascinating thread.
I love jt's comments, as usual.
The WT so entangled God with themselves that is a logical progression for those seeing the fallacy of JWism to continue discarding misplaced loyalties and affections upon their exit from the cult.
Then, and only then, can one begin to grasp that which is truly spiritual, reality.
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serotonin_wraith
I can't decide either way.
I was raised not to believe anything from the other churches, so after leaving the JWs, it was easy enough to become atheist. It was easy enough for me to leave because I would have rather died than worshipped such a sexist, homophobic being.
With Christians, alot are taught to believe in hell. That's one fear that may have been harder for me to shake off. But with alot of Christians, they're very casual in their belief. With the JWs, they make it more a way of life, so it could be harder to break away from that.
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bernadette
I think relinquishing the structure and security of a high control group like the witness can prompt one towards independent thinking and towards questioning traditional beliefs and embracing the unknown
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poppers
"JW don’t believe in an eternal soul; that when you die, you no longer exist. That fear is taken away. If I stop believing, when I die I will no longer exist."....... There is it: fear of nonexistence. That's what keeps beliefs in place, for if I don't believe in this, that, and the other then what am I? Religion is rich in offering lots of things to believe in, and of course the "big kahuna" is the belief in "god". That belief automatically generates the continued belief in yourself as an entity separate from everything else and avoids the fear of discovering the nonexistence of any such separate entity. But what is actually found when the separate sense of identity is exposed as a fraud? One must have courage, as JamesThomas said, in order to make that discovery.
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IsaacJS2
I used to think that ex-Witnesses were more likely to become atheists once I'd become one myself. (This happened years after I left the WTS) Psuedo's comments were similar to my thinking at the time. Witnesses have already given up on many typical Christian beliefs, so you'd think ex-Witnesses are already half way their.
But this is the only ex-Witness forum I've found with a decent number of atheist posters. Certainly the only one that's very active. I sometimes wonder how many of us here are atheists compared to those that remain religious, but it seems there are at least a dozen or so that are active in the boards. I suspect the religious members probably outnumber us here nonetheless.
I've even seen forums that claimed to be for secular ex-Witnesses that clearly were not secular at all. I've also seen quite a few forums that seemed predominantly fundamentalist rather than filled with moderates. But I've never found a forum of nothing but secular/atheistic ex-Witnesses that had any activity. It seems, to me at least, that there are far more fundamentalist ex-Witnesses, and even more ex-Witnesses that are generally still religious in one sense or another. I have no idea if the ratio of atheists is the same with ex-Witnesses as it is, say, with ex-Catholics or ex-Mormons or ex-Methodists. If it's higher, my guess is that it isn't by very much.
I'm not sure if there's anything to the idea or not.
IsaacJ