by compound complex 62 Replies latest jw friends
Fun way to live, isn't it?
Not really. I wouldn't ever go backwards though. I don't feel any worse then when I was a Witness. I think that being able to live with integrity of mind and heart and deed, is worth more than peace with others. It is peace within oneself. Priceless. Worth a little pain.
Cog
Worth a little pain ... even a lot for the resulting freedom.
Thank you,
CoCo
Thought I'd bump this for the Newbies. It's daunting when you are leaving and realise that you've been sold a pipe dream - it's natural to feel you don't want to lose your faith and easy to jump straight in to something else without analysing the reasons why so many ex-JWs become non-believers. There's a lot of good experience on this thread. Thank you to all that contributed.
What about those that become atheist and later change? Atheism is not a final destination for all.
BTS
What about those that become atheist and later change? Atheism is not a final destination for all.
BTS
I would love for someone to start a thread on that and speak of their own experience for my curiousity.
Or even still surprising, what about those who jump from JWism to atheism and then back to JWism, like a good friend of mine, a biologist nota bene?
Awakened07,
Your post is great and I feel much as you do. It was not a two-step process for me either. I would say it is/was ongoing. In fact, while it was happening I was in denial as to the direction I was heading. And I still don't feel I am a true athiest but more of an agnostic. I do agree that if and when God makes an appearance he has some 'splainin to do'. Of course, being we are just lowly humans he might not feel we are owed an explanation.
My deep down fear is that he has done this whole creation of humans once before - like millions of years ago and this is just a second or maybe third try. I read somewhere they found fossils of human footprints that had to be millions of years old. If this is true, who could possibly love a creator like this?
I won't rehash what you said so well but I will add that being associated with a religion that did such a number on my head as this one has surely 'cured' me of wanting to get involved with any other religion ever again.
LHG
I was an atheist in waiting ever since I can remember really thinking about life, even though I was born in. Once I decided to research the bible without the limitations of a bible cult and found the collection of literature to be oh-so-human, unbelief came naturally and was admitting the obvious to myself.
What dots I am yet unable to connect are those tracing the evolution of the thought processes of a card-carrying, true-believer Jehovah's Witness to those of an atheist.
I think you can lay a lot of this process directly at the door of the Watchtower teaching about God (vengeful Jehovah, in their theology).
One primary factor is that the Jehovah they characterize is so mean-spirited, vengeful, and in fact murdering - a lot of reasonable people would really rather die resisting such a god than voluntarily worship him. Sort of like the locust-creature aliens in "Independence Day" - even if they did have enormous powers, scared everybody to death, and were probably going to kill everybody anyway - most humans would want to stand in line to get into an F-18 and have a go at them.
A secondary factor is that to move on from the JWs and into a mainstraim Christian church, you would have to accept some form of Trinity doctrine in almost all cases. This is one thing that the witnesses were absolutely adamant about - hatred of the idea of the deity of christ.
Third, I have known a number of ex-witnesses that simply lost all faith in any interventionist God long before they left the society. They had been let down by the prophecy, the logical sillyness of the new earth forever, and of course the ugly reality of being shunned over a long fade, that they just quit caring about or depending on a "god concept" at all. So these people quit believing even before they left the JWs.
Then, there are the people who made a careful study of science as part of the escape process. Many science-aware persons see a sort of non-animate perfection in the actual observable universe as it is (without need for a god-personality, like the ancient greeks, romans, or for that matter JWs like to worship). Real science actually does make a lot of the bible seem pretty fanciful, except as creative literature.
For some ex-witnesses, agnosticism or atheism may seem an easier path than finding another flawed church or just going it on your own.
Dear Friends,
Thank you, Sweet Pea and posters, for reminding me what I'd forgotten about [my brain - finite, JWD - infinite].
It is still too much to fathom the deep pool of insight and straight-thinking that has arisen from the morass of JWism. My inability to comprehend fully the intricacies of others' concepts and my freedom to disagree with those I do understand does not impinge upon my further enlightenment, thanks to you. I have learned a great deal from posing what appeared initially to be a simple question.
Maybe not so simple ...
Gratefully,
CoCo
