Before knowing TTATT did you really believe in things as...

by roberto avon 35 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Vidiot

  Yes, but...

  ...it got harder and harder the older I got.

  x

  And I'd never read a scrap of anything "apostate".

  x

  Hell, I ended up here long after I was well into my fade, primarily for confirmation of what I'd already long suspected.
• 

  kaik

  No, I did not believe in many things WT taught. For example evolution and the earth history. My grandfather was geologist who taught it at the university level and had at home an extensive collection of stones, fossils, and minerals. He knew that some of these minerals were millions of years old and I could listen to him about the geology and plate tectonics movements, etc... He said that WT are semiliterate group only interested in money and self-worship and warned my parents not to get engaged with them. Other issue I had, I did not believe in Flood, and man was around for 6000 years. As a student we went to several excavated sites in Europe and we visited places which were inhibited by humans in interglacial period in southern Moravia. These people died there 20000 years ago. Therefore, I doubted the literal interpretation of the Bible. I had also several Jewish friends with whom I had debated OT and various Jewish myths and theology and this was last blow to the idea that WT knows much on Jewish faith. I later encountered a lot of antisemitism among JW and I was warned by elders not to socialize with Jews because they are damned people. One sister used to say that Jews will be destroyed and no single Jew born after 33 AD would be resurrected.
  
• 

  Oubliette

  The idea that the earth is only 6,000 years old is not a WTBTS doctrine or teaching.

  I was, however, persuaded to entertain the other ideas you mentioned because I was persuaded to believe that JWs had "the Truth." And when I say, "entertain," I mean that I tentatively accepted that they MIGHT be true because I accepted that the religion was true.
  

  I have since come to know that these are demonstrably false premises. No one individual or group can possess "the Truth" to the exclusion of others. Truth is not a tangible, concrete item which can only be in the physical possession of a single entity at a time. That is just ridiculous. Also, even if a group does have SOME ideas right, it does not follow that they have ALL ideas and teachings correct.
  

  My reason for tentatively accepting the various JW doctrines was that, for a time, I really believed that Jehovah's Witnesses taught truth and were God's visible organization on Earth. Once I saw the WT leaders and the entire religion for the scam that it is, there was no longer any reason for me to believe tenuous doctrines that never had any independent basis in the first place.

  In other words: I accepted JW beliefs because I was duped into believing JWs were special. It was NOT the case that I became a JW because I a priori believed their unique and often bizarre beliefs and unusual interpretations of scripture.

  It all flows from buying into the idea that there is only "one true religion." There is not. That is a fallacy.

  Let's review: It's a cult!

  
  
  
• 

  Naoscillator

  1914, yes. Because, you know, World War I. Then, when I could grasp it, the "seven times". Wow! So accurate!

  Also, the literal interpretation of the flood. Because, you know, flowers under the permafrost and the mammoth with food still in his mouth. Not that these are necessarily WT explanations, I'd have to look it up. This is how it was explained to me when I was very young and I accepted these "facts" without question, until the day many years later when I knew too much to still believe it. Ironically, what changed my mind on it for good was when a very young MS gave a public talk about the flood and kept insisting that "the flood was real". Although he had some interesting "proofs" I hadn't heard before, by the end of it I realized there was no way it could have actually happened. The poor guy would be mortified to know he had had that effect on one of his listeners.
• 

  stuckinarut2

  I used to believe everything the society taught...because "they were gods channel"

  Once a measure of logical thinking is used though, the house of cards comes crashing down.

  For any lurkers here, just try this one thing:

  Every time something is said through the pages of the publications, or from the platform, ask yourself this: "does that REALLY make sense??"

  Can the TRUTH stand on its own feet without having to force your mind to accept it?
• 

  Xanthippe

  Yes 100%
  I don't understand people who don't really believe it and still stay in. As soon as I worked out it was a lie I left. - Cofty

  I agree with Cofty, I don't do things I don't believe in.

  True, I was an uneducated, deliberately information-controlled, second generation JW but as soon as I realised it was a corrupt religion I resigned.

  Why did you continue studying and marry a JW if you didn't believe it?
• 

  Ucantnome

  I believed in 1975 we were 6000 years into the 7th creative day and that the generation that saw the events of 1914 would not pass away before the end came.

  When 1975 went I had no doubts regarding the 'truth' as I believed as the light gets brighter things become more clear and there had been things in the past like 1925.

  I believed that it was right to join the anointed in the preaching work before the Great Tribulation strikes.

  My belief came from study and personal experiences. In the early 90's it changed and I felt I could no longer be 100% sure in my mind of what I was preaching due to a Watchtower article that related to an experience in the ministry and so I stopped.
• 

  roberto avon

  Xanthippe.

  I married my wife because I loved her and I love her and I thought that the Jws were a normal religion, which it isn't. I studied not in the way they wanted ( also with my own bible ) and to know something more about my wife's religion. She is very liberal and goes to the Kh once every two weeks, doesn't go in field service or door to door and is also skeptical about the points I have asked you. My " problem " is ; how should I tell her that she isn't at all a Jw?" But, you know, who cares? Our three children are " normal " and she says that she goes to the Kh for God and not the organization. People in our neighbourhood don't know she is a Jw. I don't think that she is the only one but there are many like here, especially in Italy
• 

  Xanthippe

  Sounds good Roberto. Your wife is just using the KH like a church and going when she feels like it. She is not being guilted into doing anything else, she doesn't believe all the teachings and your kids are growing up normal as you say. Sounds like a healthy life.

  I hope she doesn't suddenly become guilted into doing more, the mind control techniques are very subtle. Good luck to you and your family.
• 

  idiotnomore

  I am today, ashamed that I ever believed in Adam & Eve, Noahs Flood, Jonah and the fish, etc. I never really believed that only witnesses would make it through Armageddon tho and I definitely never bought their blood doctrine. Being gay myself, I didn't ever believe that Jehovah would condemn me for it.