Where do you start to find the answers to God?

by Hope4Others 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

THE_CHOSEN_ONE

The Bible.
Terry

Do you like something because it is good?
Or, do you think something is good just because you like it?
This is the problem with finding the "answers" about anything. You aren't NEUTRAL. You can't begin a quest objectively. You've been hearing things all of your life that point you in a certain direction.
Look at your question in the topic heading. It already assumes there are answers about God and that God is something about whom answers can be given.
In your search, please remember, you are the judge of what is true. What kind of Judge will you be if you are already interested in a particular outcome??
If you had been born in China you'd never start out thinking the Bible was valid.
If you had been born in Mecca you'd never start out believing Christianity has merit.
If you had been born into a Mormon family your views would be 180 degrees opposite from being born into a Christian Science family.
In other words--WE ARE ALL PREJUDICED starting our quests for anything at all to do with God.
Until you acknowledge that fact your conclusions will always be slanted, distorted and skewed toward an outcome.
With that in mind, I'll say this.
The best place to start, in my opinion, is with your own vocabulary.
Go through, starting now, and start cleaning up your lexicon of vocabulary words. Why? The definitions you hold to be valid are coloring every concept you form and hold in your mind.
You cannot conceptualize any reality without a pure vocabulary which functions without tainted terms.
For example, try talking to any Jehovah's Witness about the truth and they will only hear THE TRUTH. That word "truth" has been distorted and used as a virus to take over any conceptual thinking involving religious thought.
Weed out your virus cells of distorted definitions and you have a good chance at a clean start on building a non-biased world view that contains neutral views you can piece together into a philosophy of life without a hidden agenda.
Start with words such as JUSTICE, TRUTH, PHILOSOPHY, INTEGRITY, MORALITY, ETHICS and compare untainted definitions with the definitions you now hold to be true.
Two steps: define these words now without resorting to any dictionary.
Then, compare your definition with those on, say, Wikipedia. Where do you differ. Ask yourself "why?"
Finally, whenever you study any subject, always read two competing sources simultaneously comparing where the friction and disagreement comes from.
Example: I'm reading two opposite books right now on Calvinism and the view that certain humans are Foreordained to be "saved".
Each book is loaded with arguments for and against the other side. They both cite the same scriptures to bolster their claims. Each finds the views of the other without merit. My observation of WHY these two views negate each other's passion and absolutism fascinate me with the process of reasoning---not from objectivity--but, from ideology.
It is quite revealing. It clues me to how very reasonable arguments are made although erroneous.
In the final analysis there can be no contradiction where there is reality and genuine truth.
A circle is not a triangle. But, a cone, turned in a certain direction can be both. Learning why this is true (angle of perception) informs me that you cannot decide what is entirely correct without knowing two things:
What dimension you are dealing with and what definition you are employing contextually.
When dealing with religion, you are dealing with metaphysics which HAS NO OSTENSIBLE REFERENT in reality. Consequently, you cannot ever accurately measure, test, prove or define the objects of discussion! Further, all ordinary real world WORDS have to be distorted and changed in order to describe metaphysical subjects!
The hijacking of your language is what makes Religion __mysterious__fascinating--and entirely ludicrous!
Safeguard your thinking by keeping your vocabulary pristine in context!
journey-on

You prepare the temple.
You bring into the temple purity of thought, deed, and intention. (Love your creator and love your neighbor....try to live in light and love.)
You go into your innermost sanctuary and "pray"....commune and ask that His will be done in your life. (The Kingdom of God is within you.)
Then you search for Truth as if it were hidden treasure. You become open to it with "eyes that see and ears that hear."
You trust with faith that your life is a channel for his will. This does not mean you won't make wrong choices occasionally and
stumble and fall. You still have free will. It does not mean that Life won't hand you difficulties and sometimes extreme trials to bear. It simply
means you will go through the experiences of this lifetime with this particular lifestream and experience being in this place at this particular time
and learning and teaching what needs to be learned and taught.
There are people on this board that will cut and paste words from this great philosopher and that great intellect and this authority
and that scholar. I, too, have read them and searched and studied and agonized over how it all fits together. I didn't realize I was preparing my temple
at first. I just felt driven to accumulate as much information as I was able. All that knowledge and information is being absorbed, assimilated, accommodated,
or discarded by your consciousness. Then one day, out of all the confusion, the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit and you are so thankful and amazed. You then not only believe, you KNOW.

BurnTheShips

The hijacking of your language is what makes Religion __mysterious__fascinating--and entirely ludicrous!

We already have clear unambiguous languages. Machine languages.

#include 
main()
{
 for(;;)
 { 
 printf ("Terry wants to be a machine!!\n");
 }
}

BTS

Hope4Others

Well I'm loving all these comments, I have a lot to decipher here. I may have to reassure my self that I am completely
free of the jw mindset really does one keep any part of what you learned or do you really want to? What parts do you toss
aside, perhaps starting from scratch is the best. Its hard to think of a bigger picture when ones thoughts were once so controlled, it
may have been easier to move on if I had not pioneered for so long.
My husband had the most fascinating and unusual conversation at the ATM teller machine yesterday, a jw came in, there was another guy
at the machine who over heard the conversation and responded before he left. I do hope he posts it, his responses and reasoning certainly
amazed me. Part covers where will you go, they don't serve Jah and who is your brother...I pioneered with this person.
It shows how locked you become mentally and emotionally in the org. The trick not to revert to past ingrained ideas I presume in the search.
hope4others
RAF
Before to ask if God does exist or not, what do each of us call God exactly? Define it first …
- A Spirit
- The essence of everything means more than a spirit but still a spirit by essence all together
- A concept ...
What is it exactly or totally ?
So a lot a religion do define God as a spirit (almost like someone = a person) that looks sooooooooooo tiny regarding to the subject of God (first of ; for what it means as a word when we use it even not religiously, second of ; for what it means as a spirit) but why not? If for instance God is all, it is at least a bit of this and a bit of that and also this (so then it wouldn't be totally false but just a limited understanding of the matter if it is everything for instance).
When I began to study the bible by myself it was actually to find all arguments I could to prove to my family that it was pure junk even insanity to be clear on my purpose!
But still to do this job and do it well, I still needed to be objective (otherwise better not even try – an argument have to stand against any others to be relevant).
So to began the first thing I had to do was to forget about every/any postulate(s) to re-think everything from the start in only keeping one question in mind … Does this have anything to do with reality in not forgetting that reality have something to do with sincerity because in this matter we are talking about spirituality (so it is not only about what we can see, it mainly about what we can feel).
Also it feels comfortable (and right to me) to stay vague on specific matters because when you have to deal with symbolisms from an other age, things can be way less closer to our primal understanding that it looks like at first. For instance what means exactly to be saved as a spirit? When we at least have the idea, that a spirit do not have a body and by then can be spread in multiple peaces but still be one through all.
In this story we have GOD (which is in all Eph 4:6) and two opposites it’s son (Christ) and its opponent (Satan).
- You can see both as spirits by essence so which can be spread in multiple peaces but still be one through all (so that would be about reality – what it can be)
- But you can also see it in an other way and all together by God being all like its potential has 2 polarities, one which unite/build to everything and the other which divide/destroy/ everything.
So God in being everything divided/shared in everything – for each of us individually the potential to destroy takes advantages if we do not pay attention/have faith to/in the potential to build.
What this book is saying (to me), is that this potential is and will always be stronger by nature just because, by nature God’s essence (so by then its spirit) which is shared in everything did not share to destroy (it would be destroying irself) but to build – so the potential to destroy in God is weaker (as weak as anyone of us don’t feel to die as long as we know that we have to potential to live)
That's what is symbolised as his son (the product of the fertility of it's spirit) is actually its consciousness (that's what this verse is saying John 1:1-5 ... without the consciousness there is nothing you are aware of ... when in coma for instance you are alive still you can't use your potential) the consciousness is the begining of everything (so this is again a spiritual and not material matter).
Each of us individually as a spirit (a human with a spirit with free will) have the choice to be connected = stay united to the all for the good of all or disconnected = divided our self to the all for the good of our own self … but what are we without all NOTHING … That’s the beginning ofdeath = the VANITY of the cult of the EGO.
Whatever subject you take for instance : paradise versus hell ... you can see it in so many ways and come up with a so many different interpretations regarding to the context and what it does or not symbolised according to you.
So when you think : what looks like real? if it is or becomes incoherent you still have to find out what looks sincere.
Ok now just to go futher on the subject since we all have been embarrassaded in a way or an other by the JW religion : this is something I understood from the bible which for instance actually really talks against the JW teaching … what does tell me the OT regarding to the NT ?
Well the OT is a demonstration of the failure of the method which consist to rule by laws in protecting (even overprotecting) or punishing (even over punishing) it doesn’t lead anywhere good but (if any) a specific purpose and for this specific purpose you have to forget about even the main principle (fundamental law) of God (love others as yourself) just to lead to a particular purpose (this method doesn't lead to justice and wisdom in every matter) the consciousness of a spirit do not grow up this way (obeying is NOT suscribing to and fearing something is NOT loving the thing in question)
Then the NT = Christ’s Gospel is a call to not act without proper judgement … and it says that we can do it from one and only principle “love others as yourself” (forget about you if necessary to be objective about others and also about yourself) look for justice which have everything to do with balance.
And when I've got this, there was no doubt at all (just from that) that the JW doctrine (obey to laws no matter what) and practices (doing too much, in many matters which doesn’t lead to pure love = the AGAPE one = CHARITY which have a lot to do with understanding/compassion/respect for what they are and even for what they are not) - doesn’t lead anywhere good.
Regarding the all thing : Christianism is not a religion (a doctrine is at first globally based on a phylosophy).
Oh my this is too long ... enough !
flipper

HOPE 4 OTHERS- Here is another thought which may help you see things a bit more clearly. My 23 year old son ( also out of the JW's for over 5 years) and I had a discussion about this a couple months ago while working together. And we both came to the conclusion that we are happier now because we are being good people because we want to be out of our hearts ! No one is telling us we have to be , or we'll get destroyed ! God isn't telling us, the elders are not telling us that, nor are our witness families still in ! We just want to be good people within ourselves , because it makes us feel good to help others ! We don't expect any everlasting life for it, no rewards, no props - just a good peaceful go to sleep at night easy feeling of, " Maybe I helped someone's life today" feeling that we mad a difference in a positive way !

My son and I came to the conclusion that while still witnesses - there is so much pressure to " perform" so to speak to get a brownie button of approval outwardly- that it skews the real reason for Jehovah's Witnesses why to help people ! So now we just do things, because we want to - not because we feel in fear, or forced, or compelled by an authority to do it ! It is much more gratifying ! My two cents ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
VoidEater

Everything believed is a lie.
Convenient, useful lies. Belief takes place in the mind, and the mind can only come up with approximations of our experience.
JGnat and RAF touch on anything I might add: direct experience of nature will teach you more about God than any written page in a book. And, to talk about "God", you might first need to define what this God-person is supposed to be (creator, ruler, destroyer, comforter...).
caliber

In an old T.V. series (Peter Gunn or some such detective series) ,the star would always say "just the facts ma-mm,
just the facts ." Feeling, hopes, hurts desires weren't required by him , they were only a nuance to fact search .
Can our search for God or spiritual meaning be "just the facts ma-mm " apart from fascination-mystery ?
Can our search be set apart from intent, hope, purpose of life ?
Caliber
VoidEater

Terry says, "You cannot conceptualize any reality without a pure vocabulary which functions without tainted terms."
True enough; but you can experience without vocabulary. The conceptual domain is just one part of being human.

Where do you start to find the answers to God?

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