Left the WT but why the loss of your faith in God?

by Luo bou to 65 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  drwtsn32

  Breaking free from the mental grip the WTS had on me enabled me to question everything. No sacred cows.

  After investigating the Bible, God, etc., I realized it was all fantasy. And not even a pleasant fantasy at that.
• 

  Spook

  Here's my train:

  1. The JW's convinced me that, as I still believe to be the case, many of the beliefs of most christian religions were not believed by the authors of the bible books. Further, it's clear the bible is non-consensable, or that no consensus can really be drawn about the theological content of the cannon as a whole. This lead me to believe the cannon itself is a clumsy human invention in compromise of different beliefs.

  (So, sola-scriptura fundamentalism is completely out. Further, the orthodoxies which incorporate tradition in their defense fall victim to the same criticisms of the governing body. For what it's worth, to this day I like the Anglicans a good bit, Eastern Orthodoxy has some of the better theologians in my opinion.)

  Basically, without "religious authority" theological explanations are all pretty terrible when compared to secular scholarship about the "meaning" and relavence of primary sources.

  2. When you take away the bizarro JW views, it looked pretty clear that Christianity is an awkward derivitive clumsily tacked onto Judaism.

  3. Without the slight tempering of the new testament to explain away the old testament, the OT emerges as brutal, barbaric and unbelieveable. A little digging threw out the bible as errant, uninspired, not unique or good.

  4. Deism fell off to agnosticism and eventually atheism over about 1 additional year (4 years ago), after some brief investigation of eastern religions, which I still maintain have some useful philosophical outlooks beneath a heap of similar cultural myths.

  Finally, I think the real explanation for Christianity is the fact that monotheism, as an idea or "meme" is more likely to survive and thrive over other religions because it has utilitarian advantages for uniting people into a cultural core more immune from changes. Furhter an outward focused gospel based religion, vs. one of cultural superiority for example, will spread and thrive.

  FYI, I was raised as a JW from early childhood.
• 

  Spook

  Oh, I would also add a simple statistical anomaly:

  If I recall a recent pew study...

  1. A great many people who change from other religions (not JW) to a new religion later in life do so because of marriage.

  2. Few JW's who leave the religion do so because of marriage.

  I imagine the number of JW's who become atheists is a larger percentage than those who leave other religions because many people who leave other religions do so for practical reasons, such as marriage or logistics. Thus, those who leave JW's do so under a more limmitted set of circumstances. I would imagine those excommunicated from other religions in some fashion may have a similar phenomenon.
• 

  greendawn

  I think a lot of JWs suffered so much emotional oppression at the hands of the JW god image that they were put off for life from believing in any god. The JW god is indeed terrible, unloving, severe, exacting, unforgiving and vindictive just like the god of the old testament and very much unlike the god of the new testament through Christ. All they want now is to lead lives that are uncomplicated and unmolested by strange god images.

  I continue to believe in God, the Christian God and not the jehovite god of the JWs.
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  Free

  I have always stuggled with the notion that there is an invisable being who knows what millions of people are thinking of simultaiously.

  Also that there are bad Angles looking to do us harm. ( paranoid )

  I now believe that Religion has been rubbing schoulders with Governments all along and have used the fear of being excluded from all the fringe

  benefits of believing in this invisable being to the promotion of both. The last few years since I left the Cult have been an eye opener.

  I am open to all things now. I have recently discovered the practice of Qigong and its power.

  This is something I wouldn't of even given a chance to a few years ago, ( again all part of the control )It comes from SATAN !!!!

  I think I wanted to have faith in an all knowing being who could help me get into that new world. ( fringe benefits )

  Now I am ok with there being nothing at all, and to live life however I wish as long as it isn't hurting anybody.

  When you die you die, so get over it and once you accept this you will grow and learn more then ever before.

  Some may say "Oh, How sad it is to not have any hope " No ! It is sad to live in fear and not live life to its fullest.
• 

  Homerovah the Almighty

  Yes the world we live in is certainly a wonderment of diversity with all the intricacies here on earth and throughout the universe but through

  discovery and evaluation the things we once assumed were gods, were found not to be gods at all, but factual elements of the known.

  The sun for example was one of the prime objects that was considered in many ancient cultures to be a god or The god .

  In contrary the only evidence of a god or spirit was only to be found in the imagination of ignorant men.

  I think even in the bible there was mention that it would be imposable for a mere man to look at god because he is so brilliant. ie. ( Sun )

  Another way to look at the situation why would a god expect us today to believe in him only , from thousands of years ago from ancient stories of

  out of primitive men, when there many stories of gods in those times ?

  And does the holding on to a belief in a god like the JWS for example really beneficial for humanity or any other supernatural being for that matter,

  I don't think so, mankind has progressed so far now that entwining are self with this idealogical theory is progressively putting are social

  psychology back-wards, back to even archaic ancient times and cultures.

  Since the many religious faiths around the world ( JWS ) has divided us into select segments of indifference and many times intolerance, mankind

  might be better off leaving their select faiths and start to have faith in mankind as a singular conscientiousness.

  This is the main reason I am an atheist and also a humanist.

  Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and

  wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularly rationality, without resorting to the supernatural or alleged divine authority from

  religious texts. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] It is a component of a variety of more specific philosophical systems. Humanism can be considered as a process by which truth

  and morality is sought through human investigation and as such views on morals can change when new knowledge and information is discovered.

  In focusing on the capacity for self-determination, humanism rejects transcendental justifications, such as a dependence on belief without reason,

  the supernatural, or texts of allegedly divine origin. Humanists endorse universal morality based on the commonality of the human condition,

  suggesting that solutions to human social and cultural problems cannot be parochial. [ 3 ]