I never believed in demons

by drew sagan 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  drew sagan

  For the entire time I was a JW (1999-2007) I never believed in demons.

  A few times I remember this getting me into small confrontations with JWs. A JW would talk about how demons were scary and powerful. I would argue that I've never seen a demon, and that to be affraid of such things was silly. They would argue back that I was "careless" and could be putting myself in danger.

  Before I was a JW I remember playing ouija board. I remember pushing the planchette towards certain letters and words as a joke. "Are you stupid?" I would ask, as I pushed the planchette towards the word "yes". My friend was terrified that I was potentially irritating spirits, I found it to be one giant farce.

  This attitude never left me. Even during my most dedicated moments as a JW I would cringe when talk of oujie boards, spirits and demons were discussed as being dangerous.

  In the end, I think South Park summed it up the best:

  http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/251866
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  JWoods

  When I was an elder back in the late 70s, somebody asked me about the Smurfs coming to life and moving around like automatons. They kind of believed this was real, and wanted to know what I thought...(I kind of had a rep as a skeptic on this sort of stuff).

  I replied that no smurf dolls were moving around on their own unless they were motorized and had batteries inside them. The guy did an LOL and said thanks, thats what he thought too, but he was having a hell of a time convincing his wife there was nothing to this.

  I have always been amazed that the Witnesses could believe so shamelessly in this kind of nonsense - especially since they also adamantly believe that the "gifts of the spirit" like tongues, etc...all died out in the first century - leaving only the demons with supernatural power! (and that after JC supposedly began ruling invisibly back in 1874 or 1914 or whatever...)

  It does bring up the interesting question - are ALL Ouija boards demonized from the factory (ALL smurfs too?) - or do they have to be put through some special demonization after the point of sale? It just keeps getting more and more silly the more you think it through.
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  WalkTall

  It seems like throughout time mankind has always had the need to have a villian. It's like we can't define goodness without badness as a comparison. Look at our movies and books today. How can we have a 'hero' if there is no villian for him to fight against? Was it any different in ancient times? They needed this good/evil duality in their mythologies as well. Once I realized this, I knew Satan was not real, he never was.
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  The Almighty Homer

  Match human ignorance and fear and you have demons and gods, yes the gods were developed off the

  same psychological thought expressions.
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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  are ALL Ouija boards demonized from the factory (ALL smurfs too?) - or do they have to be put through some special demonization after the point of sale?

  I toured the parker brothers facility once, and they have a special room just for the demonization process. Only they can't let anyone in, so they let the demons bring the boards to the packaging plant. The door is locked and it's anyone's guess what exactly goes on in there.....
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  Olin Moyles Ghost

  To the OP: you summed up my position exactly. When I was a believing JW, I never believed any of the demon stories floating around the congregation. It seemed to be an odd coincidence that the only JWs I knew who claimed to have "demon experiences" were nut-jobs. I never knew any circuit overseers (or even elders for that matter) who had experiences with demons. None of my friends had experiences with demons. Rather, the demon experiences seemed to come from people who were already mentally unstable. Coincidence? I think not.
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  cameo-d

  If there are no demons...then where do you think WT gets its literature material?

  If there are no demons...then who is GB channelling for information?

  (PS. What exactly do they do to "channel"? I thought that's what ouji boards were for.)
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  jookbeard

  when I was a R&F Dub I had a very mild fear of the Devil/Demonz but as I faded and became a Born Again Agnostic I came to the conclusion that they do not exist. One former poster on here, whose final words to me were that "the Devil has got you" and whose rhetoric and hyperbole was constantly banging on about the Devil, I simply requested that she show me proof of the personage of the Devil. I believe the human mind is capable of extreme evil and has a untapped ability of telekinetic/psychic phenomena.

  If the Biblical Devil of Satan/Lucifer/Beelzebub who is controlling this system of things and who was expelled with millions of Demonz to Planet Earth it surely must be possible to see them manifested in some sort of form or shape, and I'm not accepting an example of possession from a movie such as the Exorcist. If such personages exist in whatever form I need more proof. An often stupid example from Dubs counteracting the "Devil does not exist in my mind" argument with the "that's just want he wants you to believe" does not sit with me either.
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  Violia

  lol Southpark is too funny. I watched the entire eposide.
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  DrJohnStMark

  I did believe in demons and 'true stories' of them were floating around as long as I remember... I was a born in JW. Not surprisingly, things happened I and my sisters then interpreted as resulting from demonic influence. We never wanted to be left alone in the house. Our parents and some family friends fed us those stories and the 'truth' of them was confirmed in the meetings at the kingdom hall and in the WT books... also in the books targeted at children. I also remember too well the booklet Unseen Spirits—Do They Help Us? Or Do They Harm Us? Later, those 'encounters' in part also kept us in JWs, strengthening our beliefs.

  It seems so amazing now what kind of a world we then lived in. Any neighbor or school teacher or kid in the block could have an invisible demon sitting on his/her shoulder.