The New Agnostic Self

by AK - Jeff 24 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Pistoff

  The issue is, what sayings of Jesus? The ones I love the most conflict with the judgemental, warrior Jesus.

  I believe Jesus was a cynic type sage, with original and revolutionary ideas that have been ignored and co-opted by religious empire builders, including Paul.

  The idea of praying for your enemies, of detaching from the love of material things, and regarding all as neighbors were truly unique to his time, and resonate with me.

  If we can believe what the bible says, Jesus hated the structure of religion and encouraged relying on ideas, not rules. Jesus broke the sabbath, and ignored many purity rituals that were important to jewish identity.

  The idea that he will come back with a big attitude and kill the non believers I now see as apocalytic overtones laid onto Jesus by later followers, likely not viewed literally even by those who wrote them.
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  JimmyPage

  I'm in the same boat myself, AK Jeff. It appears to me that there are three stages so far to this process: 1. Doubting the WT, 2. Doubting the Bible, and 3. Doubting God. It all depends on how far down the rabbit hole you're willing to travel.
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  designs

  OTWO-

  Very nice. When I was studying the writings of the Jewish Sages who lived 300 to 500 years before Jesus and were saying the same things he did it had a profound effect on me, I admired this Jesus more not less. His Jewish connections came out more fully. The itinerant rabbi who taught the kingdom of God is within each of us, we just have to look and find our potential to do good.
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  cantleave

  Interesting thread. I am finding myself gravitating to idea that there may no god. However, there is a bit of me that wants a god to exist, I am sure this is just an embedded concept that will take a very long time to break free of. I too believe that there are some excellent values in Jesus' teachings, but there are some poisonous ones in the New Testament. I am 6 months into my self re-evaluation, I take each day as it comes read a great deal. I will never again be influenced by a man or group of men, I will listen to everyone's point of view, but then form my own opinions and ideas. If I am wrong so be it - it won't be the first time.
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  bsmart

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  I am coming to think we all have had our own "Personal Armageddon" if you will. That crisis of coming to the realization that for some that will be health related, cancer or some such issue or losing a family member to premature death ( an accident or whatever). An issue of unfairness or poverty and the facts that life isn’t fair.

  Some how for us it was finding that we had been lied to pretty systematically. That the bible might have some answers, but never all of them like the witnesses would have us believe. Coming to grips with that crisis is what makes us what we are and how we live our lives, plus dealing with the family members stuck in that lie.