To new Christians on JWN (page 2)

NiceDream

Snowbird - I was born in, but left for the same reasons as you and still love God too.

I'm a new Christian and am happy I'm out of the organization.

snowbird

Come on down, Christians!

Don't be afraid of the big bad atheists/agnostics/deists.

Their bark is much worse than their bite, and remember this, the bigger they come, the harder they fall!

Tee hee hee.

Syl

brotherdan

I'm waiting to see if Terry finds his way to this thread. I've read on MANY of his posts that he thinks the Christians are afraid to answer his questions because he will make them look stupid.

Quando

I never really thought of myself as an atheist and to be honest I never researched the term, but when you quoted the scrip in Jer. my thought immediately was he was talking about the ego.

Then I read MJNM post about the ego....Does that make me an atheist?

I have done some research about God's name in Hebrew and what that stands for "I am that I am" and I am quite satisfied with that.

As far as Jesus Christ well he is who I daily try to imitate and follow, he was the perfect example of a perfect person. I believe his role was simply showing people you don't have to suffer, their is a better way of life and he paved the way of teaching people how to do it.

All I know today is I wasn't alive when Jesus was around, I only have immediate access to 66 canonized books of the bible that were written many years after Jesus died. I grew up a witness, so it took me a hell of a long time to reverse the brain wash from the organization.

My core belief is I believe in Intelligent design but today I call the design God. I do admit my eyes were opened when I starting reading David Hawkins books, also there is another book called Ennegram for Christians.

brotherdan

Quandro, you're totally on the right path. The first step to knowing God is knowing that God is. There is an intelligent being that is greater than us as humans. The 2nd step is to learn what God is like. This, many are surprised to find, is VERY different from the WTS teaching on WHO He is.

thenoblelodge

@Tec - I totally agree that there are very kind atheists on this board, but they can be very unkind when someone says they have a faith in God.

I will gladly take back the remark of "the majority" I should have said "some." Sorry that was me being unkind.

I do get a bit rattled at times.

LostGeneration

It is merely what the Bible says on the issue. And I really do think it's insightful to what you new Christians to JWN may encounter here. Psalm 14:1 says "The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one that does good." So WHY does the man say "there is no God"? The verse answers that they are corrupt.

So because the bible says I am corrupt, it must be true! About the same as me claiming because Richard Dawkins says something, it must be true as well.

Verse 3 expounds on this and says, "All have turned aside" and "there is no one that does good." I really think this is why people buy into the atheistic philosophy. They want to eliminate the ulti mate judgment on such sinfulness, consequently, they eliminate God. It's expedient for them to philosophically get rid of God so that they don't have to live under the guilt and the fear of a coming judgment.

Wrong again...we eliminate God due to the lack of evidence. If god exists, he is either an extremely poor communicator as he could simply bring tell all of us exactly what he wants, or he just isnt interested in us. Most of us dont get rid of God because we fear his judgement, we get rid of him because he won't/can't/or refuses to tell us what the hell he wants

So can atheists REALLY have contentment in their belief (or unbelief)? They will claim that they are content. There are all kinds of people that try to find contentment in just about everything imaginable. But REAL contentment only comes from knowing God.

Your certainly entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to claim whether others are really or happy or not based on their non-belief in an invisible man in the sky.

Overall, your message sounds very Watchtowerish in its condescending tone.

Hoping4Change

The unfortunate thing with this is that it rings of Judeo-Christian elitism. To suggest that "REAL contentment only comes from knowing God." is to suggest that the billions of people who are not of Judeo-Christian persuasion can not have "REAL contentment" - a simply absurd idea and an insult to billions. It's definitely a good thing to suggest that it's possible to find "contentment" and a "meaningful relationship with Jehovah/God/Jesus" in a Christian tradition beyond that offered by the WTBTS, but to suggest that atheism and other of the world's religions can't offer a "REAL contentment" with life smarts of pure arrogance. Additionally, "GOD" is absolutely not neccessary for an individual to lead an ethical and moral life; atheists and other non-Christian individuals can very much be motivated by moral and ethical standards that do not originate with a Judeo-Christian god.

This has always been my hugest issue with typical Judeo-Christian thought - "it's our way or no way". I would suggest that Christians who have broken free of the stranglehold of the JW movement be of open mind in an approach to sprituality. Re-read the bible and ascertain whether, despite the few proof texts provided above, such an elitist approach to the world and spirituality is the only absolute way to interpret what is written therein. Additionally - explore learn and compare, with open heart and open mind, what thousands of years of tradition outside typical Judeo-Christian thought has to offer and discover if perhaps there may actually be some "other way" to a "creator of all things" and explore what Atheism "really means" before condemning them as individuals simply seeking to not "have to live under the guilt and the fear of a coming judgment".

IMHO, to don an elitist and judgmental attitude against/towards those who do not follow or fall in line with Judeo-Christian thought after having broken free of the bonds of JW thought would seem to demonstrate that not much has really changed.

ruruj

I commend your boldness brotherdan.

In JW homeland, a dissident JW is an Apostate. Whatever righteous or reasonable thing we say or do is subject to condemnation & judgment, as long as it opposes our false, ignorant and foolish master - Watchtower. And of course as long as you do not get re-programmed you will remain a rebel until there is liberation.

It is apparent that those whose hearts and minds left Watchtower's wicked control because of soo many systemic & organization issue - have lost or are loosing faith in the only True God.

Watchtower will have to answer Jesus for its spiritual, mental and emotional atrocities.

It is true we may have the same JW homeland but different strokes.

The bottomline is that there is mutual respect here in JWN. Whatever opinion you have as long as non-violent, not too offensive, and non-criminal is tolerated & welcome here.

This JWN website is a real contrast to Watchtower dominated website.

brotherdan

Didn't mean to be condesending. However, your arguments have to be made directly to the Bible. I know that you don't hold it in any sort of respect. But I was not just expounding my own viewpoints on this thread. Everything I said was based on specific scriptures.

Lack of evidence of God, IMO, is a copout. You have not been everywhere in the universe to see if there is a God. So the best you can do is to say, "I don't think there is a God." To go beyond this statement is to have a certain amount of faith that there CANNOT be a God. It's this same sort of faith that causes me to see a house and have faith that someone built it. It's the same sort of faith that causes me to see the beauty and magesty of a tree and have faith that someone built that.

To new Christians on JWN

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