The reason you don't recall saying that is because you didn't.
I was speaking about the rule you were using.
My point was that Watchtower reasoning can stick with us and make deeper inroads than we realize. If we are not diligent we might not see where we are using techniques we've unknowingly taken from the Watchtower to make examination of things on the outside. The comments aren't about you personally, their directed at the Governing Body that is not well-versed on any subject they take up, whether its theism or atheism or anything else. They are wrong about it all. And sometimes they do so much damage to our reasoning abilities that it's hard to shake off.
Examples, Examples
You admit that you use the Bible as a historical record. Christianity doesn't do that. It is considered a religious interpretation of history, not history in the strictest sense. It cannot be made to fit precisely with historical secular records because it was never intended to. That is an Adventist belief that the Watchtower adopted.
What's the harm in using such a view? It ignores the fact that various ancient genres were used to record religious lessons like fable, poetry, myth, and legend to carry sacred truths away from actual events. What's in the Scriptural record in not always meant to be historical the same way Christ's parables aren't meant to be considered actual events.
If Jesus could make up characters to teach truths, can't God inspire writers to do the same at other times? If it's the same God, why not?
Making it all historical truly makes the Bible sound silly. You mean there was a literal conversation between a rich man burning in Hades with a man being hugged by Abraham in the afterlife?
Incidental Worship--Who Taught You That? Sound Like the Watchtower to Me
Halloween, for example, did originate with the Christians. It is the Eve or Vigil of All Hallows or All Saints Day. It is meant to be seen as a demonstration of how the dead are victorious and how demons and the like are so powerless they are like playthings to us.
As it was done for centuries in Ireland, at the vigil or eve Mass for All Hallows it is still a custom for the children to parade behind the priest at Mass dressed as sainted martyrs. Some of these getups can be, well, strange if you are not familiar with your saints. For example the St. Lucy costume is that of a young girl whose eyes were pulled out by Romans which she now carries on a platter. Other sainted martyrs are represented likewise, with some carrying their heads, others burnt to a crisp, etc. Of course, not all the children are dressed so graphically as in a horror movie of today--in fact it is never exactly gruesome--but when this was carried out, particularly in Ireland, the children went out afterwards going door-to-door requesting treats from their neighbors, still in costume of the dead. By then it was already night on All Hallows Eve.
Eventually the custom also included dressing up as the things that heathens were afraid of, such as demons, ghosts, and witches, because Roman Catholics believe they cannot be harmed by such things and they have no fear of them. This not only frightened many of the heathens to some respect who were quite superstitious of making demons and spirits objects of folly, it was often seen as a "trick" to get the householder to offer goodies like the Christians. The custom of using heathen religious lanterns as literal lanterns to see where they were going (named "jack o'lantern" after the vernacular title for will o'the wisp that occurs in marshes) was another insult to heathens.
When famine struck Ireland and many of them came to America to settle in the 1800s, they brought these customs with them (by the way, Halloween is really celebrated only in the USA; it isn't an official custom of any religion). The customs have been assimilated into secular culture where people who are not Catholic also join in and add some other things that normally are frightening to them.
Today all people, of all beliefs, religious or not, for just one night a year laugh at what scares them. Death and evil and superstition are turned into folly for all. And according to Catholic view, Christ has made these things subject to even human beings--if not now at least in eternity when Christians rule with Christ. Dressing like the dead shows a belief in the resurrection, and making heathen objects of terror into playthings shows they are really nothing to Christ. They have no power over Christians.
I do happen to be Jewish, by the way. But my family many centuries ago became Catholic, and while most remain Catholic today, some of us are not. There are also a good number of atheists too. I was the only one who became a JW in my teens and early 20s.
However, I do know my religious history extremely well because after leaving the Watchtower I formally studied in religious academia under scholars in order to prepare me and get qualified for a job in the religious world--which I am not going into for the moment.
What I have learned is that even the manner you are using is still Watchtower based. Sure, we don't mix light and darkness even in Judaism. But when God conquers something we often make fun of what that thing was before--like David did when he slew the giant. Heads of slaughtered enemies were paraded on sticks and made fun of.
Irish Christians did the same thing with false heathen symbols associated with those who believed Samhain was a real god. The Irish Christians did things with these symbols that were supposed to bring that false god's wrath upon them for doing so. Did it? No. And today we all know that Samhain isn't real. When was the last time you heard of people geting stuck down by Samhain for making folly with his symbols as mere Halloween party favors? That was the point the Irish Catholics were making with their customs.
Even the story of Noah and Flood is actually teasing the Babylonians about their account in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Who wants to worship the kind of gods that would bring a flood upon mankind that they describe? While Noah was real, and there likely was a big flood in ancient Mesopotamia, the Babylonian account of a world flood from an uncaring god is foolish--and it is interpolated into the Noachin tale to show how silly these heathens were. It is the same with Roman Catholics and Halloween--take what the heathens believe in and trample it underfoot to show how silly it all is.
Only when the Puritans came to the US did superstition cause these Christians to avoid anything that "smacked" of heathenism. This fear eventually climaxed into the Salem Witch Hunts and trials which themselves ended that religion. But its superstitions were revived in the US with the restorationist movements like Adventism and Mormonism.
Don't Be a Duck if You're No Longer In the Flock
While it is difficult for someone who may not have been exposed to the amount of history and religious teaching I have been--and most people don't have the opportunity to actually be employed in the religious world among its leaders and great halls of study and learning as I have--what I say can sound like nonsense.
Let that be. And really, you don’t need all that education to make good use of your mind. But the point should come across that you won't heal properly if you use anything--anything at all as learned by the Watchtower. Even if they are right about something, it is always an incomplete understanding at best.
Just as you misunderstood my comment at the beginning, so you might not see how you are still grasping onto Watchtower-invented lines of reasoning to develop your views.
Don’t be so quick to make judgments on religion, gods, atheists, agnostics, anyone at all—especially if you were once a Jehovah’s Witness. It takes a lot before we can make sense of ourselves once we leave. Besides, you have to love people for who they are, not in spite of something about their convictions you don’t appreciate or disapprove of. If you do that, then you don’t really love who they are in the first place, do you?
But if it walks like a duck, and acts like a duck, and reasons with a Bible like a duck, I don't care if it claims to no longer be a duck...
