Wow, This is Getting Tougher!

by Franklin Massey 61 Replies latest jw friends

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  leavingwt

  I don't consider myself religious. "Religion is a snare and a racket," right? If and when I leave, I'll never sign up on another religious group's roster. My concept of God is uniquely mine and should not be dictated by anyone else. Right now, after much research, meditation, and honest soul-searching, I would fall in the category of strong agnostic.

  Please go ahead and prepare yourself for the folks who are going to tell you that you're "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" and tell you that "it's a shame" that you let WT "destroy your faith". They will remain unconcerned about HOW and WHY you reached your conclusions. So, ignore their ridicule.

  It's not a race. The only urgency is whatever urgency you assign to the situation. I would assume that you spend years in the WT, so it's only natural that it could take years to DECIDE FOR YOURSELF what you believe. The strongly held beliefs of others have little to do with your own reality.
• 

  stuckinamovement

  Oops sorry Franklin, I must have been thinking of another poster with a similar situation. Never hurts to ask if your wife is preggers? LOL

  I came to the point where I realized that 1/2 of my life was over and I had spent it zealously preaching and teaching a lie. I wasn't going to allow the last 1/2 to be a waste. Life is too short to spend it doing something that has no value.

  It is tough because if you are "born in" everything you do and everyone you know are tied to the religion. It can be a terrifying thought to just walk away cold turkey, which is why many of us decide to fade away with vary degrees of success. Once you realize that the cage door is open it becomes easier mentally.

  I sent you a PM.

  SIAM
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  Franklin Massey

  Thanks for the tip, Leaving. I expect it. I already get it from some non-JWs that I share my beliefs with. My lack of "faith" is not a reaction to my lack of belief in WT doctrine. I'm not a "throw the baby out with the bathwater" kind of person. What I am trying to do is get a grasp on key spiritual concepts and then test them against all the available evidence. The more facts I have, the more evidence I have, the less faith I need. I'm weighing everything out and choosing the most plausible side of any given issue, fully aware that absolute truth is rare and I should never be dogmatic about my personal conclusions on matters which can never really be proven (like, the existence of God). In my deep research of humanity's grasp on God and the history of religious practices in general, I have arrived at my current state of agnosticism. Could there be a God? Sure. Could there not be a God? Yeah. Has any person, document, vision, miracle, or religious group given me reason to believe that their way of understanding God is the best way? Not really. So I'm following the evidence. For me, faith is too reliant on emotion. Like the Stoics, I can see where emotion can cloud my better judgement. So I dial back what makes me personally feel good or bad and instead, look for the ideas that clearly tip the scales with overwhelming evidence.

  I am born-in, btw. My wife too. Very big, very spiritual families on both sides. 4th generation JWs.
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  jay88

  LWT-The strongly held beliefs of others have little to do with your own reality

  Very powerful statement!!
• 

  SweetBabyCheezits

  I don't think we can define God, let alone say what kind of movies/education/health care/job/clothing/etc. it would approve of. To put a face on God seems disrespectful of what God could be. How arrogant it is to minimize the largeness of God (whatever God is) down to a human level.

  I like how you think, FM... in part due to my own ingroup bias, no doubt.

  I've been reading some H.L. Mencken lately and your comments reminded me of this:

  Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure."
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  Franklin Massey

  You inspired me to check him out. Great stuff!
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  minimus

  btt 4 u
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  Finally-Free

  ...just testing to see if this can be posted on.
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  leavingwt

  Franklin Massey: You may enjoy this essay by Robert G. Ingersoll, written many decades before you were born. It's about a 30-minute read, but I promise you won't regret it.

  Why I Am an Agnostic

  http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/ingag.htm
• 

  SweetBabyCheezits

  Mods, did I kill this thread for IE users? I've been guilty before - something to do with copying/pasting quotes into Firefox when posting. My apologies to FM and other posters!

  Posters, please follow the thread HERE since this thread is confuzzled for some users.