Lots of good comments on this thread. Great topic, CJ.
GaryNeal: In the end, I think we can only prove what is incorrect and for the Watchtower, they have so many things that are so easily proven wrong. But of course, the same could be said about Christianity.
Yeah, I can't agree with you more, Gary. I think that's about the most intellectually humble perspective to take, at least for average folks like me who aren't blazing a path of discovery.
Once I tried to explain this philosophy to my JW parents: "No, I don't have the big answers as to why we're here and where we're going. And I don't have a glorious hope to offer you like a paradisaic afterlife. All that I've discovered thus far is that absolute truth may not be within our grasp but we can use logic, reason, and evidence to eliminate many things that are unmistakably false."
"Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed." – Mencken
MrQuik: That period was to be marked by Jehovah's absence from the affairs of man. Anyway, thats my take on things. What do you think?
I think you're on the right path - questioning - and that your views will continue to evolve if you keep an open mind. My thinking, when I was at the point you're at, was to start with a clean slate.... rip out old faith-based presuppositions and throw them away. All of them. I felt I should assume my faith-related data was corrupted from the point I learned about God and the Bible and then rebuild it brick by brick.
If you come back to a particular holy book, at least you can feel *more* confident that it's true since you did it without being persuaded that way as a naive child. That's just my take on things.
JGNAT: Any organized religion, by definition, will be a poor imitation, with pieces missing. Like the fable of the blind men and the elephant.
I like to think that those standing far off from the elephant - the nonreligious - can see clearly that it's just a big pachyderm being molested by blind religionists. Gotta love a good illustration.
Hey, maybe that idea is the answer to the problem BroDan had with this analogy last week.