I am an atheist. I arrived at this juncture in my life despite not wanting to. When I first met the Witnesses at 22 I was a seeker looking for answers to the question of life - in other words, prime cult target material. I never got to the point of being baptised - the 1975 fiasco assured that for me - but I still got to the point at which I was seriously entertaining the belief that the Watchtower was what it said it was. In the almost two years I was associated with the Society as a student, the Watchtower did a great job of proving to me that all the other religions in Christendom were false and that only the Society practiced true worship of the One God, until I witnessed and recognised otherwise. My wife's baptism a couple of years after I disassociated myself has nevertheless kept the Watchtower in my life. What the Watchtower does to create atheists, like me, is when you are already convinced that all other religions are false and you finally come to realise that the Watchtower is false, too, then there's not much left to hang onto for the rest of your lifetime. You get to the point at which you consider that all religions are false, you seek out and find mountains and mountains of evidence that support your consideration and then you see things in a much different way. And there's no going back. The Watchtower did this to me. I suppose, in a way, I should be grateful. The real truth is emancipating.
How the WTBTS creates atheists
by Nickolas 103 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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InterestedOne
I also think the Witnesses helped me move toward atheism. I can't say I felt the Witnesses were any truer than my former Christian beliefs, but the process of studying with them helped put the last nail in the coffin for all of it. One of the features of my experience with the Witnesses was how strange I thought the WT language was. In attempting to clarify what the heck the WT was even saying, I found myself examining religious ideas more closely and becoming much less inclined to believe any of them as a result.
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leavingwt
I just simply don't see how the WT teaches anyone, anything about other religions. It's mostly lies and strawmen, etc.
Mainstream churches and a high-control group like the JWs couldn't be more different, IMHO.
MOST people attending churches today, do so because they LIKE to do so. Members of high-control groups attend/participate because they honestly believe it's their only choice, or God will slit their throat at Armageddon, which will arrive as soon as tomorrow.
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carla
I have talked with many ministers over the years re: my jw and they all say the jw's & Mormons create more atheists than any other religions they could think of.
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leavingwt
I have talked with many ministers over the years re: my jw and they all say the jw's & Mormons create more atheists than any other religions they could think of.
As I stated on another recent thread, my observation is this:
Victims of spiritual abuse are less likely to believe in a personal deity.
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Heaven
The fact that the Watchtower subjugates women based on the Bible made me question the very basis for all religions. If their source material is flawed, it follows that the group will be as well.
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Satanus
The wt teaching is mainly materialist, anyway. It debunks the socalled spiritual in the churches as false or demonic. It ridicules rituals as totally useless and pagan.
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poopsiecakes
Well said, Nickolas and I completely agree!
For me, realizing that the WTS was full of crap just wasn't enough...I couldn't just shut off my newfound ability to think outside what I had been taught and the house of cards all came crashing down. And guess what - I'm not out there killing people or shooting up or doing all the other nasty things I was taught atheists do!
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mindseye
It's a natural pattern. First one realizes the WT is not the 'truth'. Then other 'truths' are subject to investigation. The Bible is next. As document of literal 'truth', the Bible does not stand up to logic, science and even ethics/morals.
In this manner the WT creates skeptics. In my view, this is a good thing. The world needs more skeptics. Too many just accept the ideas and values that they are raised with.
I agree with leavingwt on the WTs fallacious teachings about other religions. Just like their literature on evolution, the views of other religions espoused by the WT are a laughable caricature. As someone with an affinity for eastern thought, I remember their descriptions on Taoism and Buddhism particularly simplistic and distorted.
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unshackled
Good post Nickolas...guess in a way I too can thank the WT for helping me become an atheist. For me it started when I began questioning the god of the bible. Most religions today are based, in part, on the bible....and it's a house of cards. Once you realize the bible is simply a work of fiction the rest unravels.
"Beware the man of one book."
