by myohorengekyo 21 Replies latest jw friends
The day i was born into a cult was at baptisam.....sadly thats the day my freedom was kissed goodbye. (sincere and faithful as i was)
The early belivers in christ were thrown to lions rather than renounce their sincerity and faith. (sincere and faithful as they were)
Do we need our version of sincerity and faith? ......or can we let our fealings show outside of our sincerity and faith?
Nam-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo
One word, dear Myo (again, peace to you!):
Integrity.
Regardless of what one believes... if one has no integrity to UPHOLD that belief... there really is no point. You can be led every which way. If you believe, for example, what JWs SAY they believe (not what they DO, but what they SAY - Matt. 23:2)... or what anyone else says... then shouldn't you do it with integrity? If you DON'T believe what they say... or do... or what anyone else says/does... shouldn't YOU maintain YOUR integrity? Even if it makes you unpopular... even gets you shunned/DFd?
One has to be true to oneself... regardless of what ANY others say or think. In SPITE of what others say... or think.
But... you must know you. In ALL ways... and in TRUTH. Otherwise, lies will appeal to you (even if you don't now they're lies)... because YOU are a lie (even if you don't KNOW you are!).
Just some things to think about.
Again, PEACE to you... truly!
A slave of Christ,
SA
My dearest Aguest
Sadly INTEGRITY in faith is subjective because it relys on the values of the person doing the testing.
Hence my post faith and sincerity
Harmony to you AG. love.myohorengekyo
And if that person HAS no values... well, then...
Again, peace to you, dear Myo... and true "enlightenment."
A slave of Christ, the True Light that came into the world...
SA
What ever AG.....l guess we both like our convictions undiluted...like my bourbon.Have a glass on me.
myo-hor-en-ge-kyo.
I'm really more of a martini kinda girl, dear Myo! In that light... "chin-chin" !
SA, on her own...
When I was a JW, I was sincere: Sincerely Wrong.
hi leavingwt....yes i also as a J W, was sincere: Sincerely Wrong.
Iam now a sincere athiest, but open to be found sincerley wrong again .
NAM-MYO-HOR-REN-GE-KYO
My dear Aguest...l thankyou for being the only consistant respondent on my 2 New Topics.
I must say the sincerity of your heart and passion( made clear in your writting) has put my athisam on shaky ground. Iam now agnostic.
But why do you site bible texts to me when iin my first post "why iam an athiest" i understood you implied such verses were not neccessary?
Please accept this martini on me ( i hope its received shaken and if stired with friendship, as this post is now sent)
Nam-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo
Shelby: One word: Integrity.
For JWs (and many other faiths), "spiritual integrity" involves a strict resolve to protect one's cherished beliefs, no matter what. Such "integrity" requires followers to shun anything that might damage his/her faith in god, right?
But I think that kind of integrity must be contrasted with "intellectual integrity," which is the "recognition of the need to be true to one's own thinking; to be consistent in the intellectual standards one applies; to hold one's self to the same rigorous standards of evidence and proof to which one holds one's antagonists; to practice what one advocates for others; and to honestly admit discrepancies and inconsistencies in one's own thought and action." (www.criticalthinking.org)
The power of wanting to believe causes some of the smartest, most reasonable people to lose their sense of rationality. It’s easy to be skeptical of something we don’t want to believe. Intellectual integrity requires us to be just as skeptical of that which we want to believe... to suppress our biases, prejudices, and egocentric/sociocentric thinking because those things corrupt judgment.
In the case of many members of this forum, we eventually applied the same consistent scrutiny to our own cherished beliefs that we applied to all others. We recognized that we couldn't rely on any religion’s proprietary yardstick to see if that religion is accurate. Hell, they all measure up according to their own yardsticks.
Few religious beliefs survive, as far as I can tell, when subjected to intellectual integrity... because religion feeds on emotions and biases, like wanting to believe, a fear of death, and the over-hyped quality of faith.
I posted a Schopenhauer quote on FB last year, “The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.” I found it disheartening that a longtime JW friend commented that it was true, but only applied it to her atheist father and totally missed that it was posted for each person to apply to him/herself. In doing so, she demonstrated the very essence of the quote.
I can say in all honesty, it was only by questioning my childhood presuppositions against a consistent level of scrutiny that I arrived at the perspective I have now. All kids should have the chance to release prejudices and say “I don’t know.” But religion asks people to hold on to biased thought and put a wall around cherished beliefs. It's the foundation of faith - "spiritual integrity."
We live in a world FULL of misinformation and counter-knowledge. The simple fact is if we are too quick to believe, too hesitant to question, or too unaware to suppress our biases, we risk mistaking fallacy for truth and vice versa.
