Since exiting the Witnesses have you Become More " Spiritual " ?

OnTheWayOut

I am confident that I am a very much more spiritual person despite my nonbelief in a god. "Spiritual" definitely means to me, being concerned with the things that are not material. I don't believe in a mystic type of karma either, but I really get that positive people doing good tend to attract positive people doing good back at them.

While I will accept that many feel more spiritual because they improve their intellect, I can only feel more "spiritual" about doing that if the intellect connects me better to an understanding of the world around me or makes a serious difference in my life. If my goal was to just be able to join in on philosophy discussions at a party for nerds with doctorates, then that wouldn't be spiritual. But I have to imagine that most people who are improving their intellect are being more connected with the world.

The thing with being a JW was disconnecting with the world outside of the organization. JW's were creeped out by anything the organization defined as "spiritistic" or "pagan" or just "worldly." I can now appreciate why people want to participate in the various rituals of the world, even when they don't agree. On St. Patrick's Day, everyone is Irish. When people want to hold hands and have a moment of silence for some cause or eat Girl Scout cookies to help out some campers, I don't have to feel weird about it.

TOTH

Yes, despite finding fault with the bible.

FlyingHighNow

I've always been spiritual. The JW's robbed me of it for a time. Now I am back to myself.

I disagree with the Lakota guy. Not all religions believe in hell or punishment beyond the grave.

etna

Its funny you ask that, my wife is very spiritual, but she goes occasionally to the meetings to keep her kids happy. But she has told me her friend is very spiritual, she teaches yoga. I have found that since fading and reading alot of literature and checking it against the Bible, it opens my eyes not thinking the watchtower way. I actually enjoy reading the bible now and sometimes read it with my mouth open at how much like the pharisees the watch tower is.

Etna

Black Sheep

I was never spiritual as a Dub kid and I'm still not and I don't feel any need for spirituality, whatever that is.

exwhyzee

I suppose it depends on how you define being "spiritual" To me it means looking beyond the here and now and beyond the obvious physical clues we have so far and listening to your own inner knowings or for other parts of your consciousness that might be somewhat drowned out by the daily noise of ones life. I think I've always been kinda' spiritual, at least I was willing to look into it, but I was made to feel like I was doing it wrong...was deficient somehow. Now that I'm doing things or looking into things because they speak to me for some reason, it comes much more easily and with greater satisfaction.

I don't know if there is a God or not...how can that even be proven without a shadow of a doubt ? Maybe it's none of our business and thats why he,(if he exists) didn't make things more obvious to us. I've gotten comfortable with not knowing. I've taken on a more "wait and see" attitude. I am not responsible for having the answers to all the big picture questions, sharing my answers with others and judging them if they don't act on what I've told them.

doofdaddy

After exiting jw's, I realised that I had been living other people's expectations of me, especially my spirituality. When I asked myself "Who are you?" I came to the staggering conclusion that I couldn't answer that question with any clarity. I was truly born again in the sense that I went searching for identity and now realise that this is the wonder of old age, finding my true self and being comfortable with that. I, like Flipper and Talesin get inspiration, wisdom and peace from the natural world. Actually I just returned from camping on aboriginal sacred land just now. I saw two eagles soaring yesterday and a few of the elders danced around the fire last night. Better than any stuffy meeting in a suit and tie!

WTWizard

Even with a disdain for Christi-SCAM-ity, I have been more enlightened after leaving the witlesses. Not only do I realize that they don't even abide by the Bible, but I realized that the Bible was written to hold mankind down. The "God loves you" rubbish is the second grandest scam of all time, just below the "We are all imperfect and need a savior to redeem us to salvation" scam. In fact, God is nothing more than an Almighty Lowlife Scumbag that exploits people.

And I feel I have gained more true spirituality, in the sense of intellectual and knowing what is really going on, since researching Christianity as a scam than I ever would have at my local Kingdumb Hell, or even going to regular church. It is impossible to do deep research in Christianity or Islam as a scam without finding out that they are all plagiarized, corrupted, and distorted from ancient Devil worship or "heathen" religions. I also have much better insight on "the end of the world" as a Devil worshiper (as in, the Satan that tried liberating us from the God-loves-you scam) than I would have as a Christian. The "end of the world" is actually a bad rendition--it should be "the end of the AGE", as in the end of the Age of Pisces. It simply means we are entering the Age of Aquarius--there will be a change in the religious climate, but nothing more serious than that. We are already seeing signs of it now as atheism is becoming more prominent.

Hence, my seeing the continually appearing "The end is nigh, join our church and get your affairs right with God" rubbish is simply a scam. The end is simply of an era--the era of Christianity as a mainstream religion. No Rapture, no Armageddon, no nothing.

designs

Radical Activist and community organizer!

minimus

I don't necessarily believe in anything, Flipper. I wouldn't bet my life on anything---for sure!

Since exiting the Witnesses have you Become More " Spiritual " ? - Not ........