What came first? Atheism or the "apostasy" in JW terms?
by Silent_Scream 28 Replies latest jw experiences
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Fernando
In my case:
3rd generation born-in RBNS - then SBNR - then reject Watchtower apostasy.
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ZeusRocks
Apostacy only came 2 years after I stopped going to meetings. Atheism came within 4 weeks after that. Once I found out the lies of the Watchtower I just kept researching everything including the bible itself. Well, the rest is history.
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free @ last
I was an agnostic before coming out of the kingdom hall but arrived at humanism shortly afterwards.
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whathappened
The so called apostasy came first. Once the watchtower society fell from the pedestal, I started to question all their flawed scriptural interpretations. I discovered that you can twist the scriptures to prove or disprove almost any viewpoint.
Then I read the book "The Atheists Book of Bible Stories" and it was all over for me believing the Bible. The next reasonable step was atheism. It was very hard for me to give up the idea of God. When you discover that the god of the Bible really isn't loving at all, it all comes tumbling down.
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NewChapter
I just saw that I was mentioned on this thread 6 months ago, but missed the entire thing.
It's true that I was not taught anything about a god (in my memory) until I was ready for kindergarten, and then a neighbor tried to explain Jesus and God to me. I didn't really internalize this until somewhere around 2nd grade when we moved and a new neighbor started taking me to church. From then on, I believed in God, but was not a JW until my 20's.
When I left the org, it was because I had become an atheist. It actually had nothing to do with that specific religion.
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jwfacts
This doesn't really answer the question, but is somewhat related to your title.
For a number of years the elders knew I had questions about the Bible and sovereignty issue, but did not really care, other than that I study more. But when I admitted I did not believe the GB represented Jehovah's organisation, they had a huge issue with that, and it was the primary question they were concerned with regarding my disfellowshipping.
So I would say that Atheism is less of an concern than Apostasy for the GB. You can be an atheist, attend meeting with your family and as long as you a quiet about it they don't care. But if you are vocal about the organisation, that makes you viewed as apostate, and the elders will quickly remove you.
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free @ last
JWFacts, I think if you were vocal about being an atheist that would get you in hot water as well. It's the vocal part that bothers them.
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sizemik
It was the appallingly bad behaviour of some of my brothers that got me digging. By the time I left I knew it was all b/s but was still in hot pursuit of the real Jesus Christ. As I rounded a corner I ran smack-bang into Critical Thinking. After we picked ourselves up and dusted off . . . he introduced me to his cousin Atheism. They seemed to make a lot of sense. I still haven't seen Jesus.