The ECHO of broadcast emotions..........the empty chair where "god" sits

by Terry 16 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Terry

  I spent Sunday with a number of Ex-JW's in a very pleasant get-together. We all discussed the usual things, of course.

  One thing I always notice. How much of the "flavor" of God remains in one form or another.

  With Ex-JW's the distaste for Religion is the strongest without necessarily including distaste for "belief".

  Religion is the package and God is the contents, you might say.

  But-wait, there's more!

  An undefined emotion attached to................nothing? Is that God?

  Without the particulars....without actual nailed-down particulars....what is left but an empty folder with a tab labeled: God. (contents removed)

  Experiment: look in the other end of the telescope. Do you believe in Human?

  That is a general, not a specific human.

  You might reply, "I believe in humans because I am one." Okay. That's not what I'm asking.

  Can you actually BELIEVE in a General Category WITHOUT specificity....without an INSTANCE?

  (Pause....while you think.......................................................................................)

  Bing!

  For Ex-JW's, just as for ex-drinkers, ex-smokers, ex-druggies....you can't really define yourself by what you NO LONGER DO unless you replace

  the rituals of doing with some OTHER fill-in.

  Look at us here on JWNet. We are "doing". But, it REPLACES the old Kingdom Hall, going out in field service "doing".

  Oh yes. It is a fill-in.

  That empty chair at our table must be filled.

  This is what prevents the EX JW from embracing a clear fact straight on: God was never sitting at your table eating with you.

  But--(ready for this?)----you miss the old Bugger anyway!

  Little children talk to their dolly or teddy bear and have "conversations", tea parties, comfort hugging, companionship.....etc.

  But, then, one day they grow up and the beloved inert semblance of living entity gets put on a shelf, boxed or handed on. Right?

  You don't have to stop believing in YOUR NEED for a semi-imaginary stand-in, do you?

  You wouldn't call yourself a doll-atheist or teddy bear atheist. You just SUBSTITUTE the make-believe with REAL companions and actual lovers who can love you back. Friends who DO listen.

  Atheism curls the upper lip for many formerly devout believers in dollies, teddy bears.....and Jehovahs.

  Why?

  OUR FEELINGS WERE REAL...........even if the object of those feelings........was merely our projection.

  What we "received" in return was the ECHO of our broadcast emotions.

  If that is real, then, our God is/was real. (Poetic reality)

  Think about it.
• 

  cofty

  Interesting Terry. Marking to read again more carefully this evening.
• 

  Flat_Accent

  Interesting, thoughtful post. I bet you gave cool Public Talks.
• 

  panhandlegirl

  Interesting, but one part somewhat confusing. I don't quite understand what you are saying. I don't think I'm dumb but explain this a little more. I could be an explanation for dummies; and I paused.

  Can you actually BELIEVE in a General Category WITHOUT specificity....without an INSTANCE?

  (Pause....while you think.......................................................................................)

  Bing!
• 

  Terry

  Can you actually BELIEVE in a General Category WITHOUT specificity....without an INSTANCE?

  Okay.

  Zero wasn't invented for a long, long time. For example, there is no year 0.

  You can divide by every number there is-----except---zero!

  Roman numerals didn't have a zero and neither did the Greeks (who also had no numbers per se, instead using their alphabet).

  Does zero 'EXIST' ? Or, is it called a number while really actually being a place-holder instead?

  Now why did I ask about Zero instead of answering your question?

  Because we don't go around talking about BELIEF in zero. We merely find zero useful.

  We've created a symbol for it and we see it everyday. We USE IT!

  But, it doesn't "exist", does it?

  Zero is actually "nothing".

  It is a potential rather than an actual.

  We use the word GOD the same way (without understanding that we are doing so.)

  Zero is a category which is only useful because we treated it as though it is there.

  Now, ask yourself, WHAT IF we were instructed from cradle to grave to actually accept the actual existence of ZERO? What if we

  were admonished to talk to ZERO? What if we were warned that ZERO can help us or destroy us? What if we sang songs to ZERO?

  Would any of this be mentally damaging? Emotionally crippling?

  Knowing what we are dealing with is quite different from only thinking we are dealing with an "idea" without instantiation.

  ....and--being required to serve and obey that idea.
• 

  Terry

  I bet you gave cool Public Talks.

  Well, I was told that I did. But, we really had to stick very very closely to the Society's outline!

  Have you noticed that what probably most religious people RESPOND to is charisma from a speaker rather than substance?

  I watched some of Billy Graham's Yankee Stadium preachments that wowed the crowds and the TV audience.

  He hardly said anything above an 8th grade intellect. But, his amazing charisma SOLD it!

  Look at Adolph Hitler's filmed speeches. Have you ever seen a trasncript of the crap he was saying? His STYLE sold it and

  not any of the rather rambling content.

  EMOTION motivates people.

  Content runs a very poor second. Ask any humdrum and monotonous grade school teacher with a class full of unruly kids!
• 

  Finkelstein

  The true ridiculous of human folly becomes further realized upon when people have killed others or themselves for that imaginary friend

  that sat in that chair, as well the hatred and prejudice created concerning these particular imaginary friends (Gods) .

  Of course individualized and organized religion as to be blamed for offering and creating these imaginary friends

  in the first place, proving that religion and the human imagination can really be a potentially dangerous and damaging thing.
• 

  panhandlegirl

  Thanks for your explanation. I understand what you are saying.
• 

  panhandlegirl

  So do you think there is an innate sense that draws humans to a belief in God or is it an idea that is taught/inculcated and becomes difficult for some to discard. By your post, I would say you think the later but just want

  to ask.
• 

  Terry

  So do you think there is an innate sense that draws humans to a belief in God or is it an idea that is taught/inculcated and becomes difficult for some to discard.

  Life is survival.

  Striving for....survival.

  What does a wolf do if it's paw is caught in a trap? Gnaws off the paw and escapes.

  Human mountain climbers cut their own limbs off to survive, too.

  Human intelligence searches for survival strategy in completely hopeless situations.

  Imagination comes in handy.

  GOD is the ultimate strategy for escaping death.

  GOD is invested with outside-laws of physics-power to help us cheat death.

  Naturally there is never something-for-nothing.

  Hence, we must PAY.

  And so, the rambling story of how to get to the point where we cheat death.

  God is a story unconsciously crafted over millennia. At first primitive and bestial. Later, much more socialized.

  Compare Old Testament Jehovah with nicey-nicey New Testament Jesus.

  Mankind's subconscious had made many improvements.

  The only way to NOT DIE is to gnaw off the paw of COMPLETELY RATIONAL THINKING.