Did you have to try another church or religion on your way to unbelief?

by donny 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  donny

  Back in 1992 when I was slowly extricating my way out of the Wacthtower, there was no internet, smart phones or any other type of quick data download available. I had basically 3 choices to obtain viewpoints from Ex-JW's.

  #1 - Go to go to the library and look for books critical of the Society

  #2 - Go to a Christian book store to look for the same.

  #3 - Order item like these from addresses or phone numbers listed in the back of these publications.

  And while doing any of these things, you were always looking over your shoulder to see if any "brothers" were around.

  The problem I experienced is that virtually all of these books, while giving you good reason to doubt the Watchtower, always pointed to "Christendom" as the way you needed to go. As a result I found myself attending various churches trying to figure out what made sense to me. It was only after a few years of this that I finally concluded there was nothing supernatural that really pasted any kind of serious test.

  Nowadays, you can sit at the comfort of your computer in your pajamas and find all kinds of data that can help you find your agnostism/atheism without having to take this detour.

  For those of you who are now in the agnostism/atheism tent, did you get there straight from the Watchtower or did you also take the long way around?
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  cofty

  I went the long road; 9 years as an evangelical - doh!

  When you realise you are lost its human nature to assume you are not very lost.

  People who evangelise exiting JWs are akin to drug dealers who hang around outside rehab.
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  OnTheWayOut

  I took a detour via the books I read, but did not attend any church services. There were many books that seemed to encourage keeping faith in God while ditching Jehovah's Witnesses.

  I came to realize that Watchtower was a cult, but still thought Christianity was the way. But because God had let me join a cult when I reached out to him at my weakest, I needed to examine for myself. That was actually quite simple. There was lots of information that helped people see that the Bible was inaccurate. As I looked into the fiction of the Bible and other spiritual beliefs, I looked into the answers from science and came to fully understand that none of the gods of men were true and that believing in any of them really did not explain anything. (The standard problem of saying that everything had to have a creator doesn't tell us how the creator came to be.)
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  donny

  I really had hoped that the "mainstream" churches would have shown me the way, but as time went on it became apparent that their beliefs took just as much faith to believe although they were easier to grasp. It was after 9/11 that I finally came to terms that I didn't beleive in anything supernatural.
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  designs

  I went to a Dawn Bible Student convention in LA and then met the group who were the first to break away from Russell The Christian Millennial Fellowship who were very helpful and kind. Then it was a range of Christian religions and some very important time with Judaism and then it was over!
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  still thinking

  No. Thank goodness I read all the christian apologists (ie godrulz and others) nonsense on this forum and it helped me to avoid going down yet another religious road.

  We need those apologists on this site to help us see what other religons are really like so we don't ge snagged into them. I think we are easy prey if we still believe in a god.
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  slimboyfat

  People who evangelise exiting JWs are akin to drug dealers who hang around outside rehab.

  LOL I am sure Doug Harris would love the comparison.
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  OnTheWayOut

  It was after 9/11 that I finally came to terms that I didn't beleive in anything supernatural.

  While I was still a believer in 2004, I was pretty much biding my time with JW's and trying to figure out my life's plan, when the Indonesian tsunami hit. That profoundly changed my thoughts about God and made it easier to look into the idea that he wasn't there.
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  finallysomepride

  straight road out of jwland into nonbelieverland
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  WTWizard

  I left because Jehovah abused my dedication to him (which I revoked, whether he recognized it as revoked or not). At which point, I took a total break from committing myself to any religion--I just got Internet access at the time. And I did research on those religions, without committing. Of course, I did this after the age of per-hour dial-up Internet died out, let alone when you had to go to the library or bookstore to get books and watch Brother Hounder.

  And these days, I recommend anyone leaving the washtowel to take a total time-out before joining another religion unless you were recruited, have a background in a religion, and sorely miss that religion and know you wish to return to that religion. Generally, this means doing research on as many different religions, from the Abrahamic religions to the pagan and Satanic ones, as possible without committing to anything. You can "try" another church in this way without actually joining anything, and get information. Even in the age of needing books, I would recommend Crisis of Conscience, at least one book on the Catholic church, one on a mainstream Protestant denomination, one that introduces you to Islam, one book that deals specifically with cults, a book on a Far Eastern religion, one on witchcraft, and something that gets into ancient Paganism. Plenty of reading, but I think that, in the absence of the Internet, it is the minimum needed in order to get out of the washtowel and decide if you wish to pursue a religion and, if so, which one.

  And, watch for Brother Hounder. You are much more likely to get busted with 7 or 8 books on the subject of religion than you are for going online.