Your earliest doubt?

Apognophos

This might be an unfair question for those who have been out of the organization for decades, but I'm wondering if any of you remember your earliest doubt -- maybe something odd that occurred to you as a kid (if you were a JW then). Please try to limit to two doubts at the most :-)

I think my first "doubt" was simply realizing that at the time of the Flood, every animal that wasn't in the Ark died (well, besides the fish, supposedly). I could tentatively accept that all people were bad except Noah's family, but why would all those animals have to die? What did they do? I tried not to think about it so I wouldn't be angry at God. Nowadays, of course, I know that if God exists at all, he certainly didn't cause any worldwide Flood. (Sorry, I know some of you may disagree with that, but let's keep to the topic.)

Was there anything about the teachings or the organization that just didn't add up for you, that tested your faith, perhaps at a young age?

wha happened?

I would say when I read a few statements that seemed a bit over reaching. I noticed it a few years after I was baptized. I thought with all this truth they dispense, why deal with these fringe issues with little basis in fact. After a while, I learnewd a lot of their teaches were like that

goatshapeddemon

I was a sophomore in high school. I remember it very clearly. It was the first time I ever made friends with anyone "worldly". They were such a great person I couldn't believe God would destroy them just because they weren't a JW.

prologos

It was in the 60s, a very poignant co-incident (if you are superstitious even planned) .

I was studying the ["Let God be true" and every man a liar] book with a devoted Baptist. It was the chapter on the Superior Authorities Romans 13 He was from the "other side of the tracks" and I could out talk him, a brillant defense of an untenable position. but he was adamant: " xxxxx your organisation is a false prophet" it did not faze me then. but

getting home I found a brown subscription wrapper on our bed. Wt. new light! surpriiiise! the Superior Authorities were NOT Jehovah the father and Christ the son, but the governments, as the baptists church very well understood. Flickering light. so I asked: how come this condemned church, part of babylon the great has the correct understanding and we stand corrected? It was downhill from then on in, a shallow glidepath, taking decades to end the flight of fancy.

There was this nursery rhime in my youth, recited when my mother knew the story was fishy, badly translated: whoever lies will not be believed, even if he speaks the truth. peace

cofty

The teaching that wild animals would be friendly vegetarians in paradise. The more you learn about natural history the more idiotic that fantasy becomes.

Even as an elder I didn't believe that one.

wha happened?

The other thing that rubbed me wrong but i initially ignored, were the rumours of what wordly people would do. I was introduced to this religion at age 23 so I had a decent idea of what the "world" was really like

Leolaia

I was 8 or 9. We were at the book study, studying the Life book. I couldn't understand how death is nonexistence and resurrection is a copy from God's memory like a film. There was a drawing in the book of a projector playing a film onto a screen. It seemed obvious to me that a projected image is not the same thing as the original object. I asked for clarification. I said that this doesn't make sense. I wasn't satisfied with the answer either. I then was told I would understand it better when I got older. That never happened, I realized that this teaching didn't make sense. Resurrection would be like somebody else living my life who thinks she is me and who was given my memories, but I'm still dead because I no longer exist. Didn't sound like much of a hope to me.

wha happened?

wow that's a young age to figure that out

Apognophos

@wha happened?: Ha, yeah, I've wondered how it must be for "worldly" people who are coming into the truth and are expected to believe that everyone outside the org. is a backbiter, on drugs, etc. Strangely, even as a born-in I should have noticed that many of my classmates were fine kids and didn't deserve to die at Armageddon, but somehow I didn't seem to believe that would actually happen, despite WT teaching the contrary. Technically that was probably my first doubt, except that I didn't know it was a doubt! No one was telling me at the time that even kids like me would die if we were outside the org. I remember making a comment once at a book study (there was some context for it that I forget) that some of my classmates were even as nice as Witnesses. That didn't go over well.

J. Hofer

there was a lot of things that troubled me or that i wouldn't repeat to "normal" people.

like a talking ass. or animals dying in paradise. or god not letting moses into the promised land only because he asked his people if they want water... later when i was about 8 or 9 i started to read the bible on my own, my parents were very proud about this. i read about how they raped that woman all night long until she died and her husband (who let the rape happen) cut her into pieces. i never grasped that story. how it was just and how god responded to it. from then on i only ever felt guilty of having my own thoughts and tried to align them with the watchtower. until one day i didn't want to lie to myself anymore.

Your earliest doubt?

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