Trading your life away for CERTAINTY

by Terry 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Terry

  I read somewhere that 99+% of all species that ever existed on earth are extinct.

  These species appeared, thrived, declined and perished.

  Now we are on top of the food chain like a drunk on a mechanical bull in Billy Bob's bar hanging on for dear life!

  Humans require more than survival!

  We also need comfort, a sense of well-being, freedom to make a wide variety of choices about our lives and particularly:

  HAPPINESS and contentment.

  WE HUNGER FOR CERTAINTY

  We would like guarantees...ironclad and infallible...

  For those kinds of ABSOLUTES you have to leave this world of testable hypothesis. You grab for another world advertised as BETTER and BEST.

  You can end up trading your lie away for CERTAINTY.

  You are CONVINCED.

  Accept it on faith and nothing can tamper with your grasp on eternity and all its fanciful promises.

  What the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses offers is not Truth (although they call it "the Truth").

  JW's offer the comfort and peace of mind that comes from trading everything for ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY.

  JW's tell a story. Like a kid's bedtime stories. Simple cast of characters. Good vs Evil. This is what is going to happen..blah blah blah.

  Any simple-minded soul can grasp it and understand.

  Want the reward at the end? Join up! Tell others. The end is near....better act fast.....time limited offer.....

  It is like pouring concrete in your ear. Once it hardens nothing can break through the barrier between fantasy and reality.

  You trade and you get the brain freeze.

  Oblivious and impervious to reasonable skepticism the mind of the JW simply SHUTS OUT all proofs of bullshit.

  We may have all felt that tingle and tickle of Absolute Certainty which filled us with great POWER!

  Nobody could tell us anything! WE KNEW IT ALL.

  And then, one day we look at the crumbled rubble of our personal lives and wonder "How the hell did THAT happen?"

  Sorry, buddy.

  You traded YOUR LIFE away. All you got was CERTAINTY.

  Sure, it was a hollow world of self-deception. But....didn't it feel great WHILE IT LASTED??
• 

  Tater-T

  I certainly couldn't resist .. "It must be nice to be so certain"

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNDwlyJ7UQ8
• 

  Glander

  "Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for"

  read it again. It is true.

  But can you build a life on assurances from unreliable authorities that your unrealistic, fantasy hopes will be fulfilled?

  There are a lot of faithful suckers out there.
• 

  Tater-T

  "though evident realities not beheld".. so the question is assured by what?
• 

  Terry

  http://www.xenutv.com/blog/category/general-interest/jehovahs-witness/
• 

  PSacramento

  There are things we can except as certain because experience has taught us that, like 2 +2 = 1, the sun riasing in the east, water being wet ( unless it is ice), fire being hot, etc.

  There are things we accept on faith because experience has taught us that, things like the love someone has for us, that we will be there tomorrow, etc

  The difference I guess is that what is certain are those things that, regardless of faith, ARE SO.

  We may have faith we will wake up tomorrow, but we can't be certain.

  Of course we must live life with both certainty AND faith, can you imaging going to bed at night and having no faith you will wake up the next morning" or imagine being with someone in which you have no faith that they love you?
• 

  Apognophos

  Don't forget SIMPLICITY. It's also very attractive to the human mind, and goes hand in hand with CERTAINTY.
• 

  Terry

  Our Certainty is illusory beyond a reasonable doubt.

  Without doubt we cannot be wise.

  I think we can reasonably found confident expectations on experience. But, Certainty is an absolute which flies in the face of unforeseen occurance and a Black Swan event.

  We would be paralysed by indecision if we didn't reach a particular stage in our evaluations where we stopped and declared: OKAY, I'M IN!

  That is the moment of "faith".

  However, to make a monumental virtue out of that decision to go-along without doubt is foolhardy and borders on hubris when carried to extreme.

  Turning the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses into PREDICTION has proved the FAITH of the leaders to be one of FOOLISH CERTAINTY.

  If those....."guided by Jehovah" and "led by the spirit" cannot overcome the vicissitudes of error----how can we throw away our life, our freedom and our individuality so easily in trade for their BOLD ASSURANCES of certainty so easily??