by Seraphim23 103 Replies latest jw friends
Some folks just can't let go of the us vs them thing I suppose
I see that quite a bit. Especially when u hear calls to protest and such. It's a scream to be relevent.
But then, anyone who was repressed and suffered in a cult has baggage. Just like any victim of a crime.
When I first started on here, I was shocked by how so many ex-JWs became atheists. To me it was as if their biterness towards the JWs was being taken out on god. Then I became an atheist myself. And I realize it was a natural progression of questioning. I realized I had been duped into believing nonsense for years. I didn't want to be duped again. Religiously, I wasn't going to take anything for granted, I was going to use a critical eye. In examining the bible with a critical eye, I discovered it was nonsense. Not to mention science showing us many things couldn't have happened as described. Then I understood.
And from the perspective of reason, I am still a bit shocked that ex-JWs have turned to other religions.
As far as personalities and love? Freedom from the cult and from religion means we don't have to put on a different personality, we can be ourselves. We also don't have to love everyone. Some people aren't deserving of our consideration.
Also, this is an online forum full of mostly anonymous people. In anonymity and online, people will be much bolder with their words thant hey would ever say to someone's face.
Seraphim23:
Yes, some of them do and for all the reasons you mentioned.
I do realize that there is bitterness and this may vary from person to person. A "fader" like me who came in as a young adult, will understandably have less bitterness than a born-in who lost their whole family and suffered other injustices in the religion.
Terry:
I'll hiss right back.
Designer stubble:
Yes, some do stay in the bitterness phase. I also noticed, here and there, that some ex-JWs never developed into responsible people. Unfortunately, the religion not only mentally hampered them but they also held onto the wrong sense of entitlement that some deadbeat JWs have. To me this is worse than their "athiesm" which I don't really care too much about.
Seraphim,
Atheist are BAD!!!!!
But atheists are in the minority. So that should make you optimistic. The horrible atheist contagion should be easy to control. Then you will have paradise because you will have eliminated the greatest scourge on mankind. You will then be able to end war, come up with new treatments for disease, feed the starving people in the world.
Judge NOT!
Do I detect satire scotoma? The thing is atheism is a religion that refuses the name, so if the reverse of what you said were to happen, there would still be all the problems that religious religion currently causes. However the truth is that mankind will either go extinct or destroy itself, and neither atheism nor religion will stop that inevitable outcome. In fact the isms of both of them may well hasten it.
Seraphim
So it sounds like you are eliminating the Divine from future scenarios for the earth.
Atheism is religion just like gravity is religion? Apparently everything is religion.
There are militant atheists. But most have a realistic view that belief in God serves some function. Let people believe in God. Let atheists not believe in God.
I believe that God is a cheap answer that lets people get on with their lives. We can't all be scientists and philosophers. There is a big world to run and if people occupied themselves with the origins of everything nothing would get done.
JHVH "he causes to be" the great "BE-cause". Mommy why is grass green? BE-cause!
Just Sayin' Nuthin.
I believe that God is a cheap answer that lets people get on with their lives. We can't all be scientists and philosophers.
Intersting you say this. . . Was just reading about Spinoza and that seems to be his take on it. . .
The thing is atheism is a religion that refuses the name - Seraphim
Not again!
I have come across a few confused people from time to time who can't decide if they don't believe in god or they are angry at a god they still believe in.
They are rare and I haven't seen that in this forum for a long time.
Most of the time we we see rational people effectively challenging superstition and getting insulted by angry believers and others who have found a way to make themself feel superior to everybody.
Back, when i professed christianity, just after leaving the wt, i took the attitude of jesus. Jesus went to anyone who needed a cure. The story goes that he came to cure the sick and broken. The sick and broken, today in our western nieghborhoods, are the drug addicted, the street people, the prostitutes, the mentally disturbed... I did try to help a few of those, for quite a while.
From my experiences there, i find what you list here as very mild and unshocking, by comparison. Ask yourself, would jesus be shocked. I think not. I think that you are working on some issues, seraphim. That is a good thing.
S
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