Have you ever seen some lonely, pathetic soul sitting at a dinner table all by themselves clearly waiting on their date to arrive?
They keep looking at their watch. The waiter comes back now and again to check on them and is sent away.
Every time the door opens their head turns round expectantly and a faint lift of the eyebrows signals hope.
Eventually, they shrug and order their meal and eat alone in gloomy silence with a sad little candle flickering away for company across from a very empty chair!
Being "stood up" hurts. It is embarassing. It's sooooo public, too. Strangers reflect sympathetic expressions when they cast a glance your way.
You imagine them saying "You poor loser, I feel sorry for you." 
This is how 2nd Adventists felt way back in the day. William Miller had set up a date with Jesus and true believers waited expectantly until it became pretty obvious Jesus was a "no-show."
Miller tried setting up another date and others followed him setting up new times again and again. One by one those "no-shows" piled up until only the truly hardcore cases continued to sit at their table with their candle flickering across from an empty chair!
Some people never learn! They don't MOVE ON.
Maybe it is some kind of Universal Rule: That empty chair at our table must be filled.
This is what prevents the EX JW from embracing a clear fact straight on: Jehovah was never sitting at your table eating with you.
Invisible Jesus was "invisible" for a good reason!
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 children grow up and the beloved "thing" (inert semblance of a living entity) gets put on a shelf, boxed or handed on.
Right?
Once you actually GROW UP you don't need a "stand-in-fake-companion". But, maybe the NEED gets confused with the "thing".
You have to stop believing in YOUR NEED for a semi-imaginary stand-in. The need is real--why shouldn't the companion be real too?
Look at this reasonably.
Once you grow up and mature and start to see life for what it IS you stop talking to your dolly and teddy bear and imaginary friend.
Right? (I hope so!)
But wait--consider the following:
You wouldn't call yourself a doll-atheist or teddy bear atheist...would you?
No. You rationally consider the doll or teddy bear part of the growing-up-process. You put them away "emotionally" and cognitively.
You turn to REAL PEOPLE who become friends.
Friends who DO listen.
Why is it we have no Barbie-atheists who no longer collect Barbie dolls? Why is it we have no Raggedy Ann-atheists who store their Raggedy Ann dolls in the closet? Because it would be silly, that's why!
Because we don't RESENT the emotional investment these things represent in our childhood growth.
We accept the fact children use fantasy to develop real attachments.
Young minds comfort themselves when they are lonely and afraid by projecting upon their Teddy Bear a comforting presence in the form of a "personality" who hears and loves them.
In the same way, Jehovah's Witnesses use Jehovah to make them feel like they have a protector who will reward their efforts on His mighty behalf!
But, we've come to maturity now--haven't we? That figure of JEHOVAH was really no different emotionally than our doll or teddy bear as a child
No need for becoming a Jehovah-atheist! We simply see it as a journey of fantasy and emotional need.
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.
What part was real? The need was real. The emotion was real. The value was real.
But--only in the way our doll or teddy bear is real.
Think about it.
7 million Jehovah's Witnesses are sitting at the table talking to their imaginary friend because their psychology won't let them move on.
Jesus was a no-show IN 1914 and people just couldn't handle it!
They lost it. But, they couldn't move on.
The rest of us have MOVED ON and we sit across from an empty chair ONLY if we haven't chosen to sit a real person in place of the invisible one!
Think about it.
