Does anybody know if Ray Franz ever addressed his thoughts on atheism? From what I've read, he was a diligent reader of the bible. If anybody has any info and sources about this, it is highly appreciated. I am still on my path as an open borderline atheist looking for informative sources to read and study. Thanks in advance all. :D
Did Ray Franz ever address his thoughts on atheism?
by JWINQUESTION 19 Replies latest watchtower bible
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done4good
Ray remained a Christian with beliefs that did not change much from JW in many areas, (still rejected the Trinity, for example). I always thought this a bit odd, but now I think I understand it to be just how far the conditioning affects a person. Ray was just human in the end.
d4g
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JWINQUESTION
Thanks for that done4good. Very interesting indeed. If you have any more info please share. -
FayeDunaway
Ray was a true Christian. -
JWINQUESTION
Hello Faye. :D I understand he was a Christian. I just want to know if there were any sources or direct quotes from him on his thoughts on atheism. That is all. If he were still alive today I would have asked him myself. It would be interesting if he were still alive to see if he could address some of the questions some atheists on JWN want to hear answered as some theists on here like Perry and William Draper just does a hit and run post. I tried to tactfully engage in conversation with them with genuine sincerity and no sarcastic intent to no avail. -
FayeDunaway
I agree jwiq, I would have liked to ask him some questions too, esp about the trinity, and I do wonder how he would address atheist questions.
Im actually half through 'in search of Christian freedom'...I rushed through CoC but this one have taken extremely slowly, I think because I am sad he is dead and these are the last words from him to read.
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JWINQUESTION
Yes Faye. It seems that Ray was a very humble and genuine man. I am pretty sure he would be the kind of person who would do his best to answer sincere questions. Like I said, an an atheist, I want to keep learning. I'm not the type of atheist that would mock or use sarcastic comments to prove my point or bring anyone down. I am not implying that the atheists on JWN are like that either. Of course, all of us here have different personalities and the way we say things might be taken the wrong way by others.
I need to read "In Search of Christian Freedom". Thanks for bringing up that book.
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OnTheWayOut
I haven't found any thoughts on atheism nor recall reading any from Ray Franz. But Ray was not trying to establish a following. He wrote a couple books that had his thoughts that needed to get out. It would seem he remained very Christian. But he didn't preach anything when he left. He turned his energy toward his crisis of conscience and did an excellent job.
On a similar vein, Ray Franz helped many people start down a new path, which consisted of thinking and examining the Watchtower for themselves. While I won't directly say that Ray caused people to lose faith in Watchtower and come to the conclusion that religion or even belief in God was not necessary, Ray was an important part of many people's spiritual journey that took them to atheism or somewhere else.
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whathehadas
From what I remember in In Search of Christian Freedom, he addressed some of his feelings/beliefs of the paths many Ex-JW take after leaving the WT. He disagreed on protesting of course and he talked about people going back to false Christian beliefs. He never directly talked about atheism but attributed many Ex-JW faith in God being destroyed because of too much trust in the WT. I look back on those reads and he comes across as passive in his criticism of the WT and religion in general. He definitely didn't want any followers -
PokerPlayerPhil
Ray's key goals from both his books were "We are only human!", "don't fall for argumentation and manipulation used by people trying to become the lords over you. Ray was not a atheist, he was a Christian trying to travel down that road every single one of is doing now. Ray did not like how the Governing Body and members in the Organization were very good controlling their brothers off baseless Scriptures.
In the last chapter in ISOCF it deals with "Where do we go from here", he tell's you he does not have all the answers, it's your responsibility to find out what is truth. Don't look to human beings because they don't have a good past record, a large failure rate. The owner of the website who use to post here knew Ray because he sold a lot of his books, what site was it? H2O or something about breaking through Mind Control, can't remember his name, do you, was it Randy? Randy would know!