What I've been wanting to say about doubt and faith

by jgnat 63 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  new hope and happiness

  jgnat having started this thread iam sure you are FAITHFUL and true to the posters that poted...so i guess having read this thread faith can be very open?

  May be faith need not be maniputive even if i suspect those that have faith are often manipulated. ....maybe faith allows us to be or have more in common with others than not having faith..maybe faith is allowing ourselfes and others the depth to dream..maybe sometimes faiths moves and maybe soetimes we are irritated by a persons faith but faith is for most i think more importat than " truth"...
• 

  jgnat

  NHAH, I'm just back. Hubby and I have been busy the last few days.

  Here's a thought. In truth, nothing is solid. Atoms are sticky, buth porous. Even the existence of an electron in a certain place at a certain time is more probability than reality (Quantum physics), and even the act of observation can change things. That is the truth.

  Even our ability to instantly distinguish a flying lemon from a tennis ball, for instance, depends on our right brain, which uses a catalogue of memories and short-cuts to make sense of our three-dimensional world.

  I'd say the very act of living in an apparently solid world is an act of faith.

  That being said, I like truth.
• 

  humbled

  I have found that faith remained even after the predations of the WT.

  What "Truth" is and how we each learn it-- that has changed. It frees us from dogma and division.

  I live with what some might call doubt. I doubt not that there is Truth. But I doubt my ability to get hold of it, to understand it well.

  I do think it is true, however, that love never fails. I don't doubt that.

  So it didn't fail when Ignat turned to her native Americans neighbors. It was good and true. I understand that.
• 

  DeWandelaar

  Jesus showed something in a parabel... and it is important to understand what he was telling:

  "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he travelled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said to him, 'Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.' Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbour to him who fell among the robbers?" He said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

  According to Jesus it was not the priest or the levite who was doing the right thing... it was the Samaritan (not a direct follower of Christ or of the TRUE religion) who was doing what he should do...

  Moral of the story: You probably can be "wrong" with the beliefsystem and STILL do what you should do!

  Putting it some other way: There is NO way for us people in the world to be able to get to see the WHOLE and REAL truth! How could we since bibles and theologies are corrupt... there are gazillions of religions... there is no way to get to a beliefsystem that is doing the right thing all the time! The only LAW that we CAN follow BLINDLY is the law of love...

  Let me take the illustration of the Samaritan and put some other conversations in it:

  The levite and the priest come home and tell them what they saw: they saw a brother lying on the street and they told some friends and say: tell ya what! some guy was lying on the street and was dying there but I could not stop because I was attending a meeting of priest and had to make a sacrifice anyways. God loves me because I am doing his will...

  They did not understand that the law of LOVE was more important then the religious system... and we see that all day every day.

  So who does truly believe? Who does truly show faith? I think it is those that show other people that they love other humans... it is the only faith we do not have to doubt