by hippikon 26 Replies latest jw friends
Why do people leave one borg only to join another? It is because of the type of person who will willingly get involved in a borg in the first place.
Yes, there is a definite personality type that joins up. And you can study about that personality type, perhaps about yourself, by picking up a copy of Eric Hoffer's concise little book, "The True Believer."
You can discover all you want to know about a borg, and who joins a borg in this slim little tome.
Enjoy.
Francoise.
It is quite amazing how many leave JWdom just to pick up another sham. If it is just intellectual laziness or simply an emotional need to believe "the truth is out there" I don't know. Likely a combination.
It may or may not be true that exJWs tend to be atheists/agnostics in a higher proportion than people generally. I don't know any statistic that supports this.
Knowing that hardly 5% of the US population are non-believers, this may appear to be true for American exJWs. But in Scandinavia around half the population tends to disbelieve the Christian God, and my vague experience is that exJWs here fall into the same pattern.
I think participants of this board may not be very representative. People here tend to be those who have thought through their relationship with religion, unlike most exJWs who still retain many of their beliefs. And it's a fact that thsoe who participate in these discussions have seen Christian beliefs and defences shot down repeatedly. It is no surprise that those who are somewhat open-minded will tend to reject these superstitions when all the facts are available to them (mainstream media and schools keeps most people quite sheltered from these 'inconvenient facts').
It is of course the case that once you have questioned the JW religion, many don't feel it's honest to exclude the rest of Christianity from the same scrutiny. Those who have seen how critical analysis can cut the JW beliefs about blood, 607/1914, etc to shreds, can hardly fail to note that Christianity and the Bible also falls through if exposed to the same critical light.
When you've already been fooled once, you may be less likely to fall for the same fraud twice.
The argument that exJWs "lose faith" because they are turned off religion by the JW experience may be true for some few, but practically all I know went through a post-JW phase of continued belief in the Bible and Christianity. So did I. We heard the "don't throw baby out with bathwater" argument and gave Christianity more than a casual look. But we found that it would be dishonest to use critical analysis of JWdom and then refuse to expose our new beliefs to the same scrutiny. We discovered that Christianity at large is just an older, bigger version of the sham we had left.
- Jan
--
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen"
-- Albert Einstein
Jan H,
That rings so true, that the Bible itself and religion in general does not hold up to the critical examination the WTS fails.
My field of inquiry since leaving borg is evolution, history, mythology, etc. Things "good jws" have to leave alone for the most part because of the undermining effect these fields have on the wTS teachings and the Bible itself.
Patio
Great Thread Today,
Hi to all. As for myself, maybe as for others, it wasn't
until a crisis came into my life that I realized that the
WT answer just could not be true. Then I started thinking
for myself instead of being very "intellectual lazy". Yes
is very seductive to relie on others when those others
are "absolutely convinced" that they have "the truth".
This must be a very typical human (failing) characterisc
which would explain so many "group" activities IMO.
The Univeralist Church is interesting from what little I
have learned in that it seems they say they are searching
for Truth and respect everyone's path. It just might be
a life long journey with some stops, sudden bursts and
maybe wondering about that "road not taken.
Lately I have been reading "Science and Earth History
by A Strahler avail from Amazon discussing fallacies in the
"creationists" thinking and evidence. also the following
link http://home.online.no/~jansh/wteng/godorg1.htm
has a wonderful article/argument on "Does God work
thru an organization". Greta food for thought.
Also huge thanks to all for your kind, insightful comments.
Not used to having to think for myself but this and other
threads here atn this board are doin a lot of people a
great serivce. I feel that a great board is shown by
"utilizing the greastest command 'to love'".
battman
What changed me,
First of all, reading the old Witness books had a profound influene. I didn't need any so called "apostate books" to convince me that the religion was phony. Their own literature proved that to me. Second, the vast array of information I experienced college was a real eye opener. The JWs were not a plauge of locusts, but a tiny speck. The same could be said of the nation of Israel in Bible times. The third major impact was when I read the Bible as I would any other book and found major problems. Many of these have been pointed out by Norm and others on different threads.
Any JWs out there who are sitting on the fence should read their own history, not from their error filled history book, but from the original writings of Russell and Rutherford. After that, the "apostate books" will only confirm what they already know.
Hi, John. My husband and I were just discussing this subject this morning. I think that most of us who were JWs were brainwashed into thinking that spirituality is an "outward" thing - how far you advance in the org., how many hours of field service you put in, whether you get the juicy parts on the assembly. You became dependent on the org. to supply these rituals that you were taught were necessary to be "spiritually mature." Spirituality is not outwardly driven. Until one can develop a sense of real, inner spituality, one will look for another way or another organization to provide "spiritual" props. I also very much understand being shellshocked by the whole JW thing. I run screaming at the mere mention of nay organized religion.
JanH.
But we found that it would be dishonest to use critical analysis of JWdom and then refuse to expose our new beliefs to the same scrutiny. We discovered that Christianity at large is just an older, bigger version of the sham we had left.
So true one thing Jwdom has done is be critical of Religion. Too bad they didn’t pass their own criticisms
Francoise. How about a few quotes or a summary from that book you mentioned. It sounds interesting but I don’t get the time or have the money to read every book that’s recommended.
Battman
As for myself, maybe as for others, it wasn't
until a crisis came into my life that I realized that the
WT answer just could not be true
Same with me without the crises more a string of failures that made me realise that it just wasn’t working the way it was supposed to.
