Its got me beat !

by redorc 14 Replies latest jw friends

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  redorc

  Hi all

  Redorc from Australia here. I was raised as a JW but from about 8 years of age I left at the age of 18 having never actualy believed anything about what I was being taught , that was about 28 years ago. My mother is still one of them so I guess its never completley left my thoughts. Whats got me beat is, how supposedly intelligent and educated people, can believe in an invisible bloke in the sky that made everything we see around us and, despite all the evidence to the contrary, continues to look after our indivdual welfare.

  any ideas would be welcome.

  Bye Redorc
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  Prisca

  Hi redorc,

  I'm also from Australia so I wanted to say hi. As for your question, well... I still believe in a God, but not necessarily in the god of the Bible. Why? Because I am yet to see proof that God does not exist. Although evolution could have been used as part of the "creation" process, I think there has to be a designer behind the way life on earth, and the universe in general, is organised. I definitely feel there is a spirit world of some kind. You could say I am spiritual, but not religious.

  Welcome to the board.
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  onacruse

  Hi Redorc!

  "despite all the evidence to the contrary"

  Personally, I find in the physical universe and in my personal life a LOT of evidence in the affirmative.

  Like Prisca says: "You could say I am spiritual, but not religious."

  Craig (of the Merck class)
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  Gopher

  Hi Redorc and welcome to the discussion board!!

  I have no trouble believing in a God who started it all. But like you, I doubt whether he looks after our individual welfare. It seems like God is keeping us at arm's length, or is preoccupied with other things. If indeed he is responsible for "looking after our individual welfare", then he's let a lot of people suffer needessly in the past hundred years or so.
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  searcher

  IMHO the problem with God, is religion.

  People seem to want to use God to control others, all the religions of the world are the same ' you must do things OUR way, we are the only ones who know etc. '

  I believe God is personal, and does not require the ceromonies and man made rules that all religions want to impose.

  I certainly agree with Prisca and Onacruise.........spiritual, not religious.

  searcher.
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  ugg

  hi,,,,it is nice to meet you,,,,,welcome to the board
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  MYOHNSEPH

  Greetings Redorc,

  I too was raised a JW. When I was about twenty-five, everything I thought I knew was absolute truth. Today, at sixty, Ive learned to be cautious about being too dogmatic about anything. Ive learned that looking at all sides of an issue, regardless of how absurd they may first appear to be, can be very enlightening. Just because we broaden our vision doesnt mean we have to accept everything we see, but once in a while it will give us a little flash of clarity.

  As for as the existence of God, I no longer believe in that deity of wrath and vengeance depicted in the Bible. But at the same time, my old pea-brain just wont accept the idea that the universe is the product of a pure accident. I can accept the idea that it has come to be what it is through an evolutionary process, but I cant accept the idea that there was no design or implementation involved in that process. As to exactly who or what that designer or implementer is, I certainly dont claim to know with absolute certainty. However, it makes no sense to me that, whoever or whatever that entity may be, he, she, it, would be so insecure and paranoid as to demand from its lowly creation ritualistic expressions of devotion, in order to avoid their horrific execution in a fit of its awesome wrath.

  But, thats just me.
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  Shakita

  Hi and welcome redorc:

  When God our Father becomes proactive in his children's lives, I will have faith and put my trust in him. Until then, I will try to seek a spiritual place somewhere where I can have faith in a higher being who does watch over us, but lets us decide our own destiny. But a Father figure, can't even go there.

  Mrs. Shakita
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  Undecided

  I think maybe God got so bored trying to decide why he existed, since he wasn't created or born and had been in existance forever, just blew himself up and that was the big bang that started the universe.

  Ken P.

  Edited by - Undecided on 2 November 2002 15:52:8

  Edited by - Undecided on 2 November 2002 15:53:10
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  pettygrudger

  Welcome to the Board!