by The Rebel 24 Replies latest jw friends
Welcome Reb! I first stopped believing in the WTBT$ to many mistakes when they first started out as a publishing business.
I then questioned who Jesus was or wasn't. Then questioned Jehovah.
Finally I realized as Eric Hoffer wrote in the True believer “The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.”
My JW experience left me doubting God's existence, because what is the point of God if you pray to him earnestly to show you the right path and you end up a Jehovah's Witness? Since then I have lost any doubt, I am an atheist.
I have learned not to trust intuition in matter of logic, science and reason. For example when it comes to evolution, it doesn't seem intuitive to most people that we evolved from lower life forms, but science proves that we did. In that case your intuition is dead wrong. Intuition is no substitute for facts.
@StrongHaiku
You actually just reiterated the points I was making.
As you note the entire comment ends in saying that I personally don't take an "either/or" view on the issue. It is a combination of various factors that has to be considered. Things aren't as "black and white" as some would like them to be. I was neither saying that a theist could be correct in everything because they developed a scientific theory or that an atheist was totally void of spirituality because they rejected belief in a deity.
My comments were not meant to suggest that theism was an intellectual choice that can be proven either. On the contrary, as a Jew I don't hold to a "belief"-in-G-d dynamic in my life and I recognize atheism and agnosticism as intellectual choices.
What I was saying is that the entire "belief/disbelief" paradigm regarding the G-d concept is of little to no importance to Judaism. It is a Christian/Western development. Arguments from this culture between theists and atheists often have nothing to do with "G-d" as understood by Jews.
Accepting G-d does not mean rejecting analytical thinking. Just ask the Roman Catholic priest that developed and introduced the big bang theory, Georges Lemaître - CIF
We are only partially rational beings.
Belief in god is entirely irrational but that does not stop a believer from engaging rationality in other contexts.
It is so irritating and fallacious when believers boast that all sorts of things were discovered by people who also had superstitions about gods.
Edited to add - I see StrongHaiku has made a similar point above,
But I never said that just because a theist acted rationally that everything they do, including their belief in G-d is rational.
Obviously you do not really read what I write. I don't consider Christianity as a rational conclusion. I don't even consider belief or faith in G-d as relevant!
What I was writing was the some people, theists and atheists both, are often so two-dimensional that they believe things can only be one way or another. The comment on the priest who formulated the expansion model was contrasted with the claim that atheists can't have an interest in transcendent things like meditation or yoga.
The point, which is apparently lost on some, is that being an atheist or a theist doesn't mean you are entirely rational or irrational, totally spiritual or unspiritual.
But I assume that is asking too much for some people. Some religious people still believe that if you are an atheist then you must be judged adversely and some atheists obviously believe the same about theists.
This is called "ambiguity intolerance" and it is an earmark of JW behavior. People are a combination of things, not just one thing or another. I am a scientist and definitely know that life came about through evolution, I wrote above that I don't believe I intuition, and I am a practicing Jew. I also don't see any value in "belief" in G-d but I am neither atheist or agnostic. Apparently some in the Western world either won't grasp this, cannot, and just want to hate anything connected to G-d.
I believe in the reasons and intent of gods but then humanity still has to live in reality pertaining to his own living experience and that again coincides with the frailty of that experience.
Hi Rebel,
I think everyone who leaves the Watchtower goes through a cooling off period. I went through several phases from agnostic, to wanna be believer, back to agnostic, to doing my own thing, to believer for 10 years now.
You'll find atheists on this forum that are very abusive to believers. You'll also find atheists who could care less. You'll find very few believers willing to voice an opinion.
As for your questions: All people believe in God, some just suppress it.
These are two resources for a biblical world view.
Enjoy your freedom!
wow thank you very much for the replys.
I think in the past I have got very passionate about things with out realising I do not have all the information. Anyway we should all be free to believe what we want.
i think I have been born at the right time-with the right information to conclude there is no God. That's my realisation for now and I am sticking to it.
Once again thanks or the insightful posts.
The Rebel.
As for your questions: All people believe in God, some just suppress it.
A false statement expressed through intellectual dishonesty which appears many times by people defending their faith. If that is so perhaps their structured faith is not held internally as strong as it appears externally.
