Why did you get out of JW?

by WorldsEyeView 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  patio34

  Thanks for asking--I love to tell my story (maybe we all do ).

  I was always troubled by the existence of a god for 28 years as a dub and always pushed it to the back of my mind, determined to be faithful.

  Then, one day, while viewing the video Dinosaurs by Disney, it all hit home. The violence in nature predated Adam, had nothing to do with his supposed sin, and no loving creator could deliberately design such violence from the smallest virus to the huge dinosaurs.

  To me, it fit an evolution model much better.

  Then, I started reading books by evolution scientists and teachers themselves. Then I researched the WTBS on the web. It all fell like a house of cards.

  Religiously, I'm pretty much an atheist. No, I am definitely an atheist, and happy to be out of the cloud of religion.

  Pat
• 

  starScream

  Megan,

  I understand your dilema. Im sure you care deeply for your friend. That is exactly what will prevent her from leaving. JWs are WELL trained to not pay attention to dissent. JWs are rigorously indoctrinated to believe that people that get emotional and try to pursuade them to believe something else are directly sent by the devil. Megan, your friend is in a cult. Like an addict she must first realize she has a problem. There is nothing much you can do but love her. If she is meant to leave the Watchtower it will happen.

  When I was lost I had a teacher in college that loved me despite my disgust for Christianity and I loved her even though she was a Christian. But nothing we said to eachother would convince either of us that the other is right. Eventually God did his work and saved me. My advice is to simply love your friend and be prepared to have a defense for what you believe. Try not to attack her religion though. If she realized that you are a Christian and that your beliefs make sense then she will question the exclusiveness of her organization.
• 

  starScream

  patio,

  everytime scientists are absolutely convinced something is true they are only minutes away from realizing they were completely wrong.

  I think religious people tend to paint too specific of a picture of what God's original world looked like also. We know that death existed in the original world. It is pressumptuous to say how it SHOULD have been in order for it to have been made by God. The world was perfect for man and was made to support the perfect life of man. It would not last very long if animals did not die. They would multiply exponetially, consume absolutely everything, turn the surface of the world into a thin layer of guano and the skies would be so full of birds they would block the sun.

  Death must have been a part of life from the beginning. So right from the beginning scavengers were needed to clean up the landscape. Bacteria and viruses were also needed to aid decomposition to convert feces and dead tissues into topsoil so the land can continue to support plant life. Microbiology can hardly be considered violent IMHO.

  As for why did God give snakes fangs that inject poison? Maybe he thought they were cool.
• 

  DanTheMan

  WorldsEye,

  You are the person I am most concerned about. Many bible-believing, church-going folks like yourself get sucked into JWism by meeting one of them and trying to "prove them wrong". The Bible is open to interpretation, every church has scriptures they emphasize and others they ignore. JW's are no different.
• 

  jgnat

  WorldsEyeView, you are a great person to care so much for your friend. And smart, too, to do research before plunging in. You might enjoy this link,

  http://www.watchtowernews.org/howto/index.htm

  A brief slide presentation on how to witness to Jehovah's Witnesses. By the way, the reason you don't see many JW's on the web is because they have been specifically instructed not to set up their own independent websites, and have been warned that evil lurks here. The only truly sanctioned JW website is the official one,

  http://www.watchtower.org/

  By the way, did you notice your friend did a switch-and-bait technique on you when you asked about the thief whom Jesus promised to see in Paradise that very day?
• 

  WorldsEyeView

  WorldsEye,

  You are the person I am most concerned about. Many bible-believing, church-going folks like yourself get sucked into JWism by meeting one of them and trying to "prove them wrong". The Bible is open to interpretation, every church has scriptures they emphasize and others they ignore. JW's are no different.

  ??? You think I'm going to become JW?? I think it's the stupidest religion I have heard of.
• 

  starScream

  never doubted you for a second Megan.
• 

  DanTheMan

  OK Megan, I trust you, but believe me the situation I described has happened many times over.

  A guy who got baptized JW the same day I did and who was a fairly good friend during my dreadful borg years - here's how he got into "the truth". He had been married to a woman who was an inactive JW but who was still a believer (I guess she was a total head case, very hormonal and given to fits of anger). Well, he starts thumbing through her JW literature because he's gonna prove to her what a bunch of bunk this JW stuff is (he was from a strict protestant family)...Later he gets a divorce from her, but the JW stuff is stuck in his head. Not long after the divorce a very zealous JW comes knocking at his door and has an answer to every objection my friend had.

  He's still in, the WT will file bankruptcy & disband before he would voluntarily leave.
• 

  Azalo

  I got out because I realized that I just didn't have faith like the rest of my family. I was just going through the motions because that is what I was taught to do and expected to do since the day I was born. I pretty much realized that I was atheist or probably agnostic, the truth is I really don't care. Its how I try to explain it to my family, I don't care I feel no need to look for a higher power. Now that I have been out for a few years I see all of the contradictions that I didnt see back then. but also I think that it is a problem that affects all religions, personally I think that organized religion is something that man uses to control other men I hate all ORGANIZED religions. I think practicing religion, if you so desire, is something personal that no one else needs to be invoIved in.
• 

  blackout

  but also I think that it is a problem that affects all religions, personally I think that organized religion is something that man uses to control other men I hate all ORGANIZED religions. I think practicing religion, if you so desire, is something personal that no one else needs to be invoIved in.

  Me too Azalo you have exactly expressed my feelings. to organised religion. Control!!!!