Again, many many good thoughts from all of you! If I may just pick and choose a few:
nowisee:
i can remember back when i would have these flashes of doubt come into my mind, how terrifying that was and how i immediately dismissed them, shutting them out.
Oh my yes, and exactly what I'm thinking about here. The "terrifying" (an emotion) overwhelms the "flash of doubt" (the intelligent mind), and then the "shutting out." The "terror," for me, was really more a "fear of the unknown." As a JW, I "knew" what I had, and what the future held. But to act on my own, in accord with my own thoughts, would leave me responsible for myself, and to myself. Did I have that personal courage? No, because "God" would, I was sure, condemn me for being so selfish, so sure of myself as to act against His revealed will (of course, all this as "revealed" to me by the WTS). Add another spade of dirt onto the grave of my dead mind.
A Paduan, and bebu:
For myself, I do believe in God. Not, perhaps, for the same reasons, or in the same way, that you do, but nonetheless, I do. My "reasons" predicate 2 things:
1) God cannot be anything but Good. An Infinite Creator is, by categorical definition, "good" because the universe exists according to parameters of it's Will. The universe is the Creator's Word, and that Word cannot be essentially contra-indicated. It's not a matter of "waiting" for anything. It is what it is.
2) I use "faith" in it's most fundamental sense. Most Christians don't know that the English "faith" and "belief" are translated from the same Greek word in the NT. They have this idea that "belief" is something more than "faith." It's not; they are the same thing. And Hebrews 11:1 makes it so clear that faith is based on things unseen, on the hypostasis. One cannot "prove their faith" any more than they can "prove love." Faith and belief are what you have in your heart, privy to you, and you alone.
KGB:
we see the dubs working in the same, feeding off ignorance
I agree, but would offer this question: Being an "informed exJW" is perhaps measurably better on an intellectual level, but is that what really matters? Is what we "think" more important than what we "feel?" If so, how, and why? If not, then why castigate JWs for simply acting according to how they "feel?" Again, I'll take RayF's comment above as an example: For myself, I don't think any the less of him for acting according to his feelings. Instead, I respect him for having the courage and self-honesty to admit that he was not acting according to his intellect. That's a big step, especially for someone as immersed in the WTS as he was. I include myself in this syndrome.
freedom96:
A need to feel important, a sense of belonging, etc.
And then, of course, we face the prospect that any society that satisfies those (our) emotional needs is just as "valid" as any other.
Arghhhhh...as much as I can do for now. I'll get back to you all later.
Again, thanks for your thoughts. Very stimulating.
Craig
