what was the most influential saying/person that changed you ??? (page 2)

logansrun

This is an interesting topic. I should give the mystical answer of "me", but I know that's not what you mean. (Actually, I am the most influential person in terms of me leaving....."all knowledge is inevitably self knowledge" said Bruce Lee....ah, enough with the Zen crap and let's get on with it)

Just as it is difficult to pinpoint just one thing as to why I left the dubs, it is equally difficult to focus on just one person as to who helped me out. If I had to give an answer it would probably be Ray Franz writings since they shed light on areas that no one else was privy to. Thanks Ray.

On the other hand, long before I came to this board or talked with him a guy by the name of Alan Feurbacher had written a number of articles all over the web dealing with the problems in JW science ("JW science" truly the most oxymoronic term in the English language). He wrote about evolution, carbon 14 dating, the flood, chronology and the like. Since these issues formed the bedrock of my doubts I felt as if he did all the research for me and I just had to read and think about it! Yes, he helped me quite a bit even though I had no idea who he was at the time. Thanks Alan.

J. Bradley Potts

Chicago District Overbeer

Swan

First of all, my psychiatrist.

Then, my husband.

Tammy

DanTheMan

My favorite quotes site is www.freedomsnest.com.

Here's one of the quotes that was a dagger to the heart of my self-righteous, puritannical mindset (a mindset that I had long before I became a JW, but found justification there):

There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a superior capacity for happiness.
- H.L. Mencken

Phantom Stranger

Reading Robert Heinlein (as in every single book) as a teenager really set me up to take the step.

You can bask in the warm fire of faith or walk in the cold light of reason (or something like that).

Also, my first sex partner should get honor and credit for opening my eyes... here's to you, Tammy, wherever you are.

betweenworlds

When I was about 13 years old I was still going to the meetings and studying with an elder from our local hall. My mom, at that time was inactive and having many doubts about the org. One day when I was getting ready to go the meeting she stopped me and asked me : "How do you know that Jehovah's Witnesses really have the truth?" It stunned me when she said that, and I answered defensively saying "They just do!" However, the seed had been planted and It was from that point that I really started to think, and not just accept everything that I read and heard from the org. I would think to myself "How DO I know that this is the truth?" and I would investigate. I wouldn't leave the witnesses until many years later, but I will always be thankful to my mom for making me think.

Shelli

ignorance is strength

A Scottish protestant told me to believe whatever I wanted to believe and don't allow anyone to tell me what I should or should not believe. This happened while in "service" when I was young. And if anyone could "win" an argument against a JW, this guy did against the elder about Hell.

freedom96

Well, these sayings that I enjoy have nothing really to do with the WTS, but they are:

Out of every adversity comes a seed of equal or greater value.

Man without vision shall perish.

patio34

It's so interesting reading all these stories. My lightning strike (and it was!) was viewing the Disney movie Dinosaur. I've told this story so many times.

Always as a believer, the violence in nature really bothered me. When I saw the movie, it all came to a head quickly. I thought this really fits evolution and not creation. Why on earth would a god create such vicious creatures?!? Then the old bugaboo about Adam's sin causing violence in nature, but clearly this couldn't have affected dinosaurs as they existed millions of years before humans. I decided immediately to read some books by evolution scientists themselves instead of the WT. That did it.

Pat

Pistoff

This sounds like a copout but here it is:

1.The words and life of Jesus, not filtered through any lens. Jesus was radical; he destroyed the hold of religious power on first his followers, and then millions of others. Jesus broke with tradition, and in the eyes of many, the law, in order to serve the higher good, principle. Granted, many have re-upped for slavery again, whether to priests, imams or the WT. But Jesus not only spoke the truth, he absolutely screamed it out to his enemies, the religious leaders, and called them snakes. He turned the whole idea of what God wanted from us upside down, and reduced it down to it's roots: love God and your neighbor, as you can work it out to the best of your ability, and you will be free. Studying his life has given me the freedom to worship as I want, not how anyone, anyone else says. You power hungry religious types, buzz off.

2. Seek first to understand, and then to be understood. All my life I was preoccupied with teaching, reproving and molding the minds of my children so much that I did not ever understand them. 6 years ago I started reading/listening to 7 habits, and they enabled me to really listen, for the first time, to my oldest son at a time when he really needed me. They have literally saved my life and my sons'.

3. In a negative way, the elder who told me that there was no way for them to consider my suicidally depressed son's emotional state when they df'd him. Thank you; you helped me see that there is no place in the WT for emotionally sick people to go for help, or for justice. Once I accepted that fact, my heart and mind left the org; my body will someday follow for good.

4. To my counselor, who said that it is a good thing to questions one's beliefs. I did not agree at the time, but I have come to see the wisdom in it: I realized that deep down I did not believe in the faith I was raised in, and began to trust my self and my instincts again.

chester

It was something a speaker said from the platform at the District convention at the Pontiac Silverdome in June of 2000.

"If you are happy with your life the way it is, stay off the internet".

what was the most influential saying/person that changed you ???

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