What are your beliefs now, religious/non religious? (page 2)

NVR2L8

I no longer believe in anything that requires faith.

James Mixon

I wave a chicken over my head , it takes away my sins..No organized religion for me.

jambon1

I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way.....

Xanthippe

Do yo find any questions you had about life finally answered with your new beliefs?

I don't think there's a loving God for the same reasons Darwin doubted, looking at Ichneumondae (sp?) parasitic infections that blind and kill, bone cancer in children, mutations causing sick babies, dementia and so on.

Your question above though I have problems with. When we decide something has finally answered our questions and we stop questioning we are in trouble. Keep wondering what it's all about, don't ever stop. It's a huge universe.

pale.emperor

I ask these questions because of a conversation I had once with my father who said "If none of this is true, then there is no truth."

Oh my word, this is almost exactly what i used to say too!

I used to say "if the JWs are wrong, then there is no Christianity". Meaning the one true Christianity is what JWs are teaching. Everything else is wrong.

How closed minded and presumptuous of me. When i woke up i still believed in God. I decided to read the bible on its own, not the NWT, a real translation. New International Version. I spent months reading it in my spare time. I highlighted verses that i thought were inspiring in one colour and ones i didn't understand in another colour and would look into these in more detail using Bible encyclopedias. When i finished my conclusion was that the bible is a mass of contradiction. I saw Jesus as a narcissist, cult leader or conman. Absolutely no evidence outside of the bible of Jesus performing any miracle. I saw Paul as someone who took a little cult and turned it into his own bigger cult. I saw the old testament as a vicious, cruel, desert God that is actually more like a devil. I saw Satan as the more understandable character - in opposition to this cruel desert God.

Then i read The Teachings Of The Buddha. This is very interesting book. I'm not a Buddhist but i have incorporated at least half of Buddhist philosophy into my life. I studied Hinduism, Tao, Confucianism, read Nietzsche, Richard Dawkins and The Satanic Bible. The books that had the biggest effect on me was The Satanic Bible and The God Delusion. Those two really did destroy and semblance of a belief in any God and that's where i started to live without fear, regret or guilt.

I also listened/watched Tony Robbins, studied NLP, Hypnosis and listened to philosopher Alan Watts.

This is my recovery programme which i'd recommend any ex-JW to embark on. It's probably why i managed to recover from 100% militant JW to free and easy, guilt free, happy apostate within a year.

I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would become a born again christian. To me they seem like the most deluded of all the so-called Christian religions. Love god or he'll burn you? Please. Sounds like an abusive mentally ill father to me. I say fuck him.

Chook

Go Pale you have spent a lot of effort to come to logical conclusions and now you can sleep well at night with an inner peace that transcends JW version of Holy Spirit . As for me I certainly am not convinced god set out timed planning for this planet and the solution seems to be slow on coming because it doesn't matter when it comes if we die waiting. I see good design in the human body but then it starts going to shit after 50 , as for God is he interested in me I think he would have better things to do to occupy his great mind than on my thought processes. I'm just trying to be a better person each day not encroaching on the liberties of others. All the religions have the solution to death yet no one has come back. If there is some decent guy in the heavens somewhere and he has the ability to restore life l would to think I lived a life true to myself and inflicted not much pain on others ,so if he find it agreeable to kick start the dead Chook then I bet both my testicles it won't be into a world ruled by Tony tight pants.

Half banana

I agree with both of your points Xanthippe. The feeding habits of the ichneumonidae leave a lot to be desired if God was to have an ounce of feeling. If there is a creator he also has to be responsible for ebola, sabre tooth tigers, parasites which live only in the human eye, black mamba snakes and a thousand other horrors as well. It is far easier to interpret the natural world as the result of evolutionary descent and therefore being quite indifferent to our feelings.

Humans though prefer to add an emotional layer to their perception of the world and here lies the problem.

The bottom line is that "beliefs"as guide to life are completely unreliable however much they may comfort us. But fear not! we have something much better than mere beliefs; it called knowledge and is securely based on evidence.

dozy

Like many ex-JWs I very briefly took an interest in other religions , but essentially they pretty much are all similar to the JWs / WTBTS in that they are secular organisations that simply exist to promote and maintain themselves and enrich ( in various ways ) the people at the top.

I'm basically an atheist now , though I try not to be arrogant to think I have all the answers. I suspect that I have as little knowledge of the whole universe as my dog has of his environment and I'm just groping around like everyone else.

Phoebe

I'm just lost....and confused....

I still believe in God but as for everything else, I really don't know what is truth and what is not, but then I've had nearly 60 years of indoctrination, so no wonder I'm confused.

There is only one thing I really want and that is an inner calm. A peaceful heart. Finding out all I believed in probably isn't right has sent me into a spin.

@pale.emperor

You are the second exJW that has said they have embraced Buddhist philosophy in their life, I wonder if it would help me find some peace?

pale.emperor

You are the second exJW that has said they have embraced Buddhist philosophy in their life, I wonder if it would help me find some peace?

It will. As i said, im not a Buddhist, nor do i believe in reincarnation or karma but somethings the Buddha said are remarkable similar to Jesus and he predates him by hundreds of years.

I highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teachings-Buddha-Jack-Kornfield/dp/1590305086

Take what you like from it and use it, discard which you dont feel you agree with. You'll go through life a lot more relaxed and calm.

What are your beliefs now, religious/non religious?

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