by minimus 64 Replies latest jw friends
They've been fooled and haven't caught on yet. Some never will.
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i agree, i think that religion is more for the social aspect that the dogma, for most religions have tons of made up stuff they sell off as divine orgin=
and that is why i guess when i start asking questions they fall back on the old true and tested answer-
"YOU JUST GOTTA BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!!"
How's this for a question??----"Do You Look Down on Jehovah's Witnesses now That You're No Longer One"?
I don't agree with their beliefs, but I do not look down on them. I'm sad for them because they don't get to Live. But I still don't look down on them.
Definitely not.
"Been there, done that" also means "who am I to look down on anybody who is there and does that?"
At times there is a sense of shame -- as when my mother showed me recently some letters I wrote to her when I was a 15 y.o. JW -- but the shame is only counterbalancing the pride I put into it back then.
The young believer I was would have despised the older unbeliever I became, but the reverse is by no means true. I look back sympathetically on the young zealous ignorant, with some sadness that I could not even reach him if I was able to speak to him.
I realize that many people around me were clearly smarter than me: they understood quickly what I took years to understand. But my way is mine, and in the end every way is worth another I guess.
I find myself feeling anger toward some clergy because they remind me of the elders in the congregation. For example, yesterday I was in court and there was a clergymen there in his long, black robe with this huge cross hanging around his neck. He had this golden clothe thing around his neck and the way he carried himself was sickening. He was loud and made a big specticle of himself as he prayed over this one guy. Anyway, it made me want to vomit. I saw him again later in the day and he must have lost his case because he seemed angry and stormed out of the courthouse saying something like "what kind of country would allow......"
Maybe there is a God.
but I do wonder why they are so religeous, like are they trying to fill some void,
In fact, that's often the case. I know I became a JW because I had a hole in my soul that needed to be filled, what one counselor called "the God hole," and the dubs came along when I was feeling it the most. It worked, too. I felt quite fulfilled for some time. Now, however, I don't have that "hole" anymore. It's as if I've outgrown it. And that's how I feel about religion. On the other hand, spirituality is a different thing altogether. You can't become a spiritual person until you leave the dub organization.
Whenever I look down on myself I get accused of contemplating my navel! While I spent a dozen or so years as a confirmed agnostic, my studies in the sciences helped me to keep an open mind to new concepts, world views and exegetical paradigms. Paid off! I found what is intellectually, socially, spiritually and politically satisfying.
carmel
I guess I would say that i am no longer judgmental of religious people (JWs or otherwise). As a JW I had that superiority feeling -- like I knew they truth and they didn't.
Now that I have detached myself from religion in general, my attitude is "whatever" -- just don't try to preach to me and we will be fine.
Purza
I don't look down upon religious people. I look down upon anyone if they are arrogant assholes. Other than that, I am pretty easy going.
freedom96, that is the best response, yet!
