OldSoul, welcome. Your questions are very good and show an intense desire to seek and understand truth, and even reality. I understand the need to replace one faith and set of doctrine with another.
Personally, the only serious beef I have with the WTBTS in general is the extreme shunning, and the hush hush paranoia I've seen which has hurt many, many people. If someone wants to belong, that's their choice and business. I just suggest they explore without the rose-colored glasses, as you now appear to be doing.
Me? I swung athiest/agnostic when I finally quit at about 21 years old due to the serious hypocrasies and abuses I saw in a congregation I moved into when I married (husband turned out to be a violent abusive alcoholic, and the elders told me it was my fault and responsibilty to stick with him). So I've been out for a while. Not DF'd or officially DA'd. Just out.
It took me a long time to "come to believe" again. Much exploration and experience of christian and non-christian beliefs, including Native American spritualism, Buddhism, Bahai, some Islam, some Pagan, and some Unitarian, and AA's 12 steps.
The only way anyone is going to be able to "know" for themselves is through exploration and experience. It takes time and energy and a willingness to subject one's self to things they may have avoided or abhorred before, with an open mind and heart. It also takes time, and not accepting one doctine's answers to the ultimate questions you ask.
Here are my answers that I have come to believe:
Is God a trinity? I used the YinYang to explain this to a Catholic I was once dating: One hand is God the Father, the other hand is God the Son, when combined, you have a total that is greater than the sum of it's parts, a "whole". The power of this whole is the Holy Spirit. Do I believe "God" is trine? I believe "God" and Christ are beyond anything we can ever conceive of or imaging due to our tiny brains and intellects. (Yes, I tentatively believe in the Christ)
Does man have an immortal soul? I believe yes. My belief has been through exploration and experience. I also have come to believe in reincarnation. I have been here many many times. Some have been here only a few times, and are "younger souls". Some have moved beyond the need to return to earth.
Was Mary a virgin when she miraculously conceived Jesus? I believe Mary, as a pre-pubescent girl was given/taken by the Essenes as possibly many of her similar linneage, to fulfill prophesy. Beyond ceremony and spiritual matters, I don't know. Maybe artificial insemination! It really doesn't matter to me.
Does God exist? Yes! He resides at the core of the universes, and his power extends through the universes. "His" laws are simple: math, physics, gravity, magnetics, et.al. They can be temporarily altered (airflight, atom splitting) but they cannot be broken! Human laws and morality, including religious doctrine are just that: Human laws, and thereby subjective.
Is God omniscient? Yes.
Does the Bible lie outrightly? Hmm. Since I no longer use the bible as "god's word" since it contains so much of man's laws, I don't know and I don't care.
Is God omnipresent? In that I believe god's power extends throughout all creation, Yes. But my bigger question is "does he care"?
Although God's principled love is unconditional, are there conditions on God's friendship? No.
Does it matter what we believe? I believe it matters less what we believe, than how we act. There are many roads that will take you to Chicago. It just depends on which one(s) you want to enjoy.
Does it matter what we do? Yes! Most Definitely! I believe in Christs 3 commandments: Love god as no other (and by extension all of god's creation), Love your neighbor, as you, Love yourself. many of us forget or are not taught that last one.
Is there any such thing as moral and immoral, right and wrong? Do no harm.
If so, who sets the standard? Immanuel Kant? Why should a single man set the standard?
Is God a vindictive bastard bent on confusing and ultimately destroying humanity? If "he" is, I would have put him out of his misery by offing myself years ago! So my answer is no. Back to a previous answer, does god care?
Were we created? Creationism and Evolution theories are not mutually exclusive. I believe in the Big Bang as the inteligent source and engineering the universes. A top set to spinning. However, as motion and surroundings influence the path that the top takes, and so has evolution. "God" had an engineered plan or plans. That a species dies out or advances may or may not be part of this overall plan, but part of the process and the processes outside influences.
I wish you the enlightenment you seek.
Hugs
Brenda
