Why did we become JW?

by BigG 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  JustTickledPink

  I do believe that religion can be a crutch for many people. They absolutely NEED to believe in something because being alive isn't enough for them. Life isn't happy for them, life is a dissapointment so they have to work towards something more divine that will give their pitiful lives meaning. There's no question when my mother found her truth she was a wreck. She had given up on her marriage and left her child and was hitchhiking across Canada when a "brother" picked her up and witnessed to her. All her problems were solved with her eutopian dream.

  I think if you find an educated person who is doing something with their life, is emotionally stable, enjoying their job or business and tried to sell them the doom and gloom story, you'd see you don't get too far. But find the person that has low self esteem, that doesn't have much family, someone with no direction, possible some mental or emotional problems and dangle the carrot and they will bite because their lives NEED something and this false sense of security fills them up enough, or at least dulls them.
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  zen nudist

  as I recall events.... I found myself as a child in a world where adults pushed me around to places I had no choice but to go, like school, church and anything else they decided to do.... I found myself low man in a heirachy of people... parents, police governors, presidents, etc.

  I found, as I grew older that a lot of it made no sense in any overall way and that is where a void existed for me.... I was curious and inquisative and had a desire to find out how things worked and why they were as they were.... and the more I learned, the more I realized that many answers given to me as a child were only "theory" or dogmatic assercions without a shred of evidence to support them...

  Then came JWs... they seemed to have a rational world view which claimed to make everything understandable. They made the incomprehensible bible stories suddenly meaningful and useful in every day life.... the brought a sense of order and rationality to the chaotic world I was trying to figure out.... they did not answer hard questions with "this is what the church teaches", as the catholics had... but attempted to give some sort of rational grounding to their beliefs.....

  it took many years for me to realize that their castle in the sky was also built upon the same fantasy foundations that others had built upon... what seemed rational for a long time began to look more and more suspicious... what they claimed to be founded in FACT was more and more seen as founded in dogma which no one could verify, just like all the other BS [belief systems].

  and due to skillful use of ancient hypnotic induction techniques [which they claim are forbidden by the bible {binding with a spell} and they would NEVER use], they kept me from seeing many of these flaws for quite some time.

  so there you have it, the void that drew me into JWs was a void of understanding, which I am happy to say still exists but is now something I embrace rather than despise.
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  BigG

  You took the words right out of my mouth...
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  what_Truth?

  I was born in the church. The reason my family got into it really starts with my grandfather who was one of the annointed. In the late 40's he had an affair with a white woman who became my grandmother(he was black). He got DF'd, lost his family, and eventually h to leave town. My grandmother had been disowned after the affair and was very disillusioned with her Baptist church after she found out the pastor was gay so she decided to go along with him. Eventually he got re-instated and she got baptized.
  
  My dad left the truth and ran away from home when he was a teenager. Evenutally he met my mother and got married. One day a man knocks on the door talking about 1975 being the end of world and all the rest. My mom is about to tell him off but my dad takes the magazines. They both got baptized together a few years before I was born.
  
  So why did my family get into this mess? My Grandpa was one of the annointed which made him a virtual demigod amongst people who probably would have expected him to shine their shoes. My grandma had nowhere else to turn aside from unsupported single motherhood. My dad, after being out for several years, got caught up in the "maybe it actually was true" phenominon. My mom, just like my grandma, decided to stand by her man and eventually found herself beleiving it.
  
  I'll say it again, I am eternally thankful for the ex-ministerial servant who showed me the "truth about the truth" 10 years ago. If it hadn't been for him I might have fallen back into the same trap.
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  Doubtfully Yours

  By virtue of kin. 3rd generation JW.

  This is why holidays, obsenities, and other non-JW behavior is all so foreign to me. Even when I try to act "normal", it just doesn't feel so.

  DY
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  Kimmee

  I became a "witness child" by the decision of my mother. My mother wore the pants in my family. My father is not in "the truth". As of age 5 up to the time I left home and was on my own I was considered a "witness child". It was not until I was on my own, I finally proclaimed to be a witness and at that point I was baptized when I was approximately 24 years old. I was only following the faith to make my mother proud of me and that she was. After I threatened to leave my husband, who was not in the faith, my mother was trying to tell me I could not do that and Jehovah would not like that. I was fed up with my husband and anybody else. I started pursuing another man who was married as well (I know that was a BIG no no and I should not have done it) but anyways I did and I am married to him today.
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  garybuss

  
  
  I was raised by Witness parents and I was forced to attend sales meetings as well as take part in the fundraising activities on dirty street corners and from door to door on dark dog ridden streets. My parents made school time hell for me by forcing me to be the school outcast and they made home life hell by forcing me into all the meeting attendance and Witness activities.
  
  They actually broke my will and my spirit. They convinced me I was some kind of crap. That's the only real reason I stayed associated until I was 30.
  
  My father was a theist and raised by a Witness mother. My mother was raised a theist and liked the Witness attitude of being superior and she liked the excuses for being mean. She must have authored the graduate level instruction book on meanness and resentment.
  
  The core reason people are Witnesses is theism.
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  davmait

  This is my first time viewing this forum, but I've got to say that the postings I've seen thus far, like those above, are disappointingly poorly thought out, and are indicative of poorly constructed belief systems.

  Like many of you, my parents were ex-witnesses. My parents left the society due to what they believed to be widespread corruption and hypocrisy. While they left the Witnesses, they did not leave God.

  It is illogical to claim that a belief in God is irrational simply because a group of people who claim to represent God may be irrational. In simpler terms, it makes no sense to throw the baby out with the bath water.

  I would agree that the Witnesses do not do a good job of explaining their various positions. They may not be consistent. Some of their positions may not be correct. But just because they may not explain properly, or they may not be correct in every case does not automatically imply that they are wrong on every count ie. the basic doctrine of Christianity. This is the position, however, that most of you are taking.

  I will submit that atheists are people who have not done their homework. The evidence for God and creation is overwhelming, from a scientific perspective, not just a religious perspective alone. Leagues of scholars throughout history and to the present day admit that the existence of a creator is an inevitable conclusion. Most of you, I'm sure, revere Albert Einstein, who, in his adolesence was an atheist, but was forced, through the course of his scientific investigations, to conclude the existence of a creator. Who among you, who are so sure of your atheistic stance, have done as much research into scientific fields as Einstein has? How can you say this man was brilliant because he revolutionized science with his theories, and at the same time say that the conclusions he had reached with respect to something as fundamental as creation were effectually garbage? You people must all be smarter than Einstein. You must all have done more research than him to be making these statements, right?

  Now, I have no special affinity for Einstein. I just used him to make a point. It is irresponsible for anyone to conclude the non-existence of a God based on the teachings of people who claimed to be of God who just didn't explain things properly.

  I would suggest that before you continue on your path, do more research. After all, how much real research have any of you done to refute the existence of God, or to prove the theories of evolution. I doubt that any of you have done much, if any. Be honest with yourselves. You are all just bitter over your experiences with an organisation made of fallible men and women.

  For starters, I would suggest that you all visit the site "answersingenesis.com." I have recently found it to be a useful tool to find objective scientific information with relation to God and creation/evolution.

  God Bless
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  zen nudist

  I will submit that atheists are people who have not done their homework. The evidence for God and creation is overwhelming, from a scientific perspective, not just a religious perspective alone. Leagues of scholars throughout history and to the present day admit that the existence of a creator is an inevitable conclusion.

  while not an atheist, I put it to you that you are parrotting someone else who has been CONviNcED rather than found any real FACTS

  the evidence for a CREATOR god is non-existant.... the notion of a creator god is irrational.... what has always been requires no creator. what has not always been cannot be made by magic.... and a creator god making something out of nothing is not science, just silly magical thinking.

  Most of you, I'm sure, revere Albert Einstein, who, in his adolesence was an atheist, but was forced, through the course of his scientific investigations, to conclude the existence of a creator. Who among you, who are so sure of your atheistic stance, have done as much research into scientific fields as Einstein has? How can you say this man was brilliant because he revolutionized science with his theories, and at the same time say that the conclusions he had reached with respect to something as fundamental as creation were effectually garbage? You people must all be smarter than Einstein. You must all have done more research than him to be making these statements, right?

  Einstein was a pantheist in the way of thinking of Spinoza, not a theist nor a believer in a creator... before you insult those of us who can think, check your facts... Einstein believed that the order of the universe was the essence of GOD... he envisioned no personal deity by this and had great affinity to buddhism. His famous statement of his FAITH was that GOD did not play dice with the universe, which to him meant that underlying everything, he believed, some law would be found to explain it....he did not like quantum theory randomness and spooky actions at a distance which seemed to violate this FAITH.... he spent the remainder of his life arguing with quantum theorists and was soundly defeated at every turn.... there is some glimmer of hope among some in superstring and twistor theories that he may one day yet prevail but that day has not come yet.
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  Elsewhere

  I was raised... err... forced into it under threat of shunning by my entire family.