wow.
the bible really is something else.
i believe i am becoming athiest.
The more I read the Bible without any filters the more obvious it was to me that its author was not a being of the most high order. It is simply the musings and tales of a bronzed aged people who were trying to make sense of the world at that time and it was used to maintain order.
I am reminded of the shirt on http://dogmadebate.com/ with David Smalley. It reads "I am an atheist because I have read it."
Donny
i don't think i ever did but i would have been honored to do so..
Yes. I was told by a couple of elders in my congregation that I had stumbled someone at my place of employment because I spelled out a curse word in a department meeting.
a lot of us have said that theres been a dumbing down in jw land.
its just not like it used to be especially a few decades ago.
it seems to me that if jw are right and the end of the world is near, the spiritual food should get tastier and more nourishing as time goes on, but it's getting more and more bland and less nourishing.
I believe Ed Dunlap wrote the Commentary on the Letter of James.
that was a question posed to me by a friend who just recently discovered my switch from one who used to have a belief in god to one that has a lack thereof.. they stated "most people i know, including your truly, were not much interested in closely following the tenants of the faith we were brought up in when we were in the prime of our young adulthood.
you on the other hand, were much more zealous back then and now have pretty much left it all behind.
surely it is not because you are not sowing your oats at this time.".
Great points all.
Apognophos this friend (who is not a JW) I believe is going through his own crisis of conscience. He is a Seventh Day Adventists and has gradually moved away from the faith but is not sure if being an agnostic or atheist is the way to go.
He likes to engage in friendly religious conversation from time to time and then he will go a spell before he asks the next thing. I told him to keep inquiring and never accept anything unless he is sure that it is the real thing.
have been out officially for 5 1/2 years.
i was the only one out of all my 4 other siblings that stayed with it.
baptized at 16 and felt the need to carry on the heritage that my mom gave me to do.
Welcome and we look forward to your future posts!
to save trauma victims, doctors may swap blood with cold water till patients diedoctors at the university of pittsburgh medical center plan to treat trauma patients with an experimental procedure that induces hypothermia by replacing their blood with freezing saltwater.. .
by kate murphy.
the new york times.
The Society has already responded to this issue. Below in the 2014 update of Acts 15:28-30.
For the holy spirit+ and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you except these necessary things: 29 to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols,+ from cold saline water,+ from what is strangled,*+ and from sexual immorality.*+ If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!”* .
that was a question posed to me by a friend who just recently discovered my switch from one who used to have a belief in god to one that has a lack thereof.. they stated "most people i know, including your truly, were not much interested in closely following the tenants of the faith we were brought up in when we were in the prime of our young adulthood.
you on the other hand, were much more zealous back then and now have pretty much left it all behind.
surely it is not because you are not sowing your oats at this time.".
Xanthippe I do believe that some sincerely believe that religion is the answer to all things unknown and this was definitely true back before the dawn of modern science. However I believe that many of todays outspoken represenatives of things like young earth creationists, i.e. Ken Ham,. Eric Hovind, do it more for the money and adulation they get versus they sincerely believe everything they say.
Great statement Doug!! I myself am 55 and based on my familys history and the law of averages, I definitely have put more days behind the cart than what lies ahead.
Donny
that was a question posed to me by a friend who just recently discovered my switch from one who used to have a belief in god to one that has a lack thereof.. they stated "most people i know, including your truly, were not much interested in closely following the tenants of the faith we were brought up in when we were in the prime of our young adulthood.
you on the other hand, were much more zealous back then and now have pretty much left it all behind.
surely it is not because you are not sowing your oats at this time.".
That was a question posed to me by a friend who just recently discovered my switch from one who used to have a belief in God to one that has a lack thereof.
They stated "Most people I know, including your truly, were not much interested in closely following the tenants of the faith we were brought up in when we were in the prime of our young adulthood. You on the other hand, were much more zealous back then and now have pretty much left it all behind. Why? Surely it is not because you are not sowing your oats at this time."
I went on to tell him he was correct that I was not going through my second puberty. I told him it was because I wanted to believe what was true regardless of where that led me.
After leaving the Jehovah's Witness religion I tried going to various other denominations. However my exit from the JW's had taught me to be much more skeptical in my thinking and I applied this to these other avenues to the Big Guy in the sky I was then traversing.
After a few years of this it became obvious while these other faith systems might be more palatable and easier to believe, they were just as untrue.
I also used this time to read the bible from cover to cover and I had no choice but to conclude that this piece of literature was the thoughts and musings of bronze-age nomads who were trying to keep their small but growing clan spirits high and more importantly to maintain control. An invisible being in the sky who watched your every move and knew your every thought was the best security system of the day.
In due time it became obvious to me that there was no evidence of a benevolent (or malevolent) entity above who listened to our petitions or exclamations of thankfulness.
Since I was now interested in only believing true things, I was led to the path of agnosticism and atheism.
Can I say for 100% certainty that there is no God or being existing outside of the natural world? Of course the truthful answer has to be "No, I don't"
But I am 100% certain that if such an omniscient and omnipotent entity does exist, it surely was not the one who revealed himself as Yahweh (Jehovah) to Moses and Abraham who later had a child out of wedlock and named him Jesus.
i am inactive for about 10 years now..
Disassiociated 22 years ago.
a loud get well grace from all of us to you.
everyone, grace has been in and out of the hospital and i'm sure she would love to read your get wells.
we miss you grace:) wish i could post pictures.
Thinking about you Grace!!!
Donny
