Posts by questioningmyfaith

19

Reason's why it is so difficult to leave

by Truthexplorer in

1. concerns about the effects it would have on yours and your family's social life.. 2. fear of being shunned.

3. the stress it will cause.

4. the thought of feeling isolated.

questioningmyfaith

I agree with a lot of these but my biggest fear is that I'm wrong

60

I would rather be in the JW cult than the ex-jw cult

by questioningmyfaith in

jw
friends

i have posted one other time on this website.

just for the mere fact that i wasn't anger and bitter and ready to declare the gb the sociopathic criminals that so many here ascribe to, my initial question digressed to bickering over ad hominem attacks against the gb and not my beliefs that i'm questioning.

some did give me some help on my questions.

questioningmyfaith

I have posted one other time on this website. Just for the mere fact that I wasn't anger and bitter and ready to declare the GB the sociopathic criminals that so many here ascribe to, my initial question digressed to bickering over ad hominem attacks against the GB and not my beliefs that I'm questioning. Some did give me some help on my questions. If you notice though, I get a lot of down votes. Mainly because I am just not bitter or angry against the WT. I pretty much do not believe in god. This gives me a peace of mind concerning the false things I have been taught since I was a boy. I sometimes wish that I wasn't raised a witness but I know that I learned a number of great lessons as one. And maybe witnesses are a cult by definition. But really, ALL religions are cults. Jesus was a cult leader. IMO, ex-jw's have become their own cult. You all have THE TRUTH.... about the truth. If anyone came on here and dissents then they are obliterated by the community. My first post simply asked that the acrimony be left out, I just wanted facts, and that was enough to set off a firestorm on my thread. My favorite is the people who post quotes like oneeyedjoe from Socrates The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Actually, Socrates never even said that.

I also have found one poster on here that I know. And reading their posts *gasp* they lie a lot! Now, I am not making a blanket statement that all ex-jws are liars. But I am pretty damn skeptical when I read stories that I'll never be able to corroborate. I am happy and at peace with my JW past. I am still attempting to find a general belief in god, but I doubt I'll come to that conclusion. But I have come to this one, I am not interested this ex-jw cult. Having people to get your back when you're down is a good thing but commiserating on end over pedantic dribble is a waste of time. I am going to use the extra time I have from not being a witness learning a language or maybe even just watching tv. Because I know this endless cycle of trying to preach to the choir is a waste of time.

Sorry if my post is offensive. I honestly just don't like it here

75

Lurker trying to gain clarity

by questioningmyfaith in

jw
friends

hello all, i would like to first say that i am basically questioning my faith in god.

i am not negative towards the wt at all.

so honestly i am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the wt because i still love the organization and the people in it.

questioningmyfaith

I am sorry but y'all are just a little too bitter for me. I could see how this would be a great forum if I was looking for people that could validate my ill-feelings towards the WT. But I just don't care about that. Attacks on the GB are ad-hominem. I am not concerned with stories or examples of how they're horrible people. When it comes to personal experiences, I rarely believe them to be 100% true. And when people hold resentment and a empathetic audience its only natural for the stories to evolve to the worse case ever. But, if you have any answers to my questions about the world getting worse and mankind destroying it I would be happy to hear. Please just send me a PM. Thanks

75

Lurker trying to gain clarity

by questioningmyfaith in

jw
friends

hello all, i would like to first say that i am basically questioning my faith in god.

i am not negative towards the wt at all.

so honestly i am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the wt because i still love the organization and the people in it.

questioningmyfaith

I just want to mention too that my lack of disdain towards the WT will never change. If I were a democrat and I believed that the party should be anti-gay, anti-spending, small government, etc. I wouldn't try to change the party from within. I would just become a republican.

75

Lurker trying to gain clarity

by questioningmyfaith in

jw
friends

hello all, i would like to first say that i am basically questioning my faith in god.

i am not negative towards the wt at all.

so honestly i am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the wt because i still love the organization and the people in it.

questioningmyfaith

First off to freemindfade... I did recently come out to a couple of elders about ALL of my doubts. They were nothing but kind. And one of them I use to always feel had it out for me. They even recommended to me that I continue to serve as an elder.

And to everyone else like lost generation. I truly don't care about the anti-wt stuff. I just don't. There isn't a single thing that could convince me that GB is personally responsible for any single death. If someone told me that if I don't give them all of my money that they'll kill themselves and I refused, I wouldn't be guilty of murder. People are responsible for their personal decisions. If someone has full faith in god and they make the decision to turn down a blood transfusion for their god I just don't see the crime there. People in America are praised constantly that died for their country. I personally question god. If I needed a transfusion I would consider it. But I would have an anti blood stance for as long as possible. I even read a 3part New Yorker article that definitely wasn't bashing witnesses for their stance. Imo, a bloodless surgery would be preferable but not necessarily the only option. But if I had the firm faith in god I once had then I would die before accepting blood. Maybe you say that it is in vain if god does not exist. That is fine, but I go back to all of the soldiers that have died for america. How could you materialize what they died for? Many say freedom? I am pretty sure americans would be free with or without the Iraq war and the Vietnam war. So didn't they truly die in vain? But they're lauded as heroes. And I personally feel that it would take courage to die for ANY cause.

I didn't want this thread to turn this way. I truly could care less about the "cult" behaviors of the wt. I have been one my entire life. I have experienced more in life than most of any other person that I know that isn't a witness. I believe the advice on what type of person you are supposed to be and how to treat others has made me a better person and more likable. I don't have a single negative feeling towards a single witness or the organization as a whole. So if my path does go where I expect it to (atheism/agnosticism) then I'll have started a new chapter of my life without one very poisonous ingredient, bitterness. I have come to terms that I'll lose my witness friends and families. But again, I just don't care. I know why they are going to make the decisions that they make. And I hope in the end that I am wrong and they are right. Because a paradise earth would be awesome. If that is the carrot that they need to get through life then they can make the personal decision to accept the stick.

If it helps to see my perspective, I have had a family member that has been an ardent apostate (which they embrace) for years now. When I was lurking on another website, I found their posts and saw that their story was a lot different than the truth. The truth is never black and white though. However, our memories always shade in the gray areas to make us believe it can be. Along with that, our goal posts that we use to gauge what is truthful or not always move with personal prejudices. Sometimes they shrink and sometimes they enlarge because we want to believe that what we're hearing has to be the truth.

75

Lurker trying to gain clarity

by questioningmyfaith in

jw
friends

hello all, i would like to first say that i am basically questioning my faith in god.

i am not negative towards the wt at all.

so honestly i am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the wt because i still love the organization and the people in it.

questioningmyfaith

@oneeyedjoe

Do you really think I haven't read the anti-witness info? I just don't care. Every large organization has their own issues. But to say that they contributed to the deaths in Malawi for instance, is just preposterous in my opinion. The organization did not have any responsibility for a bunch of wackos that would kill and rape innocent people over a card. Should they be blamed for contributing to the deaths caused from the Nazis too? Countless suicides? I am curious about what the actual facts are on that last one but I doubt its countless. Broken families? Do we live in the world of leave it to beaver? Family break up in all walks of life. Some family members don't speak because of differing political views. I know a lot of witnesses that didn't shun their family members like they should have and some that went overboard. People are going to do what they want. But really if there is no god then even more so I have compassion for all in the organization. The GB has had bad policies in place and there are many changes that are probably still coming. But I haven't read a single thing that makes me believe that there is a single malevolent motive. And even if there was, what would that change, especially for me personally? I can tell you one thing, I still wouldn't spend another minute wasting my time on any internet thread or forum. Because quite frankly, even if the GB are a bunch of narcissistic wannabe powerful guys, imho, the worse thing they have done is wake up people on saturday mornings.

And just one other thing on blood transfusions because I know that is a big one... there would not be hundreds of bloodless surgery wings across the country just to serve a few witnesses here and there. A lot of research has shown bloodless surgery to be preferable. I am NOT saying that lives could not be saved with a transfusion. I am just saying that, that attack seems to be getting weaker as years go by. Even on the economic side of blood transfusions, blood is big business. When there is a blood drive, usually the blood goes to selling to hospitals for big profits. Many blood brokers use arbitrage to obtain blood cheaply and then sell it all the while using "charitable" drives as the motivating factor.

75

Lurker trying to gain clarity

by questioningmyfaith in

jw
friends

hello all, i would like to first say that i am basically questioning my faith in god.

i am not negative towards the wt at all.

so honestly i am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the wt because i still love the organization and the people in it.

questioningmyfaith

Hello all, I would like to first say that I am basically questioning my faith in god. I am not negative towards the WT at all. So honestly I am to concerned with more ad hominem attacks towards the WT because I still love the organization and the people in it. But that is because I truly believe that in general witnesses are good people that are trying their best to do good. I have had my issues with many fellow JW's but I have been an ass plenty of times to not let that make a blanket statement of nefariousness. I only mention this because I don't plan on engaging with anyone that just wants to talk bad about the people.

So this is my question that I wonder how other people got over certain indoctrinations of JW's. For example, I read often about the state of the planet with climate change and how it is almost all but hopeless. Also, how humans seem to just be making the problem worse even though almost every scientist says that it is a dire situation. Or the U.N. report that, speaking on climate change, said that in the next couple of decades climate change will cause greater food shortages, droughts, more wars, etc. Or on the subject of war, with the proliferation of nuclear weapons more and more crazy people have the ability to cause utter desolation in the world. They have had this ability for years but it almost seems like nationalism and religious extremism is just getting more and more extreme. In America, the 2 parties are getting more and more polarized. It seems that the future is almost destined to have another civil war here.

There are many other things that I sit back and look at and feel like this world is destined for self destruction. I have already accepted that the WT is wrong about a lot of stuff. It doesn't bother me too much to be honest. I am more concerned with whether or not I believe in god. So none of those things I mentioned prove gods existence. But, they are clingers. They are points that I look at and ask myself 2 questions, "If there is no god, is there hope for mankind" and "Why do humans seem to be so unable to rule themselves." I would be curious what some of your thoughts are. Thanks