I think there is lot of truth to what you say. I remember that the WT used to say that a lot of people who went to Church, went for socializing. People do need people to survive life. I still think of myself as a spiritual person. I'm not sure if there is a God that looks after me and knows all my thoughts, but I believe that there is intelligence behind everything I see. Why there is so much violence in the natural world, I don't know. I don't think I can be the same type of believer now that I spent all my life being. What I do know is that when I became a Catholic, the Church into which my parents had baptized me, and the rest of my sibling, shortly before becoming JWs, I found many people who would stand by you and not judge you. They did become a family as I also became a friend to them. When I needed someone, there was always someone from the Church there to assist me. I never needed physical help, but I did need spiritual and emotional help. After being told by jws, and your family, that you are no better than a dog that has returned to it's vomit, it helps to have intelligent people appreciate you and your intelligence and just make you feel that you count as a human, not just a member of a religion. The first time the priest told me I was a deep thinker, I asked, who me? As a jw, you are not allowed to think, as you know, so having a priest, who is educated, say anything positive about you and not treating you as a dummy, makes a person feel like they have worth. I still thank God for my life and the good things in my life, maybe there is no one listening, I don't know. I am still in the transitional phase. I am not really sure what I believe. As many others, I have had to adjust to the reality that I will not live forever, that I will die as all those before me have died. There is no Paradise waiting for me. I have to live the life I have now. As jws, were we ever Chistians? I thought we were but now, I am not sure what we were; publishers, d2d salespeople, assembly goers. Anyway, this is a good and thought provoking subject.
