Do you still believe?

Chimene

I have found a lot of people no longer believe in God or Jesus since leaving the organization.
I’m very shocked at this. If you don’t believe, can you tell me what brought to that conclusion?
I was told to look at the thread that one of the members in this forum has created, they are very interesting, but I wanted to get a some feed back from different individuals.
Thanks!

JH

I will always believe in a higher power or creator until I return to dust.

Chimene

My thoughts to JH

kid-A

Hmmm, it would take a long time to list the reasons I am atheist. But the reasons could be better explained by reading a few books, such as "Escape from Freedom" by Erich Fromm, "Totem and Taboo" by Freud, "The AntiChrist" by Neitszche, "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion" by David Hume, or "Why I am not a Christian" by Bertrand Russel.

I am curious why you were "shocked" to hear this? Personally, I am surprised by the number of ex-JWs that actually still have religious beliefs.

The Universal Almanac, 1990, reports that there are 805,900,000 non-religious and 210,500,000 atheists in the world. This accounts for 16.9% and 4.4% respectively, for a total of 21.3%.

"According to The World Christian Encyclopedia (1985), more than a billion of the world's people consider themselves nonreligious (agnostic about religious claims) or atheistic (actively opposed to religion). Nearly three-quarters of these people live in East Asia, where they are a majority of the population of China. Nonreligious persons and atheists also make up a majority of people in the Soviet Union.

"If the estimates of non and anti-religious peoples are correct, these peoples make up the largest bloc in the world after Christianity," indicates the Almanac.

It reports that 20 million of these non-religious/ atheists live in North America.

AlmostAtheist

While I can't prove there's no higher being out there, I don't see any evidence for one, either. If I had the power God is usually claimed to have, there's no way a child would ever be raped. I'd stop it, and any bastard that tried to play the "free will" card on me would get doubly slapped down.

We used to think God made crops grow and lightning flash. Now we know better. Now we believe God at least created the physical universe, and despite evidence to the contrary, some even believe he created humans directly. I suspect someday we'll know better. What will humans give God credit for then? Something, I imagine.

My cent-and-a-half worth.

Dave

DanTheMan

I have found a lot of people no longer believe in God or Jesus since leaving the organization.

If somebody came up to you and told you that 100 years ago, there lived a man in Uzbekistan who:

1. Was born to a virgin;

2. Walked on water;

3. Cured people of blindness by spitting on the dry ground and applying the resulting mud mixture to their eyes;

4. Came back to life after having been dead, and rose up into the air in front of onlookers until he was no longer visible;

Would you believe it?

Why or why not?

daystar

My belief in "God" is so different from most people who do as to make me effectively an agnostic at least, and perhaps an atheist even.

The easiest way to explain my belief is that I believe there to be something akin to "the Force" that is neither good nor evil, but beyond either, hence why both wonderful things occur and horrendous ones.

Chimene

I guess because of the fact that the bible has been around for thousands of years, and the JW's were only created about 125 years ago give or take? That I feel that it's just the religion itself that is wrong. I don't think any religion really has everything 100% correct, and never will. I guess I don't want to give up the hope that there really will be a perfect life one day, either or here, or in heaven or some where. The thought of just dying, and thats it, nothing will ever become of you after that is really scary, you know?

daystar

The thought of just dying, and thats it, nothing will ever become of you after that is really scary, you know?

And that, I suspect, is precisely why religious beliefs have become part of our development. Facing the blackness and bleakness of that possibility is too much for many people to handle.

IMO, it's a very scary truth that many are very ill-equipped to face.

mark hughes

When people choose to, or are forced to through disfellowshipping, leave the borg it tends to lead to dissection of the wtbts's teachings, predictions, rules and interpretations of the scriptures.

This commonly leads people to look at other religions teachings and interpretations.

To other people, myself included, it leads to investigations as to whether the bible is the word of God and if biblical accounts of historic events could have actually happened. There are various biblical accounts of events that quite simply don't add up. Take for example the flood. The gathering of all the animals, there being no archaeological proof of such an occurrence and the thought that we all must descend from Noah and his family doesn't explain why we have so many differing skin colours around the globe.

This is just the one of the most obvious biblical fantasies that turned me to atheism.

Do you still believe?

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