Have your faith been made stronger or made weaker since coming here? (page 2)

Violia

faith in WTS - gone

faith in Christ or Jehovah- shaky but still alive.

I read the agnostics and atheists threads b/c I refuse to be afraid of words. Words and books cannot harm me, I have my eyes wide open now.

jam

violia, Yes my eyes are so wide open I can,t sleep at

nites, thinking about the predicament I am in.

DonutZ!

I personally think the Bible is true and I believe in it.

There is nothing more detrimental to Christianity than religious Fundamentalism. Nine months ago, I thought that I would end up Agnostic or Atheist, but now that I am emerging from the 'other side' of Watchtower Land, I'm starting to lean toward a deep-seated belief in an all-loving Supreme Entity from which reality derives its existence.

I think my faith the Scriptures is finally allowed to mature. Arguing over the historicity over certain passages is like attempting to argue whether or not the man who sold all his things for a Pearl of high value was a literal account or not. It would completely miss the point. Of course, subconsciously, my real self started to realize this a few years before my Exit. Toward the end, I was having serious problems with a literal Eden story and saw no problems reconciling Genesis 1 and the evolution of the species by mutation and natural selection.

Morbidzbaby

No "faith" in the Bible whatsoever. It's a book of stories, much like Aesop's Fables. It can be read allegorically because, I believe, there is some benefit to reading some of the stories and treating them as just that...fictional stories that can enhance a person's world view.

I don't believe in a god. I don't believe Jesus even existed, much less performed miracles and died for our supposed "sins". We are humans acting like humans. Nothing more, nothing less.

Paulapollos

My "faith" in the Bible, as inspired or even truthful, and in Jesus as the character(s) portayed therein, (not to mention the so-called "good news of Jesus sacrifice and resurrection" I used to accept so fervently) have been utterly and totally debunked. Once and for all. I have never, ever, felt so informed, so clear-headed, and thankful.

Sure, I sometimes think it was easier, more "simple" to live with blind certainties, however unverifiable. But then, I step back, and take a look at all the things I finally understand. I can't help but consider myself astonishingly fortunate to have escaped the shackles of "faith" with some intellect still functioning. The benefits, for me at least, have been frankly immeasurable.

Jam, what predicament are you in? Why does it keep you awake?

PP

cofty

Everything that PP said.

It was disconcerting at first to lose the safety net of faith but now its just reality.

factfinder

jam-

I agree with you. Since coming here my faith has been destroyed. My view of Bethel and the organization- well, I have seen behind the curtain and have been very saddened and disappointed in what has been revealed.

My faith in the Bible as God's Word is gone, its all just academic to me now.

And I am leaning towards becoming agnostic.

But I wish I had known all of this information in 1976, although I honestly don't know what my life would have been like had I not become a witness.

jam

Paulapollos;The realization that this is it, no flying

around in heaven, no resurrection and seeing love ones

from the past, no living forever in paradise. This life , that,s

it. The predicament, trying hard to beleive again in order

to have hope. This site open my eyes, and once you have seen

it,s very hard to go back into the darkness. Faith just don,t

do it for me.

ziddina

What faith????

When the brother read Exodus 19: 16-19 from the podium, I - as a 7-year-old girl who had been fascinated by rocks from the age of 5 and having graduated to an interest in volcanoes - immediately recognized the account as a fairly decent description of a volcanic eruption - as described by ignorant, superstitious, Middle-Eastern Bronze-Age nomads....

Had I not been beaten, bullied and battered into the cult from that tender age on up, I would have become an atheist right then and there - but I had to "pretend" - stay undercover - to avoid physical abuse.

So as soon as I was free of that damned cult, I was able to release the programming that I was intimidated and coerced into pretending to "believe"...

Basically, I was an atheist from the age of 7.... Because I saw the falseness of the bible itself.

Have your faith been made stronger or made weaker since coming here?