One thing that surprised me shortly after joining this site was the number of individuals who, after experiencing the deception of being a JW and the hypocrisy of the “TRUTH”, switched to being Catholic or “born-again” Evangelists. It seemed to me like jumping from the hot pan into the fire.
I don’t want to piss anyone off for his or her choices. I feel everyone is free to believe what they may. In addition, I’ve always been an advocate for the apparently innate need of individuals (to one degree or another) to feel “spiritual” and to yearn for some of the things religion purports to offer (a sense of awe, inner peace, respect for morals, etc).
So, when I say “jumping from the hot pan into the fire”, I mean that in the sense of going from one illogical set of ideas to another demonstrably illogical set of ideas. Perhaps it is because of my personal experience with both Catholicism and Protestantism that gives me little confidence in them as better alternatives to the JWs. Yes, the JW construct seems more devastating to individuals and families. But the other Xtian sects have the same or similar foundations for their beliefs and have a very rich history of deception, killings, money grubbing and contradictions in their tenets.
I personally know some ex-Witnesses who are now devout Catholics. But besides my being born into it, judging from history, it’s obvious how fabricated that old religion is. Protestantism inherited most of the same tenets and ideas about God and Jesus and even liturgy from the Catholics. Some people just need a place to hang up their hat. Therefore, a label or religious identity provides that for them.
For me, I think that given the manipulation of the “Scriptures”, first by the Hebrews (the O.T.) and later by the nouveau-Christians of the Roman Empire (the N.T.) puts into question many or most of the beliefs Christian sects hold. For some people who can “see through religion”, feeling religious (having the need to believe) leaves the fundamentals of God and Jesus standing but divorced from the traditions and rites of religion. But that is not more reassuring in my mind than swallowing the entire religious gamut. For me, believing has to be more profound. It has to be tenable in some explanatory and reproducible way. And so, what I have deemed the “ultimate conversion” is a total departure, not just from religion, but also from the idea that the concept of God is somehow sustainable let alone inevitable.
The more I found out about the foundations of religion and belief in deities, the more “eroded” ideas about a Supreme Being became. I remember having a much extended conversation here with another member (for which I was praised due to my beyond-the-norm patience) a few years ago in which I feel I established to her that, no matter what she believed in and how fervently; she could not sustain it beyond herself, beyond her own brain. She could not teach it to me, point to it, give directions or demonstrate how to “receive Christ” or “heed the calling from the Lord”. However, I understood her need for devotion and her sense of dependence on believing that there must be a God.
So, to everyone else who chooses to “believe” in a deity, go ahead if it makes you feel better. I guess that’s a good thing. But at least consider that it may be temporary. I remember being so sure I had finally found right religion in the JWs I could not imagine anything shaking my resolve. Man, I was so wrong!
Etude.