The_Doctor10
JoinedEver-fading JW. Still "active," as in not disfellowshipped (as of yet), bordering on becoming evermore an outspoken "apostate." Basically found out that JWs are to "truth," what FOX is to,"credible news." Funny that the thing that made me question the Bible more than anything came out to in fact be, the Bible itself. Being raised, "in the Truth," you're admonished to read your Bible daily, and throughout my childhood, teenage years, up until my mid twenties I had read my Bible with good frequency. However, this was always with the help of/in conjunction with the Society's other "helpful," publications that were supposed to aid me in understanding the Bible. These understandings I wouldn't start to question until I was 25. It started with one of the primary doctrines JWs hold near and dear to their Biblically prophetic timelines, namely, 1914. I had been witnessing to a co-worker, eventually after weeks of back and forth conversations we got into the "deeper," things in the scriptures, so at the time I needed to study up on the JWs view of 1914 and how we can prove it. The information I would find would produce in me a questioning of how the Society misused secular history to back up its doctrine. The WTS teaching of 607B.C. as the date of Jersalems destruction flew in the face of secular history dating of 587B.C. This 20 year discrepancy for me, called into question the WTS claims of historical proofs proving the Bible, if history proves the Bible, everything should line up with our beliefs and doctrines. For the first time I would realize, WTS got something wrong and continued to teach it as fact. This nagged at me for a while, it didn't make me question the Bible, or a belief in Jehovah at the time, but it bothered me that the WTS would knowingly stick to this unfounded historical record just in the attempt to not throw off 1914. Then, you look into 1914 and find out it was originally supposed to be the end of this system of things, not the casting down of Satan/installment of Christ. They of course did this under the, "light gets brighter," scapegoat scripture. Then finding out about the 1975 claims that swept through the society and subsequent clean up after this too failed, and I really started to see the WTS as a pseudo-doomsday cult. I had always made fun of people who followed prophetic claims of coming Armegeddon, and when they failed how they continued to follow their leader when he made alternate claims, but then to find out I was a part of such an organization too, floored me. After this harsh realization, I made it a point to read my Bible cover to cover, sans any outside sources, to see what I could find myself, to conduct my own spiritual journey. What I found would destroy forever my faith in the Supernatural. Realizing all of the atrocities that Jehovah himself commanded his people to carry out flew in the face of the belief in a "just, and loving," creator. This also flew in the face of belief in the Bible as any kind of moral guide. Broken of the spell the WTS had on me, reading the Bible for the first time with an open mind destroyed any and all beliefs I had in its unfounded claims about the world and its moral guidance. Faith in the WTS, Bible, Jehovah, Jesus, etc... destroyed, I turned to searching out information I had been warned not to seek to see what it had to say. Namely, Science. Learning what humanity has discovered about the world/universe as we know it filled me with renewed awe. Learning the process of Evolution for the first time without the bias towards religious leanings, filled me with wonder, and gave me a new appreciation for the life I have to live. The sources that helped me included but not limited to: Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris (Can not recommend his "End of Faith," and "Letter to a Christian Nation," books highly enough, truly a dismantling of religion. Must reads for anyone questioning their own faith.), Lawerence Krauss, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Dave Silverman, Jerry Coyne, CrashCourse on YouTube as well as many others.