by dezpbem 37 Replies latest jw friends
I'm curious how many people on the board have looked into other religions or spirituality groups since they've left the jw.
What have you looked into? Did you join anything else? Read up on any others? Decide you hate it all and just plain shun the idea of any alternative?
Curious...
I attended a moderate Evangelical church for a few years after I left the WT; then a more pluralistic (or liberal) Reformed one. Then no church at all.
I still contribute to a liberal theological fellowship where "atheology" is welcome, but that's about all.
At firt I looked around quite a lot. It is very free-ing to be abble to read anything you want. I even checked out protestantism, but evolutionism kind of opened my mind to the fact that the Bible might no be all that true. So I checked a few other religions, like Buddhism...I really think Buddhism has a great way of thinking. Very live and let live, don't hurt others or yourself, etc. Although I am not a Buddhist, I really admire those people. I also like old/new religions like New Age and Native-American culture, earth-based religions. I am very close to nature, so I am bound to be pulled towards that.
When I left, I did talk to some of my Christian neighbours a little, but never went to any of their meetings. I now have no interest in any kind of religion, and if not atheist then definitely agnostic. I haven't even got a bible now, and I doubt I'll ever want one. 13 years of dubdom was plenty enough for me
At this very moment:
I have nothing to do with any religion, I can't, ... I just can't.
When I left I didn't see the need to look for another religion. I didn't see the point of it and I still don't.
"Organized" religion totally turns me off.
I don't study any Christian religions but I like being able to have the freedom to read and entertain the possibilities of all belief systems. So I read allot of mystical stuff and eastern philosophy/religious stuff. If I am flipping the channels and some preacher dude is on TV I may stop and watch him for a minute or two.
But "joining" any one religion still feels like handing over my freedom to be enslaved. It also feels like 'the blind leading the blind'. I don't want no human telling me what I should or should not do or believe. I feel I am intelligent enough to figure that out personally with what I believe to be a Higher Power in my life.
With that said I do honor the fact that people do feel like they want or need to be a part of a church. That's their journey and their choice.
during my deconversion, as i like to call it, it took me about a week to applythe same switch-blade of logic i had used on jehovah and the WTS to other abrahamic religions.
i have experimented with buddhist zazen meditation recently, more just for peace and relaxation. i have to say that it was really cool how centered and calm i feel after meditating. you don't have to subscribe to buddhist teachings at all to meditate. and i am aware of the scientific studies conducted on buddhists while they are meditating, and i honestly do not chalk my experiences while meditating up to anything else than brain activity. but still, it's cool!
part of my adventures as a skeptic has led me to try out some satanism as well. incantations and what not. this is to see if i could conjure up any paranormal experiences. and of course, nothing happened. that said, satanists are some free thinking individuals too. it's not about worshiping satan at all. it's about mental freedom, that of course satan was the epitomy of in the myth of the garden of eden. but all in all, i am a skeptic.
slick, fit, happy, unrepentant, freethinking atheist taking a bite out of the ass of life. <-- that is my new religion.
TS
I think it depends on why somebody left. I largely left because I could no longer believe in all the silly, superstitions and supernatural crap that is the central core of ALL religions.
I simply realized that religion and relying on supernatural delusions is nothing more than psychological anesthesia. It boggles my mind how anybody having experienced the JWs could still fall for organized religion or the belief in a vengeful, hateful x-tian god (the same one that is described in ALL translations of the bible).
Its sad people need to substitute one drug with another......
I'm still in the unenviable position of leaving the JW cult. I have decided to completely discard from my life any and all non-falsifiable belief systems and believe only what we learn from factual evidence through the scientific method. For me this is the only way we can learn what is real, and sometimes the truth is tough to take but that's the way reality is.
