by gumby 63 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Because I finally got a clue! The entire concept of someone dying for my "sins" seems so ridiculous to me now its embarrassing to even think that as a child I believed it. I just did a bunch of research pre-disassociation and confirmed what my gut was telling me all along - that its all fairy tales and silliness drempt up by people who wanted to control others and live on after they croak.
GBL
Another way to look at it: Imagine a locked box that you're told contains a huge diamond. You shake the box now and then, and you hear it knocking about. You KNOW it's a diamond. Everyone around you says so. Your whole future is based on the fact that one day the box will open and you'll sell the diamond and live forever on the proceeds. Then one day you do an xray of the box and clearly see inside, not a diamond, but a horseshoe. You recall wondering why it seemed when you shook it that it sounded so oddly shaped. (It also becomes clear why you were always told NOT to xray it!) You realize your faith was misplaced and in virtually an instant, it's gone.Dave
great example Dave.
sometimes, I am shocked at how FAST everything came crashing down for me. I truly believe it's because somewhere in my head/gut I knew it wasn't right. just needed to open the damn box FINALLY and see the rusty horseshoe!
when I found the JWs to be a CON GAME, my first thought was to follow TRUTH where ever it lead me, and to admit ignorance in any thing I could not verify myself.
my 2nd thought was if NOT JWs, then who? so to the library I went and the first book I found was WHO WROTE THE BIBLE and this time I read it with an open mind, not as I would have as a JW, trying to excuse all the evidence presented nor fit it into some pre-conceived belief system [BS]...
my 3rd thought was: was there any god[s]? was the only reason I had believed in one is because I had been brought up to believe in one and no other? and I read books by humanists and atheists and agnostics and came to see that they were much more rational in their views than any believers who had CONviNcED me before. The arguments for the existance of any god all seemed to be self contradictory and irrational. and I came to realize that when I was praying I was only talking to myself, so I must be God (^_^).
Hey, Gumbo! I clung to the bible after my dF'ing and didn't let go until after I had come online. Maybe somethings others posted triggered my thinking about the concept of the scriptures, perhaps not. I DO know that after thinking about what the original stone tablets (commandments) contained and seeing how the scriptures showed the same god who allegedly told them NOT to kill anyone, then ordered those same people to KILL by the thousands laid my belief system where the scriptures are concerned pretty much to rest.
Oh, yes, I still can quote a lot of chapter and verse and do so occasionally. But my reasons for doing so are usually for someone who's still clinging to a scripture-based belief system, and it's the only "common ground" on which they can communicate. In these cases, I can usually come up with contradictory scriptures that show the "waffling" nature of them and their belief system.
Frannie
Zen said, “when I found the JWs to be a CON GAME, my first thought was to follow TRUTH where ever it lead me, and to admit ignorance in any thing I could not verify myself.”
This sums up my own experience. Many years of studying led me to conclude that all organized religion is ‘a snare and a racket’ as the Watchtower Society kindly pointed out. By then my eyes had been opened so I ate some more of the apple and discovered that politics was also ‘a snare and a racket.’ The financial system is also controlled and manipulated for the benefit of those in the know.
This has not made me cynical just cautious and able to negotiate this treacherous world in full awareness of it’s pitfalls. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are just a small model of a larger model.
The world outside the Watchtower Society, including all religion is just a bigger goldfish bowl. Many people spend their lives thinking they have escaped but later find they have just moved to different but larger bowl. True escape is found living outside of the bowls. Those in charge of religion have told us we will die on the outside.
The Truth is we are not goldfish and we live better outside the bowls.
t
I found a site about ancient religions and down loaded the first books of the bible that we have, which by the way is not found in our bible cannon. I found it intriguing that everything said in the books made me think that an Alien civilization could exsplain it all.
AK,
Some who watched this imaginary 'truth' dissolve into chaos when we found out the falcious nature of the beastly religion we had devoted our lives to for so long, cannot form a relationship with the same elements any longer - the Bible and religion.
Jeff, I was one who didn't feel the "elements" were one in the same. Religion was opposite of dubdum when I was a dub. When I exited, I had to figure out what christendom was all about and what their message was. I explored and went to a few churches and learned the main message was the message I had only known as a stupid one as a dub....that being believing in Jesus a savior was the real deal. I believed it for about 7 years but only "teaching services" and no other church hob nobbin.
My point is...I personally still believed in the bible creator and didn't associate being lied to by the Organisation as being the SAME as a relationship with Christ and the bible message concerning him. I suppose many didn't go the route and had gone nor did they have the same thought process as myself had......hence the reason for this thread. I want to see how others feel/felt.
Dave,
I didn't reject the Bible based on the Watchtower's interpretation of it. I rejected it based on what it says. Granted there are those that "believe" the Bible, but reject portions of it as stories or myth. I couldn't truck with that, since how would you ever decide which was which? Its value comes from the fact that it is wholly believable. If it's a piecemeal thing, with no way to know which piece is which, then it's worse than worthless.
But my friend....you DID take the time to check things out a bit. You re-searched about messianic prophecies. I didn't know about myths or the like till later. I knew very little of a sceptics view. my first doubts were a bit into my christian life when I questioned things and never got straight answers.....just like when I was a dub. The trinity, once saved always saved, hell, the whole damn thing never became clear....I prayed for answers and never got them, I found this place(jwd) and began reading books that exposed the bible and listened to those who'd been there done that.....and the rest is history.
Getbusy. I didn't question the sacrafice till way later. You beat me!
Freedom,
I truly believe it's because somewhere in my head/gut I knew it wasn't right.
I always wondered things as a witness. Why people would be killed by Jehovah who never heard the message.....why god killed everyone in the flood when they truly thought Noah was a crazyass bastard from hell and such.
Zen,
my 2nd thought was if NOT JWs, then who? so to the library I went and the first book I found was WHO WROTE THE BIBLE and this time I read it with an open mind, not as I would have as a JW, trying to excuse all the evidence presented nor fit it into some pre-conceived belief system [BS]...
Lucky bastard! It took me 7 years to get where you got on your second question!!!
Frannie....you tellin me JWD and forums made ya a damn heathen apostate bastardette! You Jezebell!
Trevor and Skyman.....once again...you two found what I didn't find till later.
I'll admit this....I'm glad I went the christian route for the time I did before becoming a sceptic first. It's an experience most likely you won't have until you been there.....if you were raised a dub and never had a taste of christendom before. I feel my choice is a bit more fair at least to myself.
Gumby
i didn't exit the dubs without years of observation, study and thought. hypocrisy was what finally led me to leave.
i have always been a serious bible student, researching topics carefully. when i was at bethel and read the new testament
through in about 6 weeks i was left quite stunned at how unclear the message was, especially in Paul's writings. as I read
or read about other religious texts, i discovered similar themes between them all. a growing knowlege of science led me
to discredit many old testament stories. logical deduction led me to dismiss other scriptural texts, again, this process took
years.
i would not say that i have exited god although my concept of god is very unlike that of the bible or any organized religion.
My faith in the Bible has drastically dropped since my faith in the WTS went out the window. THe reason is that everything I have been taught theologically was from the WTS. I do not know the Bible apart from them and their interpretation. The New World Translation was the first thing I began to read and hear as a child. Part of why I lost faith in the WTS is because of the inconsistencies and contradictions found in the Bible, especially between the Old and New Testaments, and also problems I couldn't settle in each. I apreciate Jesus message, but doubt that if he really did everything the Bible says he did, that he would want or need some type of man-made organization to misrepresent him, which seems inevitable. I don't think the 1st Century Christians had it all right, either... it sounds like a lot of them were quacks like what we have today - true zealots. The Apostle Paul was so blatantly egotistic it put me off even when I had full JW faith. The more I consider the Hebrew scriptures, the more it just seems like a tribe trying to see God's hand in everything they did by re-telling history and applying moral conclusions.
A lot of it is because I am just put off by anything having to do with what I was taught for so many years. When I hear some scripture, I think of the ORG. over my head, announcing some decree about how I should live my life.
Joelbear,
i didn't exit the dubs without years of observation, study and thought. hypocrisy was what finally led me to leave.
I well remember your exit out right here on JWD my friend. Your story was a touching one and an interesting one. Thanks for sharing yourself with your friends as you did and do.
Daniel,
It sounds to me you were never a true believer. Many witnesses and ex-witnesses were never really sold into the organisation or had what they'd call a close relationship with god. The same in christendom. I was one who questioned, but still believed for the most part. I to this day do not know just HOW really real it was to me. As a dub, you just accept it and feel your safe. Christianity is the same.
Gumby
