I _feel_ rational, so why am I still afraid?

by under_believer 20 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Satans little helper

  
  You really aren't alone, the conditioning that the JW's use as a control mechanism is an easily wielded but incredibly damaging form guilt/fear. You are conditioned to fear everything outside the organisation and to fear stepping outside of the organisation because you will be removed from god's love and die at Armagheddon. It's the same with shunning, if you make waves and argue you will have the love of your family withdrawn and you will be ostracised. You don't believe it all but there's still that nagging doubt of "what if I made the wrong decision" but that will pass as you see wll the holes in what they teach and realise that god wouldn't be that egotistical or petty.

  It takes a while to get through, personally I went through what you are going through now and became agnostic, rejecting the JW teachings entirely. I wasn't sure that there was a god, couldn't pray, had a pretty nihilistic view of the future and didn't believe in life after death. As time goes on you reexamine everything and can pick and choose the bits you believe and recognise the bits that are hogwash. In the mean time you feel a bit cut loose and unsure what to believe, don't worry, the feeling passes along with the anger you feel towards the congregation.

  Sooner or later you find yourself at peace with yourself, more sure of what you believe and able to examine it all a little more objectively. What conclusions you come to depend on your perspective and your experiences but you will reach a point where you feel more at ease.

  Relax and enjoy the journey, it is very liberating

  Steve
• 

  Carmel

  "The convulsions of this transitional and most turbulent period in the annals of humanity are the essential prerequisites, and herald the inevitable approach, of that Age of Ages, "the time of the end," in which the folly and tumult of strife that has, since the dawn of history, blackened the annals of mankind, will have been finally transmuted into the wisdom and the tranquility of an undisturbed, a universal, and lasting peace, in which the discord and separation of the children of men will have given way to the worldwide reconciliation, and the complete unification of the divers elements that constitute human society.

  This will indeed be the fitting climax of that process of integration which, starting with the family, the smallest unit in the scale of human organization, must, after having called successively into being the tribe, the city-state, and the nation, continue to operate until it culminates in the unification of the whole world, the final object and the crowning glory of human evolution on this planet. It is this stage which humanity, willingly or unwillingly, is resistlessly approaching. It is for this stage that this vast, this fiery ordeal which humanity is experiencing is mysteriously paving the way."

  (Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come, p. 117)
• 

  fullofdoubtnow

  I think it's down to what we've been conditioned to believe for so many years, 25 in my case. Throughout all my years in the org, we were constantly reminded that armageddon was just around the corner. It's begiinning to seem like a very long bend to me, and I no longer really believe it's going to happen anyway, but there is always the "what if" factor. The jws have got so many prophecies wrong it's logical to believe they are wrong about armageddon, but there is always that thought that they might get one right, and we'd be on the wrong side when it happens.
• 

  sass_my_frass

  why is it that whenever I hear someone say, with that "special" glint in their eyes (you know the glint I'm talking about) that we're "deep, deep in the time of the end," I feel this uneasiness?

  I still get that feeling regularly, and just have to remind myself that it's because of the success of their indoctrination process. They're really good at it, and it will be with us for a while.
• 

  cyberdyne systems 101

  They like to play on our fears making people think 'what if?'. I think the feeling is a natural one when we had it drummed into us for so long. Its not based on facts but on emotion. Each time this happens and you counter it with reasoned arguments the less it will happen. None of us knows the future and there are some scary things going on around us, but equaly there are many good and wonderful things too - depends on how we choose to look at it.

  CS 101
• 

  Van Gogh

  There is no need to fear “End Times”, unless a God-cause does not exist – in the latter case it really is final.
  The WTS does not have the monopoly on an armageddon, nobody does, so no worries there.
  Interference by God could signify destruction, as well as well as something to look forward to. Membership of any religion like JW will not affect anyone’s chances in a positive way; this is the truly valuable lesson for any exJW (imho).
  But even outside divine intervention, some sort of global cataclysm in the near future is not entirely unlikely. Chances of that have only increased in an intricately interlinked global system. As has been established by many on this board, the WTS’ assertion of global decline cannot be substantiated by facts. But things that go up tend to come crashing down in no time. One unheeded domino stone can travel far now. And if there is no divine intervention, we really should worry…
  VG
• 

  LittleToe

  Try Replacement Therapy.

  There are plenty of "time of the end"s.

  • Clinton's administration came to an end, and was replaced with Bush.
  • Bush's administration is coming to an end, and though there may be some concerns as to what it will be replaced with, nonetheless we anticipate life going on afterwards.
  • Sometimes it involves job-cuts in our place of employment, sometimes the end of a relationship.
  • Eventually the world will either be engulfed in a supernova or struck by a meteorite, but it's unlikely to happen in our lifetime, nor that of our great, great, great, great, grandkids.

  We often fear change and potential hurt, but dwelling on the fact that we usually survive such things can help. Often we actually go on to something better, and if we visualise it appropriately it can help us overcome aberrant word associations.

  Give it a try, and see how ya get on...
• 

  DHL

  I haven't posted for some time but every now and then I come by and read and I would like to give my 2 ct. on this:

  When I was younger whenever I heard about something bad in the news, may it be a hurricane, a war, an earthquake or whatever it started creeping on me that maybe they were right and that this was another sign of the soon to expect end. Sometimes I was scared to hell.

  But over the years I realised that there are always different interpreting possibilities. Even more possibilities for interpretation are given when you start to combine things with each other. It is a bit like gambling. Which combination of numbers will win this week?

  Another good example is Nostradamus. He wrote things that people over the years combined and interpreted in hundreds of different ways.

  So while one could easily interprete and explain everything that happens with the JW-doctrin, one could also just as easily come to five or more different explanations.
• 

  mrsjones5

  why is it that whenever I hear someone say, with that "special" glint in their eyes (you know the glint I'm talking about) that we're "deep, deep in the time of the end," I feel this uneasiness?

  I used to get that feeling of unease, now I just get annoyed. I'm trying to move on to indifference.

  Josie
• 

  AlmostAtheist

  I was driving along yesterday when I saw a bright, round yellow light. A traffic light turned yellow, and I knew I couldn't get through the intersection in time, so I slowed down quick -- only to discover that what I had actually seen was one of several lights making up an arrow. The truck in front of me had obscured all the other lights, so I only saw the one.

  I wasn't at an intersection, I travel this way every day and there's never been a traffic light there. But a yellow light means get ready to stop, so I did. I've been conditioned that way for 20 years, it's automatic.

  You've been trained to react to the words "time of the end" and knowledge alone won't take that training away. Keep collecting knowledge, become aware of how great this time we live in actually is. Learn from history all the many, many times that man has looked around himself and said, "Wow, we're in the time of the end!" Accumulate the knowledge, but also give yourself time to un-learn all the Watchtower training.

  Hopefully you'll be a quick un-study! ;-)

  Dave