Religion---your personal view

by The wanderer 30 Replies latest jw friends

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  DanTheMan

  Going From One Religion To Another

  As a former Jehovah's Witness have you been enticed to consider another religion perhaps, seeking to find "the truth" ? This is a dilemma that certain individuals
  
  maybe facing regarding the matter of religion.

  The only church that I remotely considered joining was a Lutheran one. The church was affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America synod. Don't let the word "Evangelical" trip you up though, it was very liberal, with openly gay couples and trans-gendered individuals in attendance. I think I enjoyed it because it was so completely the opposite of JWism in every way. But the church sometimes only had 10 or 12 in attendance for the Sunday service, never more than 25, and so they ran out of money and had to sell the building to another church. But by the time it got to that I wasn't attending any more. I just wasn't inspired by any of it.

  I attended some others, two that were liberal but not to the same degree as the ELCA church, and two others that were more conservative. The latter two made me especially uncomfortable, not because they reminded me of JWism so much as they were just so, well, Republican I guess.

  What I took away from all of this was the sad realization that I am no longer, and probably never really was, an organization man. I'm a loner now, maybe even a bitter one, and as much as I might benefit psychologically from joining some group or another, I just can't bring myself to do it. You see, one of the things about JWism that was so intoxicating to me early on was that I felt a really strong sense of cameraderie at the KH. The "worldwide brotherhood" was a selling point that resonated so deeply with me. But to find out that the leadership of this brotherhood was sham, and that all of the unity was largely the result of fear and manipulation, was such a profound disappointment for me that I think I'm permanently numb to the emotion of cameraderie, because it feels like JWism.
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  Highlander

  "Now this is what a book inspired by god would really be like! Short, succinct, clear, profound and no doctrine or dogma." Yet the Tao Te Ching doesn't claim to be sacred or god-inspired - just the writings of a wise old man, or a few wise old men.

  Good point, if there were a god, he could easily sum up his purpose and intent in just a few paragraphs.

  As far as my personal view, I do hope that the WT does actually prophesy correctly that 'babylon the great' does fall and that all religion ceases to exist.

  I don't for a second believe that people need religious organizations. In reality, religion causes much death and destruction, so I hope that one day

  religions are done away with.

  For me, I've come to the conclusion that I'm agnostic. I can't prove there is or isn't a god. Therefore religion is out of my life. I'm open to the idea of there

  being a god, but until he/she/it presents itself/themselves then I prefer living a life as I see fit and not being fearful of something I can't see or prove.
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  Narkissos

  The "seeking to find the truth" part made me think.

  Looking back, I think it took me years after I left JWs to gradually (and no doubt partly) break free from this very notion of "truth" -- a totalitarian, all-embracing doctrine to which everything could ultimately boil down. I didn't expect it from churches (although I attended a couple of them) but my approach of theology, philosophy, psychology, or even literature and art was biased to an extent by this very quest -- I tended to expect from theories and works what they were never meant to offer.
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  LittleToe

  "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and a striving after wind..."

  Relgions offer a framework or worldview, and as such may be usefully employed in our ever-hungry search for the Divine. Once you've made that "connection", though, their use tends to be more support and mutual aid. I still don't see why that should be a bad thing, for all that some denigrate it. We're social animals, us human beings!

  What I've stated for religion might also be usefully applied to Holy Books. If you're looking for 100% factual accuracy then you won't even find that in a current encyclopaedia, so why expect something of it that wasn't even in it's design? Could it be that our expectations were raised by a certain organisation that we hold in common?

  The hand that points to the moon is not the moon. Religion, books, and "living epistles" are only hands. They might be useful, but there comes a time when a child stops looking at the hand and realises that it's actually pointing at something that isn't as far away as they once expected...

  Just my 2p
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  JamesThomas

  there comes a time when a child stops looking at the hand and realises that it's actually pointing at something that isn't as far away as they once expected...

  
  

  
  Well said.

  2p or not 2p
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  LittleToe

  2p or not 2p

  ...and that's the question...
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  jaguarbass

  Personally I dont think there are any satisfying answers out their to the profound deep questions. I would suspect man does not have the capacity to understand whats going on. Probably as a cow doesnt know hes being raised to be slaughtered and eaten. I am 53 and have been looking for answers all my life. Every road comes up empty. And I spend a lot of time searching and will continue to search. Its like trying to find eternal life in this dimension. It doesnt exist. And either does the truth regarding our existence. Even if you find some good people in your quest that doesnt mean you found the truth. Ultimately people and organizations will likely let you down.
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  restrangled

  After being raised a Witness, I have an aversion to organized religion. It literally makes my skin crawl.

  What is interesting is so many of my family that have left are agnostic, even those still attending to keep peace.

  r.
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  parakeet

  ***As a former Jehovah's Witness have you been enticed to consider another religion***
  The only influence JWs had on my beliefs afterwards was to toss out the bible and god. I became an atheist and remained one for many years.
  In the past few years, I've been doing some intensive reading about other religions, so my current beliefs are a derivation of Buddhism, pagan/wicca, and atheism.
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  lonelysheep

  I agree with what JamesThomas said.

  Even if I wasn't athiest, I would not be a part of any religion simply because the need for what it brought into my life is no longer there. I had other religions before the jw's. So, with that, I am at peace.