by daystar 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
The demarcation between "want" and "need" is wide, irregular, and blurry. It's impossible to know where one ends and the other begins.
Personally, I find that I no longer "need" god, nor do I even "want" god anymore. I tend to believe that far fewer people actually need god so much as they just really, really, really want god, but I have to admit that I'm basing that primarily on my own experience and other anecdotal evidence, not data.
At the beginning of one of his late movies, The Blessed Ones, Ingmar Bergman has one of his characters say (approximately): "We cannot believe in God anymore, but we are not able to dispense with him either." This imo outlines the tragedy of post-Christianity.
I was baptised as a JW when I was 13. Only one year later or so I found myself questioning most of the JW teaching, including God. This went on for a few months. Then one night at the KH I still attended with my JW family I suddenly burst into tears, with this single idea in mind: I cannot live without God. Then I almost instantly switched all my doubts off (the "treacherous heart" is a such a convenient metaphor to help you do that) and started to run as fast as I could to escape from my own shadow. This led me out of school into pioneer service and Bethel. Gradually my notion of God evolved to the point where it was no longer contradictory to self-acceptance. At this point, btw, it was no longer contradictory to atheism either. My god (lower case intended) had outgrown the "God" whose objective existence is an endless subject of discussion.
So I do understand that some people, at a certain stage of their life, feel that they "need God". Only I regard "God" as a metaphor, to which nothing but other metaphors can be substituted, neither absolutely better nor worse. Each one has to find his/her way among the metaphors available to him/her along the way.
I don't think in terms of need or want, just "is".
Oh the failures of a simplistic panentheistic outlook...
If there is a God, He's not talking much to me.
I'm not making the argument in this post that there is a god. But supposing there was and he was a loving being trying to help you to your highest and best good, and he wanted to make contact, I would assume he would reveal himself slowly to you. Human beings as a whole do not adjust to sudden change in life conditions or life philosophies easily. They find it upsetting and stressful. (Case in point, consider your personal exit from the JWs) If Paul's experience is any clue, a sudden dramatic experience with God where it is irrefutable that he is real could be temporarily incapacitating because of its intensity.
I read a pile o' books that would stretch from the floor to the ceiling. I was a spiritual tourist in a few denominations. I talked to people from Southern Baptists, charismatics, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics and Satanists. I learned a lot, but I came to a point of frustration that I still had no substantial proof I could hang my hat on and say with confidence, there is a god, there isn't a god. I just got tired of all the massive research and work. I felt there was no way of solving the question so I quit everything I was doing and took a long break. I was burned out.
It occurred to me eventually that perhaps my approach was wrong. Then I decided to do a little experiment. I would just ask God to make contact if he was there and reveal himself to me. He would have to come to me. I didn't see how I could be any more sincere than that as someone who wasn't sure of anything anymore. If nothing happened I decided I could dump all my God beliefs and walk away from them with a clean conscience and be free of them. Whatever was going to happen or not happen, would happen. Either conclusion held positive appeal. Truth is what I wanted, whatever that would turn out to be.
The way I see it is ABSOLUTELY ! I cannot even breathe without God.
If there is a God, He's not talking much to me. I'd prefer to worship the full potential such a god infused into each and every one of us as "little gods" than some big bearded guy sitting on some cloud, some "where", doling out law and retribution though some religious "authority", expecting obedience through fear of losing out in some reward which may or may not even exist.
I agree with you on this. Let's play a game. Remember those puzzles we played when we were kids - the ones where you had to look at three or four things and find the one that didn't fit? Here, I have two of them.
Puppies. Kitties. Armageddon. Which one doesn't fit?
Flowers. Honey. Humming birds. Judging people by how they respond to another human's witnessing. Which one seems out of place?
That question's a bit leading, as it subtly implies that believers base their beliefs on need rather than evidence. On the other hand, I know of many people, my mother included, who believe because there simply "MUST be something better" than what actually exists. I don't think that holds true for all believers, but I wonder if there is such a thing as "motive-less" belief, i.e. belief in god that expects nothing of or for itself.
