by flipper 21 Replies latest jw friends
Flipper
I once told my husband that i don't think it takes actually physically going to a building for Him to know your love. I think He lives in our kindness and compassion. He said like with much in life, everything requires order. I had to remind him that our relationship definately skipped this rule, because otherwise he wouldn't have fallen in love with a non believer. I still stand by that thought. I think most religion can bring more confusion than enlightenment.
4
Hello Mr. Flipper. What I believe tends to be influenced by what I have recently read or heard.
I come to this site a lot and over the past year that I have been coming here, I find myself leanig towards atheism and belief in nothing. Which is not comfortng. But it is consistent with my mo of being influenced by what I read and hear.
Groups with vested interest always want you to fortify your thinking with their patened mateial.
There could be something to that. I think we need an anchor. I just havent figured out where to cast mine.
So I am adrift in the sea of realtiy.
Hi mr flipper
I posted my thoughts on this back in June: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/135688/2418036/post.ashx#2418036
Search feature saved me retyping. Looks like we agree on this..
Peace...
Snakes ()
PS the missing picture was of an ant farm...guess the link is broken)
Flipper,
Very good post, you raise a lot of important points. I think if Christianity from its infancy had stayed the way it was, without all these splinter groups and cults, I might have been more inclined to agree with organised religion.
I'm sick of religion, what it does to people, how it motivates people in the wrong way.
If everyone just followed the golden rule, life would be so much better,
Truthseeker
I will finally respond to all your threads. Thanks for your great and informative replies !
NVR- Peace to you too, my bro ! Give me your brotherhood, but no organized religion ! Agreed?
JOURNEY ON- I too feel religion hinders your growth as a person. Controls your mind. Life is always full of new and cool discoveries.
BLUEVICEROY- I understand your apprehension on things. I feel it too, to an extent. I love being alive , but feel my questions are being answered as I live my life fully, in time.
GREENDAWN- Yeah, the JW's turned me off to organized religion for life. 44 years worth was enough. I agree if people need a religion, it's cool , just don't push it on me.
SAD EMO- Glad you found a religion you are comfortable with ! I usually just roll my eyes when someone introduces themselves and immediately their religion, next. But of course I don't let them see me do it.
BROTHER APOSTATE- Thanks for your efforts on all the scripture recitals, but hell , you just gave me a flashback to feeling I have to turn to the scripture syndrome sitting at meetings. No offense, but I just set my hair on fire, and ran the other way ! LOL ! Love your avatar though ! I'm a big Austin Powers fan ! Dr. Evil Too! I can imitate his voice dead on!
JK666- Seems like you and me have a lot in common. Thanks for the kind words man. Back to ya, peace.
GOLF2- Glad you believe in a creator. I too, believe people's beliefs are personal. What comes around, goes around.
RETURN VISITOR- I understand how you feel R.V. Well I get confused with the chicken and egg syndrome too. So to settle it, I just decided I like to eat chicken and eggs, so with that analogy, I might believe in God, might not. Just a higher power.
4MY LOVE- I agree that I feel God can dwell with you personally too. It seems all religion does is confuse people.
JAGUARBASS- I appreciate how you feel. I feel adrift too at times, to a point. Just have doubts as to what the big guy in the sky is. But my life is very stable and happy.
SNAKES- Enjoyed reading your post you talked about. Your view of death is exactly as mine. Pretty cool illustration with the ants though.
TRUTHSEEKER- I agree totally with your takes. I too, hate what religion has done to people. It makes some people think they are better than others. Peace out, thanks for all your comments. Mr. Flipper
I somewhat agree with you. I firmly beleive there is something higher/a creator. I took a biology 2 class in the spring. IT just reaffirms this. The complexity of life could not just happen.
I have a question though. IF you do beleive in a higher being, do you beleive in the bible?
What I am really having a tough time with at this point in my life is, doesnt there have to be something that has God's backing? If its not the JW's, then who?
I too dislike destructive organised religions and I classify these religions as those tied up in Dogma and Intolerance for others individual spiritualities. My belief in a higher power as such has developed and continues to develop throughout my life but I cannot see divinity as something seperate from us.
I have real difficulty imagining a 'God' type figure watching over us and being omnipresent and all knowing - it doesnt wash with me at all.
Instead I see divinity in everything - the macrocosm and the microcosm; every living thing and every aspect of Creation is divine and an aspect of divinity. To coin the phrase taken from Heinleins, Stranger in a Strange Land - 'thou art God'.
I see 'God, Goddess, or Great Spirit' in everything and everything in 'God, Goddess or Great Spirit'. We are all interconnected in other words whatever we do to each other will ultimately effect us and return back to us in one form or another. This central belief focus is all I need - there is no need for a saviour, a redeemer or mediator between ourself and divinity and when we allow another to act in this capacity we allow them to take control and ultimately to dictate our spirituality.
Just my ramblings!
G
I do not believe in organized religion as we see it now. Right now I question everything. I often think about the likeliness that I would be a Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist had I been born in a different country. All with their sacred books. Is the Bible absolute infallible truth? I don't think so. I choose to follow Jesus example of Christian living because I think it's beneficial. Whether he was the son of God??? I don't know. You see there is nothing I know with 100% certainty. As far as God, I tend to think there is a creator. Now as far as how much involvement he has with our lives is a different ballgame. Have you heard of Pasquale's wager??? I probably lean more towards belief in God than no belief. But trying to figure out these things in life is part of the fun in my opinion. Maybe that is our quest in life...
Perhaps it is supreme arrogance that convinces us we are important enough to deserve a diety or divine creator or god pr maybe its a primitive survival instinct.
We are all divine beings. We are mind, body and spirit (a trinity if you will).
We do not need a religion, a building or anything to connect us with the divine. We are that divine being.
BB
Mr Flipper I still have mixed up thoughts and feelings about organised religion. IMO I don't believe that we have to belong to a specific church to have God ( Higher Power ) in our lives. In the Bible Jesus said, "I am The Way, the Truth and the Life". He didn't say that we had to go to a particular church. Personally I find that very reasurring as at the moment I can't even visualise going inside another church, when I finally extricate myself from borg, that.
Thousands of people have been able to overcome their potentially fatal addictions in "Recovery", by finding a Higher Power as a source of strength. Each person is allowed to define their own definition of HP without any problem and the fact is it really works !
Maddie
