Throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater Goodbye Watchtower Hello Nothing? (page 2)

Even if someone doesn't believe in God, some of the lessons from the bible are indispensable, just as are parts of The Tao, the Koran, or any other religious writings you would like to reference. Just as indispensable is the information in your writing, don't turn your back on learning about religion.

What you find may suprise you!

WLG

Gopher

When I decided never to go back to JW's, I examined everything I'd ever been told by them, by my parents, and really by anybody and everybody. I had to start from scratch. It was scary and exhilarating.

Re-examining everything with a critical eye does not equate to throwing it all away. It does mean demanding of yourself accountability for what you believe and why.

After all that, I became agnostic for a long while. Now I truly believe that the purest form of "spirituality" as you defined it, Magick, does not need to involve an unseen superior being of some sort. Like B_Deserter said, there's not enough evidence to believe in a personal God who has not made himself or itself plain. I can't rule it out entirely, but I simply don't believe.

My spirituality involves life, loving, caring and sharing. I believe in goodness toward humanity, a goodness not prompted by some external source, but by myself -- from inside of me. That's spirituality at its purest IMHO. (Not that I'm perfect at it.)

steve2

In my experience, it has been truly liberating to throw both the Watchtower and the Bible out together, and any less than that is curtailing the need for us humans to take personal responsibility for our lives instead of this infantile expectation that the Monster in the sky will somehow take care of us.

I t's not so much a matter as throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but throwing a very demanding monster out with the bathwater so that we as babies can finally grow up .

outofthebox

Excelent post.

SWALKER

Great post!!!

Swalker

Gretchen956

Good post. Personally I found that JWs were not at all spiritual people. I know we've had discussions before and will again, about what that means. But personally I am significantly more spiritual now than I ever was as a JW.

Sherry

dinah

IMHO, the GB painted God as an ogre. They did that to keep fear in us, which kept us in fear of God and in turn in fear of God's true spokemen on earth. (Just typing that God' s true spokesmen part made me throw up). It was the fear of them they needed to keep up going door to door. I'm sure God didn't give a rat's ass how many magazines we placed.

Gregor

Magick,

My first thought is that It would be nice for you to condense your thoughts and musings into bite sized morsels but I understand how the brain and the fingers on the keyboard get going and before you know you've written the prologue to a book.

Here's my comment on your point.

When I take a big bite of potato salad at the picnic and it tastes really bad I turn to the nearest garbage can and spit it out, "p'tooey!" I don't stop and say to myself,"Hmmm, if I don't eat this bad potato salad what will I eat? Maybe I should see what else there is to eat first, otherwise I will not have anything to eat...hmmm..."

When I left the JWs I had no idea what my beliefs were. But I damn sure knew that the Watchtower dogma was spoiled potato salad. I took my time and sifted through a lot of introspection and 'soul searching' to find what I believed and the process is still going on. Don't worry about the baby, just get rid of the bath water.

beksbks

Funny, sometimes I wish I had not been born into witnesshood, because I think there is a possiblility if I had belonged to a more luke warm religion, I might have been content, and never have thought about it. But as it stands, I looked, and I looked and I looked and I looked. I am now sure there is no god. There is however personal responsibility and a rather beautiful world out there.

Throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater Goodbye Watchtower Hello Nothing?

White Dove

wanderlustguy