Death and Religion

by og 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  og

  During the several years my father spent dying of a stroke, I was still a Jehovah's Witness but I was starting to think. A few months before he died (he eventually refused nourishment and basiclly took his own life) I finally DA'd myself. Later, I made the connection between a friend's death that I witnessed in Junior High School and my initial attraction to Christianity. This insight led to an extended meditation on death and religion, which I've published here:

  Death and Religion

  I guess I'm saying that one major impetus for getting out of a religion was a loved one's death, and that there is a connection between death and spiritual impulse. I think this connection is all too often exploited by religions, and certainly by JWs.

  Your thoughts are always appreciated.

  cheers,
  Angus

  Belief Systems & Other BS"Change your beliefs, change your world."
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  Satanus

  "If not for death, and the fear of death, I can’t see that humans would bother with religion."

  Yes, that is a major key to religion, it claims to explain the generally unexplainable. Myself, i don't think that it worked in the same order as you, although there were similarities. My younger bro died while i was a young jw, but gone wayward. I felt nothing when he died. I did think of hid death and his life, at times, through the yrs as a jw, and then, as a christian. It never bothered me, though. Towards the end of my christian phase, i got into the socalled mystical aspect of religion. It was actually a meditation on god. Funny though, the object of my meditation did not so much as show a trace. However, my long dead brother did.

  S
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  Black Sheep

  My guess is that my wife will hang in with 'The Cult' until I die.

  Once I am gone, she doesn't have to admit 'to me' that that the major problems in our marriage were cult inspired and she can go back to the religion of her parents without arseholes like me telling her "I told you so!"

  I have had one heart attack. If the next one doesn't kill me she will be really pissed off.
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  og

  Not quite the connection I was thinking of Black Sheep, but thanks for sharing! In my own case, quitting the JWs and getting divorced were strongly connected; of course, my wife didn't ask for a divorce herself, but she sure made my life miserable until I asked. And ultimately both were very good things—I now have a much more simpatico partner.

  Maybe the first heart attack was telling you something?

  Thanks for the post Satanus, and thanks for checking out my essay. As a JW, I felt there was subtle pressure to not grieve in some ways. Glad that's over. And glad you made some connection with your brother, even after his passing.

  cheers,
  Angus

  www.OtherBS.com

  "Change your beliefs, change your world."
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  Alpaca

  I agree with you. Religion is all about denial of the reality of death.

  I had been a nearly life-long Dub, and when my non-Dub Dad (with whom I had a fantastic relationship) died, I snapped. The doubts had been accumulating for a long time, but when he died I knew that all of the fishing trips, all of the jokes over too many glasses of Vodka, all of the fun, love, and laughter were done forever.

  I walked away from the BORG and have never looked back. It's all a lie.

  The only good I can glean from religion is along the Buddhist line of thinking.
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  og

  Good for you Alpaca. I suppose there are other motivations—Buddhism in particular seems more about life now than life after death—many religions just seem to work that fear.

  cheers,
  Angus

  Belief Systems & Other BS

  "Change your beliefs, change your world."
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  WTWizard

  I think I have found scientific explanations for heaven and hell visions. When a person is dying, as the brain shuts down, the person will hallucinate a tunnel of light. The Christian training is so strong that the person takes it for being headed for heaven (or, sometimes hell). If the person is revived at this point, they will report that light and think they saw heaven or hell.

  This is not the case. If the person waits long enough, the light will cease. At which point, all consciousness of existence also ceases. And the person is dead. No part of the soul lives on beyond this point, despite what the Christian and Islam churches may teach. And no, there isn't some mystical God that is going to resurrect the deceased, either. Rather, if anything, it will be science that does that.

  The witlesses, and to some extent regular church, use that to coerce the survivors to stay in line. If you want to see the deceased again, you have to stay faithful to the church so you will be able to go to heaven or survive Armageddon and see the dead resurrected again. All of which is a complete lie: once you die, you lose consciousness with no hope of ever gaining it back, short of a scientific resurrection.