by ConnieD29 22 Replies latest jw friends
Ok so I'm really trying to figure out what I believe about the bible, God, religion, etc... Where do you research or find something to study that isn't tainted with someone else's beliefs or opinions? This might be a dumb question, but I seriously don't even know where to start.
Thanks,
ConnieD29
Everything is tainted with someone elses beliefs or opinions. (That includes this board)
Acolytes
Hello Connie,
You need to start again. First you need a decent bible. The NWT is plain hard to read and a corrupt translation.
Plenty of free ones here http://www.biblegateway.com/
The NIV is easy enough to read. The ESV is tighter in translation but not quite as immediate. If you have been reading the NWT you might find you like the modern language of the NCV or the CEV. Maybe even a pure paraphrase like The Message. They are all on there and more.
I use this site a lot too http://biblos.com/ Loads of bibles, commentaries (explains the meaning of the bible) and even the original Greek and Hebrew for when you want to see how bad the NWT is or get a little deeper understanding. The Amplified Bible can help with that, without looking at the original words because it has done all the work for you.
I would advise against reading cover to cover, just start at the New Testament, maybe John's gospel?
The main thing is to invite the Holy Spirit to teach you
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Unless you have Him as a guide you are sunk.
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Keep us posted!
Blessings,
Stephen
There is no unbiased research. But I have enjoyed reading Is It God's Word? by Joseph Wheless. You can read it for free at the link.
I also recommend Biblical Nonsense by Jason Long. Read it for free at the link.
Where do you research or find something to study that isn't tainted with someone else's beliefs or opinions?
Outside of Mathematics, maybe, you won't find an untainted source in any field of human knowledge. The Witnesses made us believe there was such a thing, and that their teachings were that thing. That is incorrect. Our beliefs and opinions color our every thought and endeavor.
BTS
You start with your very own self.
What do YOU want?
My one piece of advice is to throw out everything the WT taught you about God.
If you want to know Him, ask, and He will reveal Himself to you.
Peace and blessings.
Sylvia
Connie D29 wanted to know:
Ok so I'm really trying to figure out what I believe about the bible, God, religion, etc... Where do you research or find something to study that isn't tainted with someone else's beliefs or opinions? This might be a dumb question, but I seriously don't even know where to start.
YOU ARE STARTING WITH A FALSE PREMISE!
You have to establish your PREMISE before you start building all sorts of belief-systems on top of it.
Your premise includes the idea that you need to BELIEVE something about God, the bible, religion.
YOU DON'T!
Just because primitive man developed superstitious ideas we don't let go of today doesn't mean you can't let go. You can.
What we know for sure, for certain, for a fact always deals with NATURE and not SUPERnature (the supernatural.)
We are living in a Post-Enlightenment world surrounded by people whose minds are tainted by the corruption of Pre-Enlightenment thinking!
The Dark Ages haunts the Muslim world which cannot abide Modernity! The terrorists lash out and destroy because they are held in the grip of supernatural insanity.
Fundamentalist Christians cannot accept modern science or allow divergent opinion. They are locked in the grip of supernatural insanity too.
I have a suggestion for you.
Instead of jumping out of the frying pan of Watchtower Cartoon Theology and into the fire of Christendom, New Age touchy feely-dom, or radical Atheisim---why not put religion off to the side on hold for a year?
Go back and repair your education. Study some neutral histories of the world. Study a bit of science, learn about how mathematics developed over the centuries, look at philosophy and logic and such. Increase your vocabulary. Read some great literature.
Give that gaping open and festering wound in your soul a chance to heal.
After a year or so, try this.
Read the early history of the development of Christianity from both sides: the heretics and the proto-christians.
Study the development of the heirarchy and how Roman bureacracy took hold. See how after Alexander the Great conquered damned near the whole world everything was turned upside down and how culture dramatically changed and became Greek and pagan.
Read about the debates, controversies, accusations and physical violence that visited the various regions with Christian differences.
Form a NEW OPINION from scratch that doesn't just superimpose on top of what you ALREADY THINK you know.
1.Ask yourself: What do I already think I know about this? How might I be wrong? How would I know if I'm wrong?
2.Ask yourself: Who is saying this and what did they stand to gain/lose? Why should I trust them and not their opponent?
Objectivity is a goal. It won't happen for a long time. You will have knee-jerk reactions. You have been programmed to judge black and white polarized snap-judgements. That won't go away for many years.
But, you will heal if you avoid AUTHORITY FIGURES who try to pound away at you.
Think for yourself. Develop good critical thinking skills and then trust your skills.
Study a list of Logical Fallacies and see how they apply.
I always reccomend the book by Mortimer J. Adler: TEN PHILISOPHICAL MISTAKES.
That simple and easy to read book was a wonderful beginning in repairing my thinking and teaching me how I might start to understand the world around me.
Every day in every way you'll grow better and better.
Good luck!
A separate post about TEN PHILOSOPHICAL MISTAKES by Mortimer J. Adler...
What Adler says about what happened to Philosophy can also be used as a model for what happened to Christianity.
Read this reader's review of the book and see what I mean. Here is an excerpt of that review on Amazon:
Adler's general argument is this: the important modern philosophers, beginning with Descartes, made certain errors which have had disastrous results for contemporary notions of the objects of consciousness, the nature of the human mind, the nature of language, of knowledge, of moral principles, of free will, and even the nature of happiness. Succeeding philosophers, especially Kant, instead of ferreting out these initial errors, tried instead to circumvent their consequences, thus in a sense compounding the errors. The errors were made due to ignorance on the part of modern philosophers of ancient and medieval philosophy, especially Aristotle and Aquinas. This ignorance in turn was due to the stultifying way in which the earlier doctrines were taught in late scholasticism, and also, no doubt, due to an over-zealous rejection of the past in the light of the new advances in material science.
The above advice is all good, I have found recently that a lot of Karen Armstrong's books are very informative, she is as un-biassed as you can get .
She is not a "believer" despite being a RC nun for some years in her youth.
Her "A History of God" and "The Bible" are well researched and easy to read, and she has the wonderful gift of being able to explain a complicated concept, or historical event ,say, in just a sentence or two.
She has made clear in my mind many things that used to trouble me.
her books are cheap S/Hand on Amazon too, another bonus !
Love
Wobble
Wobble offered:
I have found recently that a lot of Karen Armstrong's books are very informative, she is as un-biassed as you can get .
She is not a "believer" despite being a RC nun for some years in her youth.
Her "A History of God" and "The Bible" are well researched and easy to read, and she has the wonderful gift of being able to explain a complicated concept, or historical event ,say, in just a sentence or two.
She has made clear in my mind many things that used to trouble me.
Karen Armstrong is in my top 5 religion writers of all time! You learn something on every page.
Read her autobiography: THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE which tells about how she came to be who she is today. Amazing book.
