You know, when you really "Make the Truth your own" it changes everything

by gubberningbody 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  gubberningbody

  You own it.

  That is to say, YOU are the one who decides what is right and what is wrong.

  Now it's odd to realize that the so-called father of faith, Abraham "made the truth his own" in condemning what he thought this BEING was planning on doing to the residents of Sodom (including his own self-absorbed whiney nephew Lot) with the words "is the judge of all the earth not going to do what is right?" are words which meditating on would eventually lead me to condemn all religion including any BEING which may or may not be behind it all.

  Why?

  Because in "making the Truth my own" I learned to reject power as the basis for moral authority, and this power necessarily included intelligence. Being intelligent doesn't make one "morally upright" and now I know this is because the measuring rod for morality is inescapably in my own hands as it has always been.

  It was only through self deception that I was led to believe that I had faith in a morality which extended beyond me, or that this morality had any meaning at all for me.

  It can't because I have to be the judge, and right now, after reading everything I can get my hands on in the way of any deity-based and non-deity based explanations for the state of the world I'm left with a negative judgement of this BEING if it even exists.

  I can't even make up a scenario that would allow me to create a universe like the one we live in predicated as it is on carnivorous behavior and this even at the level of bacteria. What does it matter if violence is done if it is done even at the cellular level?

  Life eating and ending life in order to live seems an indefensible moral choice to make if one were capable of choosing otherwise if one just happened to be a BEING powerful enough to do so.

  This makes me look askance in a very moral way at deity-based systems as a system based upon a moral monstrosity and those adherents as morally perverted, albeit like me without knowing they are.

  It's a terrible, terrible thing which has been done here it seems to me and the only thing I can continue to do is try to understand how this thing came to be.

  And, while I was engaging in the necessary futility of thinking about all this I was also brooding on my own fate and I wrote this ...

  Psychological sadness of getting older
  Knowing too much and yet not enough
  Seeing others lose their way
  Seeing others pass
  Seeing the hope in others die
  Seeing your own hope die
  Watching others die
  Looking backwards like you used to look forwards
  Farther and farther into the past
  Afraid to look forward, it's too close and black
  Lost pets, lost friends, lost family and lovers
  Lovers grown old
  No one left to share with
  Realizing what others before you realized
  Screaming out to the young, but your muffled voice
  Just doesn't come through
  It's still me!
  It's still me!
  I'm still here!
  And everything goes on
  Without you while you're still here
  A little oblivion wouldn't hurt, you think
  A little forgetfulness
  A little preoccupation
  A little bit of quiet
  And time
  Just runs
  Out
• 

  perfect1

  Very sad. nice piece of writing.
• 

  Honeybucket

  Epiphanys are fun! I went through this too. If the truth is not the truth then what is the truth? I wanted to prove the truth was correct, so I researched religion, the orgins of the bible, orgins of man, evolution of religion and man. After looking into religion and found most of it is crap and no one can agree on one thing, I decided to turn to science. I researched the big bang theory, evolution, aliens are god ect. We are individually accountable for ourselves, I needed to know the correct way to god. After looking and not finding any answers it led me to, Is there a god? Didnt really find any proof of that either. I realized to myself that we exist and thats that. so here is my version of life according to me. Big bang happened, through that organism grew, reproduced, mutated and regenerated and kept reproducing. Changing and adapting for survival. Then these many different organisms produced a species SIMULAR to primates. They had to change with the times, the sun getting closer and then further away, lack of food, cold regions. When man started to develop so did their minds. They had the ability to think and react and communicate. There were no consequences to bad actions, there was no one to enforce it. thats when god was invented, he gave man the moral and ethic code. Early humans started to question this. Who had the right to tell them what to do? Not other people, we are our own persons and we dont have to answer to anyone. Well, this made it a big problem, murder and lawlessness was rampant. Something had to be done, so then God was invented and to keep humans in line and without question. manuscipts and scrolls were created and put in safe and convienant places. Thats when the bible was born. Humans have a fear of death and the unknown. In order to keep chaos at bay, a hope had to be given. I was miserable after my epiphany. Saddened by the fact that there is no here after or paradise or reincarnation, I wanted to put my mind at ease. Thats when I decided that all religions are correct, it just depends on what our idea of god and life after death is. You choose your own path. I decided to work hard and become successful because deep down I know that Ill only live 80 years, but my family will continue for generations just as it has in the past. Its what I do now that will affect their future. I hope you find your own truth and find some peace of mind SOON. It will eat at you if you dont figure out your OWN beliefs. Research every religion and get to the core of it. Then meditate on whether this is plausible to you. If its not, move onto the next religion.
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  00DAD

  Well written piece of poetry. Powerful in your expression of powerlessness!

  Gotta' love the irony.

  Thanks for sharing.
• 

  Terry

  I had a series of deep conversations with a friend of mine from Afghanistan years ago. He was a Muslim and highly educated.

  He listened to what I had to say which incorporated much of what the opening paragraph of this topic has to say.

  He then smiled and said to me, "God is not bound by logic, love, hate, reason or goodness or evil. He wills as He wills. The god of the jew and the christian is compelled to act as man understands he must. This is the cause of their darkness and confusion."

  Well, now. That was interesting.

  All of this to say to you now, we all have boundries on our own thinking and belief and insist that God must also.

  We have, as it were, a certain size box that all Truth must fit neatly into. But, for perhaps most others who come from other religious foundations none of this matters or applies. God is completely and utterly UNknowable.

  Jehovah's Witnesses are on a first name basis with almighty god! They stand and have prayer conversations with the creator of the Universe as though they are best buddies. They go door to door as if they were personally hired as agents or attorneys to prosecute Jehovah's side of things and they speak with firm confidence they are up to the job.

  When it comes to profound knowledge of God or Truth none of us knows a damned thing beyond the tip of our own nose.

  We have no authority to speak beyond our own experience and even much of that is largely shaped by the size of our expectations and imagination.

  Truth changes nothing but reality. And...reality was here first!
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  rip van winkle

  you expressed my thoughts better than i could., gb. thank you