Why did you stop believing in God? (page 7)

Witness My Fury

That flushes the bible right down the toilet in one sentence.

Witness My Fury

Which i think is a very good thing indeed, except it may block many toilet in the process...

still thinking

No problem.. who could ignore such a thing? Derail if you like, this ain't a WT study! :)

LOL The Quiet One....I used to derail them too...Just ask my study ladies. Sometimes we'd have a whole session and not even discuss anything bible OR Watchtower...LOL

In fact...sometimes I could have them side tracked for weeks...LMAO! It wasn't intentional...I just see something and have to explore. oooh look, shiny thing.....**wanders off**

jws

Let me first say, I don't know for certain that there is nothing out there we would call a god. So call me agnostic. But I am certain that the bible we know could never be the book of that god.

I dropped out of being a JW because of learning the truth about them, and afterwards I kept an open mind that even beliefs I've long held could be wrong. I tried other religions and it was just so confusing. Opposite beliefs both strongly supported by the bible. Like the trinity. I sort of withdrew from religion. Believing in the Christian god, but not in any brand of religion. Knowing the beliefs contradicted, I tried not to think of them. Just focus on god.

About this time, a couple of things happened. I started to consider evolution and things just made sense. Nothing in the bible had anything right according to the evidence. This led me to take a good hard look at some of the accounts in Genesis. Mostly creation and the flood. I was amazed at how messed up this stuff was, reading it with a critical eye. From the beginning, holy spirit moving over the water? In the coldness of space, with no sun? Water would be ice. Plants being created before the sun? Knowing the sun and stars are much older than the earth. We see their light coming to us from billions of light years away. And the whole flood thing. Couldn't god just kill the wicked? And there's no way all those animals could survive that long or that all the species could be onboard. Which also means, if true, they must have evolved afterwards. The bible was mythology. Or at least Genesis.

The next question was whether the whole bible was made up or just Genesis. Was it the old "it's not literal, it's figurative" argument whenever things don't add up? I researched more and found that this book we all were taught was in such perfect harmony, it could only be from god, was actually full of contradictions. Which means if you accept the premise, that proves that it cannot be from god.

Also about this time that I'm going through this, there seems to be a rise in fundamentalism during the Bush Jr. presidency. These people are trying to force their views on all of us. Whether it's stem cells, teaching birth control, abortion, evolution being taught, or gay marriage. They pissed me off. So much to a point that I gave up any reservations I had about whether I could somehow resolve parts of the bible with a real god. ie. maybe the bible is imperfect, but it still contains a lot of truth about god. The behavior of religious people drove me away from the bible, away from Christianity.

nicolaou

Deputy Dog, you replied to Cofty (who sure doesn't need me to back him up) but I hope you won't mind me chipping in . .

Cofty said;

"If you really want to learn you need to listen. Have authentic conversations with people who do not share your worldview and try to understand them."

DD replied;

"Aren't you being a little unfair?"

Say what?! How is a request to listen and a plea that folks attempt genuine understanding unfair? Could you expand on that please?

"You seem to think every believer is suffering from a "delusion"."

They are. I say that without intending offence or to be flippant but there it is - religious supernatural belief is delusional.

"Is it really that hard for you to understand that some believers could find genuine peace, even joy, in a God who gives purpose to suffering?"

It's not hard for me to understand at all. False hope and false comfort are hope and comfort still... God remains unproven.

"I'd like to understand how YOU cope with suffering, like the suffering in the Tsunami for example, what purpose does it serve?"

These awful tragedies serve NO purpose at all - other than perhaps to strive to understand our cooling planet and it's plate tectonics more fully to better protect our brothers and sisters in vulnerable locations.

Re, the OP and Topic Title, belief in god is optional. Believe in him if you wish but that belief provides NO answers to any meaningful question.

Nic'

The Quiet One

Nicolaou -- I know it's 'optional' (good grief that sounds condascending) , I'm now an atheist myself in case you have the wrong idea.. I just want to hear different peoples stories of journeying from belief to disbelief. So, what is yours?

prologos

I did not yet STOP (suddenly and totally) believing in GOD, but a total world war 3 would do that. (while I die with the rest of us)

God in north- european languages sounds almost like GOOD,

Even THOR was a GOOD GOD at hammer throw! but

The benevolent, intervening God we seem to be talking about here as ex/lurking jws --- does not exist, not in my simple mind.

Band on the Run

With all due respect, I find the view that all was fulfilled in the first century as a very unsophisticated take on the matter. Why do we continue to read the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare, Milton, or Dante? Colleges teach these writers in the present and will continue to do so in the future. The Beatles may reach such status. It is too early to know. Anyone who has read Jung or studied comparative cultures know some writings are univeral human concerns that apply at any point in time. There is no objective proof that any prophecy was fulfilled in the first century or subsequently. Rather, Christians proclaim, as John wrote in Revelation, "Come, Lord Jesus, Come." They looked to the future, not their present. When you read the trials and statements of early Christian martyrs, Jesus is present and future. I should use Christ and not Jesus. If anyone can point out to me how anything in the NT was fulfilled in the first century, I am eager to learn. To limit oneself to only one type of fulfillment makes no sense. Fulfillment can never be proven in the real world. Well, at least not after two millenia.

nicolaou

Hi Quiet One.

Didn't mean to sound condescending, I was really directing my comments at Deputy Dog. My story is typical of many ex-JW's. Once reason and rational thinking got me out of the cult I found the road didn't end there. It led naturally to atheism - and I'm still learning...

villagegirl

Heaven - you want me to explain: HIV, Alzheimers, soft shelled Chinese turtles ??

And you think an explanation; ( such as the detailed point by point

"Watchtower style" explanations found in volumes of Watchtowers )

is necessary to validate the existance of God ???

There is, here on this forum a Watchtower style thinking,

even for the atheists. You thought the Watchtower was doing complicated

calculations that explained when God would destroy billions of people

on earth in an event called Armageddon and when these

calculations failed to be correct your conclusion is:

God does not exist because: ? No explanations can possibly be superior

to the faithful and discreet slave's explanation.?

Your reasoning is; Therefore: since there is no way to figure out all

I see around me and my own consciousness; this means, there

is no superior intelligence at all anywhere or other forms of life I cannot see. ?????

You want someone to wrap this up for you in a one hour watchtower study

with numbered paragraphs and questions at the bottom of the page ???

And when no one can do that, you think this means there is no God ??

Are sure you aren't just mad that you can no longer go around feeling superior ??

Why did you stop believing in God?

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