by freeflyingfaerie 22 Replies latest jw friends
Do you find yourself, since leaving the religion, having an exhorbitant amount of personal paradigm shifts?
!!!!
Sometimes I question my sanity.
I feel so open to ideas...don't know where to start sometimes.
Don't feel dogmatic about too many things...maybe feel that it just 'isn't for me'...at least for right now (lol)...
But in all of this, I never tire of these epiphanies and spontaneous feelings of gratefulness and love.
Does anyone else out there experience this ?
That quote "if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" sounds like a bunch of malarkey...as if a person should find a a belief, any belief and squeeze it tight
maybe I'm in observation mode
Flying fairy said-
That quote "if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" sounds like a bunch of malarkey...as if a person should find a a belief, any belief and squeeze it tight; maybe I'm in observation mode
That's not such a bad place to be: who said there's any kind of rush to decide, and that you MUST have all the answers?
You see alot of ex-JWs overcompensating when first leaving the borg, which is to be expected since they just exited a high-control situation where others have tried their darndest to squash one's trust in their decision-making capabilities. In a sense, it IS true, since because there was no decisions to make (only rules to follow) it's like having "one's eyes opened" (like Eve).
Read some good self-help books (that might have gotten you DFed before!), poetry, philosophy/ethics, and give it some time: there's no need to rush into ANYTHING, since it's only proper NOT to make a decision until you've fully-investigated the topic (ie decide as the final step, if/when you actually NEED to make a decision).
Adam
I found I needed to know why i felt things, i could no longer ascribe my morals for examole to a god or religion.... I decided to chase and seekout what we knew about these things , the FACTS about human behaviour and biology and then I could decide for myself...
I hoped that maybe it could help me wnswer my own Q..... by what standards could I and should I live?
Finding the answer is important to me and this long journey will likely persist until I die,but after some years of reading and rsearch I have satisfied my curiosity largely to the full and have not only more satisfying answers than i had with religion but answers with more meaning too!
Can i suggest you examine some books by Dr Sam Harriss. The development of such behaviours and topics such as morals have much evidece being discussed today. Ourgenetic preservation appears to be the primary motivation, its a VERY interesting topic and a book called The Selfish Gene can explain much of the biology behind the behaviour we see in humans, it helps appreciate why rules in socirty exist etc.
There are other mechsnisms other than religion that come to the same conclusions as religion regarding behaviour, we dont need them to explain the good or the bad in the world. Infact the topic will confirm that such biological functions have and will exist without religion.
its a very interesting topic, I hope I have not mis-read your OP, if you want to chat further on it feel free to PM about it snytime ;) x
Snare x
I'm tired so i apologise for not offering a more detailes and exciting response x
Thanks for the response, Adam... having read some of your posts, I appreciate your way with words.
Read some good self-help books (that might have gotten you DFed before!), poetry, philosophy/ethics
That's largely where I like to dwell...and then those ideas open up others..and so on
Mostly enjoying the ride, but then, on a real-life practical level... that's when it get's interesting
s&r~ I'll check out Harriss...The Selfish Gene sounds very familiar...
Yes, that's the stuff I'm talking about..Humanism is in the same vein...I'm always thinking about these things
Thanks!
Yeah please do x in recent years we have learned so much about our behaviour and the biology behind them.
There is no ethicsl or morsl issue where biology and evolution cant explain the 'right' thing to do with an intelligent reason, with religion giving a similar command but with a poor explanation.
Just to show how far away such things as morals, justice, a need for equality etc are from religion and bibles.....
I've had a number of massive "Paradigm Shifts" throughout the years. I totally relate the whole questioning of sanity aspect. I'm open now to "all possibilities", but that doesn't mean that I believe everything, yet I am free to question Everything. I think the watchtower was useful in that it was a layer of disillusionment that I had to break through to be a free thinker.
Dang it, I'm still up~
Those monkeys have been reading the bible..correction: a few alpha monkeys told a group of monkeys how it should be..and then each would then in turn, whilst grooming another monkey's hair, spread the good news about how to be. There is no way they could figure anything out on their own..everyone knows that
This guy makes the most sense lol!
Reggie Watts, TED Talks~
(couldn't link this for the life of me..)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BdHK_r9RXTc
S3~ that's so true. in a way, discovering the reality of the big lie is so huge that it can shake a person enough to really dig deep, be willing to question everything. That is a good thing
Free Thinking, yay!
freeflyingfaerie, I've had the same experience you describe.
Being freed from the religious prison I never knew I was in was a big shock. Maybe freedom is initially an acquired taste for those born in prison. I was a 3rd generation born-in.
The journey has been very scary and very exhilirating at the same time.
Radical paradigm shifts are guaranteed since we have been exposed to powerful propaganda and manipulated by it whilst caught in the invisible psychological "force frameworks" imposed.
My experience feels like a (spiritual) sex change - ultra radical. Instead of RBNS I now identify as SBNR. Polar opposites. And I really dislike my former identity as a "Watchtower Witness" who mindlessly accepted and regurgitated the lies and propaganda of the Pharisees ("ruling religious clergy class") and Sanhedrin (GB).
"Civilization will not attain perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest" (Émile Zola).
