What triggered your doubts / awakening?

by Tornintwo 64 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Tornintwo

  I am sort of new here, used a different username for a while but things got 'difficult' at home so I've since been lurking...

  what I would be really interested to know, if you don't mind sharing, is what it was that triggered your doubts and initial research which led to awakening, was it a bad experience, injustice, changed doctrine? It would help me with my own thoughts/loved ones and might help others here too?

  for me, it was seeing mistreatment of young ones in the congregation, they're under so much pressure and as soon as they go even slightly astray they are shunned, either informally (as bad associations which pushes them further into the 'world') or formally - with elders dying to throw the book at them so they even lose their family...

  ...then reading about child abuse issues in the press...

  ...Which led me to silentlambs

  ...then JW facts, this forum and COC, wham! eyes wide open
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  prologos

  the Superior Authority reversal 1960s. Babylon the Great had it right, Wt writers Wrong. never trusted them again.
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  marmot

  For me it was the global deluge. I simply could not believe in the bible anymore after learning that such a cataclysm never happened.
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  DesirousOfChange

  he false and failed promise of 1075 should have been enough. But it wasn't.

  The generation change in 1995 started some doubting, but I convinced myself it made sense. (DUH!)

  Working my way up the WT Ladder and seeing a lot of the insider workings was very revealing, but I wrote it off as imperfect men. I still trusted the Organization.

  Then some injustices against family & friends got me to question the "spirit direction" of things.

  Finally the "overlap" was just too much to bear. It was the WTF? moment. It was obvious they (GB) had no idea what was going on and no insider info from any divine source. Whoever was at the helm was obviously....

  Dumber than a Sack of Rocks
  

  

  And that started it all.

  Once you allow yourself to question one issue,

  verything else comes into question as well.

  

  Doc
  
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  campaign of hate

  Looked on wikipedia on Governing body members, as i couldnt find an exhaustive list in WT publications.

  Read the section on Ray Franz. Was surprised i had never heard of him.

  That was the start of my quest down the rabbit hole.
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  Londo111

  It’s complicated.
  

  Ultimately, what woke me up was digging into the October and November 2011 articles on 607 BC. It was a litmus test. After all, no 607, then no 1914. No 1914, no 1919. No 1919, the Watchtower did not represent a “faithful slave” and were not appointed by God.

  If 607 were true, I would've go back heart and soul. But not only did I find it wasn’t true, I found the articles deceptive. It’s one thing to be mistaken, another thing to practice deception. And that was just one of many issues where Watchtower doctrine was not truth. The entire theology was a sham.
  

  Of course, there were heartbreaks that led up to the litmus test. I could have gotten over them if I had found it was the truth.
  
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  freemindfade

  The Bible... never been able to stomach it.
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  OneEyedJoe

  For me it was about 15 year's worth of straws that eventually broke the camel's back. Early on I asked questions about lots of these but was just never satisfied with the answer I got (which only amplified my doubts). Later on I just stopped asking questions. Then the overlapping generation nonsense combined with a mention of 1975 not necessarily being all private speculation by the R/F led me to ask "how are we different than Harold Camping" and that's what finally pushed me over the edge.

  Some of the key factors from memory, roughly in order:

  • If JWism is the only true religion, why does it seem that most converts are a little nutty an no one with any intelligence seems to be brought in? (this is a sweeping generalization based on the congregation I grew up in, I mean no offense to anyone who converted as an adult.)
  • Why does it seem that the rules around dating appear designed to get kids married off in their late teens, in spite of all empirical evidence demonstrating that that is a horrible idea?
  • Evolution seemed to be a much more elegant explanation to speciation than "god did it."
  • Earthquakes aren't actually increasing in spite of the WTS's claims.
  • Disfellowshipping sure seemed like something you'd institute if you were trying to keep people in a cult.
  • The prohibition on higher education also seemed like a good idea if you were running a cult.
  • The prohibition on outside research seemed like something a cult might do.
  • Violence condoned by the horrible god of the OT
  • The bible's claims about the last days are all so vague that just about any generation could (and has) applied them to the time in which they live.
  • If WWIII broke out in 1975, would that be a pivotal year in JW cronology (similar to 1914)?

  Once it got to that point I started looking around online. The 607 thing didn't phase me too much (I wanted black and white proof one way or the other, and since 607 didn't happen in my lifetime I couldn't verify it either way) but when I found the flat-out lies in the creation book (Thanks jwfacts!) a switch flipped in my brain and I was mentally out.

  So, for me, I would say that it was 100% doctrine that led me out of the cult. I decided long ago that if it was the truth then I would commit to it no matter what it entailed. I never felt mistreated while I was in, my only source of discomfort with the cult was that there was just too much that didn't make sense and couldn't be reconciled.
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  St George of England

  The end of the Tuesday night group study.

  We were encouraged to use the time in personal/family study so that is what I did. The more I studied the more I realised the WTS was wrong in so many areas, in particular the flood and creation of man ~6,000 years ago. Then I found out about 607BCE. I landed on this site (well .NET as it was then) and learned more about the Bible and more about the WTS in a few months than I had learned in over 60 years attending the KH.

  Regretably I am still stuck in due to wife and family but even my uber-wife is becoming critical of the organisation so maybe one day......

  George
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  John Aquila

  If 607 were true, I would've go back heart and soul.