Your Little Jehovah will Fail You (page 2)

dobby

Amazing, thank you for sharing. Naeblis you too.

I had a similiar experience. When I was a junior in high school I got baptized and decided I would pioneer after graduation.

My Father is not a JW and I remember he sat down to talk to me about my plans for the future. I told him that I didn't want to go to college because we were living in the last days and that I planned to pioneer.

He looked at me sadly and said, "I can only imagine how you are going to feel 10 years from now, believe me you are not going to feel the same as about this religion as you do now."

I shot him a smug look and went on to waste 16 years of my life.

I called him on Father's Day this year to tell him I was no longer a witness. He said, "Look, it's not so much that I am happy you aren't a witness anymore, it's that now you are going to have a better life. Think of all the things you can do and the opportunities you will have, and your son he WILL have a better life." He was so kind about everything and understanding. He didn't make me feel stupid or guilty, he wasn't angry with me and he didn't belittle me.

And then I realized that he has always been there for me. I mean he has been waiting for me to wake up for years. He has been so patient. He respected my beliefs, but he never condoned my choices. He tried to encourage me in the right way, but he never abandoned me when I was an idiot and ignored him.

And truly when the fog started to lift, his words about "10 years from now" were the first thing I thought of.

Needless to say I wished him a very Happy Father's Day.

Amazing

Hi Everyone and Derrick: Thanks for all the good feedback and personal accounts and stories. Sounds like this issue struck a chord.

Derrick: I am not sure if you addressed your comments to me, but if that is the case, I think you may have missed the point I was making ... it was Dave Haack who said those things, not me. It was Dave Haack who recognized that the Jehovah of the Watchtower is a manufactured god, far differnet than the Jehovah and Jesus of the Bible ... he could see this though he was an atheist. I was simply reporting what he said to me 33 years ago ... and found it more interesting now then I did at the time ... but ...

I have not thrown out any babies with any bathwater ... I am still a believer in Jesus Christ. Yet, I am not afraid to deal with the tough issues that challenge faith, even in Christ or Jehovah, or Yahweh, or whatever one likes to call the Almighty. I honor Dave Haack because he cared and tired to help me, when I was too brain-dead to listen.

I have been thinking about life lately given I nearly died 5 weeks ago with a massive heart attack ... and today is the 36th anniversary of my morther's death ... and so my mind went back in time a lot ... and Dave haack was there in one of the mental file drawers ... I hope that helps.

ChrisVance

Derrick, you hit the nail on the head when you said "fundamental concept of God." I agree, god is nothing but a concept created by man to control others. Many times believers have no other way to control others than try to shame them for not believing in the "fundamental concept of God". May reason prevail.

Chris Vance

"Nothing fails like prayer"

Wendy

((((Dobby)))) That brought tears to my eyes.

wendy

Wendy

Derick,

Pop a pill dude

In abandoning Jehovah AND the Watchtower, you are throwing out the nextdoor neighbor's baby with a tub of dirty bathwater in your own dwelling.

Please do explain how this is.

Based on your empty reasoning that connects God with the Watchtower, any organized religion you could have decided to join at any point during your lifetime -- from the hellfire-breathing Southern Baptists to any other right-wing Christian denomination -- would have equally incurred your insults to God.

I have never connected God and Watchtower. There are many here who do not.

This forum serves a useful purpose in showing the lengths people will go in using the Watchtower -- an organization that was subverted by a few elderly men with signature authority over the finances and their younger proteges -- to justify hatred for the fundamental concept of God.

Tell that to all the christians who post here Derrick. Now tell it to the atheists, and agnostics. Wait you did! lol Let me tell you, that even though I realize this is just your opinion, I can't help but feel sorry for you. How can you know why others do something, or feel a certain way. Your comments seem very judgemental to me.

My only hope is that one day you will have an accepting spirit and heart and show love and understanding much like the God you claim to worship professes to have in the bible.

wendy

SYN

Derrick, have you actually sat down and read the WHOLE of your Bible yet? Believe me, after the second time, I started seeing some pretty fishy things in this supposedly divinely-inspired book. Your God is cruel and unjust, but thankfully nobody has heard about him for about 4000 years now, so it doesn't look he's coming back anytime soon.

Why don't you just go out & spend some time in nature, take a swim in the ocean with a scuba tank, get closer to the organic reality that is our planet - then you will become a little bit closer to the vast fabric of life, and in so doing, you will also realize just how silly and anthromorphical your God image is. Divinity and grace are all around us - just look into the eyes of a tiger in a cage, there you will see power. Examine the curve of a seashell - therein you will see grace. See the tenderness of a mother for her newborn - there you will find love. Who needs a tyrannical anthro-God when you have love?

ThiChi

Thanks for the post, you are all right in my book!

crownboy

As always, great post Amazing. However, if you had listened to his advice, how different would your life had been? Would you have married the woman you did, or have the kids you have? But it still sucks to have wasted all that time in that stupid religion, though.

Wendy & SYN, good points addressed to Derrick. One can abandon the JW's and not believe the bible for totally seperate and logical reasons. There was no baby in the bathwater for me .

SYN said:

Your God is cruel and unjust, but thankfully nobody has heard about him for about 4000 years now, so it doesn't look he's coming back anytime soon.

Actually, I'm pretty sure "John of Patmos" had his LSD trip and wrote Revelations about 2000 years ago. It took you a whole 2 readings of the bible? I didn't even finish reading Genesis before I realized it was crap! It's funny, because you hear all the stories in there all your life, but once you read them from the source itself, it really hits you how cruel YHWH is. I saw the flood story as the unjust work of a wicked god, not the loving work of a just but angry one. What did the animals and children do? (Then I read the mythologies of ancient pagan religions and saw correlations). By the time I got to Judges, and Sampson had killed thousands of Philistines by tying foxes together and lighting them on fire (all for a wrong that was Sampsons fault, i.e.: his stealing Philistine property from innocent people to pay off a bet he lost. Even though his loosing the bet was unfair, he had no right to steal stuff to repay it.), and he remained in favor in God's eye, I knew I was dealing with some weird stuff.

plmkrzy

Derrick, you hit the nail on the head when you said "fundamental concept of God." I agree, god is nothing but a concept created by man to control others. Many times believers have no other way to control others than try to shame them for not believing in the "fundamental concept of God". May reason prevail.
Chris Vance
"Nothing fails like prayer"

Sorry you feel that way. I could not disagree more.

I believe in God and never have I ever attempted to control another human being with my belief. Never.

Also, regarding prayer, thats probably the single most personal thing each individual person on earth has/or has not. So what may fail for you does not mean it fails for another.

For me, it has not failed.

plum

waiting

Hey Amazing,

Interesting memories, eh? Who knows what would, should, could, have been. If you'd listened to him, you most likely wouldn't have met your wife (even if you are/are not still married to her) nor had the beautiful children you have. Others, most likely, but not the blending of spirits that your children are now.

One time I was out in service with my son who was around 8 at the time. We went to a man's door and I gave my presentation, then we started talking. He asked if I believed in Hellfire (we live in the South) and the Trinity - and I said no, politely.

He then started in on me and my son. Pointing his finger at my poor son, he told him "Your mother is going to get you burned in Hell, son!" Some other things too. I just stood there dumbfounded trying to fumble my way off that backporch. I felt so bad for my son - we talked about it. My point would be - the fundamentalists are just as bad as the jw's. Waste of time.

And I agree, the belief in God, the belief in the Bible, and the belief in the Watchtower Society are separate issues..........and should be viewed, researched, and believed in separately - or thrown out separately.

"If she weren't so skeptical, she'd be an atheist." author unknown at present moment - but love that quote.

waiting

Your Little Jehovah will Fail You

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