What does your baptism mean to you now?

by GiftsinMen 59 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Xanthippe

  I agree with Nic, I am not like a person who's been put off marriage by an abusive partner. I have come to the conclusion that I no longer need religion not because of an abusive cult but because of years of study, research and a great deal of thought. You ask about my baptism which to me was a weird ritual from a two thousand year old religion.

  However I look at religion anthropologically, it's where we have come from and hopefully we will grow out of the need for setting rules for other people. Mainly because to me life is about personal growth and what growth can there be if a religion tells you how to behave with every decision you make in life.

  I know you will say it's not about religion it's about a personal relationship with your God. I am truly glad if that works for you but it no longer works for me.
• 

  StephaneLaliberte

  This action was a very personal choice between good and evil. I choose "good". I was too young at the time to understand that the JW would try to appropriate this entirely as becoming a member of their cult... to me, that's not what it was truly about. It was the day I decided to be a good person in front of everyone who attended.

  Weather now I actually believe in JW or even God himself, all this is irrelevant as it does not change the fact that I have not come back on my choice to do good.
• 

  GiftsinMen

  Hi Nic and Xanthippe, I'm not sure how I've managed to offend you both. I respect everyone's personal decisions and choices religious or otherwise. I talked openly and honestly about my own baptism and asked about yours as a ritual most of us have been through. I'm no-ones judge. I suppose I have been surprised that so many have no belief having spent so much of their lives in a 'religion' they have no interest in yet still talk about it so much. I know I put my head above the parapet every time i post on here but expressing a difference of opinion is healthy. I never was any good at following a crowd and i don't really care if my life doesn't work for anyone else.....why should it?, it's my life and works for me. I don't look for or need anyone's approval and I have no right to even consider anyone else's life. No religion ever told me how to behave and still doesn't.
  
• 

  The Rebel

  And outside the emotional vulnability of putting our feelings " out there" some still choose to " nick pick"

  The Rebel.
• 

  Xanthippe

  I know some have been left with no belief in a God at all or only think of Him as a tortuous monster and I believe this alone identifies the Borg as the evil anti-christ. I had to lock away my heart and soul for safe-keeping whilst I allowed the burning rage to surface and run its course.... My God knows me well and no idiot elders or bonkers organisation can ever change that.

  I am not offended GiM. Why would you think that? But if you look at what you have just written and particularly what I have quoted above you give the strong impression you think we have stopped believing in God because of the Borg.
• 

  freemindfade

  baptism is a cult tool used to entrap you socially and emotionally usually before you have the time or ability to know better.
• 

  GiftsinMen

  The written word can always be misinterpreted, I'm glad i didn't offend you Xanthippe. I actually don't care if people believe in God or not, its a personal choice. I don't know if anyone stopped believing or even started believing or ever believed but I'm finding the thread really interesting.
  
• 

  nicolaou

  My skin is thick GiM. I'm not offended, just fed up of hearing yet again that it was my 'bad experience' with the Watchtower that drove me to Atheism. It's condescending.
  

  My lack of belief is there because I learned to value reason over faith. The two are not compatible to anyone with intellectual integrity.
  
• 

  Muddy Waters

  nicolaou - love your reply. It's like once once you begin asking questions and learning critical thinking skills (the terror of the WT! No wonder they fear it, as they use every false logical fallacy possible, and I love it when posters here are able to break it down and show these straw men, red herrings, non sequiturs, etc.) -- the walls within your mind give way & you see clearly how reason makes much more sense....
• 

  GiftsinMen

  Although i don't think I said it did Nic but glad you have a thick skin, i think we all need one on here. Oooh, did you just say I have no intellectual integrity? Only joking, it doesn't matter.