Confused

by Kas12 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Incognito

  Religion is separate from beliefs.

  While your mom maybe leaving the religion, that doesn't mean she right away stops believing at least some of the teachings are true.

  I have difficulty understanding when some new members first start posting here, say they just left the JW religion so they can now celebrate Xmas and birthdays. That seems to signify they didn't celebrate those things, not because they believed them to be wrong, but only be accepted in the JW religion.

  I can however understand a person leaving the religion, doing their own research, and then deciding it is their choice whether to celebrate those things or not.

  Your mom started being taught over 12 years ago that those celebrations we're considered by God to be wrong and unacceptable, meaning God will kill her if she does them. Those fears and programing are not going to change overnight but will take some time IF she allows that to happen. Perhaps she will eventually do her own research, and then feel comfortable to reconsider her beliefs including what she now believes about those celebrations.
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  Kas12

  Šhe is doing loads of research lately like hours a day to find out whats real and whats fake
• 

  Finkelstein

  Hi Kas12 , I'd take Christmas as much as you want, a little is fine, no need to go overboard and yes your mother will find out that there are pagan influences infused into today's modren day celebration of Christmas.

  Keep seeking the truth whatever you do and you'll be fine.
  
• 

  Incognito

  But, she can't be researching everything all at once, only the things that are most important to her. Even if she finds information that contradicts JW teachings, that doesn't mean she will right away accept the new information. After being a JW for sometime and in being required to fight against opposition, contradictory info is often confusing and is usually first rejected. The process of becoming an ex-JW often can take years, sometimes decades.

  Although it may be frustrating for you now, please remember, your mom by leaving the religion, has opened the door a little to you being potentially able to celebrate Christmas. If she hadn't allowed herself to consider leaving that religion, you would have no hope of celebrating, at least until you are old enough to move out and start making your own decisions, with the potential of being shunned by your own mother.
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  Kas12

  My mam would never shun me she said if i didnt want to be a witness. She said i can make my own choice when im older and she’d never force me to get baptised. I’m pleased shes starting to become inactive
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  Incognito

  Since you are 12 and you say your mom has been a JW for the same amount of time, she probably started studying when she was pregnant. When there is a major change in a person's life such as a baby, people often start to question the meaning of life and if there is a God. That is a great time for JWs to convert that person since JWs will have answers to all of the person's questions. With a baby coming, your mom will more easily want to do what they tell her God requires to 'save' her baby.

  Watchtower claims the world as a dangerous and scarry place under rule of Satan the Devil. As such, all the world is against JWs and so will persecute and kill them. For many JWs, the thought the organization being wrong will not even be considered.

  Congratulations to your mom for taking the initial step, progressing to actual investigate using information other than provided by WT.

  Is your mom also posting on this discussion board?
• 

  moreconfusedthanever

  Maybe you could ask to join her in her research and do it together. Inform yourself.
• 

  curiousconfused

  Maybe this is a question for Simon or other mods, but I’m uncomfortable with a 12 year old actively posting here..... I work in an environment where we go through child safeguarding training, and this type of social media interaction with a child is troubling..
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  Jrjw

  Yes I'm her mam and Ive had a word about posting things on here. She saw me on it and I explained what the site was for and she's posted the thing about school without my knowledge but its sorted now. Thank you for your kind replies to her and for encouraging her not to post things like that on here and to talk to an appropriate person
• 

  venus

  Hi Kas12,

  So nice to see little ones asking questions like adults.

  Humans have to grow, hunt, and gather food, but many living things aren’t so constrained. Plants, algae and many species of bacteria can make their own sustenance through the process of photosynthesis. They harness sunlight to drive the chemical reactions in their bodies that produce sugars. This is something humans could, so far, not even duplicate for themselves even though they know the process.

  By explaining this process and other wonders of nature, science instills in us a feeling of awe which is in effect the true worship of the one who endowed the plants with such an envious self-sustaining capacity. Scientist Einstein had such a feeling of awe when he looked at the nature that has come packed with things that give us a sense of awe. He said he was like “a little child entering a huge library” and marveling at the books though it may not understand everything it sees there. (Einstein and Religion, written by Max Jammer, Einstein’s friend)