by Piph 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I've been thinking and wondering a lot lately about the existance of God. I haven't had much chance to talk to atheists before, and I was just wondering what was it that convinced you that there wasn't a God? I'm not asking whether there's proof of God or not...I'm just curious about personal feelings and experiences, if you don't mind sharing.
Many thanks in advance for any responses.
I consider myself an agnostic who leans toward atheism. The first blow to my believe in a god was after I found out that the Watchtower was a bunch of BS. This made me rethink my entire belief system. Since I wasn't a JW anymore I took advantage of the incredible supply of scientific and philosophical knowledge that I wasn't allowed to partake in before. After many months of researching the Bible I came to the conclusion that it also was tainted with BS (apologies to believers). So, since the Bible wasn't what I thought it was I started questioning the notion of an all-powerful, supernatural being and so many things did not add up. For example, if a creature had the power to end all suffering on the planet, why doesn't he? That was/is my primary concern. Also, the evidence for evolution is stronger in my mind than that for creation. What else? Well, a god is whatever you make a god. But I assume that you are meaning a god that created us. I leave the possibility open that an alien race created us, or even the concept of transpermia.
Nobody can be certain of anything spiritual.
Please read this link.
http://www.escapethewatchtower.com/truth.htm
Welcome to the forum !!!
As I was deprogramming myself from JW-dom, I began to wonder if I would need to go on a quest for "truth". I always thought that those experiences at assemblies where someone was praying for guidance when the doorbell rang, or where they were checking out all religions in search of the right one, were pretty pathetic.
As my deprogramming continued, the answer presented itself. The destruction of my JW beliefs did not leave a hole in my life or my thoughts. It was like losing a baby tooth. The old belief did not fall out and leave a void. It was pushed out by a new one growing in behind it. It just took a little while to realize what had happened.
As for my lack of belief in God, as French physicist Pierre Simon de Laplace reputedly said to Napolean: "I have no need of that hypothsis."
When it comes to explaining the natural universe, the God hypothesis explains nothing. It actually makes things less explainable.
I believe some form of intelligence is responsible for life on earth. Maybe an ET.
But if God exists I believe he is just looking at the Box Scores. And that assumes anyone is keeping score.
Well, I'm not exactly an atheist, more of an agnostic (but atheistic to a lot of god concepts, including the ever popular bible one).
The reason I more or less lack belief in god is precisely because I realized I could not really proove his existence. I realized that I don't usually give "the benefit of the doubt" to other concepts that have not been proven (tooth fairy), so why should I do the same for YHWH or any potential deity? I think also that a lot of people, in addition to thinking they have logical proofs of god, have some sort of "spiritual connection" to their "heavenly father". For me, however, god was always primarily an intellectual connection, and not an emotional one. Sure I felt some "love" for him, and appreciated all he supposedly did for me, but this was mainly premised by the fact that I thought there was really solid evidence for his existence. Indirect stuff like "look at all those pretty and orderly stars up there, a god must exist!" never did it for me. Due to a lack of education on the subject, I believed that what I was taught about the bible was true. We really were created 6,000 years ago just as the bible says, with mounds of proof to back it up, I thought. There's great extra biblical documenation of what Jesus did as described in the bible, I thought. All those prophecies that have been claimed to be fortold and fullfilled by the bible really did come to pass, I thought. With such a sureness of mind on whether God existed (and all the colorings of the "problem of evil" and other things about god's nature that I accepted), it was easy for me to worship god.
Once I realized all these things weren't true, and that things like the "problem of evil" don't logically disappear by passing the buck to us humans, there was nothing left there for me. I couldn't pull myself to believe in something's existence that I had no real evidence for. If and when a god clearly and objectively reveals itself (god would know what it takes to do this, being all knowing and all ), then I'll believe for sure, untill then I suspend judgement. But somehow I do suspect that even if a goddess does exist, she really wouldn't care if we worshipped her anyway, and assuming she's rational, she'd understand why.
My experience is similar to StinkyPantz's.
I started by just reading the bible... I noticed the stories seemed like fairy tales (global flood, talking snakes, giant bullies, jonah and the big fish, tower of babel, etc.). As I did more research on evolution, I realized that it was a better theory than the explanation of how we got here in the bible and many other creation myths. I began to see christianity as just another superstition.
The existence of suffering and evil really made me question the existence of any type of loving creator. And not just human suffering, but animal suffering too. While watching the Discovery channel it didn't take long to realize that those animals being eaten alive were suffering in some way. And this was happening every minute of every day. Why would god build suffering in to his creation like that? It's unthinkable to me.
I never really made a conscious decision not to believe in god anymore, I just kinda stopped. One day I just realized that I didn't believe in the god of the bible or any other gods anymore. It was a bit scary to actually admit I was an atheist at that point, but after I was able to admit it to myself the fear went away.
rem
I am not sure I am an athiest, but I suppose by most definitions I am.
I started to read holy writings, (not just the bible) as really nice stories written by well meaning men to try to explain the human condition and existance. I had read a lot of greek and roman mythology and was a little bit puzzled as to why that was laughed off by people as being implausible, but a virgin birth and a great flood that destroyed the entire world were totally possible.
I have no idea how to answer the questions of evolution, or afterlife, etc. Frankly being an athiest, I am not afraid to die at all. I came to the conclusion that if we know animals don't go to heaven or hell, why should we think we are so superior that something awaits us. We're all just walking compost. Not a happy thought, but far easier for me to grasp.
All of these thoughts sort of filtered into my brain over time, and it just seems to me, day after day, there is no god nor a higher power.
But who knows, maybe on my deathbed I will become a flaming fudamentalist christian. only time will tell.
Even though I was raised in the bOrg, at no time did I ever believe in any god. From birth I have always been atheist. I left the JWs because I could not stand faking my faith anymore... it had been a constant struggle for me. Anytime I ever "believed" it was in reality a forced state of mind that I could only sustain for short periods of time. I would literally struggle through talks and field service sermons while forcing myself to "believe". While talking I would literally have moments where I was saying one thing while thinking "this is crazy".
Why don't I believe? Somehow I seem to be different from most people. I don't have that "something" that tells me that there is in fact a higher power, god, deity, or whatever you want to call it. I call it the "God Pod"... the cluster of cells in the brain that enables a person to "feel" god and know he/she/it is there. I just don't have that in me... whatever it is.
How do you convert someone to nothing? Would you not lose your belief in God instead?
