by Jules Saturn 51 Replies latest jw experiences
I question atheism because I just don't know. I think there are other beings and possibly an afterlife. Whether it is angels or demons or a "god" or beings from other planets I just don't know. I believe my grandparents have visited me from another realm.
All I know is I have no interest in EVER joining another religion. If there is a god I suppose he'll deal with when the time comes. I try not to worry too much about it. If he's loving, he will understand. If not, well I guess I am toast.
Didn't Portuguese police speak to psychics about Madeleine Mccann?
Then they are dangerous idiots.
My only firmly held belief is that religion is a snare & a racket. Can we use RICO against the GB? Definitely organized crime and racketeering.
Besides this, I will only say that the nature of reality & existence is far from what we have been told and a great many things we have been taught since childhood (not talking ORG here) are contrived notions that are highly effective in controlling people and thoughts. Again, this part is not talking about the bORG. Maybe one day when time permits, I will start a thread w/ more details.
I believe in myself and I'm having way too much fun researching to lock myself into any one belief system. Knowing is preferable to believing anyway, but, with all the things that are unknowable for me I remain in an open but not gullible "watch this space" mode, put whatever it is to one side or the backburner of my brain and move on to something else to research. Biggest fun I've had in years apart from non-jw sex and would highly recommend the lone wolf approach.
B.S. (Belief System)
Not inherently evil but B.S. can make you easy prey for those who seek to control.
BTW I don't mean to include theories or hunches or "I think it's probably like this" kind of thinking. I'm referring to dogma that affect how you act and think and treat others that have no actual basis in reality outside of belief.
@sparrowdown - that's so refreshing to hear (er read), keep on keeping on. There's so much more beyond the veils we've been surrounded with (and sometimes, the ones we surround ourselves with) You sound like a truth-seeker
Jules: Personally, now that I've learned about the Society, things I never knew when I wasn't "awake", I am unsure of where I stand with my own convictions. And I'm sure this feeling must be normal with anyone who finds out about TTATT.
I call this the What the Heck Do I Believe Now? stage of leaving a religious cult.
It is disorienting and confusing. It takes time and a lot of hard work to figure out what beliefs, if any, to hold onto after leaving a religion, particularly one that causes such a deep, intimate sense of betrayal.
After nearly a decade of working on this, I have personally come to the conclusion that the god of the Bible is a complete fiction. If there is any god at all, it most certainly does not resemble any of the gods of the religions of man. Also, such a being--based on all available evidence--is clearly not interested in us on a personal level.
Nevertheless, I have found that there is a great deal of meaning to be found in life. I have also discovered a variety of ways to feel personally fulfilled. I would describe myself as spiritual, but not religious (SBNR).
It takes more work to be spiritual than it does to be religious because we have to discover the answers for ourselves rather than accept those that are pre-made for us. But in the end it is ultimately more satisfying because those answers are personally relevant and meaningful.
On a side note, I found that the WTBTS was so good at deconstructing the inconsistencies and errors in other religions that, once I turned my critical attention to it, I could easily see that it too was just another false religion. So there was no question in my mind of wasting time investigating other religions to see what they had to offer.
In my experience talking with and reading the experiences of other former JWs, the only ones that join other religions and stick with it were never really hardcore "true-believers" of the JW belief system. If they were, then how could they go to something that they previously were convinced was false and untrue?
YMMV.
jp
Sparrowdown: Knowing is preferable to believing anyway, but, with all the things that are unknowable for me I remain in an open but not gullible "watch this space" mode
This is an equally important point in our post-cult recovery and growth: we must learn to become comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.
Cults like to provide definitive, black-and-white, all-or-nothing answers to complex problems. But the reality of life is that things are not like that. There are just so many situations where this is the case, and trying to force reality to conform to our beliefs rather than learning to know, understand and accept things as they really are is just a recipe for mental disorders.
I am not against religion in general, I think it fills a need for some people, but I see no evidence of a creator, so I am not religious myself.
I'm an atheist. I actually have evidence that no god exists because I asked and nobody answered (and if somebody were to answer I would consult a psychiatrist, not a priest).
I'm anti-religious in the form that I am against organized religion because it has no benefit in this world. I would be fine with a religion that doesn't oppress, pressure or have commercial gain but no such religion exists.
I feel extremely difficult to decide if I stick to or leave the earthly hope. I am pretty sure that the Bible doesn't emphazise this as much as the org wants it to look like but I still can't buy that the humans won't ever have a taste of what is like being perfect in a physical word.
