Your belief after leaving JW

by hibiscusfire 260 Replies latest members adult

  • Insomniac
    Insomniac

    After I left the jw's, I still believed very firmly in a Creator. However, I was too hurt and angry and burned out by how religion had screwed over my friends and family, that I took some time off from worship. It just gave me such a negative feeling, I felt it to be counterproductive. After some soul-searching and much reading/talking/thinking/dreaming about the nature of the divine, I resumed regular prayer and worship, although no longer as a Christian. (For the record, I'm Pagan.)

    One thing I've always tried to hold onto, even when I was a witness, is respect for the beliefs of others, even when they differ greatly from my own. I'd never throw mud on an American (or any other) flag, although I'm certainly no patriot. I'd never treat a Bible, Q'uran, or any other holy book disrespectfully, although these books don't hold any truths for me. I was most careful transporting my dead grandmother's Catholic statuary and rosaries from her home, even though these items have no connection to my own faith. So, I have to respectfully say that it does bother me somewhat when atheists and agnostics refer to God as "doG". It just seems like they're making fun of the concept that a lot of us hold very dear, and it hurts a little.

  • doofdaddy
    doofdaddy

    You know what pisses me off more than selfrighteous jws?
    Those exjws who go around whimpering that it's the truth but haven't the balls to live the jw lifestyle.
    Walk the talk
  • ezekiel3
    ezekiel3

    I became a dogmatic agnostic.

  • Reefton Jack
    Reefton Jack

    I do respect the right of a person to practice the religion of their choice - figuring that too many people died defending such rights in two world wars for me to want to change things.

    But for myself - I don't want a bar of religion in any of its forms!

  • doofdaddy
    doofdaddy

    Amen Reefa

  • satirev
    satirev

    i don't want anyone to try to prove how i believe is wrong. i won't listen anyway. so i'll just put this out there with the preface that it is my truth and only my truth. i'm not trying to force the way i believe on anyone on this board....

    i've always felt a presence in my life. something higher than my own conscience...a connectedness to others and surroundings and i refuse to believe that all this life, with all it's beauty and ugliness and complexities came about by accident.

    i also believe that God is Love. if our main purpose of being here on earth is to spread the word of God, then our purpose is to love one another. period. no judgement. no dogma. no ceremonious bullshit. just love one another.

    respect, compassion, generosity, love... they all have opposites. this is where balance happens... i'm sorry, but there will never be a perfect world, because the world is already perfect. perfectly flawed. balance. yin and yang is real. that's why bad stuff happens in this world. struggle, pain, suffering, tribulation... all beautiful in the bigger picture of things.

    the road to salvation is narrow because only YOU can walk on it. the biggest problem I ever had with the organization was their determination to rule out God's GREATEST gift, besides life, to mankind: FREE WILL OF AN INQUISITIVE MIND.

    religeon is mans way of becoming god, or at least closer to a god. it is control. it is politics. it is power. religeon is not from God. mankind has used it since it's inception as a way to influence people.

    so am i an athiest? far from it. in fact, i think i'm more in touch with God now than ever before. My vision isn't clouded by manmade rules and punishments for not following those rules.

    respect

  • bvet
    bvet

    Hey hibiscusfire .

    This is not just my first post ever here, but my first one anywhere. I have been a lurker for years, but this site inspired me to get involved.

    Since I left "The Bad Place" in 1977 I've been through just about every change you could imagine. For years I called myself pagan. What I really meant was I wanted to do what I wanted to do, Wine, Women and Song, and no guilt thank you please.

    But I've seen some things since then. Mostly, I've seen people spend most of their lives running around, looking for something to fill them up. I met some guys in college, (If you haven't been you should go, it's a good thing.) who called themselves anarchists. Said they wanted to overthrow the government, and do away with all religions so people would finally be free. I think if people really were free, half of them would spend all their time getting drunk, and the other half would spend it beating each other with sticks.

    It seems to me a bunch of people believe in Evolution now too, though I've never met anyone that really wanted to change.

    I guess I'm taking the long way around saying yeah, I believe in God. I believe he's up in heaven watching us make all of our mistakes. He watches us hurt ourselves, and other people too, and he watches us cry cause we're lonely, and lost, with no one to tell us where home is. And all the time, he’s just sitting there waiting on us to look up. Lately, I've been spending a lot of my time looking up.

    No, I don't have any proof that God exists, and yes, after being fooled for so long I can understand why so many people just figure - To heck with it, I'll do it by myself -. All I can tell you is that my life is better with God in it. And if he's just an imaginary friend for grownups, well at least this time around I picked a loving, caring, forgiving one.

  • jt stumbler
    jt stumbler

    Welcome bvet, its nice to hear from you!

  • Insomniac
    Insomniac

    bvet- Hi, and welcome! I hope you have a great experience here, as I have. Most of the folks on this board are fabulous, and the rest aren't half bad.

    I really liked what you had to say, especially the part about "looking up;" I think that's where a lot of us have found ourselves since leaving the jw's: trying to unravel the mystery of the Divine, on our own, without the Watchtower society spelling our beliefs out for us. It's a blissful, scary, heady feeling, isn't it?

  • LyinEyes
    LyinEyes

    Some times I don't think there is a God. All the worlds problems, the sicko, why would he allow this to go on? I don't buy, waiting on him to fix matters. But I still have a core feeling it might be true, but i know I will never understand GOd.

    How did he just come to be, or was he aways here.......guess I think in too many circles of things needing to understand how one person is the higher power only.

    But I am still opened minded and waiting for something to click. maybe it wont.

    I may believe in some higher powers , maybe more cause and effect kind of things and karma for now.

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