Jehovah=WTS???

by TweetieBird 4 Replies latest jw friends

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  TweetieBird

  Growing up in the borg, with 5 meetings a week, personal study, field service, etc. it is pounded into your head that you can only have an intimate relationship with Jehovah as long as you are associated with His "spirit-directed organization." Leave the organization then Jehovah leaves you.

  That is a very traumatic thing for some. I know that it has been for me personally.

  There are many different views on this board that range from those who still believe that Jehovah has an organization to athiests and everything in between.

  At this point, I really don't know what to believe anymore. But, I feel that is common. Afterall, for most of us the rug has been pulled out from under us. We grew up and believed (for me 40) for years that we had something special and unique, a special elite club that only a small population of the humans living on earth were privy to. Then, little by little, our faith in that organization is put to the test, hence our faith in a higher power because we it has been drilled in us that they are one in the same.

  So, how does one get past that? For those who do have a relationship with a higher power, how did you achieve that? And for the athiest posters, what was it that brought you to the realization that there is no higher power.

  I realize that this subject has probably been covered numerous times in the past, but for some of the newer ones exiting or trying to exit the organization, it might be helpful to share whatever it was that brought about closure for you.

  Thanks for sharing.

  "By doubting we come at truth" -Cicero
• 

  Flip

  …And for the athiest posters, what was it that brought you to the realization that there is no higher power.

  Tweets’, I have absolutely no idea if there is or isn’t a ‘higher power’, and neither does any one else.

  However I can personally guarantee you that the WTB&TS claims of cosmic significance are no more viable than the Coca-Cola Corporation advertising it’s fuzzy brown liquid is actually the “Real Thing”.

  But by 'God' those two Corporations can really ring that cash register, huh?

  Flip
• 

  TweetieBird

  I'm with you, Flip!

  "By doubting we come at truth" -Cicero
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  Mommie Dark

  "And for the athiest posters, what was it that brought you to the realization that there is no higher power."

  Facing the facts brought me to that realization. Realizing that prayer is exactly as useful as wishing led me there. Realizing how much time I had wasted petitioning and serving a deaf impotent Jehovah led me to bend common sense to what I had been taught. Reading the Bible without cult blinders helped me to see what a horrible primitive tribal authoritarian sexist hierarchical mess of prejudice that book contains.

  It took ten years of research, reading, serious thought and meditation to reach the conclusion, but these days the best working hypothesis I have is that there is no SkyDaddy. Best of all, there is no need to be 'saved' from anything. There is just life, in all its good bad and indifferent everyday splendor.
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  drahcir yarrum

  What led me to the athiestic viewpoint was the realization that my belief or disbelief in a higher power was and is completely irrelevant. Initially, after reading Crisis of Conscience I began to read mainstream Christian writings and apologetics. I even got baptized in the Baptist Church. I did not have a born again experience and I certainly didn't find answers to my questions about lifes meaning in the traditional Christian dogma. The Bible has some nice life stories and it has some far fetched legend. What to believe and what to reject as myth is just too much personal responsibility for me. If I can't rely on the Bible for lifes answers, then why should it have any more credibility than the Book of Mormon, the Talmud or any other religious tome?

  Furthermore, what kind of God would require absolute worship based on uncertain evidence of it's existence or it's purposes? There's a lot of talk in Christianity about God blessing those who have faith in God. Well, in reality, there are many who seem to have blessed lives who are Moslems, Jews, Shintoists, Taoists, etc. And there are many who faithfully believe in a Christian God who's lives really suck. Finally, scientific explanations for our existance, while incomplete, are more logical than the stories contained in religious writings.

  What if I'm wrong? Then "I'd rather die with the sinners than live with the saints!"