Posts by mindseye

82

Are YOU a Believer, Atheist, Agnostic, Active JW or WHAT?

by Greybeard in

jw
friends

sorry if this has been asked before but i would love to know the current ratio on this forum.. i'm a believer/christian former jw for 45 years... born in .

what are you now and what were you?.

.

mindseye

was born-in but unbaptized. now I'm an existentialist/agnostic/gnostic/zen buddhist/taoist (subject to change ).

58

So why

by bushido8000 in

it has become very apparent to me very quickly that this forum is dominated by ex-jws.

i have many questions and topics to present but i first want to know who i am presenting these questions and topics to so i have 2 questions that i would like as many of yall to answer as possible.. .

question 1: did you leave the organization out of the blue or were you first disfellowshipped?.

mindseye

For the people who left out of the blue, What made you leave the organization?

I was born in, thought about getting baptized in my teens but didn't take the dunk. To answer your question, it just never added up, or really resonated with me. In my early 20s I felt that the Witness mentality was preventing me from growing intellectually AND spiritually. Up until about 20, I pretty much though of myself as a witness (even though technically I wasn't, since I wasn't baptized), but by my mid-20s I totally distanced myself from it. I read a lot about the history of the religion, and that completely broke the spell.

So no nightmare scenario in my case, it was a slow realization that it wasn't the 'truth'. I'm still on good terms with my family and most JWs I know, even though there's some tension there if the religion comes up. I'm very happy to be completely out. My heart goes out to those who were baptized, and who left later in life. I can only imagine how hard it must be. peace.

38

What's This Thing Called Consciousness?

by frankiespeakin in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/consciousness.

vedanta.

according to vedanta, awareness is not a product of physical processes and can be considered under four aspects.

mindseye

Awesomeness. I really dig that link to the Nonduality and Science Conference. With Cartesian dualism - Descarte's seperation of mind and body - western philosophy got locked into a rigid paradigm that only began to unravel relatively recently. It's interesting that the ancient Eastern traditions are more relevant to current scientific understanding.

38

Everyone has an opinion

by sizemik in

jw
friends

in the modern world everybody wants to be "politcally correct".

but what they feel others want to hear.. in a way .

it's a kind of deception.. well .

mindseye

Since I don't have cable and I'm not Candadian, I had to google Don Cherry, and from the looks of it that was Don Cherry being Don Cherry. As far as political correctness, I agree that a balance needs to be struck. In my view, racial stuff way out of line. I'm from the deep American south, and "not being politically correct" down there means saying the N word and joking about hanging people. And if you call those type of people (*cough* rednecks) on it they will accuse you of "Being too politically correct." So yeah, a line needs to be drawn somewhere. A little political correctness is a good thing, it shows that we've advanced as a society. Believe me, I've seen the other side, and it's not pretty.

21

I know I'm not alone, but damn do I feel lonely now...

by OneDayillBeFree in

i have been meaning to post my experience at the pioneer school and i will as soon as time permits but theres something that has happened recently in my life that has impacted me in such a horrible way that i just have to get off my chest.. as you may know ive been trying to fade.

its very hard.

hard as hell.

mindseye

OneDay, that is a tough story. Dealing with the regular JW stuff on top of heartbreak is a killer! I remember growing up and falling for several cuties in the hall. It never worked out, I think they could always sense that I was on my way out. In retrospect I'm so glad it didn't pan out with a witness girl, it allowed me to meet my wonderfully sweet girlfriend in college.

Telling you that time cures all might seem a bit cliched and not very encouraging right now. But it's true, every heartbreak and depression I've experienced, even the death of a parent, has been healed by time. This girl sounds like she was going through the motions, but never really was ready to make the break. Whether or not she can make the break is not for me to judge, but if she can't then you're better off moving on. I'm with Black Sheep, get out and socialize in another environment. I'm not sure of your age, but if you're old enough to go to college and have the opportunity to do so, then I encourage you to. That can be a game changer. Best wishes

4

Christian theologian speaks on religious beliefs of Heaven/Hell

by darth frosty in

jw
friends

very insightfull comments.

.

link.

mindseye

Yeah, I heard of the bishop guy before too. John Spong is his name. He's something of a revolutionary in theological circles. He wrote a book called "Why Christianity Must Change or Die" which is on my reading list. Thanks for the youtube videos Darth Frosty, great points all around.

50

"All religious belief distills down to faith in utterly unprovable stories."

by Franklin Massey in

jw
friends

i read this today on the board and want to ask, is the statement true?.

all religious belief distills down to faith in utterly unprovable stories.

i feel this way sometimes.

mindseye

Band on the Run makes some good points. The problem with coming out of the JW mindset is that the Witnesses have a very simplistic, undeveloped approach to theology. Unfortunately, thanks to the rise of fundamentalism in America, Christianity in general had taken on this regressive approach. So it's understandable that many of us are turned off to religion and spirituality totally, and turn to the atheistic/agnostic path.

This is the path I was on for a while. I had a downright antagonistic attitude towards religion. I dismissed the stories as irrational nonsense, stories only relevant to a people of a bygone time.

Then something happened. I began to read authors with a more sophistacated approach to religion, like Karen Armstrong. I also read some Jung and Joseph Campbell, and learned more about mythology (and the similarity between myths). Most significantly, I very recently met someone with a strong academic background in theology and philosophy, and discussions with this person had me reexamine many of my reductionist positions towards God and mythology.

Somewhere in the evolution of our ancestors consciousness evolved. Eventually spirituality and rituals also developed, and the mythological narratives around them. From archeological evidence, many of the early developments probably were fertility rituals. Others may have involved hunting and reactions to natural phenomena. Imagine being one of our early ancestors and moving to an area with an abundance of thunder storms for the first time. The raw power would be awe inspiring. It would be sublime. This would be GOD!

This is the deal: the mythology may not be real in the literal sense, but it says something real about US. It's woven into our very consciousness. People like Dawkins are brilliant, I enjoy his work immensely, but in his eagerness to throw out God he's throwing out something vital in our evolution as a species. There is room in our dialogue for both mythos and logos.

38

Poll: What do you believe now?

by Lunatic Faith in

jw
friends

i have been noticing we ex-jw's are very different in our choices of beliefs once we leave the wts.

some choose christianity, others flee christianity.

some find they can't beieve in anything any more.

mindseye

Shador wrote:

Any religion or teaching which denies the Natural Laws of the Universe is false.

I'm with you, Shador. Communion with nature is where it's at. The path that resonates with me, Taoism, also emphasizes connecting with nature.

66

SERIOUSLY is there one JW publication that you thought was good?

by TimothyT in

i liked the greatest man book.

i thought it was very informative and unbiased.

a good summary of the gospels.. .

mindseye

I enjoyed the Search book that discussed all of the various religious traditions of the world. It made me curious about other religions, especially Eastern ones. Also, any book that had Nietzsche, Darwin and Marx as the trinity of evil, LOL. Their rebel status caused me to look into philosophy and science. Thanks, WT!

38

New light emerging?

by breakfast of champions in

so, just recently ( i believe it was the september 1 wt) there was the thought that only the "incorrigibly wicked" will be destroyed at armageddon.

at the recent visit of the co, several times he brought up the idea that the "great crowd" will be far more people than just the 7m jws on earth today.

all my life i was raised thinking only jws would be the gc, and the other 99.9% of humanity would be fertilizer.

mindseye

Some more liberal-minded JWs that I've known have said that the survivors of the big A would more than just JWs. So that idea is not really anything new in my experience. Yeah, I agree it's usually a ploy to get people in/keep people in, but some JWs actually believe it.

I could be mistaken, but I remember the WT published something in the 90s that hinted at this. It had my family in heavy discussion. I find the WT puts out something every once in a while to make it look more nuanced. It's usually so ambigious that no one really takes notice, and the status quo is kept in check.