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cantleave
I was raised as a JW by my extremely devout and somewhat psychotic mother. I was baptised in my late teens, all my friends were getting dunked and it seemed the right thing to do. After getting married in my early 20's I did enough of the right things to became an MS and eventually an elder.Although I had many doubts throughout my life, it was my being appointed an elder that made me realise the religion is a crock of shit. I left in 2009 at age 42, and was lucky enough to leave with my wife and kids. Sadly I still have some family members in the cult, including my mother, brother sister in-law and nephews as well as some of my wife's family. So much has changed in the years since I left, especially in terms of belief or rather lack of it. I now consider myself a humanist and have no time for delusional belief systems. I spend my time working on my career and with my family and friends and have pretty much put the ExJW stuff behind me. I live in Hampshire in the UK and make an effort to help those exiting where I can - I am hoping one day that my nephews make their way here.......anything is possible.
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Heaven
Born-in, never baptized. The problem of theodicy, why an all-loving, all-powerful God allows suffering and evil, began when I was around the age of 10 due to the Ethiopian famine in the early 1970s and God's inability and/or indifference to resolve this massive scale of suffering. As I moved into my teen years, I began to disagree with Watchtower doctrine and beliefs, as well as the Bible itself. Misogyny does not sit well with a teenage girl. I was also having difficulty with Watchtower's doctrinal flip-flops - one that I recall was about Evolution. For 15 to 16 years of my life my mother vehemently and adamantly denied the Theory of Evolution and then one day said to me "You know Heaven, there may be something to Evolution after all." I was gobsmacked. I definitely did not agree with Watchtower's blood policy. Even as a teenager, I could not reconcile elevating a symbol of life above life itself.
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