I was told that dinosaurs existed and died millions of years ago. My mom told me they may have been around when the flood came and they were too big to fit on the ark, but my dad corrected her.
What was the trigger that made you drop it? Its a gradual thing for sure, but at some point, you get the guts to actually drop the religion. Was it a big event, or did you just build up enough courage to finally do it?
Well for me there were several foundational beliefs, and once the last of those collapsed through research I was no longer able to believe in anything supernatural.
One of those beliefs, for example, was about the prophecies of the dead sea scrolls. It turned out that those scrolls were dated 200-300 years after the events that they "fortold", which is something I didn't learn for an embarrassingly long time. I thought if the prophecies were true, then the bible must be true. Turns out there's no real evidence of that.
I really started to look for evidence of anything supernatural, and always either found a lack of evidence, or discrediting evidence for all of those foundational beliefs.
I wanna take another stab at this question because I don't think I covered it. As far as leaving, there was no real big event. I just stopped going to meetings and my parents stopped asking if I was going to meetings. They still try to preach to me when I visit and I just kind of awkwardly sit there and let them talk. I'm categorized as "inactive", which means my family can still talk to me, as opposed to "disfellowshipped" or "disassociated" in which case they wouldn't be allowed to talk to me. I could write a letter to the congregation leaders renouncing the faith and become "disassociated" but I really don't have any personal need to do that.
If I could talk to my dad about it, who is much more reasonable than my mom, I would. But my mother would find out and it would absolutely crush her.
Did you go door-to-door. If so, what was the craziest interaction you had while doing that?
I think every interaction was terrifying. Most people are very rude and it wears down on you after a while. Some were weird and gave me some bad vibes. I didn't have too many crazy stories, I think because most of the time I was a kid and accompanied by an adult to the door. But when adults go alone.. My mom and some others I know have had guns pulled on them. Once or twice people have answered the door in the nude. But I never experienced anything like that.
Do you think you learned anything positive from it?
Sure, lots of things. Lots of moral lessons on being a good person and caring for others, being honest, etc. Smoking is forbidden so that trap was dodged for me. Practically, I learned a lot about public speaking and how to approach strangers. Also learned the value of dressing nice, people treat you better. Learned a lot about family and communal values because it's a very tight knit community. Sometimes even my Bible knowledge comes in handy, like when dealing with religious businessmen.
I would say I stopped being very active around age 22-23. That was when I learned about a lot of beliefs that had changed over the years and become contradictions of the previously held doctrine, so that really hit me pretty hard and made me step back and look at the religion more objectively. Kind of sporadically went to some meetings until I was around 30. I'm now mid-30s and no longer believe in anything supernatural.
I went to school with a couple of them. One of them actually knocked on my door with her parents one day. I have never seen someone more embarrassed.
She was about 14 at that point and on the edge of not believing any of it I think. It is probably different here because basically nobody is religious in the UK.
I've had that exact experience before. Knocked on a classmates door. Understand - it's terrifying to knock on ANY total strangers door. But when it's your classmate, you know you're going to be the weirdo in school. It's almost giving me an anxiety attack just thinking about it.
It's so hard to drop a religion you were raised with. For years after I would still catch myself feeling guilty about something I shouldn't feel guilty about. Then get frustrated that I had that response.
Once you break the rules and actually question the belief, it gets hard to not see the contradictions.
Very true. Even now I almost WISH I could believe, just so I could have a better relationship with my family and my parents would be proud of me. But at this point I'm all out of faith and would need some hard evidence, which I'm convinced doesn't exist. So it is what it is I guess.
I don't. I will teach them to learn science and get a good education. My wife might raise them to be more religious, and my parents will certainly try to teach them. But I'll teach them about science and biology and let them reach their own conclusions.
edit - I don't have kids now, to clarify. I might soon though.
Had to look up what "love-bombing" is... Seems kinda like how I train my dogs. It also seems like a common thing for, like, I'm guessing every religion? Any time I would do something like signing up for "pioneering" (that's where you promise to spend a certain amount of hours going door-to-door), or giving a talk (JWs take turns giving speeches at the meetings and everyone is encouraged to participate), or something like that... yeah I would say I was "love-bombed" to encourage that behavior. I guess you get "love-bombed" if you just don't go to meetings for a while and you go back, people will swarm you and invite you to their homes and everything.
There was no withdrawal for me. I honestly never cared about it. In fact it kinda felt good to be left alone. I've never been a very social person.
Do you believe/believe in the bible?
If so have you killed any blasphemers?
If not why do you want to burn and choke and suffer and cry and get raped by demons for ever and ever amen?
I almost wish I could believe in the bible and have a better relationship with my family. But there are too many inconsistencies and such a lack of proof.
As for the last question, I know that's a joke, but Jehovahs Witnesses actually don't believe in hell. They believe when you die you just die.
They believe when you die you just die.
Well... what's the point then?
At least we normal Christians believe in heaven so long as you have faith and repent. Without that... well, it seems there's not much point in putting up with the troubles you'll go through walking the walk.
They believe in heaven, but only a few select people go there. The rest of the faithful will either live through Armageddon and live forever on earth in a paradise, or be resurrected over 1,000 years and then live forever on earth. At the end of that 1,000 years Satan gets let loose again to test everyones faith one last time and then god destroys him permanently.
But the vast majority of people just die.
When I lost my faith in my teen years I lashed out and was very rude to all religions your old one included. I am cringing just remembering what a little shit I was. Did your behavior change after you lost your faith?
How did dinosaurs get explained to you when you where young?