Comments on: Religion Makes Me Sad

By: Ellyce

Ellyce — Mon, 10 May 2010 01:44:36 +0000

This article is great! I’ve shared it with another X JW friend of mine.
As a former Jehovah’s Witness (20 years) and as someone who auxiliary pioneered several months every year for half the time I was involved in that organization, I KNOW for a fact that MOST JW’s actively wish for the destruction of MOST worldly people, and look forward to watching most of the population of the planet to be slaughtered. They can’t wait for Armageddon to come, and the old ones hope they will stay alive long enough to be able to see it happen. If you really think about it, its a warped, awful and sick mentality. “Oh boy I can’t wait for the vast majority of people on this planet to die by God’s hand because they don’t believe what I believe!! Yay!” I mean, seriously.
And sorry, but say if it is real and Armageddon is a coming, I would rather die in Armageddon than be stuck living forever with a bunch of bigoted, uneducated (we know how the WTS feels about college!), misogynistic, narrow-minded suits. (A generalization I know, I do know a few nice JW’s)
While walking away from a door after being dismissed by a ‘not interested’ person, we would JOKE about how they were going to regret not listening to us someday. “Haha, have fun when Armageddon comes.” I used to say things like that! I’m ashamed of the person I was when I was a JW. I couldn’t wait to see the sky turn red and those worldly heathens get butchered by Jehovah. And all my JW friends felt the same way. Whenever I heard about an earthquake somewhere, or a violent storm somewhere else, I would think “Oh goody! Its coming soon for sure!”
Sure not all JW’s do that, but A LOT do. MOST do. Sure getting turned down door after door wears on ya, and being bullied for being different, but to wish for someones death?
Anyway,sorry to digress. I really enjoyed reading this article; you made some great points Moxie! It got me riled up a bit to say the least,
Religion makes me sad as well. Particularly the JW religion. I’m now an atheist and know a peace that being a JW never gave me.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sat, 01 May 2010 18:31:40 +0000

I can relate to many of the comments already made. What makes these blogs so helpful are the real-life experiences of the people who came to new realizations and ultimately rejected the contradictions, emotional harm and intolerance demonstrated by the faithful members of their religion. In my own experience, at age six, my mother who is a devote Christian, gave me an illustrated Children’s Bible. As I read the words and looked at page after page of drawings depicting the violence between the peoples in the Old Testament and God’s punishing vengeance against the sinful and non-believers, I shuddered. I was terrified by what I interpreted as unjustified brutality among men, and worse still, unreasonable punishment of entire populations by an angry God. No one could explain to me in terms that I could accept, a reasonable justification for the man-made and the divine brutality. I struggled for years after age six to reconcile the inconsistencies – the preaching of forgiveness, and brotherly love, and the unnecessary and unjust punishment of too many innocent humans.
Several comments stated that the psychological traumas caused by the inherent contradictions could “mess with” a person’s mind. I can attest that it certainly messed with my mind. As much as I wanted to live up to the high ideals and morals preached, I found that even my thoughts fell short of being truly “Christ-like”. And if my thoughts weren’t pure, then sinful behaviors were likely to follow. Even though I hadn’t actually acted upon the “sinful” thoughts, I was sure that I would be punished by God if I repeatedly had impure thoughts. This led to a vicious downward cycle that resulted in wanting to kill myself if I couldn’t forever purge all “sinful” thoughts from my mind. The only way I found to alleviate the psychological depression was to distance myself from the inflexible strictures of my religious upbringing. This worked, and the depression went away. Thereafter, I began to critically evaluate what I had been taught by my religious faith. I recognized the excesses for what they were: intolerance of anyone who thought or acted contrary to the religious belief system; the propensity to ostracize and condemn anyone who questioned the infallibility of the Holy Scriptures and its Earthly preachers; and the fanatical zeal that was used to pressure the faithful to adhere to the preached word. It was this last point that led me to view religion as a tool of manipulation that seemed to benefit the interests of the religious organizers and spokesmen.
As a teenager, I invited a neighbor my age to go on a camping trip in the mountains. We walked along a pristine river and prepared food over a charcoal fire. When we got home, I gave my friend a beaded necklace on a leather strap that I picked up from a gift shop during the trip. As I put it on his neck, tears slowly flowed down his cheeks. He told me that because his mother was a Jehovah’s Witness, he had never celebrated anyone’s birthday and that he had never received a gift from anyone before. He had heard the preaching of generosity and caring for your neighbors, but he was never on the receiving end of it. This is one of many simple examples of irreconcilable contradictions that can leave an emotional sore that is impossible to heal.

By: David Adams

David Adams — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:52:09 +0000

“thus was I forced,through seeing the error of their foundation,to abandon all belief in every religion which has been taught to man.But my religious feelings were immediately replaced by the spirit of universal charity-not for a sect or a party,or for a country or a colour,but for the human race,and with a real and ardent desire to do them good”
Robert Owen 1771-1858

By: Eva

Eva — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:22:04 +0000

I too hate the Jehovas’s witnesses….not the religion. This man made religion has distroyed my family. My kids have been with out thier grandmother due to her beliefs. She has nothing to do with us because we are worldly people. Never has participated in any of our family activities or celebrated any birthdays because she is too busy sharing her life with them. Her beliefs are to live after armagedon with her spiritual brothers and sisters of the faith. She doesn’t understand how much she has hurt me and my kids by being this way. Now that she is sick she wants us to come around, but its too late…..my kids didn’t bond with her at all. I simply accepted that she didn’t want anything to do with me so are relationship drifted apart. She had a choice and she made it. It didn’t include any of us in her life. Now she is depressed and all alone….where is her jehova’s witness family now?

This is a cult. It becomes a cult when they tell you what to do, who you can associate with and what you can do.

By: M

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:30:26 +0000

This is what saved me from them. Even when I was too little to even understand what they were talking about those pictures upset me. When I grew older the idea of God destroying the goodness that is so easily found in even murderers gave me the courage to walk away, even though that meant being a teenager with basically no family. And it was most certainly a great decision. So I’m actually very, very grateful for those graphic illustrations. They tried to justify it and explain “god’s reasons”, but hey…a picture’s worth a 1000 words isn’t it? I only discovered how idiotic the organisation in general is after I made the decision to leave.

By: Memnoch

Memnoch — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:01:40 +0000

I find it utterly ridiculous that still-religious people think that one needs a god to have high moral standards and that an atheist cannot possibly have morals.

What seems to have led many atheists who comment here away from theism is injustices in the name of gods and moral double standards that do not sit well with the minds and hearts of said atheists.

It might even be exaggerated by saying that atheists have HIGHER moral standards than the theists because they feel the need to rise above the arrogant punitive preconceptions that are so prevalent in the attitudes of religiously prejudiced.

Atheists rightfully find the thought of a divine genocide as disgusting misuse/abuse of power. Who gets to judge the god for it’s sadistic and preplanned intentions, when the god can have no understanding of what it’s like to BE one of the victims of its mistake? Atheists care about PEOPLE.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 25 May 2009 23:05:28 +0000

My Son is a JW and his inlaws who are also JW’s have put him through hell on earth. His wife had a heart attack with brain damage. The badgered him for years that she was not better because he lacked doing “One more thing” or one more trip to see the Dr. Just a little more of the correct exercise will fix her. The Mayo clinic has pronounced her permantly brain damaged. They have had him in court many times and he has suffered a nervous breakdown. He still thinks he is the JW with all the correct answers. I felt a load off my shoulders when I finall saw through the religion fraud. I came over the years to me that I just don’t believe little thing at a time. Did I mention that the JW’s had my son’s wife taken away and he has not visited with her in private for over 4 years. Some bunch of scum bags!

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:01:41 +0000

Kevin,
See my posting at the end of ‘Ten Years…’
I may just be able to have some influence, as my family is intact, but I am basically hoping that a light will turn on when my children see the unfairness of their daddy being killed by their “kind and loving father” upstairs.
In your circumstances I guess that your chances of influence are slim to non existent. I feel for you.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:05:42 +0000

If only I knew more about this religion before I married one… The more I read the more I remember the looks in my exwifes face when certian topics were brought up. I know my daughter is being brought up the same way. Is there anything I can do?

By: dionne

dionne — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:32:21 +0000

Wow im tripping. I really have a lot of views abt it all. Can’t believe how many comentz are just like I feel. Wow