PSACRAMENTO SAID
Quote:
Chariklo wrote:
Interesting, Paul, that you say most of the atheists (and others) who you know are happy people. That is true in my offline life too. I had never met, here in the UK, anyone who minded anyone else being atheist or agnostic, now any atheist who was full of resentment and anger or other negative feelings towards people who didn't believe the same as them. Basically, I am fortunate in living in a very tolerant part of the world.
Paul, I have a feeling you're not part of the Jehovah's-witness.net forum. Those of us who were or are still participants there have seen in the last few weeks and maybe months a torrent of aggressive and negative. Behaviour from some individuals, enough for them to have been warned and disciplined by moderators.
I think you'll find that the angry be have our mentioned in this thread is mainly there and elsewhere in a more atheist environment.
One thing: Paul, you say that the atheists you know, and the agnostics and believers to...so mainly everyone!...are happy people. That suggests to me that you are a happy person too, because so often the adage that we tend to experience people who reflect, not necessarily ourselves, but the attitudes and approach we bring to the world.
In that regard, perhaps the very negative behaviour some of us have experienced recently over on JWN merely reflect, for the most part, the anguish people have experienced from all manner of happenings in their WT experiences. I'm not sure if you were ever involved with the JW scenario. I was never a full JW but came close, and the scars are still very raw. Some of those over on JWN are very wounded, though not all are so bitter.
I was on the JW forum for a bit, there is where I "met" Shelby, Outlaw, Tammy and others.
I still correspond with some there but don't post there anymore.
It's not an environment that I care to be a part of anymore.
It served it's purpose and allowed me to understand the JW mentality of current believers and former ones.
I have found that people tend to be far more "bullish" and rude online than they are in real life. Anonymity makes people behave like asses sometimes.
IMO, the very traits that many former JW's had as JW's ( I am right, you are wrong, appeal to authority, ridicule those not part of the "inner circle", etc) is still there as atheists or skeptics.
I don't think that many people realize that it is the TRAITS that made them stay in a cult that need to be eliminated along with being part of the cult.
Many left the JW's but kept the "JW mentality".