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Becoming agnostic....


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I'm sure you meant that you lie awake at night.

One assumes you're awake if you're laying at night, but it requires a partner, and wondering whether there's a dog while laying may inhibit performance.

Just thought I'd let you know.

Grammar man strikes again.

How do you know what I think about when I'm laying awake, and if it helps or hurts my performance? WOOF LOL

actually I never thought about it, it was cut and paste ... I can't quite reconstruct what I would have said ... but I was too busy laughing about "dog" to notice ... but I thank you for your support ... now I lay me down to sleep, I pray some people got a good laugh before the grammar police intervened :evilshades: ... and raf, shouldn't you be working on your pictionary homework?

yes belle, that too :)

Edited by rhino
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I have trouble relating to people on a spiritual level who claim they are agnostic. Now, before you prepare to jump down my cyber throat on this one - hear me out, okay?

In my early Way days (early 70s) there was lots of what I call hippy enthusiasm that was very postiive and very appealing to those outside looking in which accounts for the explosive growth of TWI. This youthful momentum seemed a reasonable foundation upon which to move forward but by the mid 80s there was a reversal and things weren't working well at all due to the rules and regulations imposed by TWI and its leaders. My point here is that the success of TWI had little to do with "the word" or some half-baked emulation of the "1st century church" than it did the undeniable strength, energy, an optimism of the youth who made it all happen. (There was a communal spirit that was residual from the 60s). Yet TWI wishes to take all the credit for any success and none of the accountability for their failues. When I think about the more positive aspects of TWI experience it has more to do with the people than it did with the organization and its red tape.

What does this have to do with your question ? Well for starters I don't think it can be commonly agreed that everyone had lots of

mind blowing supernatural experiences while in TWI. In fact I can only think of one incident that qualifies as being interesting. More interesting is that I encountered more impressive experiences BEFORE and AFTER my time with TWI , which casts doubts on TWI's ability to promote an alleged comprehensive knowledge of "the word" and the "mannies". In my mind its amazing to me that more former Way people *Aren't* agnostic given how horribly TWI mismanaged the scriptures and their application. I've never lost my optimism but its been tempered by reality so that I proceed cautiously and with patience before I "believe" in something. I'm not agnostic but I'm definitely a "hard sell" and I'm proud of it.

In the early days of Waydale and later Gspot there was a tendency for people who still felt an affinity towards Way teachings to characterize those who weren't as having "Thrown the baby out with the bath water". The implication was that if you didn't still go at the bible with that trademark gung-ho Way attitude than you simply could not call yourself a christian. Of course this isn't at all true yet some of the hardliners still had that "you are either standing or you aren't" mentality and this made for some pretty fiery exchanges. OVer time this type of thing has died down and evern some of the former die-hards now attend mainstream churches which they formerly felt to be too "Watered-down" and ineffectual to consider. So just a few years ago it seemed that some former Way would consider anyone who didn't go to a splinter as being the functional equivalent of a non practicing christian. I'm glad that I haven't seen that attitude expressed in a long time. Some people still refer to themselves as christians while others do't want anything to do with the bible and there many more people in between. I think a better response to your question might in fact be a question - that is "why would *not* a former Way person seek to expand their horizons and investigate other avenues of spiritual and intellectual development ?" Being agnostic is but one possibility but there are many others none of which are mutually

exclusive of key christian concepts. If ,when, and how often I pick up a bible and if, when, and how often I do it in the presence of others who

are "like minded" is a very,very narrow way of defining the quality of someone's spirtual life but thats what TWI was all about it.

While in TWI it was promoted that one always had to pursue the accumulation of spiritual knowledge with a fierce level of intensity and to do it any other way demonstrated a lazy attitude. There was a continual sense of hyper-vigilance that resulted in neuroses and patterns of thinking that confused intensity with committment. For some , the post Way life is difficult because they still feel that they have to approach the bible or church with that same rabid attitude but I don't know that God intended for us to live in such wrapped up state all the time. Of course TWI was all about creating a continual state of emergency to keep everyone fully engaged and their minds on the things of the way ministry even over and above the word. Most of the churches I've been to since my Way experience are of course more laid back in comparison but no less concerned about

christianity and finding answers to the questions that are common to the human existence. I'm more laid back than I was than when I was in TWI

and glad of it. If I appear to be a "lazy" or "part-time "christian to someone then its not a problem for me since I know that being a sleep-deprived fanatic for any cause isn't what its all about.

Edited by diazbro
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