greeneyes68 wrote:
I just scratch my head when atheists call religious people judgmental--and then proceed to judge them by implying they are stupid for believing what they believe. (I'm not speaking to anyone in here, I just mean my own experiences.)
 I'm with you on that... it amazes me.  Being spiritual doesn't make me stupid.

My husband is Catholic and I attend Mass with him regularly - and not because I have to, it's my choice.  I feel very comfortable there, and like you, I don't see much of anything that's similar to the JWs (I was raised in the Borg). 
Yes, in my opinion, they're totally different. I grew so much spiritually once I began to attend the church I go to now. I never felt that way with the JWs. The only good thing I got out of my time with them was the ability to read the bible more easily. (Because they explained the chronology to me and how to use the index, concordance, etc.) Although, I discovered that they changed bible verses to fit their doctrine, so that kind of explained why they spent so much time showing me how to use (their) bible. In my own experiences with my atheist relatives, I get bashed regularly. That's part of why I quit going to family parties. I got tired of defending my faith to my siblings. I finally told them "If you don't believe in the bible--why do you spend so much time talking about it?" That stopped them for a little while, but eventually they got back on my case about going to church. I don't understand why they care if I went to church or not. It's not like I preached at them or even talked about religion around them. Made no sense to me.


They're my friends, Orlando. If they weren't--why would they offer to wash my brain? (From the comedy, Strangers With Candy.)