niall

Brother

Niall

Single

Queensland, Australia

Yes

Yes, (Townsville, Aug 2011)

I was working with abused children, in an organisation being run by a part of the Catholic Church. I considered myself to be a deist – I believed that there was a God, but that He did not care about, and did not intervene in, our business. I also considered myself to be a sceptic. Scepticism and deism go hand-in-hand. Events that appear supernatural (or miracles) must have an alternative, rational, explanation because God does not interfere with mankind. Or so I thought.

Often children would ask why these things happened to them and, being associated with the Church, the most common answer was that it was "part of God's plan!"

Well, I reasoned that, if God wanted this child to be abused, then the abuser was just doing God's will. They shouldn't be sent to gaol, they should be ordained as priests. (It seems, from recent scandals, the Churches were already doing that.)

When I asked the Priests why God would allow children to suffer like this, I got the same answer, or was told that "God works in mysterious ways!" Not once did they ever open a Bible. Well, none of that cut it with me. I eventually left.

One day I was in the garden, trying to rescue a bird – it's foot had become entangled in fishing line which had then caught on a tree branch. Turns out I'm not as good at climbing trees as my childhood memories lead me to believe. I was on the verge of falling to my death (well maybe it wasn't that bad) when two men in suits, and carrying briefcases, called out asking if I needed help.

Ten minutes later, one bird was free, I had no broken limbs, and I was making my new friends a coffee.

I knew they were Jehovah's Witnesses so I told them I had a few questions. "Great!" They said. "Have you got a Bible?" Every question I asked was answered by a scripture from the Bible. Very little of it convinced me at the time, but I was curious enough to arrange for them to return.

I was baptised 20 years later. I made sure of everything! I heard all the negative things about the Witnesses, and thoroughly examined them. Although some have a grain of truth, just enough to make them seem credible, I discovered that they were all lies or misunderstandings.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the Truth.

Photography, digital art (painting and retouching old photos), nature sound recording, and computers.

Now: The Bible (obviously). Medical, science, and psychology journals.

Before: I used to like Aristotle and other old books on philosophy. Old books on psychology, Jung, Freud, Adler, Ericsson, etc. Not so old books on psychology, Dilts, Seligman, Goleman, Pennebaker, Ekman, etc.

Not much into fiction, or pop-psychology.