Are You Surprised That Some "Intelligent" People Still Are Witnesses?

by minimus 69 Replies latest jw friends

  • daniel-p
    daniel-p

    JD: No, they're not the same. The effect they have on certain people can be the same, but that does not make their origin, intent, and purpose the same. The way i see it:

    All cults = Bad for everyone.

    Religion itself = A matter of individual compatibility. In other words, if the a person is in the "wrong religion" they can undergo cult-like experience of being under too much control. However, another person may thrive under such an institution. It's those that are not thriving and suffering from cognitive dissonance that should be helped.

  • John Doe
    John Doe
    I'm afraid "intelligence" has nothing to do with it, Minimus.

    I agree 100% Sylvia.

  • snowbird
    snowbird
    Rationalize it all you want daniel, but at the core, they're the same.

    They most certainly are NOT the same; a fact for which you should be grateful, else I'd have a certain Jamaican fix up a gris gris on you that would have you singing Day-0 songs around the clock!

    Now, sign your John Doe to that!

    Sylvia

  • John Doe
    John Doe
    else I'd have a certain Jamaican fix up a gris gris on you that would have you singing Day-0 songs around the clock!

    You'd grab whose monkey to where???

  • snowbird
    snowbird

    Oh, shut up, already!!!

    MOUTHY!!! You need to banish a certain recalcitrant. Thanks.

    Sylvia

  • Witness 007
    Witness 007

    I would need a frontal labbotomy to believe that crap again...{Sunday meeting Witness 007 puts his hand up}.."WATCHTOWER GOOOOOD....JEHOOVER LOVES ME ...CUZ DA BIBLE TELL MI SO!!"

  • AllTimeJeff
    AllTimeJeff

    Good comments, esp by Winston....

    Speaking for myself, I got a lot of adulation and power. It's quite a rush. Gilead didn't hurt either... (till I arrived..)

    There are also certain kinds of "intelligence". There are the learned and educated. There is what is called "emotional intelligence." People are different, and their aptitudes are also different.

    I think it a well known fact that a person we might perceive as intelligent could have many contradictory thoughts and beliefs. It can get really complicated.

    But it doesn't surprise me that intelligent people get suckered in. Intelligent doesn't mean perfect, and it doesn't mean we don't make mistakes.

  • daniel-p
    daniel-p

    I think you hit the nail on the head, Jeff. It's not as simple as someone being "intelligent." Psychologists have learned, as you've said, that there are different kinds of intelligences. People survive in the world by exploiting their aptitudes while other forms of "intelligence" lay dormant, or go under-utilized. My theory is that this is what leaves certain people "vulnerable" to being swept away by a belief system that may or may not be in their best interests.

  • snowbird
    snowbird
    People survive in the world by exploiting their aptitudes

    Gotta eat!

    Sylvia

  • Lady Lee
    Lady Lee

    look around you. We have some absolutely brilliant people here who were once JWs. They stayed for a long time before they left.

    It isn't about intellectual ability.

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