My 45 Minute Conversation With JWs Today (page 4)

TheOldHippie

"I went up to them and interrupted and told the man that this is a cult recruitment campaign. Ray was like a rabbit in the headlights as I told the man briefly how the Watchtower breaks up families. It was a brief interaction but it made me happy.

...............

I tried to appeal constantly to his authentic personality and common sense. I hope I showed him that I am not an angry, raving madman but a calm, intelligent, thoughtful man who no can longer believe impossible things."

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Seems like you had it both ways. First you interrupt people having a quiet talk, later you try to show you are calm and intelligent and thoughtful (humble way to describe oneself, by the way .....).

villagegirl

If your real goal is to free people from this cult, you might want to

consider that you lose ground and discredit yourself if you attack

the concept of there even being a God. Why not resist that temptation

to go straight for the Atheist evangilizing and try to say someting they

they might be actually able to hear, like the deceptive history of their doctrines,

and the failed prophesy and the concept of the governing body and

the several "classes" the Watchtower invented and the current sexual abuse cases.

I am just saying, going straight from being a Jehovah's Witness to an Atheist

is normally not a leap many are liable to take, right off the bat,

and it makes you look like an anti-God and pro-Satan type

to those of religious mindset. So the monkey-evolution discussion to

prove how scientific you are, makes you feel good, but does nothing to

help those men get free from the cult.

bohm

villagegirl:

If your real goal is to free people from this cult, you might want to

consider that you lose ground and discredit yourself if you attack

the concept of there even being a God. Why not resist that temptation

to go straight for the Atheist evangilizing and try to say someting they

they might be actually able to hear, like the deceptive history of their doctrines,

and the failed prophesy and the concept of the governing body and

the several "classes" the Watchtower invented and the current sexual abuse cases.

Why do you suppose this is what most JWs want to listen to? In my experience, I have had a lot more traction with JWs when I discussed general issues regarding God and the reliability of the bible than when I discussed the org.

Simply put, it seem an attack at the org (or the GB) is something that plainly label you an apostate while questions which has to do with the bible is not taken personal the same way. Furthermore, any attack on the org/GB will immediately be answered by going to the bible and the question become if moses had an organization, what jesus really meant or if God will accept his appointed king to be impious in certain situations and so on. An atheist cannot honestly discuss those questions only from the bible because the bible is not what really inform his oppinion in these matters.

In my oppinion, one of the most annoying thing about religion is, when it want to be normative like the JWs, pretend to be interested in finding the truth through reason when it is really about confirming a particular set of beliefs. For an atheist to pretend he is interested in showing the JWs false by arguing religious doctrines when in reality his true reasons for dismissing their beliefs is that they, being based on the bible, should not be supposed to have any more truth than the harry potter books is in my oppinion no better in terms of honesty.

cantleave

So the monkey-evolution discussion to prove how scientific you are, makes you feel good, but does nothing to help those men get free from the cult.

I wish someone had debated this with me when I was on Field Service, it may have led to me waking up earlier than I did.

Laika

In my experience JWs have as much disdain for any form of Christianity apart from their own version as they do for atheism.

cofty

Old Hippie - I was rude to Ray because I can't stand him as a person. We have a long history.

Half an hour later I was nice to the Polish JW and it worked very well.

Why is that too hard for you to understand?

Villagegirl - Your reading comprehension skills are dreadful. Look at the OP and see all the things we discussed. It was a very successful interaction. He raised creationism not me.

new hope and happiness

i saw a witness by his stand and started a conversation which i kept short . Stating with disfellowshipping...he said " the only reason you get disfellowshipped is for non repentence" i said "thats legal talk" ...he said witnesses dont " ..... ...... ....... ...... and we dont gamble" i said " you do gamble and you are gambling with your life" ....in less than 5 minutes, i felt in those two points enough. Took less than 5 minutes.

My 45 Minute Conversation With JWs Today