dumbing down made us witnesses

by sleepy 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  sleepy

  I've almost forgotten why I thought JW's were the truth.

  There i was thinking about it as I drove in my car yesterday trying to remember why.But I couldn't.
  Prehaps its because there was not one reason but a hole host of things that seamed to fit at the time.
  I cannot remember a point when I started to doubt, but I did read a lot of scientific books which helped tune my brain a little bit.
  I also noted that the maganzines (W&A) were very small a had very little content I found this very strange as I noted that science writers went to great pains to prove a point where as the societiy seemed happy with a few lines and a quick conclusion.But the society expected people lives to depend on its information.

  But I wanted to know why I believed to avoid making the same mistake twice.
  So after consideration I've come to the conclusion I was under the influence of misinformation by the society and had asumed these people knew what they were talking about and were unbaised and always checked their facts.

  Now I know better and will make a goal to always research myself to a higer than "normal " level before I except unusual things as true.

  So I belive I was a witness due to misinformation , but this problem effect us all in many ways, how do we know we are being well informed when we read something?

  Well there is a majour problem in the fact that a lot of people find reading boring , we enjoy being entertianed and to learn can be hard. I have had to force myself to read things i didn't enjoy in order to understand something important.I am glad after that i have done it ,but i didnt enjoy it.
  Yes people read little and prefear it when everthing is given to them on a plate.

  I belive that lack of education and a lack of a critical mind coupled with the dumbing down of society in general will lead people into religious traps and pseudoscientific errors.

  We must encourage education and the desire to learn in our children.
  The dumbing down I see in society worries me. There are hundreds of channels on TV and very little educational content(although there are some good channels)also the media is obsesessed with personnalities and fame .This leads children to follow ther pears on TV and few desire to learn they would rather be famous and be on TV than to discover how the world works.

  ( there is a lot more to say on this subject but I have not the time, another problem in its self)
  I encourage everyone to fight against the dumbing down of society in general and or children will be in a better position to avoid religious lies.

  Any thoughts on this matter?
• 

  refiners fire

  I recall, now that you mention it, picturing Bethel, when I was a young lad and seeing a hive of activity. everyone busstling about, very clean hands, shirts,combed hair, busy but not sweating, all joyous, and upstairs the "research department" with dozens of committed, truth seeking brothers sat at their desks swotting away to make sure not one DRIB off false, slanted information got into society pubs.
  I mean, the brothers were so EARNEST. How could it be possible that Headquaters was no less than 10 times as earnest as the average brother?It couldnt be.
  How could it be possible they would lie?? Inconcievable.
  So loving, so honest, no..lies were impossible.
  Then one day you see them with your own eyes.
  First thing you think is that the book publishing the expose is full of lies, or might be, so you look for original source material.
  Real life Watchtower publications. Then you read them, you behold.
  Horror upon horror, lies and lies and half truths and....
  Oh God! Then you weep.....
• 

  Fredhall

  Don't tell us that you all are dummies?
• 

  sunscapes

  The meetings were hardly more than reciting canned answers in response to pre-printed canned "questions" designed to last for only a meeting portion. If your answer didn't fit the mold, you would be quickly corrected for "going ahead of the FDS". That was their version of "accurate" knowledge, which fit together on the surface, but was much of the time based on a quicksand foundation.

  For example, dates seemed to fit because they engineered everything around 1914, etc. and the 2520 years. Disprove 607 BC and the whole works falls flat like a house of cards.
• 

  refiners fire

  deadthreadfred.
  not much happnin here....goin elsewhere...
• 

  Latte

  Sleepy,

  Yes, I quite agree with you, as I have also come to similar conclusions. It has always been clear to me through out my life as a JW, that any further education is ‘not a good idea, in fact quite a silly idea….unnecessary’ I can see clearly now that it is a way of controlling the people in the org. If they have limited education, then the magazines will look to be ideal educational material, if not to some the only education one needs!

  I belive that lack of education and a lack of a critical mind coupled with the dumbing down of society in general will lead people into religious traps and pseudoscientific errors.

  So true!
  

  We must encourage education and the desire to learn in our children.

  Thanks Sleepy.

  Latte
• 

  Missie Eff

  Interesting thread, Sleepy. Ignore those who really don't have anything important or constructive to say.

  To continue with your thought ... I was just discussing this topic with my Mum this evening (also an ex-JW). I have just started a degree in media studies and have had my eyes opened to the ways in which culture/the state/commerce/religion control the masses. Might I suggest that you look into some of the ideas of neo-Marxism. A few things will really ring true.

  No wonder JWs don't allow their children to go to college - far too much free thought would blow a huge hole in most of their beliefs and their methods for spooning them out.
• 

  Farkel

  sleepy,

  : I've come to the conclusion I was under the influence of misinformation by the society and had asumed these people knew what they were talking about and were unbaised and always checked their facts.

  Amen to that! In my case, I was told they knew what they were talking about from the time I was a baby.

  I recall bragging to others what a world-renowned "scholar" Fred Franz was, and how he could read and or speak 7 languages fluently! I assumed that there were others like him, always researching, always digging for the truth, not only from the Bible, from from secular sources.

  Even when my naturally logical mind questioned something they said or did, I always experienced that thought-stopping, "it must be ME that's wrong. THEY can't be wrong: Jehovah is 150% behind them."

  Gawd, I feel like an idiot even thinking about those days!

  Farkel
  Ex-braindead Class

  "I didn't mean what I meant."
• 

  patio34

  Hi Sleepy,
  Thanks for the interesting subject. I've thought a lot about it too as i NEVER want to be susceptible to that sort of thing again.

  One thing is that I quit double-checking their quotes and material after doing a little. Big mistake.

  I also guarded my outside reading, my faith being disturbed by almost every single scientific article/book I came across.

  I had no critical thinking skills related to the WTS.

  I was naive and gullible.

  Carl Sagan: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."

  Pat
• 

  OUTLAW

  Hey sleepy,good post.I remember reading an opinion poll in Playboy magazine although I cant remember what it was about.(this was more than 10 years ago)Not 2 weeks later I see the same opinion poll in the awake,word for word..MERRY CHRISTMAS SLEEPY...OUTLAW