Please don't take offence at this ...

by Joe Grundy 74 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  lovelylil

  Joe,

  I understood what you meant. You were talking about education level not intelligence. There is a difference. Because of my education and training in the english language (english on college level & writing), I was able to see all the subtle inferences in the WT. Such as insinuating that someone is spiritual weak for not attending meetings, instead of directly saying it. My hubby who only went thru high school thought I was crazy and just being negative as he could not see until we left that the WT was doing this. I am sure everyone out there knows what I am saying. Many JWs are very intelligent but may not have the skills needed to see throught the veil of the WT.
• 

  pratt1

  Mouthy hit on a good point. Most of the dubs I know became interested in dubdom because they were at a vurnerable point in their lives, just divorced, death of a close relative, employment money problems, or health problems.

  Another reason was that they may have just started a family and they want to give their children some sense of God and religion.

  This can cross the lines of both educated and uneducated.

  But I don't believe that most educated people stay dubs.

  If you look at the people joining now most are lower income types and new to this country, at least that's my observation in the NY tristate area.
• 

  Kudra

  Dido,
  Yeah, but now he is OUT. What started his questioning of the truth?
  I am wondering who all these supposedly "highly intelligent" ed-u-ma-cated JWs are that STAY in the truth... thus proving that it is the truth...
  or so they say.
  C'mon, guys, there has to be someone who knows of one...single...educated...PhD... that has stayed in the truth after COMPLETING their degree and totally believe the "truth"
  -or is there?
  
  -K
• 

  jstalin

  Stalin - As for the magz being written in simpleton language, don't you think it is because they have to write to a wide audience. ; They run the risk of isolating a large group of their readers, it is not just the US and England that they write for. ; There are 3rd world countries that are booming with JWs because they want something, anything, that will promise them a better life to come. ; They don't want to isolate those readers. ;

  They say that's the reason, but in reality they couldn't make their literature more intellectual because their arguments do not stand up to sound logic. Try reading a catechism from just about any other church and it's far more intelligent and logical. JW catechism, if you can call it that, depends on the reader's unwillingness or inability to apply the tenants of logic.

  Their "dumbing-down" of literature, packed with farcical illustrations, would likely turn off more people that it is intended to appeal to. I take one look at it and can't possibly take it seriously.
• 

  XBEHERE

  I think in some cases it depends on the area of the country you are in. I live in a part of the U.S. that is well off and filled with professionals. In the congregations that I have been in there were doctors, pharmacists, nurses, teachers all who came into the org after getting their carreers. These are highly intelligent, educated people who bought the lies of the WTS so I dont really feel that education has much to do with it, nor intelligence for that matter. Its a complicated indoctrinating process that toys with your emotions and perception of reality.
• 

  dido

  Kudra, he is out now because he couldn`t accept that new born babies were going to die at armageddon, and in fact did a protest with banners etc. outside London bethel .He was an elder, and was responsible for putting some `seeds of truth` into me when i was little. (20 year age gap)
• 

  jwfacts

  I am embarrassed to say that both of my parents had university degrees when they got conned into believing in the WTS in the 1970's. I am yet to find out how they were misled, and as they no longer talk to me wonder when I will be able to probe deeper into their reasons.
• 

  Joe Grundy

  I suppose one factor that might stop people asking awkward questions in the early stages is that they don't want to be impolite to a pleasant and polite JW. This is certainly a factor in conman/victim relationships in the real world.
• 

  dido

  Xbehere, i agree with you, it is just a point that people are at in there lives when they are questioning things, for whatever reason, from whatever walks of life, intelligent or not, but the question that was asked is if intelligent people take the truth.
• 

  Kudra

  Hm. It just seems strange to me, as in XBEHERE's case of the doctors in the truth that they would stay in the truth, as a doctor, having learned all about the biology of the human body, which of course they would have had to have a thorough education of evolution to understand.
  What I am thinking is, that for all these people to have received their advanced degrees, they would have to learn SOMETHING in depth that conflicts with the JW thought process.
  So they just ignore, in the case of medical docs who are JWs all that is supposed to be true about biology...?
  Don't want to beat a dead horse, but I am truely curious!
  -K