Let's Analyze: What Won't Witnesses Do?

by metatron 4 Replies latest jw friends

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  metatron

  I observe many learned individuals writing posts here about all sorts of doctrinal contradictions within the "truth" - without addressing a

  fundamental assumption about Witnesses. Are they really rational enough to make any difference?

  Religions can believe all sorts of nonsense: God has a Mom and crackers turn into bits of Jesus ( Catholic). You need to shave your head

  but leave one good hank of hair for Krishna to grab (Hari Krishnas). Remember to wear your funny underwear at all times ( Mormon).

  Witnesses go further than the above in regard to dying without transfusions and avoiding a good education ( high school is NOT enough) and

  wrecking families thru shunning. But with all this irrationality, exactly what won't they do..... or believe?

  The answer must involve passive-aggressive behavior since they are too cowed to rebel openly. Once again, it's one of those similarities

  to a totalitarian system like the Soviet Union in which everybody was loyal in public but lying otherwise.

  The biggest passive-aggressive response must be the lack of donations. Given all the propaganda about college, that might be emerging

  as well. Weird chronic illnesses fit the bill, too.

  What else won't they do?

  metatron
• 

  sir82

  What else won't they do?

  How about time-wasting in the ministry as a passive-aggressive protest?

  "If you're doing return visits, I'll go along with you"

  And then once in the car...."Oh I did all mine recently, I'll just go along with you on yours"

  And then there's the "pioneer shuffle"....standing like a cigar-store Indian, mutely holding up the magazines, in "street work"....weakly offering the magazines at a door and quickly departing at the slightest objection....45 minute "bathroom breaks"....selecting return visits so as to maximize time spent driving from on to another...a minivan of 7 people doing rural territory, such that each person calls on maybe one door per hour...etc., etc., etc.
• 

  TD

  Interesting topic:

  Are they really rational enough to make any difference?

  I wonder if it's a lack or rationality or a lack of intelligence?

  I think it was Penton that observed that Witnesses are rationalists par excellence. They believe that the world that we perceive is a real one and reject any and all systems, such as those of Hinduism or Christian Science, which teach that only the mind or spirit is real. Quite the opposite, Jehovah's Witnesses teach that only the physical body is real and that you don't have a soul or spirit that transcends your corporeal existence at all. Jehovah's Witnesses reject mysticism in any form, including the idea of modern day miracles such as speaking in tongues, faith healing, transubstantian etc. They believe in angels and other spirit creatures, but shrink from the idea that anyone would ever actually see one.

  They've also always struggled to provide pseudo-scientific explanations to support biblical events. For example it would be easy for a Christian to say that God spontaneously created the flood waters at the time of the actual event, or even better, to simply shrug off the whole question as unimportant. That's not good enough for Jehovah's Witnesses, who have co-opted wacky YEC theories like the water canopy of Morris and Vail. Similarly, they reject the idea of the Earth being created in six literal days and for that matter any other traditional Christian belief that in their opinion is illogical or in some other way is contraindicated by physical or mathematical law.

  Jehovah's Witnesses believe what they believe because they are confident that the evidence, when honestly examined, unqualifiedly and incontrovertibly supports these beliefs. Further Jehovah's Witnesses believe that any reasonable person approaching the subject with an open mind would adopt these beliefs once they have been adequately explained. This is in part why they come knocking at your door in the first place.

  It's true that logical contradictions will often bounce off of them like BB's off a rhino's back. But I wonder if that paradox is really lack of rationality, or simply cognitive dissonance and/or stupidity on the part of the individual?
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  WTWizard

  I have kept my mouth shut when they were passing the house or street that they had a call on, and let them waste time hunting for it. I have also let all my calls go out of date without making them. And, I have sat in the car to fog up the windows while the others had calls.
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  Id rather watch Saturday Cartoons

  Witnesses do everything LOL I am thinking should we fix the Topic to say "What Won't Witnesses Tell?" Because we all know that the elders only know as much as the individual tells them and God doesn't inspire the elders to know. Thats is why in the Connecticut Congregations we called them "PI's", as this is what they really were.