What are the Witnesses Afraid Of ?

by Sour Grapes 20 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  bemused

  I guess from a fully-in Witness point of view, it's hard to reconcile the fact that the religion they are devoting their life to and which they fully believe is 'the truth' only manages to attract and keep about 1 in every 1000 people, despite an enormous preaching effort from the rank and file. Two explanations are:

  A. Their religion consists of nothing more than dubious interpretations of an ancient book, that wouldn't convince any thinking person in the internet age.

  B. People don't join their religion because they are being controlled by Satan.

  From their perspective, A is obviously a non-starter, which leaves B. I don't know about you, but I'd be afraid if I thought 999 out of every 1000 people was possessed by Satan.
  
• 

  galaxie

  Sadly their ' truth ' is their imposed organisational influenced truth which even if it is driven by an impossible delusive dream allows them the comfort that they are part of the mother hive where the queen bee calls the shots.

  ANY action which can obliterate the ' queen bee ' should be encouraged.
• 

  TTWSYF

  Fear of others knowing more of the bible then they do?

  I dunno.Just asking
• 

  respectful_observer

  What are the Witnesses Afraid Of ?

  Critical thinking skills.
• 

  freemindfade

  It's like I told my wife. God and Jesus continued speaking with Satan. Also Satan for sometime was allowed around the angels. Thomas Doubted. Peter denied. Whole first century congregations had different ideas. The stupid modern day idea of not talking to someone who disagrees from an "in" status to out isn't even in their BS book

  Further more. If you say don't talk to critics who once were believers. You have something to hide. Now I imagine a witness rebutted to that would be "eve and satan. She was deceived!" Ok. Then 1. why did god allow the greatest "apostate" to talk to her in the first place. And 2. Why didn't he say don't speak to the talking snake instead of don't eat from the tree? God didn't protect or warn eve about "apostasy". In the end the truth should have nothing to hide. Jw.org has plenty to hide.
• 

  Magnum

  That was one of the main doubts I had about JWs all along - even at the peak of my belief. I thought "if we have the one and only truth and the backing of an almighty god... if we read and study many hours per week... if we're supposed to be Bible scholars... etc.... what are we so afraid of?" It made me think the org was scared and was hiding something.

  So JWs do all that supposed study, and they can't defend the Bible and their theology. Most don't even really know their own theology. They don't know their own history. Their crying "apostate" is a classic case of an ad hominem argument. They attack their opponent rather than his argument.
• 

  respectful_observer

  So JWs do all that supposed study, and they can't defend the Bible and their theology.

  That's one of the reasons the GB is so afraid of "higher education".

  Take someone who has spend 18 years of his or her life-- spending 6+ hours a week listening to Bible instruction at the KH, plus Circuit Assemblies, plus Regional Conventions, plus personal study, plus Family Worship, plus field service-- all that time, all that "reasoning", all that indoctrination and building of faith.

  Take that person and put them into one "Intro to Philosophy 101" their Freshman year in a university. It's a class that meets 2-3 week, for 50 minutes, for a total of 12 weeks. By the end of the semester (less than 36 hours of total class time) and suddenly 18 years of all that JW instruction goes out the window.

  36 hours vs. 18 years...and the 36 hours wins most of the time. (Luke 6:49) Wonder why.
• 

  carla

  Truth should be able to withstand scrutiny.

  If I had a nickel for every time a non jw asked me why jw's will not read their material (Christian tracks, books, etc...) in exchange for jw literature.........$$$$$ I'd be rich! but then I have to explain the whole thing to them, getting in time, placing litter-ature, and never, ever learning about other opinions from anybody but the gb or else jehoover will be mad at them and they may get zapped out of existence at the big A.
  
• 

  Oubliette

  Megjana: I basically felt like I was on a tether.
  

  It's not a tether, it's a leash.
  
  A Tug on the Leash (The Authority Which the GB Wields Over the R&F)
• 

  Mad Irishman

  There are strong minded people and there are weak minded people. Weak minded people can be persuaded into believing almost anything.

  I think we can all agree that more people are weak minded than strong minded. Maybe it's 60-40.

  And remember. Some people have a belief system because they truly believe it and those people are going to live by that system no matter what. You see that in Conservatives or Liberals or Communists and with Born Agains and with nuts like ISIS. No matter what you say to them nothing will change their mind.

  Others are complete dummies or uneducated or easily influenced and they can be put off-balance by a leaf falling on their shoe. This is simply human nature.