Are You Surprised That Some "Intelligent" People Still Are Witnesses?

by minimus 69 Replies latest jw friends

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  Olin Moyles Ghost

  I guess I've just accepted it. "Belief" and "faith" are viruses that are extremely resistant to intelligence and logic. A believer can rationalize absolutely anything. In fact, the doctrinal inconsistencies, flip-flops, and personal failings of religious leaders often serve to strengthen the faith of a true believer. This is true, not just in the Watchtower/JW context, but across the religious spectrum.

  Any thinking JW realizes that there are issues with JW doctrine and history. For example, lots of "spiritually strong" Witnesses believe that non-JWs will survive Armageddon. Also, many Witnesses believe that (contrary to what Jesus said in Matthew 22) they may be able to be married to their deceased spouses in the "new system." Others are skeptical about the 144k as a literal number, birthdays, and the silly rules that the WTS propagates such as no beards for men, no pantsuits for women, etc.

  But these otherwise intelligent Witnesses still believe that the WTS is God's Organization. This is because they have chosen to put faith in the organization. Once you decide to put faith in something, it's over--you no longer use logic to analyze it. So, when discovering a problem with WT theology, the faithful JW does not use that fact to reconsider whether the WTS is really God's Organization. Rather, the JW figures out a way to fit this inconvenient fact into his existing belief structure--that the WTS is God's Organization.

  And the constant indoctrination doesn't hurt either.
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  Finally-Free

  My ex is very intelligent but still a JW. She had some terrible experiences growing up and I think it's the JW "hope for the future" that keeps her going.

  W
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  ex-nj-jw

  I've also found that it's the "hope" of a better future, the "hope" to see loved ones again, the "hope" of never having to die that keep alot of JW's in.

  I don't understand it but........

  nj
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  Outaservice

  A lot of JW's are okay with the Organization until...........their own ox get's gored.....so-to-speak! Then they may begin to think a little!

  Outaservice
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  daniel-p

  Smart people make the best mind-control vicitims. They just find better ways to delude themselves. They'll try harder to rationalize their illogical beliefs.
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  JimmyPage

  Steven Hassan is a very intelligent person. Yet he was a cult member. As he has pointed out in his books, being a member of a cult does not mean you have a lack of intelligence, although society generally believes that myth. It just means that most people have not been properly educated as to the signs of a cult. It is part of Hassan's purpose to make sure people are enlightened to those signs ahead of time to avoid being duped. Once indoctrinated it is much harder to see the web you are caught in.
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  undercover

  I doubt that all the members of the People's Temple or the Branch Davidians were idiots. I bet some of them were pretty intelligent, yet they were sucked into those dangerous cults.

  JWs are much more benign and that's part of why so many remain JWs.

  Most JWs look at Jonestown and Waco and wonder, "how did those people get caught up in such a dangerous cult?" To me the question drips with irony, but because the JWs, for the most part, are benign, it gives the everyday, working dub confidence that he's not in a cult. They don't live on a compound. They don't horde weapons. They don't challenge the ATF or shoot visiting politicians.

  It's frustrating to see otherwise normal, intellilgent people who question other authority, double check facts to ensure factuality and even check their receipt at McDonald's to make sure they didn't get overcharged on their McRib sandwich, but will sit in a Kingdom Hall and accept every word spoken as if from God himself.

  But as leavingWT said, once you understand that it's mind control, you can understand.

  So, no it doesn't surprise me...not anymore.
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  carla

  When people find out my jw is a jw they ALL say, 'I thought he was smarter than that'. People do not understand mind & thought control.
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  minimus

  When people realize i was raised a JW, they're SHOCKED!
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  Quirky1

  I know of one who is very intelligent and methodical. After awakening myself from the WT slumber I thought that this individual surely can't be that blind. Or, how he could fall for such gully.