What religion does Steven Hassan practices?

by cyberjesus 57 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  OnTheWayOut

  He'll probably answer a letter with a brief comment, at least an e-letter. If not, you can go to his site and ask for a consultation, but you have some questions about his "credentials." But to take that route, it would be fair to pay him for his time. I am certain he would bill you for it.

  Try the casual curious e-letter approach first. Just don't expect a detailed answer for free because a bunch of us former cult whackos probably try to get free counseling from him.

  I personally could not stop at simply examining JW doctrine without looking to their alleged source, the Bible. Once I saw how that was from men, I was able to go the next step and see what science has to say.

  But this board is full of people who didn't do that, many of them with college educations. But where you and I say they might have some left-over cognitive dissonance, they try to say we have some left-over bitterness toward God over letting us be in the cult to begin with. So, it's one of those never-ending heated debates.

  Steve is just one guy. Try learning about what other modern psychology people believe and why they believe it. That'll keep you busy. Hassan is not THE expert on this, just one of them that came out of the trenches that we can relate to better.
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  cyberjesus

  yeah good points
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  Markfromcali

  kind of ad hominem logic

  CJ: evidence please

  Are we really going to play this game? I'm sure you know what ad hominem means, and notice I said ad hominem LOGIC, not fallacy as it is not necessarily a fallacy. In the other thread you did raise the issue of the fact that he believes in God being a potential problem, didn't you? So it may or may not be an issue with his work, but the point is it simply does not get at the actual content of his work directly, and if we want to talk about mind control stuff we can simply talk about the content, rather than infer things that may, or may not have a bearing on what he's written.
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  Markfromcali

  By the way CJ the original post was not just a response to you, others in this particular thread have made understandably skeptical posts as well as in other threads previously. Now if you find something that promotes a religious view in his mind control work, by all means I think we'd all be interested in that, but a little factoid like this will just not get us very far.
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  leavingwt

  Having read Steve's book, some of the concerns here, puzzle me.

  He most certainly does NOT advocate any type of religion.

  He is thankful to have escaped a destructive group and he now works to help others escape. More importantly, he's trying to warn the public about such groups so that they never join in the first place.

  Religious groups are merely one type of destructive group that he writes about.
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  cyberjesus

  LEAVING: what puzzles you? You said he doesnt advocate religion, however my question is not if he advocates religion but which religion does he practices if any. If religious groups are considered by him a type of destructive group then why be a part of any religion at all? from his website :

  For the record, I believe in freedom of religion. I am Jewish and an active member of Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Massachusetts since 1998. - http://www.freedomofmind.com/stevehassan/refuting/

  MARK:

  Are we really going to play this game?

  Which game? all I did was to ask you why did you call that Ad hominem logic since I couldnt see any. I wasnt trying to discredit his work based on his his character or his beliefs. I was directly questioning his beliefs and wondering why? So I dont see any Ad hominem at all. Is an actual substantiated question, if you add to that the Fact that Dogpatch who knows him closely commented on you thread :

  From him I learned a great deal about $cientology, Moonies, etc. That's how we became good friends.

  Steve is a wonderful guy. He is passionate; he grieved hard when he lost his first wife in a horrible accident.

  He was born into a Jewish family, but I would not consider him religious. He taught me many things, but never indicated once a religious overtone to his beliefs, but I think he does believe in God in his own way. He remarried a few years back to a gorgeous girl who was college-educated and authored a great book related to evolution as one of her first accomplishments.

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/200357/2/Newer-info-on-mind-control
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  leavingwt

  If religious groups are considered by him a type of destructive group

  He doesn't consider all religions/businesses/political parties to be destructive.
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  leavingwt

  More specifically, his book describes the "criteria" needed to create an environment in which people are victimized by Thought Reform. Most religions don't come anywere near meating these criteria.

  Simply put, MOST people go to church because they WANT to, not because they think it's their only choice for survival. With the destructive groups, the member has no choice. He must attend/comply or he is doomed (according to the group's thinking). There are no alternatives to the group.
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  cyberjesus

  Leaving: how do you explain this two statements you made, cuz I am comfused

  Religious groups are merely one type of destructive group that he writes about.

  He doesn't consider all religions/businesses/political parties to be destructive
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  leavingwt

  Hassan does not believe that "Religion" is destructive. He believes that SOME religious groups are destructive.

  Religious groups are merely one type of destructive group that he writes about.

  His books are not exclusively about religious "cults". His books are about "cults" of several different genres. I was not implying that he thinks anything designated at "Religion" to be destructive. He is very clear in his books. Moreover, he believes that many cults are harmless.

  Cults are not necessarily destructive.