The JWs are not really that different from almost all other religions. They play on the average person's fear of death, and offer simplistic 'solutions' to those fears. A very common solution is the dogma about either 'never having to die' or that after a person dies they will 'live forever' in some sort of Heaven or Paradise. Also, religions promote the idea of an all-knowing, all-loving Shy Daddy who watches over us and will grant our every request made via prayer. There, that's the entire basis of virtually ALL religious belief systems. They think they have the absolute 'Truth' wrapped up in a neat package. I personally would prefer a religion that DOESN'T claim to know everything and have all the answers. One that leaves room for adjustments and discovery of new ideas. Beware of groups that claim they have 'The Truth'.
I don't understand the psyche of JW
by bobld 19 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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LisaRose
What I don't get is that reasonably intelligent people will not believe in evolution, dispite massive evidence for it, but believe in demons, despite zero evidence for it. I get it in a way, because I was a dub, I understand the Watchtower's manipulations, but most of the time I was in we didn't have the internet. Now that all JWs have access to the internet why are they still choosing to remain ignorant?
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3rdgen
LisaRose: "Now that all JW's have access to the internet why are they still choosing to remain ignorant?" For the same reason I chose not to believe my husband was cheating on me. For the same reason people with serious medical symptoms don't see a doctor. They are afraid to know the truth. Knowing the truth requires making unpleasant decisions. Purposely staying ignorant is easier in the short run. In the long run it is postponing the agony.
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steve2
LisaRose - very human questions answered by a line in Paul Simon's The Boxer: "Still a man hears what he wants to hear/and disregards the rest".
I also recall an old Latin saw from centuries ago whose English translation is, "The world wants to be deceived" which speaks to the human need to be consoled and comforted. For many, it is this need that closes otherwise intelligent minds to questioning religious claims - even claims that stand as more shonky in modern educated societies than they were millenia ago when they were apt attempts to understand the universe by hunter/gatherer tribes.
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HeyThere
3rdgen, that is very true. Facing such tragic issues are difficult, so some people choose ignorance because it is more comfortable in the now.
I also struggle with understanding why people (like my husband) ignore blatant facts that the religion is a scam. The history is so tainted. Yet he chooses not to even look at the evidence.
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Luo bou to
Ego WE were so special WE had the truth Look at how the GB panders to the ego of the elders calling them princes and glorious ones some of jesus's disciples wanted prominent positions so he washed their feet. I have known some humble Elders but not many so many were opiononated and arrogant
needed spellcheck my brain has decided to take a break not that the american version of spellcheck i have used would be much help
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Ocean1111
Strong belief on Biblical logic explained in a greatly logical framework upon promises from God is the main reason for the stalwart JW momentum of "belief". That is to say the 60 year forming foundational rationale is actually very believable in JW theology. We are not talking a total load of bull like say the Catholic cliff notes. The attempted IBSA/JW reformation, long before the so-called "Governing Body", has a lot of believable Biblical rationale that formed that extremely deep belief. Contrary to popular opinion, believing is personal when someone truly comes to believe something fully. It is the oiginal old school JW belief system that gives the whole thing its main stage boost and momentum that today's JWs and GB are riding the subsiding wave of.
THAT is the core magnetism.
Now enter the JW bull: the GB. This is how the post 1975 to 1994 Governing Body of today, takes credit for developmental work much of which predates the 1940s, that they DID NOTHING TO CREATE BUT JUST PLAY THE PART. The trick and sleight of hand, the last experiment, is the Governing Body. They did not develop one fragment of an original sentence in the classic JW theology. The three core oracles in Russell, Rutherford and Fred Franz developed 99% of the old school core JW beliefs, and they did it in a unique way and INDIVIDUALLY.
VERY IMPORTANT: EVEN IN JWS, THERE NEVER WAS A "GOVERNING BODY"; IT IS ALL POST 1975 CORPORATE COUP EXPERIMENTATION.
It is post 1970s developments that started to cause the top four controversial issues, imo, and all of them were eventually guided by the GB experiment in totally new JW management. The truth is there is no such thing as a "governing body" in the Bible. In fact the opposite, the parties of the one time emergency meeting of Acts 15 are described as separate entities—apostles, older men, congregation—for this very reason: minimize chances of tyranny.
The reason is a centralized cell of dictatorial power always ends up "lifting themselves" to a headship ONLY Christ has in that ministry, and God above him, when men form controlling "bodies". In essence the GB is a lie in and of itself, and the source of the modern lies never addressed, but only made worse by them. A lie in a ministry eventually fails, with JWs it is a malaise.
In that transition is where the conundrum of the modern JW mindset lay. The GB dictatorial leaven is the rock in the shoe and their taint is what completes the hypocrisy as policy, basically a classic man worshiping apostasy within 40 years. NOW IT IS NOT ACTUALLY TRUE IN THAT REGARD, now the GB HAS "lifted themselves over everyone", but based on and hidden in what was once a sincere Christian ministerial reformation movement, imo, that made prophecy understandable live and real-time with real world events matching the patterns and the driving quest for global domination.
That is all still true, a human development will end up "ruling the world", Shaggy and Scooby saw that much. The problem is the GB is ruling JWs, and that will only get far worse until it is resolved, and it will not be a reform that will do it. Implosion is what will flush the leaven, and a billion in spoils is why they will in time leave on their own, imo. But JWs will never be the same, and rightly so, it has to be adjusted and it will, like the whole development thus far, it will end up being of "Biblical proportions".
Thus what tripped up JWs, was the non-Biblical GB concept slipped in with things that are actually true, and no one filtered it out and now it is too late. JWs have eaten the wormwood, the spider was in the book bag, the Devil slipped in because he had a nice suit and looks the part, no one checked the content they focus on the package. And no one could change it, the GB has the place in its own stranglehold. It is DONE, it just doesn't know it yet.
Even the Bethel plain apostasy is actually at that "prophetic proportions" now. JWs were gradually subverted in a generational perfect point of transition. The rest is pure JW assumption and GB presumption that many still buy, by momentum of a past the GB merely samples and plagiarizes in their tape loop echo chamber whilst others now control and own the corporation. The GB HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH DEVELOPMENT OF CLASSIC JW THEOLOGY. They only take credit, do an act, and ruin it. And that lie is causing problems and now being detected in its terminal state, no way can it be reversed now.
That is exactly why there is no "governing body" in the Bible, it always is the cell of the main subversion. Just look at all the organized mainstream churches. The whole bucket of oysters is now bad.
JWs will have to deal with that GB lie in time, it is the first cancer cell now JW org metastasized. Lies never turn out well. And therein is the enigmatic paradox, the weird irony, the tragic comedy, today's JW 2/3 truth—1/3 lie, and getting worse. Its Revelation 8 all over again, but right in JW "earth".
That's my take on the JW Frankenstien Monsters of today, it has a spiritually dead canabalized "body", the "Governing Body". DOA from the get go.
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Separation of Powers
On the cusp of greatness, everyone wants to be special. Tell someone that THEY and only THEY have the TRUTH and that everyone else will DIE and only THEY will live, then everything else goes out the window and you have made ordinary people into egocentrical maniacs.
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AndDontCallMeShirley
JWs are no different than a self-made millionaire Mormon who believes in magic spectacles and golden plates or a famous, A-List actor in Scientology who believes in Scientology nonsense.
Provincialism, being a member of the exclusive, special club, is appealing to almost everyone, and a good many people will shelve all common sense to keep their membership card and nifty decoder ring.
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steve2
Separation of Powers - in your succinct post, you nailed the drawcard. Belonging to a unique group confers much that strokes the narcissistic ego - of which humankind are prone to one degree or another.
There is something ineffably soothing about being in a place of safety whilst the rest of your wicked neighborhood goes to ruin.