Thankfully my parents are converts so they aren't wierd. They went to college, had tons of worldly friends etc. seemed pretty popular by all accounts. They are "popular" jws even now. While I avoided spending too much time with worldly people, I went to school with them and was in band. Over dinner we would always discuss the weirdos is the congregation. As I got older and became and adult it seemed to me that people in the congregation were becoming wierder and more extreme. My parents sent me to college and told me to take what the watchtower said with a grain of salt. Even to this day they tried to explain away wierdos like Anthony Morris after the zone meeting. About a year ago I sat down and thought to myself, if this is gods organization, why are most of the people in it wierdos with absolutely zero social skills? Why is holy spirit appointing men with no leadership ability, control freaks with zero social grace or common sense? I can't even take half the elders in my congregation seriously. How are these men supposed to be shepherding the flock? Even my mom said she can't take half of them seriously, but jehovah is working with them. These men are supposed to be helping people with serious problems. Don't even get me started with the pioneers. Most of them would creep out or scare off anyone normal. No offense to any former pioneers, but the older single pioneers are the craziest. Are people going to be destroyed because they turned down a message from some wierdos who showed up at their door, is what I thought to myself. The watchtower is slowly losing its most sane and capable members. Even the best of the best at bethel are apparently indifferent slackers. All my normal friends question doctrine. An MS friend called Anthony morris a "nazi." My ex was a super "worldly" jw. Not surprisingly she was way more easygoing than any pioneer sister I ever dated. I can't see how much wierder things can get. But I'm starting to believe most young people know something's strange in watchtower world.
What really woke me up: I started noticing most JWS are weirdos..
by kneehighmiah 41 Replies latest jw friends
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blondie
Believe me I still encounter a lot of weirdos, all non-jws.
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Wasanelder Once
Though I agree with Blondie that weirdos are everywhere, the JW's seem to attract them en-masse. The desperate and the mentally deficient come running to the panda world message. Beyond that, with all the health food crazieness and suspiscion of the medical world they tend to be more on the high end of the simplistic mentality scale. If you can accept overlapping gnerations unquestionably, then you are weird. Even little minds feel big when they believe they are smarter than all the Bible scholars in the world with their Bible based truths.
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Giordano
Kneehigh I think the weirdness sets in because of the thought proces needed to remain a witness.
I wrote the following this morning and thought it might add to the conversation.
A true religious believer stays within the boundaries of rational ignorance. Rational ignorance occurs when the cost of educating oneself on an issue exceeds the potential benefit that the knowledge would provide.
A JW thinks they are adequately informed to justify their beliefs because they have consistently convinced themselves first and foremost. Or as Eric Hoffer said “It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible”.
A person who has learned TTATT has to be prepared that there’s a real likelihood that what they learn will have an effect on what they believe.
For someone who has concluded that they already have the ‘truth’ and have no intention of searching further has no idea and really doesn’t want to understand, how much they don’t know. At this point in time rational ignorance gives way to radical ignorance.
In the face of radical ignorance, it is simply irrelevant that JW’s or Mormons etc. now have more information available than ever before on the Internet. However accessing that information isn’t going to interest them if they think they already know it all.
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OneEyedJoe
This was one of the first articulable doubts that I had in my childhood. When I was about 14-15 I realized that I was already smarter than most of the r/f in the congregation, and a much higher percentage than average seemed to have some sort of emotional issues, especially the converts.
My father explained to me that just as the apostles where "unlettered and ordinary" these people where humble and therefore where sincerely seeking god and willing to accept his direction. That never really sat well with me either but it basically told me that I wasn't going to get a satisfactory answer so I just stopped asking out loud...
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sporece
Religious people live in a fantasy world, believe in an imaginary god that never talks to them.
I agree with you about JW's but have seen even wierder ones in other religions.
Anyone that believes that we have been on earth 6000 years has quite a few screws up there missing.
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Simon
I think the WTS does attract more than it's fair share of people who are a little 'eccentric' ... I wouldn't call them weird but maybe misfits?
What makes it worse is when everyone is walking round in suits you tend to equate that with the business world but then you realise that many of them are just woefully uneducated and borderline dumb.
That doesn't mean they are not nice people though - they are doing the best with their lot in life and often not hurting anyone.
The ones that I saw do the most harm to people were the pushy, organization people who were ambitious to get ahead but didn't have the skills to do it in any other group.
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Justnowout
I believe it was at the zone visit one the talks noted we shouldnt be supprised at those who misfits, they need the truth the most....
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Separation of Powers
I agree with Blondie and several of the others, there are wierdos everywhere. However, I do agree that there are A LOT of wierdos in the ORG. That is mainly because they find people that are susceptible to their indoctrination. People on the margins, people on the fringe, people suffering loss or loneliness....You take that kind of a person susceptible to molding, then you mold them into a drone... and drones are wierd
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respectful_observer
The organization actively discourages utilizing critical thinking skills. Self-regulated analysis, reasoning, and judgement are only permitted within the confines of the current version Watchtower doctrine. As soon as your self-regulated reasoning hits that wall, the person only has two choices: 1.) cross that boundary (enter "apostate territory"), or 2.) reject your own reasoning, dismissing it for the logic imposed by someone else that runs contrary to what you've reasoned for yourself.
As a result, the WTS will naturally only attract and retain those who assign little value to, and do not often use, critical thinking skills. I'd argue that the demographic slice of the population which do not value or often use critical thinking skills will tend to have a higher percentage than average of those with less education, less awareness of social/bahavioral norms, etc.
I began to recognize in my childhood, that almost every "study" that came to a meeting was a complete weirdo. When I shared that observation with one of the more intelligent elders in the hall one day out in service, he replied with a laugh and said: "Have you heard this joke before? 'How is the Truth like a crescent wrench? Because it fits all the nuts!'"
How true it is!