by Richard C B 225 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
@cofty your out of line there calling me a waste of time ive just accepted joe had a strong argument he put forward. ive said in an earlier post your posts where valued to me and you had some good arguments also.
@bonsai,, yes its ok we may have had our wires crossed i am trying to process the different point of view and you input is valued to me also.
While I tend to agree with the likes of Dawkins or Hitchens that all religion is damaging and potentially dangerous, your question leads us to modern terms. In modern society, whether they know it or not, the people want their religion to make them feel good while they do what they want. Sit in a pew on Sunday and whatever you did on Friday and Saturday night is forgotten. Confess something serious to the priest and do your "Hail Mary's."
In modern society, the higher the control your group has on you, the more it would be defined as a cult. Mary Kay can be defined as a sales cult and may be worse for members than Jehovah's Witnesses (but I doubt that last part). Fundy groups and meditation groups and even exercise groups can be cults. Some of it is good- Alcoholics Anonymous is very cult-like, but in most of these non-religious groups, the members are free to take just parts of it and leave the rest. Not so in JW's and not so in some other religions. But the average Christian or Muslim can think for himself and reject the extremes of their group.
So it isn't an easy question. Who is a cult, and who is not? To be safe, I would assume all religion is cult and proceed with caution.
How is every religion not a cult given the many markers?
| synonyms: | sect, denomination, group, movement, church, persuasion, body, faction "a religious cult" |
| synonyms: | obsession with, fixation on, mania for, passion for, idolization of, devotion to, worship of, veneration of "the cult of eternal youth in Hollywood" |
Richard-
Why the Watchtower style semantics?
Jesus was supposed to have said "...by their fruits you will recognize them."
Watchtowers rotting fruits are broken families, the deceptions of ever-changing lies (new light) and the predictable secrecy of a hierarchy were the huge sums of money disappear on the way up and the work-loads of donations and "preaching" are done by the ignorant masses at the bottom.
All this under the tax-free guise of being a charity with no significant charitable works demonstrated - ever.
All done in imitation of the Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists et al. at the same point in American history.
Poop, dung, dodo, feces, droppings, scat, guano... so many many words for what is ultimately just crap.
In the beginning of waking up, I denied it was a cult or that JWs were under mind control. That is because I did not understand what a cult or mind control was. This is in part that I relied on the Watchtower definition of why they were not a cult, and because movies and TV rarely portray this phenomena in a realistic manner. Educating myself on the subject opened my eyes further.
The best definition of a cult is a high control group—this group might be religious, commercial, or political. Mind control is undue influence. There are four barometers of control: Behavioral, Information, Thought, and Emotion. In a mainstream religion or in a non-religious group, these four barometers register on the low end of the scale, whereas in the Watchtower religion, all four of these barometers are on the high end.
Until a person educates themselves on cults and undue influence, they cannot really offer effective arguments on why a said group is or is not a cult. I recommend Steven Hassan, Robert Lifton, or Leon Festinger.
The only flaw i can see right now is its all negative. one could argue that for example someone could have been a wife beater and a drunkard and the wife because of cultural or other reasons put up with that situation. Then the husband studies the bible and turns his life around and becomes a great husband. His interpretation has a very positive outcome so in his particular case the said religion or cult has not been DANGEROUS but has been greatly beneficial to him and his family.
Things aren't always so black and white. Yes, in this case it's possible that the cult could actually help someone. That said, it is my strong opinion that there is always another avenue of support/help that would be of greater benefit than the cult would be, without the strong side effects from being in the cult. There are groups that will help a person who beats his wife or who drinks that don't also, for example, require you to sign a card that states that you will give your life in support of the group should you need a blood transfusion.
The cult is like heroine. If you need to undergo emergency surgery and heroine is all you've got, it might save your life if the surgery is performed while you're doped up. It would, however come at a risk of addiction that could later ruin your life. It would be immensely better if modern anesthetic were used. Just because heroine could help someone in this case isn't a reason to advocate for its frequent use.
But I am still of the opinion that a person would actually bring this on themselves down to false interpretation of the religion they follow.Can you please explain the true interpretation? You could clear up a great deal of fuss, all over the globe, if you know.
