I understand it’s a cult. But what makes an intelligent person actually believe they have the “Truth” as taught by Jehovah’s Witnesses???
Why Do Intelligent People Still Believe In The Jehovah’s Witness Religion?
by minimus 47 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Anna Marina
Explain to a Christian that the term Jehovah's Witness applied to members of the House of Jacob. Then say Jesus was the greatest one who came from the House of Jacob.
Next explain that your denomination has taken the name of the entire House of Jacob and they are just like the Methodists attempting to get back to what Jesus really said. Having put on a reasonably good show with the preaching work and sound moral values (on the face of it) boldly say, "if you can find anything better, you tell us and we will ALL come with you." Follow that with, "we know we've made mistakes but we are not like the Catholic Church. If we have anything wrong we will change it. We are simple men just doing our best."
This is called a confidence trick and it relies on trusting people not have the insight to ask the right questions to reveal the trick. It happens in other areas of life too.
One question that should be asked is - "WHEN will a false teaching be changed?" Answer - "next pancake Friday."
NOW you see through it. But who is going to be that suspicious that these apparently nice Christian people are pulling a fast one UNTIL you have got to know them? Also some of them are genuine, even if they have been misled. They were conned too.
-
minimus
I know of some very intelligent men and women who are Jehovah’s Witnesses and in many of the cases I believe they remain as witnesses because of their positions in the organization and in society. Some men love being elders and some women love being elders wives.
-
Lost in the fog
I think that it is because the beliefs cater to their innermost desires.
-
Steel
We use to have a doctor at our old hall. He was African and a born in but man ....................... I just felt like walking up to him and shaking him " What the Fuck Man ". How could he sit there and listen to them trash higher education and not wake up.
His kids were also in organized sports and he seemed to receive a free pass from the elders on that one. Actually I think he could have done whatever he wanted and they would have turned a blind eye. He was smart and had money.
( The African part was Africans tend to be more religious, whatever sect or cult they belong too. Not a slang on Black people ).
-
Steel
The Ken Jennings Mormon thing just blows me away also. Here is this guy who is smart as the internet and believes in the story of Joseph Smith and the golden plates.
Mormons are harmless though IMHO.
-
Carmichael
Two news articles come to mind: Why Facts Don't Change our Minds from "The New Yorker" and Why People Ignore Facts from "Psychology Today."
The general answer is a little more disturbing than we might want to admit. Basically our identity or self is composed of a belief system. In order to survive with appropriate self-esteem, we must protect this identity. Composed of beliefs, our self is not necessarily built upon an accurate understanding of our true place in the universe and what we actually are.
Should we be confronted with facts that disturb this sense of self--and we are the type of person who is not welcome to change or ready to agree that we might be wrong about ourselves and perhaps even everything we know--in order to preserve our sense of self, we dig in deep into the belief system that built ourselves and choose to embrace falsehoods and fiction instead of fact.
Confirmation bias is one way people preserve this state of false self. Another is to become an expert and more zealous promoter of our false doctrine. Doing this allows the false teachings that make up the false state of mind to act as a blocker against thinking about doubts that cause cognitive dissonance.
Religious cults and politics, as the article in Psychology Today demonstrates, have a lot in common. People may wonder how "intelligent" people get involved in religious cults, yet on a regular basis, people get involved in the same type of thinking patterns, ignoring of facts, and mental sweeping of erroneous claims "under the rug" using the same techniques that keep smart people in false religions.
People let this type of mental influence happen to them in various parts of their lives (commercial, medical, exercise, entertainment, fashion, etc.). The fact is that we are too ready to be sheep, too often begging to be lead astray without even knowing it.
-
Biahi
Cognitive dissonance?
-
Anna Marina
When you don't understand something complex you might fall into the trap of thinking you lack the intelligence to ever figure out something so complex. So you learn to look to the media org/broadcast believing it is a trustworthy source and is intellectually superior to you. But you can work out complex things if you want to. You don't have to rely on others. It is best to do your own due dilligence.
(Acts 17:11) . . .Now the latter were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so. . .
Also sometimes people who are seeking to trick you make simple things deliberately hard to understand by using words you are not familiar with or words that shift in meaning. And, they can make things so long and boring.... like a 3 day convention...yawn, yawn, yawn... you just lose the thread of what they are saying.
-
eyeuse2badub
This question posed by the subject of this post is an oxymoron right?
just saying!