by acadian 10 Replies latest jw friends
Are J.W.'s seekers of Truth... Gullible... Or do they just Close their eyes to the Truth ? Or all three?Considering flip/flops and wrong dates and such... and we still believe...(well not any more!) as an ex.JW I'd say i've been all three... What about you?
Acadian
I'd say i've been all threeI think most jw fall in all the three categories
wanna
Their minds are closed because they are blinded by Satan. Ever try reasoning with one that didn't quote WT indoctrination? I have never ever met an active JW that dared to voice their own view of any scripture because they are afraid to examine and compare any commentaries that are not from their 'Faithful Slave'.
Their minds are closed because they are blinded by Satan.
You may have a point, but I think there's a more empirical explanation...
I recently talked to a higly intelligent, knowledgeable, and extremely well educated JW who claimed he critically looked at the JWs before joining.
We had a brief conversation about why he believed in the JWs as the Truth. Throughout his conversation I picked up on 5 key rationalizations that kept the dream alive in his mind, despite the irreconcileable facts that would suggest otherwise.
1. God must exist because of the unexplainable wonder of the universe and our surroundings.
2. The Bible must be the Word of God.
3. The Biblical understanding of the JWs is not and has not been perfect, but the "light keeps getting brighter".
4. Nothing but the JWs "even comes close" to properly representing the Bible.
5. The JWs teachings as a whole must be of God because it "all fits" when you tie them all together, despite perhaps not being able to fully reconcile individual topics.
As I aluded to in another post, it's more about the sly seduction of the "package deal" the JWs offer than a completely rational decision.
It's so much easier to beleive if everything is handed to you on a platter and you don't really have to dig too deeply. But when you truly dig & can take away the publications & just use the bible, that is when their flaws start showing.
they are willingly blind/gulible
Those who convert are gullable.
Those who leave are seekers of truth.
I was a seeker of truths before I realized that some questions cannot be answered.... but when I believed all questions had to have an answer, JWs provided the binary logic traps which lead to them and no one else which I found no one to challenge. I went to my local library and tried to find anti-JW books which in the early 70s were not abundant... I found a few, but their tone was that JWs were wrong, because we say so and we have been here longer, nyah!
hardly helpful.
M.J., that's very interesting. It may explain why some people are so incredibly up themselves about all of it. Lots of false assumptions, lots of things ignored. Even though they feel like they did their research, they were actually very sloppy and lazy about it. All their research was done for them, all they had to do was trust it was ok.
I think gullible or seekers of truth isn't enough categories. I think you should add "chronic worrier" to that list. If a person is worried what they are telling him SOUNDS right, then he feels he has no choice but to join, he can't risk not joining.
itsallGoodnow: I think you should add "chronic worrier" to that list. If a person is worried what they are telling him SOUNDS right, then he feels he has no choice but to join, he can't risk not joining.
I think I fit that catagory too!
I submit that truth seeker would want to first examine the origins of this compilation of manuscripts that, around 393CE, got voted on by members of the Roman Catholic Church and canonized by democratic vote to compile what now is called - The Bible (Duay). If "all scriptures were inspired by God and beneficial", what about the other over 2,000 manuscripts (scriptures) that did not make it in? Or were those about 500 clergymen who voted inspired by God? And if they were, why the hundreds upon hundreds of contridictions and scientific inaccuracies?
If you still buy the Bible story without having examined and studied its origins, you cannot call yourself a truthseeker and you would be no different to any JWs.
