Hi everyone, and a big hi to Mike! I've been absent for a while settling in at my new school, and I thought this was a good thread to come back with.
First of all, excellent question Wanderer. This is a universal topic that applies to many people, not just the Jehovah Witnesses. We were talking about a similar topic this week in my philosophy class. The teacher wrote all the major problems of the world on the board and he ran out of room before we could name them all, which was his intention. He wanted to show us just how many problems there are in the world.
I'll try to explain it like this. Things like poverty, disease, war, intolerance and prejudice have always existed in some form or another in all groups of human life. No one, I repeat no one, is exempt from this. I've heard from the JW songbook how they boast and brag that they are no part of the world and "we don't fit into the the world's perception of society." They think they're better than everyone else when in reality they're much worse. I know, many of you know this already, but let me explain it the way my professor does.
He told us that simply by being college students by choice, that meant we were acknowledging that we don't have all the answers to life and we want to work hard to earn our place in society. That's what true bravery is. The ability to admit you don't know what you're doing, and that you learn from your mistakes. The Watchtower paints a nice pretty picture where they have an answer for everything, but in reality if you join the Watchtower, you are essentially giving up on life. You send a message to the world "I have the truth, everyone else is false, and I'm going to paradise after armageddon." This is a copout on life. This is what Jesus warned us about. It's not even about religion or God, it's about having the courage to say "I'm going to live my own life and think for myself and be a good person, not someone's grunt or pawn."
We live in a very challenging world full of problems that no one has the answer to. People like Jehovah Witnesses offer an escape into their own imaginary world where you hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil, but only if you choose to be deaf, dumb and blind. However, I believe that it's the struggle itself, not the end result, that makes us good people. Anyone can come along and give you a quick fix or an easy way out, but so often it's the journey, not the destination that makes us who we are.
I once explained to my mom how the Watchtower prohibits her from rational thinking and keeps her always busy slaving their works. Her answer to every single criticism was "But I love it so much!" She loves being dominated by these people. She loves how they tell her what to wear, what to eat, what to read, what to say, and what to think. That's just how some people are.
I remember when I was five years old in kindergarten when the entire class was convinced we had cooties. Anyone else remember that? Well, since we were all going to die of cootie infection, or a least miss Saturday morning cartoons, we had to get a cootie shot. But only the cool kids had the cootie shots, and they got them from a mysterious source like an unnamed hospital through a very powerful "doctor." How did we get these cootie shots? Simple. All we had to do was give the cool kids our lunch money and free reign of the monkey bars at recess, and we got the shot. The shot itself was usually just a punch in the shoulder or a poke in the ribs with a pencil, and the cool kids said the effects were invisible, we couldn't feel them, but they assured us with great sincerety that the shot was working and we would surely die without it.
Now everyone reading this, I ask the question: Does this sound familiar at all?
Of course, this scam only lasted a few months before the parents and teachers found out. Maybe something similar happened at your school. My point is, the Watchtower is exactly like the cool kids with the cootie shots. They never seem to explain where they get their medicine, but they assure you that you would die without it. And what about their constant use of fear of armageddon and the grisly death of all your loved ones? Nothing more than an imaginary cootie outbreak.
I hope someday the Witnesses will wise up, get some backbone and dump this worthless cult once and for all. I'm not saying you have to join us, or replace it with another religion, but just do it for yourself. Yes, there are those who see the truth but still stay behind for their loved ones. That is a truly brave act, and I commend them for it. But at what point do you say "enough is enough?"
After all, do you want to spend the rest of your life in fear of cooties?
Anitar
