Did being raised as a witness make you smarter?

Paralipomenon

A topic that came up on Gabbly the other day.

I've seen a few "post your IQ" or other test topics on the forums here. If people are even close to truthful with their score I would guess the average IQ would be ~125, quite possibly higher. This is far, far above the average (90-110).

So I was thinking, the one thing that most of us have in common is being raised as a witness. The study, reading, public speaking, and everything else as a child, could it have helped to make us smarter?

The irony of it would be that being raised as a witness and making us smarter allows us to see that the witnesses are false, and leaving.

Just a humorous musing on this Monday morning!

changeling

Perhaps. But it definitely made me "crazier". Maybe IQ is not all it's cracked up to be.

changeling

megsmomma

no...I do think that leaving the witnesses shows we may be smarter than "average"...being a DUB dumbs people down.

Gopher

Being able to take tests does not equate to being "smarter" or overall success in life.

Perhaps being a JW kid made you better able to handle pressurized situations like tests, because as a JW you are subjected to a lot of 'performance pressure' - at meetings and in the field ministry.

MadTiger

You have to remember that this is not a random sampling.

golf2

Like anything else, most things have a negative and a positive side. Extracting the positive out of the negative situations aids us to understand what course to take, 'hopefully' it would be the positive one. To allow the negative course to dominate our thinking ,it would us lead to a very unhappy and unsatisfying life.
Yes to the positive.

Golf

BizzyBee

I can't see how. I am 'intelligent' in spite of, not because of, being raised a witness. It was like being in 2nd grade and reading Dick & Jane over and over and over....and over......

Critical thinking skills are squashed as a witness. Rote answers, rote talks, narrow field of reading material - does not enhance intellectual development.

BFD

Being raised a witness made me more smarter.

BFD

Satanus

The wt glorifies selective knowledge and learning. It makes jws more intellectual, or at the least, intellectual sounding. However, to succeed in this world, street smarts and self motivation are generally needed. In these areas areas, jws are generally sadly lacking.

S

nvrgnbk

I think the higher IQs are the reason we are "here" and not still "there", though some very intelligent people remain trapped in a variety of cults for very complex psychological reasons.

Did being raised as a witness make you smarter?

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