Think of this Abandoned.... they go out in service, to meetings, shun kids, you know the drilll... and they're lying to themselves? THey are living a lie?
Some must simply be too damn dumb to see reality... it must be true of some of them.
JW IQ's. Below average? (Includes SM anecdote.)
by Open mind 60 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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barry
I beleive JWs are of high intellegence because it is well known a person of high intellegence can be more easily brainwashed.
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kurtbethel
From my experience, it would appear that there is a low IQ, in that they can not read a simple narrative and learn what is being told.
An example is I was talking about the Memorial to my JW during our study and learned how most people do not partake. I asked for some evidence from the Bible where Jesus told some people to partake and others not to. He could provide none. He started to tell me a story about Judas leaving before taking bread and wine. I was suprised to hear this, since I never saw a Bible that told it that way. So of course we read through the narratives in each book that had it and I graphed out the sequence of events on paper. Judas very clearly leaves after partaking. He insisted that Juday left before. I said, look right here Judas is partaking, and look at this later verse here, he leaves. The JW insisted that Judas left before.
At this point I was thinking you would have to be retarded to be a JW. If you can not follow a simple sequence of events and discern what is happening you must have some faulty brain wiring. I saw the same thing happen when we were reading Revelation chapter 7.
Since then I have come to realize that with some people, and most people to some degree, that magical thinking can overcome rational thought. So I would not say conclusively that JWs have a lower IQ, but I think that if you have a tendency for magical irrational thinking then you are more likely to be snared by the WT racket.
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Awakened07
JWs are not stupid on average, I think. You can be really intelligent and think a lot, but when you're limited to think only within a certain narrow field of what you've been told, you won't be able to use your intelligence to view things objectively. You may hear things that go against what you've been taught, but you feel you have the backing of all the various things you've been taught before, so you opt to believe that whatever doesn't agree with what you believe, must be false. This at least can be true for those who were born in.
At least JWs aren't as stupid and gullible as certain other Christians...
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rogerdodger
How does the auxilliary question make the audience less intelligent? Either the Secretary is just lazy and is filling time or maybe he got the part last minute and was again, trying to fill the time.. Got to make that part fill the alloted time! Most the JWs I've ever known were at least normal intelligence if not above... they just have no common sense to think that what they're being told to do is BS.
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oompa
priceless!!!............oompa
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aquagirl
i dont think that the are curious intellectuals,or anything like that.maybe not even as smart as,say....my hairbrush..
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wifekeepsmeinit
I think over time you get "dumbed down". The WT magazine, the books, the insanely simple questions from the KM. I mean, when you first start with them, you think you must be pretty smart learning all these new things about the Bible, and after a little while you almost think you are superior to other people around you because of the Bible knowledge. I know when I first started with them, I wanted to get out in the public and pick a fight with someone in Christendom, (to prove how smart I am).
But....over time, you are constantly exposed to the same questions that are re-hashed over an over again, drilling it into your mind. The WT magazine is a classic example, you read 50 words in a paragraph and then are asked a question " Why is God the Sovreign Ruler" - well the answer is in the first sentence of the paragraph. Its silly, and I think when you are constantly asked silly questions over and over and over again you start to think that these questions are the "norm", and this is the level we are all at, and then you think "well I better not second guess the WT, I might get into trouble" and you tow the party line.
Plus it dosent help that I am constantly told not do any "independent thinking"
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watson
Judging by the number of eccentrics in the org, I would say the average IQ is higher. It's the "EQ" that suffers.
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hillbilly
maybe there is something to that eyes-moving from left to right after a brain-relaxing song brainwashing system after all.
Classic! I have heard that restate the question as an anwer before....maybe even did it myself to see if they were paying attention!
~Hill