Sometimes I think so, but then other times I think it is just plain old mule stubborn. They see something black and the society says it is white so it becomes white to them no matter what.
Did You Find Many JWs As Being Not Very Intelligent?
by minimus 47 Replies latest jw friends
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oompa
Yes, and I hate to admit it. There are so few that I really admire and consider really intelligent. I could count them on both hands, and at most a partial foot. I have to count that way due to my limited education.............oompa
btw I am serious about my bruddahs....many could consider being called ignorant a compliment
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JH
They are above average in public speaking, and general bible knowledge.
Maybe they are a little lower salary wise than the average.
Since most of them didn't go to college or university, they are less knowledgeable in many fields, but maybe not less intelligent.
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stillajwexelder
I remember an elder once looking at me then pointing at the congregation. He winked at me and asked "Are we dealing with a full deck of cards here -or what?"
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WTWizard
I have found that there were quite a few that were bona fide idiots. However, the majority were merely uneducated. They may have had potential, but they are not allowed to use independent sources to research anything. They might think they know the deepest things (which were put there just to make them think they are superior to the worldly people that don't know those things). But, when it comes to basic logic, they will not use it.
This is evident when you hear the comments. About half are word for word what is right in the paragraph. Others take a word or two and replace it with a close synonym. Truly original comments are rare, and almost always rambling personal stories that bear little resemblance to what is in the lesson. And never do you hear a comment that criticizes what is in the paragraph, so others can discuss it and come to a more reasonable conclusion.
And no higher education. I got mine before the tower got me, so I was able to use some of the reasoning skills learned in Economics classes. (If anyone has the opportunity to go to college, I recommend that you take at least one Economics class and preferably a basic 200-level course as well). Those classes teach the basics of cost/benefit analysis, and the 200-level courses will teach that money isn't the only cost. An hour spent out in field circus, for instance, might not cost you any money if someone else is doing the driving or you are standing in street work. However, there is the opportunity cost--what else could you have been doing with that hour. Those courses are great to help one weigh the total cost with the total benefit.
And those with a brain that is actually used eventually become apostate.
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Samuel Thorsen
Tanks and welcome titania. A great first one and very intelligent. Never thougt of this before...
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shopaholic
Typically, yes. But I contribute it to the fact that they don't read much outside of the JW realm. Field service used to be a real chore because the conversation was so very simple. If the conversation is about something JW or the latest congregation gossip, most JWs can't follow or contribute to the conversation. It might be because they really don't care about anything outside of the JW world, after all, in their mind its all going down with the system. Everything is either the devil or a blessing from Jehovah.
Okay, I have to tell this story. Just recently I helped a JW friend with a bill. Then later that day she's say that it was a blessing from Jehovah and I said, "Actually it was a blessing from my checkbook." The she proceeds to explain that I was being used by Jehovah to help her and that if wasn't me then it would have been someone else. LOL...I'll let Jehovah use someone else next time.
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zagor
I did meet few very intelligent people among witnesses, majority though is intellectually too lazy to investigate anything. Mind you, I find the same thing among general population so I don't really believe dubs have monopoly over stupidity. What I find more disturbing is wtbs propensity to lay a claim on people's minds as if being their property, a clay they can mold as they see fit. They may have convinced themselves to only be "giving scriptural advice" in reality their meddling into even the most trivial life's issues are making wtbs a modern day pharisees. They strip people off their humanness and all too often humanity too in which natural human tendencies to help your fellow man, to show love to a child to protect your daughter or son in every situation, to have free intimacy with your mate etc, are being replaced by institutionalized frame of mind so well described by Orwellian 1984.
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minimus
Hmmmm, maybe there's a lot of closeted "intelligent" people in the congregation.