by sabastious 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
sabas,
I have many years experience in this matter, so I ask that you just trust me and my experience: your way won't work. The JW will tune you out before you get to the third paragraph, even if they ARE sincere and "reasonable." It's not their fault. It is the day-in-day-out, hour-in and hour-out indoctrination that bombards them from all directions.
Farkel
@Farkel - It already has with a few people. My goal is not to sway them but to show them that I am not crazy and that their are always different sides the coin. Blanketing statements like "it work work" are not helpful and limiting.
It is true, many witnesses will tune something like that out, but not all, and I believe that in time more witnesses will become open to that kind of discussion.
Not trying nevers paves the road to success. We have too much history to go by as humans to know that ANYTHING can be done with the correct motivation, anything.
-Sab
Dear Sab,
I think you are right, O.K , if we think we are going to have immediate success and they are going to throw their Watchtowers over the hedge and join the happy band of XJW's , we may be disappointed, but if we plant a seed or two, they may grow.
Let us try, whenever we can.
wobble
My goal is not to sway them but to show them that I am not crazy
If it works with just one dub, then fine ! but he would be the one in a million. My lot would really think I was crazy.
Also, my experience is that they never comment if they have heard that you have left. It is the "elephant in the room" that nobody wants to talk about. Perhaps they are afraid of hearing the reason why, or embarrassed, or just not interested.....
Good approach Sab,
any approach is good if it has some logic behind it.
You could say that I have some experience with this kind of thing too, and I can tell you that approaches like this DO WORK.
You may not see immediate results but the human mind is an interesting beast. It processes all the information it is exposed to on an ongoing basis. It may take months or years for the thought provoking argument to really hit home, but eventually your discussion could have a very positive effect and even lead to their awakening.
I have to say that I love the approach of Street76.
This is easy.
Ask this one question: "Do you believe the WTS is inspired and/or directed by Jehovah?"
If the answer is yes, the follow-up question is, "Then why have the WTS prophecies down through the years (1914, 1925, 1975, etc.) been so consistently wrong?"
If the answer is no, the follow-up question is, "So why would you belong to an organization you admit is not inspired and/or directed by Jehovah, and in addition, has been consistently wrong with their prophecies down through the years?"
Simple and powerful.
The Oracle
sab,
:Not trying nevers paves the road to success.
I never said to not try. I've been active helping JWs out for a dozen years and I've helped out more than I can count, including once-active elders, pioneers and entire families.
:We have too much history to go by as humans to know that ANYTHING can be done with the correct motivation, anything.
I agree. My approach has mostly been to verbally hit them with a sledge hammer to get their attention and try to get them angry enough to actually address my arguments. Those that do, usually end up leaving the religion. Those that don't are just not ready yet and may never be ready.
I'm not suggesting to anyone to use my approach. There are many ways to do it Randy's site has an excellent article on that very subject. That approach is to get a JW to talk about another religion which may have some of the same cultish characteristics as the JWs have. The idea with that approach is never to compare the other religion with the JW religion, but just hope that the JW will mentally pick up on the similarities.
But if the dub is just tooooo braindead, that approach won't work, either as I show in my fictional "Dubs at the Door" story:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/187678/1/Dubs-at-the-Door
Farkel
