Most of the seven or so billion people in the world believe the Creator of the universe has either dictated or inspired the writing of a sacred book. Adherents know that they are right and those who believe otherwise are wrong. Black and white. That there are many such books in existence is problematic insofar as they condemn one another either directly or by inference as heretical - or at best earlier, defective revelations. By definition, therefore, not all devout believers can be right. By definition, in fact, the great majority must be wrong. It can be no other way. All believers simultaneously understand and misunderstand this fact. Yes, most believers are wrong, they will agree, but not them. It is not possible that they can be mistaken because their interpretation of their sacred book cannot possibly be mistaken. This is the definition of circular reasoning and selective consciousness. This is indisputable. A fundamentalist Muslim believes with all his being that the Koran is the literal word of Allah and that anyone who doubts this is worthy of death and subsequent eternal torture in Hell. His belief is utter and irreconcilable with any other. At an extreme he may demonstrate his conviction by immolating himself and others for the glory of Allah. Could there possibly be a more sincere demonstration of faith than this? Such displays of absolute conviction are commonplace, but should they persuade you or me to look to the Koran for Truth? The question is rhetorical and the answer obvious, but only to the non-Muslim. Islamic faith is a perfect, impenetrable barrier to open and honest discussion. To an Islamist the Koran is the infallible word of God. Period. Any evidence that contradicts what is written in the Koran is therefore wrong and thrown out, either reflexively or through cognitive dissonance. There is no talking to an Islamist if you are going to demonstrate to him that what he believes cannot possibly be true. From what we have seen demonstrated time and time again, his reaction will vary from polite indignation to murderous outrage. Is belief in the Bible different? Substitute fundamentalist Christian for Islamist and the picture takes on much the same coloration. Apropos to the theme of this board, from the perspective of a Jehovah's Witness if I am not myself baptised a Jehovah's Witness and remain faithful to the proclamations of the Governing Body there is an almost absolute certainty that I will either die at Armageddon or will suffer death a second time after Judgement Day. At least the Watchtower doesn't have me burning in Hell for all eternity, which is an improvement in many respects over what the other fundamentalist Christian congregations espouse. But a Jehovah's Witness nevertheless believes with all his being that the Bible is the inerrant and literal word of Yahweh. Jehovah's Witnesses compromise the quality of their lives and those they love but they are incapable of seeing it. They have come to believe that what they sacrifice in order to worship Jehovah is not a hardship but a joy because the best is yet to come. Eternal life on Paradise Earth. They are so convinced they alone have The Truth they go door-to-door in a sincere desire to inculcate others. They believe so completely they are willing to die to honour a particular facet of their belief involving blood as the sacred symbol of life, unique to them as Yahweh's chosen people. With such displays of complete honesty and sincerity, why am I not persuaded to look to the Watchtower to find Truth? The answer is the same. If you are a Jehovah's Witness, you believe the Watchtower's interpretation of the Bible is a perfect and accurate representation of what the Creator of the universe wants you to know. Any argument that contradicts Watchtower teaching is dismissed - most often, from the perspective of someone standing outside the Watchtower faith, by squaring the circle. Presented with contradictory evidence, no matter how compelling, it is always without fail the evidence that is thrown out, never the passage and verse and interpretation thereof. If a non-Witness speaks on matters of faith he is either mistaken or he seeks to deceive, no matter how sincere he may appear to be. If he attempts to speak confidently and knowledgeably on secular or scientific matters that challenge Watchtower beliefs, he is to be perceived as pitifully mistaken and then studiously ignored. An overwhelming body of evidence will be thrown out and disregarded because it cannot possibly be true. The Watchtower has already proven logically that The Flood, for example, was a factual, historical event. There is no need to go into it.You may, in fact, be disfellowshipped and shunned should you dare go into it. Any evidence presented that the Watchtower is not what it represents itself to be is summarily dismissed, except the mechanism in this case is righteousness rather than obscurantism, and the tactic changes. The messenger, rather than the message, is attacked. The evidence itself is ignored as irrelevant and obviously in error. He who challenges the legitimacy of the Watchtower is assigned a label. He is a "spiritual danger", an "opposer", an "unbeliever" or, worse of all, an "apostate" whose person must be avoided and whose message must fall on deaf ears. I think we can agree, no matter who we are and what we believe, that Watchtower faith, like Islamic faith, is a perfect barrier to honest and open discussion. It is an adherence that allows discourse only within a very small box that the Watchtower itself prescribes, and even then the discussion is necessarily in only one direction. If you are a Christian, as many on this board are, I offer the following. As I carefully read the Bible and weigh its teaching, its wisdom, its insights and provisions for morality in the clear and honest light of evidence for and against, I come away bewildered that after 2,000 years there are still sincere and intelligent people who actually subscribe to it as factual truth, if only selectively. But that is the phenomenon of faith, after all. Faith in the Koran has endured almost as long. I see in Christian faith many of the same qualities and defects I see in Muslim faith. You are not the same, but you are the same. You are cut from the same cloth. Only your bias is different. But you are similarly immovable.You share a common and fatal deficiency of being incapable of perceiving yourselves and what you hold dear in the clear light of reality.
Cut from the same cloth
by Nickolas 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Phizzy
Oh bollocks, I loved all those fairy stories, you mean they are not even a little bit true ?
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Azazel
Thanks for your clear observation Nikolas i agree with you 100%.
Az
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cantleave
Very true!
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finally awake
Nice analysis!
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Nickolas
No, actually, it was a pedantic rant from an old man who had had too many sleepless nights and too many single malts. Carry on.
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transhuman68
Perhaps the way we see Christianity and the Bible is a product of the environment we grew up in- surrounded by churches and the WASP way of life- of which the Witnesses are a lunatic fringe element: just as Muslims grow up in countries dotted with mosques and the rules of the Koran. Now, in the Western world, these edifices are constructed virtually side by side- making each seem to be a viable alternative and both slightly irrelevant at the same time. Maybe it is the beginning of the end for religion's sacred status....
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Phizzy
I do hope so Trans. !
And thank you for your thoughtful and well written O.P Nicholas, it is well worth my filing away for future use.
I still feel a joke coming on as I read through it :
"What is the difference between a JW and a Muslim ?"
"one believes their religion is 100% right, and the other ........... erm"
Perhaps the comics on here can provide a better punchline ?
well done again Nick, keep on taking the medicine (in the form of single malt, the angels supplied it you know!")
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cofty
Marking to re-read later. Thanks
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Sulla
I think, Nicholas, that very many ex-JW anti-Christian screeds are the product of anger and shame at the fact that they believed so strongly in a complete lie. They only partially dis-believe it, though, and still carry around too many nasty mental habits from their JW days: they accept the JW's criticism of Christianity, they never investigate (or do not have the ability to evaluate) the central claims of Christianity, they attack Christian strawmen instead of real Christian arguments. They are wounded in many ways.
Because of these wounds and because they feel, with some justification, that breaking free of the JWs is a real accomplishment, they are prone to paint with a very broad brush. It's unfortunate, but the unstated thinking seems to be something like, "The JWs are a dangerous cult, and therefore Christianity is wrong." Which is not to say you've done that here. Of course, helping that point of view is the fact that many Christians are, themselves, as unreflective as JWs.
I'd offer this in response to you: You see a " fatal deficiency of being incapable of perceiving yourselves and what you hold dear in the clear light of reality," with respect to Christians. Yet you also see some as sincere and intelligent. There is a tension between these two things, it seems to me, and if you are bewildered by it, then perhaps you should resolve the tension.