by minimus 9 Replies latest jw friends
They don't want to think about their past, present or future.
They ignore any obvious weakness in "The Truth".
They won't question their leader's viewpoints.
They will follow what the Governing Body (the Faithful & Discreet Slave) says even if they flipflop a hundred times.
It's embarrassing to see millions of people refuse to think.
The only silver lining is that many of us were just like the Witnesses of today. There IS hope!
And if you point any of this out to them, you will either get a blank stare or a reaction to your "apostacy." Sigh.
If you explain to a neutral party the "mind of a Jehovah's Witness", most hearers will be incredulous. They figure that nobody can be that ignorant.
OMG - too right, Minimus! THAT is exactly why i come here to this forum so often, - there is no WAY anyone not familiar will sit still long enough to hear you explain this whole cult and what you've experienced! They start looking skeptical right away. They CANNOT understand.
What is saddest of all is that they have a false consciousness (a term I borrowed from Karl Marx ) about life and everything in it. Their whole life is a lie, and they are afraid to consider the reality of that fact.
I think of them every day and feel sad that people who could be free choose to live in slavery and poverty.
They are a terrified population under the boot of para-military hope-dealers who hold all blood relatives and social contacts mutually hostage in part and in whole. The population does not have the protected right to bear the self-defense of critical thought. They do not have the protected right to critically examine cause and effect. They do not have the protected right to retain in perpetuity their own data archives and test that data for drift, trends, systematic biases, precision, accuracy. They to not have the protected right to observe, hypothesize, re-observe, model, draw conclusions and share their own results.
I just got my second degree at 39yo, a BS Astronomy. In this field, and assuredly in any scientific field, there are many analogues and equivalents of the book study, the ministry school, the visiting Sunday speaker, the circuit assemblies and district conventions. One weekly meeting, called Journal Club, is where the apponted people, grad students and profs, pick out and present what they thought were the high points of this or that research paper, and are prepared to answer basic questions from the non-presenting round table. Another type of meeting, more than once a week, has a visiting speaker present their research, and not seldom must face a firey barrage of questions from a dubious, learned, professional, qualified, skeptical, and, fearless, audience. I've now been to two conferences of the American Astronomical Society. If you're headed up the ladder, if you need to network, if you need to present a talk or a poster, why, you dress full suit and tie or business jacket/blouse/heels, etc. If you're there to chillax and enjoy the proceedings, jeans and sneakers will do just fine. The keynote addresses are by speakers who are being honored for specific, unique contributions to science, and these are the solemn talks where science comes as close as it ever will to a system of belief or a devout cause in an of itself. Many other talks by intense, youthful, fired up post-docs and grad students. For lunch you connect with old or new faces and regale each other with experiences in science and anticipations of new science. The holy spirit of this kind of thing, the air that animates, is the quite verifiable fact that you are participating in an actual journey into the unknown, that you are planting torches in the cave to guide you back and to guide new ones in, and that there are surprises around the corner that you did not conceive or prepare for.
I challenge any terrified JW reading this to read just one short article on extrasolar planets.
rmt,
far out!
I remember taking a class a long time ago in college....Land forms.....We did field trips out in the plains of Illinois....It was a total learning experience for me....and helped shape my understanind of a lot of things unexpected. It was fascinating to me how the glaciers created the different land forms and dropped thier "deposits" when they receded.
Keep it up man....
They certainly do not follow the biblical example of the Bereans in Acts 17 who investigated everything and did not think that research was a waste of time.
they're definitely slaves and captives to a concept.....the concept that the gb are gods representatives.....and are accountable to no one.....wish more had courage to question doctrine policy. ...
Many years ago, JWs were ENCOURAGED to RESEARCH objections that might be encountered and be prepared to make a defense. Then, they wanted you to read from a book, anytime someone raised an objection.
Now, they simply shake the dust off their feet and look to ensnare only "teachable" ones.
