Cults and Convergent Evolution

by cognisonance 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  cognisonance

  A thought popped in my mind on the way to work today. Most JWs don't think they are in a cult (or an organization with many cult-like features). This isn't really surprising considering most cults don’t think they are, well, a cult. What is interesting is my hypothesis for explaining in part why JWs can’t see they are in a cult. Simply, I think that many JWs think that cults are malevolent groups on purpose and probably think of well-known cults like People’s Temple, or Branch Davidians, as examples. Next they reason that JWs aren’t making anyone drink cyanide or participate in a shootout, they aren’t a group that purposely wants to do harm, they aren’t a group where someone is narcissistic and wants control, so therefore they aren’t a cult.

  What escapes notice however, is that a cult doesn’t have to start out being an effort by one person (or a group) to purposely brainwash others. The brainwashing doesn’t even have to be with malice. I’m not even sure if the two groups just mentioned were doing these things on purpose. Rather, think about the concept from biology called convergent evolution where species evolve similar traits despite not being related. They got their traits because they worked and increased the chances of living long enough to reproduce.

  Many of the cult-like traits that JWs have (information control, shunning, us-vs-them thinking, black-and-white thinking, special channel from god, doubts/dissent punished, etc) were likely not purposeful, but rather were traits that were stumbled upon and, like convergent evolution, they worked at keeping the religion alive long enough to spread or spread better.

  While getting them to study evolution is unlikely, I wonder if helping them see that when someone calls them a cult they aren’t trying to use a four-letter word that implies their group is purposely evil and manipulative, but rather, that it acquired traits overtime that are beneficial for the organization, but disastrous for individual members. These negative traits are what people mean when they call JWs a cult.
• 

  breakfast of champions

  Interesting analogy, COGNISONANCE
• 

  SonoftheTrinity

  Perhaps reading about how cults stopped being cults and became congregations that now support and encourage each other can also provide clues as to how this could happen for Jehovah's Witnesses. Some classic examples are the Reformed Latter-Day Saintsnow called the Community of Christ, and the Worldwide Church of God, now organized as Grace Communion International.
• 

  Londo111

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/220540/1/Origin-of-High-Control-Groups-by-Natural-Selection

  I had a similar thought sometime back.
• 

  Vidiot

  Londo111 - "http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/220540/1/Origin-of-High-Control-Groups-by-Natural-Selection I had a similar thought sometime back."

  I can't believe I missed that thread when you posted it.

  That reasoning, more than any other, is what led me to the conclusion that the WTS is - ultimately - doomed to extinction.

  The religions that seem best suited to survival in the Information Age are the ones who fully accept and successfully adapt to it, and everything I've seen indicates that a central and fundamental aspect of that adaptation is mainstreaming, i.e. embracing fiscal and policy transparency, utilizing the democratic process, respecting and accepting the discoveries of history and science (regardless of the implications), and fostering positive community activism.

  Other characteristics in the "mainstreaming" trend generally seem to be acceptance of the validity of other faiths (or none at all), acceptance of most of the Bible (particularly the OT) as allegorical and/or non-historical, and a preference for secular government over theocracy.

  Basically, progressive reform.

  Which is why, no matter how much JWs try to rebrand themselves as a hip, 20th Century e-religion, they can never truly mainstream; virtually every aspect of the WTS's entire internal structure and ideology is completely opposite from the direction they need to go to accomplish that.

  And what happens to organisms that cannot successfully adapt to a changing environment?
• 

  SonoftheTrinity

  The fetishizing of the generation of 1914 has left a de facto gerentocracy. One single charismatic tyrant who kept replacing his lieutenants out of paranoia would present more wiggle room for eventual reform than the current power structure. Which leads to another interesting question. Which leads to another question...should children being raised in the Untruth be stealthily introduced by their worldy stepparents to the writings of Machiavelli and Musashi and at what tender age?