Today's talk was really somethin'. So much so that I felt compelled to post this during the WT study...
I didn't pay attention to the theme, but where I to title the talk it would be "Logical fallacy, scripture out of context, and phobia indoctrination: a case study in cult indoctrination.". That's certainly a more honest title than whatever they gave, I'm sure.
It starts out by saying that sometimes people are skeptical about things they're told, and feel compelled to look for evidence of the claims. Already I'm thinking "oh, this is gonna be good." The example was given of someone claiming that a strawberry wasn't technically a berry, but bananas are, the speaker says "that may sound hard to believe." He then goes on to describe in generic terms the concept of a literal Satan as a personal entity, saying that even some theologians endorse the view that Satan is just a metaphors for evil. His proof that Satan is a literal person was to quote a few scriptures, all of which where some variation of "the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.". The fun part was that in each case, if you replaced "Satan" with "evil" the scripture still made sense, and sometimes it made more sense that the scripture was using the devil as a metaphors for human tendency towards evil. He then asserted that if you believed in the idea of Satan being a metaphor for evil, you'd have to throw out all the teachings of Jesus, the apostles and a few others because they said he was a person (even though that wasn't necessarily the case). I've never heard such a compelling argument to believe that Satan isnt a real person! He sums up this topic by asserting (in what's known as an appeal to consequences) that without a personal entity of Satan, you have no satisfying answers for such evil as rape, murder warfare, etc. Not to mention the fact that as an atheist, I've found quite satisfying answers to the world's conditions.
Next up he goes into a long tirade about pop music, TV shows, the occult, etc. (BTW, we're now 15-20 minutes in and no scriptures read from the bible) on the topic of the occult, he asks if we may watch movies or TV shows featuring the occult and say that it doesn't affect you because you only see it as a story of fiction. Then he directs us to the first scripture of the day: 2 Corinthians 11:3, which read in the context of his talk seems to be a word of caution about how sneaky Satan is and warning not to be tempted by him. The problem is, that if you read the next verse, it is clearly a warning against being tempted by others who preach a version of Jesus that doesn't match what paul preached. Now, who do we know of that preaches a version oof Jesus that's not supported by scripture? Just saying...
He closes with some strong phobia indoctrination. He asks us to imagine (a common technique used to bypass critical thinking) being in a storm cellar while an EF-5 tornado rages outside. He asks, "are you tempted to open the hatch and peak outside to see if it's really as dangerous as you're told?" My thought was that of I was born in the cellar, and never heard any wind raging outside, yeah I might be tempted to look out. Not to see if the storm was as dangerous as I was told, but to see if it even existed. You probably know where he was going - we're safe in "the organization" and shouldn't be tempted by anything in the world, no matter how innocent it may seem. So, if you leave the organization (or so much as watch an episode of the walking dead), its the same as walking into a tornado.
I really need to get out of this cult. I can't stand listening to this BS much longer.