Jehovah's Witnesses weren't JEHOVAH's WITNESSES until 1931.
Until that year the people who had been hard-headed followers of End Times false prophecies by William Miller and Seventh Day Adventists, more or less settled into following charisma-ballyhoo preaching by folks like "Pastor" C.T. Russell.
What was it that attracts these people?
It is a thin veneer of pious Bible interpretation as a means of prepping for the END of the WORLD.
Yep. Early versions of doomsday prep.
If it sounded complicated, clever, and (above all) imminent - preppers were stuck like glue.
It is addictive for some folks. Let's face it.
BESIDES - it has elements of love of God and worship and Jesus and Bible and - and ...
GAMBLING!
____
But it isn't an intellectual sport supported by Science. (Being a JW)
Nope - it is fed by bullshit.
Bullshit that sounds smart is addictive.
(If you don't believe it - think about Politics today.)
Unsophisticated / under-educated people want to feel smart; feel superior. Knowing God's Plan is a trump card in that desire.
The people who stick with Watchtower's constantly changing doctrine are not THINKING PEOPLE.
They are GAMBLERS.
They think they are thinkers. The think they are the wisest.
But?
They are team members in a kind of pyramid scheme.
(Literally, in the case of Russell).
How so?New recruits go out and sell others on joining the club of Doomsday watchers hunkering down for Armageddon.
Those newly acquired newbies, in turn, go out and do the same.THAT IS ALL THERE EVER WAS to being a Jehovah's Witness.
Moreover - that's all there ever will be to this religion.
What keeps this bullshit interesting?
Counter-intuitively it is the CHANGES to the doctrine!
It is edge of your seat drama!
Anything can happen at any moment!
"Here is the LATEST update on TRUTH about Armageddon!"
(Previous reports (Old Light) were incomplete from the field).
News bulletins and New Light are the same thing emotionally...
Excitement, Drama, uncertainty ...survival!
So, actually "thinking" about what they are believing just gets a JW nowhere but in trouble with the Organization.
Doing exactly as you are told is what keeps your motor running.
Like Las Vegas, if you aren't a gambler - you've got no business hanging around the casino.
Isn't that what a Kingdom Hall really is - a casino?
You gamble everything you have in order to Win.
The excitement of maybe losing everything for the chance to Win is oh so addictive and exciting and ----empty.
When I think of my life and how I risked it going to prison - I see a young man who was a real gambler. A LOSER.
The only way not to lose? DON'T PLAY their game. Don't gamble your life away.
Because - That's all there was to being a Jehovah's Witness.
All those ARMAGEDDON dates were BETS on Jehovah's Roulette Wheel.
Just numbers. Bad bets.
That's all there ever was to being a Jehovah's Witness
by Terry 11 Replies latest jw friends
-
Terry
-
WingCommander
Very nice summation.
-
Finkelstein
Wagering on fictional mythology to be true and factual is never a good bet or a idea.
-
truth_b_known
Thus we enter the philosophy of Pascal's Wager.
Just like a real casino with real gamblers, you are taunted by the casino staff that you're not a real gambler until you're "all in." Black everything on black 1914 and spin the wheel.
-
Terry
The first time I went to Las Vegas and played the stupid slot machines I had fun.
Every time a slot pays off - there is a ding ding ding ding dinging bell and the sound of coins clattering down the long chute. Exhilarating!
So many machines - the sound of the PAYOFF here and there and - everywhere!!
This makes winning feel and sound INEVITABLE!
It isn't.
But the sound of the payoff is ever-present in an echo-chamber of reinforcement.
In this Watchtower religion - your only world is that Casino with everybody echoing the payoff promises. It's all you hear - that and the fear of losing (Armageddon) unless you keep playing.
When I ran out of coins I stopped.
"I won't play anymore."
Yeah.
Right.
But - if you aren't playing ... there is nothing to do but watch all those "winners" collecting coins (in aggregate) as the losers are silent and all but invisible. -
BluesBrother
"Unsophisticated / under-educated people want to feel smart; feel superior. Knowing God's Plan is a trump card in that desire."
I guess that was me as a young man. It sure feels good to believe you knowthe secrets of tbe Universe. .. We knew more than the top scientists, the great thinkers , what a privilege!
We used to watch the wildlife documentaries and feel so superior when it said that creatures evolved. When people spoke of the next 30 or 40 years , we'ld chuckle because the world would never last that long....
Oh well.........
-
Rivergang
Bullshit that sounds smart is addictive.
Very well put! I must remember that line.
-
Terry
I can still remember all too easily how fantastic it felt to be enthralled of
ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY. I knew what the entire universe meant and where it was headed.
What a heady exhilaration!
Ah, but - turns out I was just a plaything - a puppet with the cold hand of a Govern Body up my bum.
My life wasn't MY life - it was the wiggly fingers of those proctological dumbasses.
Oh my. What a great fall from so great a height! -
eyeuse2badub
We (jw's) were right and everyone else was wrong! Oh what a feeling! I was so smug and self righteous. I sort of miss that feeling........but not at the price I had to pay to have it!
just saying!
-
Terry
JW's rare terrified and creaming their knickers but gloating
right now because their entire cosmos is framed by DOOM.
The Bible Students under Russell met WWI with soiled undies but out-sized hankering for the cable-car to heaven.
Existential occurrences throughout history are not exceptional.
Earthquakes? Always.
Wars? Always.
Famines? Always
Diseases? Always
The model for END TIMES ALWAYS FITS the era in which you live!
This is as close to 'proof' as the Watchtower has ever gotten.ve·rid·i·cal/vəˈridək(ə)l/adjectiveFORMAL- truthful.
- coinciding with reality.
