What say you?
Do JW beliefs deserve respect?
by azor 45 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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sir82
I'm with what many others have posted....
People deserve respect. (well, most do, anyway)
Ridiculous ideas and beliefs deserve ridicule.
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cofty
Define "respect".
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DJS
No.
As Sir stated, ridiculous beliefs deserve ridicule.
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David_Jay
While rejecting ideas that we may have good reason to be skeptical about can be warranted, ridicule is a very different thing. History is filled with very intellectual people ridiculing ideas and views, and later being embarrassed when proven wrong.
While I am not saying many of the views of JWs aren't totally unfounded, seeking them out for ridicule could backfire. Sometimes what seems totally stupid or impossible has turned out to be right, so just be careful that you don't be so trusting in yourself and your own views as if it is impossible to be mistaken.
Things originally ridiculed in the past included...
A Catholic priest who claimed he had uncovered evidence proving that the universe had a beginning. Up until then scientists agreed the universe had no beginning, and many atheists used the notion of a "beginning" of the universe as a reason to ridicule the Bible's opening statement at Genesis 1.1.
The priest was Georges Lemaitre, and his evidence is now the expanding model of the universe commonly referred to as the Big Bang theory.
Creating an electromechanical machine that could decipher encrypted messages better than the smartest group of humans. The Nazi's Enigma encoder seemed impossible to figure out, creating messages that the greatest minds among the British could not unravel. When a man claimed that a machine could do a better job than any human, he was laughed away and almost kept from proving his claim.
The man was cryptologist Alan Turning. His invention that actually made conquering the Nazis possible is what people today call a computer.
I could go on to talk about plate teutonics and contental drift, the motor invented by Henry Ford, even making a feature-length animated feature by some cartoonist by the name of Disney...yep, a lot of things were originally laughed at.
I am not saying that the doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses are true and on par with these examples. But I am saying that ridicule from scorn is not always wise. We need to act with some modesty because we aren't always as all-knowing or right about things as we may think we are.
If we make it a habit to ridicule things we don't believe are true, we may eventually make ourselves the subject of the same type of scorn when we go too far. Humans have proven that pride in our knowledge will eventually trip us up, especially when we think we have some type of enlightenment others are not privy to. So be careful.
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ctrwtf
I'm going to use the old illustration about a little poison in a large glass of water. Would you drink it?
Under Hitler, Germany was a model of order and economic boom. Would you say that it was good for some?
Iraq under Saddam was probably better off than it is now. Do you think they want to go back?
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DJS
DJ,
Good point. When you find an example of any of us mean ole atheists ridiculing something in error please point it out.
As Cofty says, we don't want to be wrong any longer than necessary.
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David_Jay
DJS,
I don't think there is anything such as "mean ole atheists." They are not exclusive of each other.
People can be mean, they may at the same be an atheist, but I think it would be unfair to somehow link them as if one was responsible for the other.
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cofty
seeking them out to for ridicule could backfire. Sometimes what seems totally stupid or impossible has turned out to be right, - DJ
Are you seriously suggesting that there is even the most remote possibility that the Watchtower are correct about anything?
It is a moral duty to expose oppressive ideologies. Ridicule is a legitimate tool.
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TimeBandit
JW beliefs are responsible for broken families, broken people, and broken lives. How can there be any respect for that?
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