by zagor 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Zagor, Your topic is excellant and reminds of the quote from Sir Francis Bacon, "Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider."
Something that the rank and file are unable to do is to weigh and consider. They will contradict and confute, believe and take for granted, but never weigh and consider.
Blueblades
Zagor, very good. I've also said the "JW's are emotional misfits!" Nothing but clones!
Golf
JWs used to weigh and consider things more before 1980. But since the purge at Bethel and this quote regarding the Bereans, any JW not buying into the WTS dogma 100% are viewed suspiciously.
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w81 2/15 p. 18 Do We Need Help to Understand the Bible? ***To help us to understand God’s Word in these "last days," Jehovah God has lovingly provided a visible organization under Christ—the "faithful and discreet slave." The way Jehovah God has prospered the activities carried on under its direction can leave no doubt in the minds of dedicated Christians as to Jehovah God’s approval being upon it.—Matt. 24:45-47.
A
NOBLE-MINDED VIEWHow shall we view the spiritual food provided by this "faithful and discreet slave"? Should it be viewed critically—‘Oh, well, it might be true but then again it might not be and so we have to scrutinize it very critically’? Some apparently have felt that way about it. To support their way of thinking they have quoted Acts 17:11, which says of newly interested persons at Beroea: "Now the latter were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so."
But does this mean that those Beroeans were looking for flaws in the message they were hearing, or that their attitude was one of doubting? Does this set a precedent for regarding critically the publications brought forth by the "faithful and discreet slave," with a view to finding fault? Not at all!
Think of a virus.
The virus takes over the cell by hijacking it.
Then, from that point, the business of the cell is not self-sustaining. The agenda is VIRAL.
Jehovah's Witnesses have had their minds hijacked by a virus: Jehovah-think. The business of an intelligent human is self-sustaining activity. Jehovah-think hijacks this. The human's thoughts for themselves are paralysed. They are trained to view themselves as a service unit.
Intellectual vitality has to originate in self-sustaining purposes. By substitutions, the Watchtower makes all self-sustaining action contingent on being filtered by propaganda. Propaganda is a Trojan Horse.
1.You are unworthy. You have no value except in your service to Jehovah's Organization.
2.Do what you or told or you will be discarded (i.e. be destroyed because your usefulness is null.)
This is followed by a program of REdefinition of all major CONCEPTUAL premises. Everyday speech is filled with words that are redefined to produce knee-jerk reactions that short-circuit normal thinking.
Example:
Truth..........short-circuit..............substitution: JEHOVAH'S version via Watchtower Society books.
Knowledge...short-circuit..........substitution: two kinds: ACCURATE (i.e.Watchtower) false:(everything else).
Plainly, JW's are made to fear everything around them and view any ordinary event as a SIGN OF THE END. All daily news events or human activity which isn't Watchtower-worthy conduct triggers a revulsion and fear and drives the JW into the Kingdom Hall trembling for safety.
Other people, even the most wonderful and kind, are viewed suspiciously as agents of the evil Satanic worldwide conspiracy against Jehovah's Kingdom.
A spotlight constantly shines like a beacon at night on the guntower at a maximum security prision scanning for escapees. The spotlight hungers for anybody who moves against the expected, the normative and the Governing Body approved activity of a bona fide Jehovah's Witness. Once that light stops on you the terror of shunning and disfellowshipping is not far behind. Consequently, avoiding controversy, odd questions, dangerous curiousity and contrary opinion is priority number one. The INDIVIDUAL is the most dangerous criminal in the Kingdom Hall.
Without the self-permission to actuate your own necessary development as a human being you lose the function itself. What is used develops; what is not used atrophies.
Reality intrudes even on JWs when ordinary happenings bring disasters. If they drop activity to heal their wounds, the spotlight finds them and the pounding begins. You are not allowed to have personal problems. PERIOD. You are a cog in a wheel. Cogs do not have days off or ask troubling questions.
The only conversations a JW are allowed to have are twofold:
1.Evangelical
2.Happy talk (agreeing the Governing Body is wonderful).
The true mind of the individual is poisoned and dies. What is left is a hulk liked the sloughed skin of a reptile. The Governing Body survives by eating this skin until nothing is left.
Brooklyn Bethel, the Governing Body and the Worldwide preaching activity are a roaring fire fueled by the drained bodies of people whose minds have been destroyed.
The only hope anybody has of escaping this viral infection is to have life slap them in the face so hard they momentarily blink awake and find the true TRUTH and the phoney truth about everything being done.
That is the moment of decision. Escape or going back into the dead-alive mental vacuity is what follows.
Many people leave and find they have NO MENTAL TOOLS to live on their own. They are so dependant they cannot construct a life for themselves. All their re-definitions and altered concepts work against developing a mind of their own and a healthy self-existence.
A "former" JW is a sad and angry non-person for a long while. Eventually they will either tire of the flailing insecurity and join another group................
or plunge back into the quicksand by returning to the old mindset.........
or escape and built a life and a new mind free of the viral sickness.
I really enjoy your posts Terry. I checked out some of your music tracks over at Randy's site and I thought they were excellent too. Thanks man.
GBL
I really enjoy your posts Terry. I checked out some of your music tracks over at Randy's site and I thought they were excellent too. Thanks man. GBL
A big unexpected "Thanks" to you GBL.
I compose about two to four pieces a day compulsively. If music were drool I could fill a couple of buckets :)
T.
Just wanted to say great thread, zagor.
When I got out of the organization and starting really studying things that I was interested in (mainly science, and a bit of history and philosophy), I was totally blown away by the depth of actual knowledge out there, just waiting to be had. It was like moving from a puddle to the ocean.
SNG
Funny you posted this Zagor,
One time a couple years ago John Stossel (not a big fan of him, but that's another story) did a special - about preconceived myths about common stuff and how they were not true - everything from natural disasters to old wives tales.
During the whole show my wife was blown away. He did a "top ten" misconceptions and broke eache one down in little 2-3 minute segments.
Anyways, the LAST one was "Are things REALLY worse today than they were in the past?"
The answer was "No." He then went on to quote stats and candid, realistic observations of things in the past. It was awesome. Although I had not even come close to "apostate" status at this time I had already come to John Stossel's conclusion by then.
I watched my wife carefully, and when it was done she said, "Well, I'm not so sure about that LAST one."
Then we never talked about it after that.
Cognitive dissonance at work. Not blaming her or saying she's stupid (because she's not). It is just sad that so many are like that. (Including myself at one time.)
-ithinkisee
What an interesting way of putting it. I totally agree.
I spent at least 3 years "clearing the cobwebs" from my mind, before I even attempted to decide what I really believed. When the foundation laid for us for our spirituality is so flawed, it makes no sense to try to build on that and expect anything to stick. Only after dismantling what I had been taught was I able to examine myself clearly. When I first left, I didn't think I even had any faith in anything or anyone. After a few years, I started to read and educate myself. I decided that I did beleive in the bible, and in Jesus. A couple of years after that, I decided that I was ready to explore and experimented a few times with non denominational churches ( like one every 6-8 months!) It is just this year, 8 years after my very last meeting, have we started to regularly attend a church that we are very comfortable with. Definitely not a rapid process for me!
The thing that helped me break this even though I studied philosophy a bit and started to critically think on my own, was one of my online friends saying, "You won't believe how much there is out there in the world" (paraphrased) and even though I knew the JW's were crap i still believed that there wasnt much else out there. But the way i somewhat overcame that was just keeping her words in my head while i researched. And Ive never learned so much.
When you just think about it... you can spend your whole life researching a small country, every second of the day and never learn everything about that country. Now that's just one country... theres plenty of countries and theres even more subjects than countries and even more subtopics than those subjects. It's amazing. And this is just academic, let's not even get into emotions, feelings, personal philosophy, fitness, and a plethora of other things. Sheesh I can't believe how the JW's can say theres nothing for you in this world. That's just ignorance. I'd die of old age before I could finish all the good things in this world.
