ARS,
Welcome to the board. I was once like you in some ways. Felt that i had airtight arguements to basically make the "the good is more good than the bad is bad" argument. I would get on baords, and engage ex-JW's in banter. I would be the reasonable one, and many of them I fetl were just angry and bitter. Once I stopped going to meetings, and actually listened to peoples stories (as I developed my own), I began to think very differently.
Regarding your post, it is FULL of assumption. Would the USA be better off with 1 million JW's, than with just 1 million regular Joes filtering into whatever section of life they would have lived?
Pointless hypothetical.
I am sure the world would keep spinning, Obama would be president, people would be able to hand out leaflets without issue, we probably would still of had a housing crisis, and a host of other things would be the same.
Would there be some good lost? Specific court cases? A push on the medical establishment forced to come p with alternatives to one religions nonsensical approach to medical care? Maybe. Are some people better off with a moral code and the controlling hand of the religion? Most assuredly.
Would there be bad lost? Would a lot of those million people actually have gone to college or tried to help society and the world in a way more meaningful that handing out Watchtowers? Would thousands have NOT died because of refusing blood behind a doctrine not rooted in scripture and good scholarship? Would free thinking kind people have done something more meaningful with their time and effort then what they are doing now? Maybe.
Its pointless. Nobody here thinks JW's are going away. But many are on here for support of their breaking families, dead loved ones over the blood doctrine, years lost behind following men while thinking they were following God, and loss of friends and support structure simply for no longer believing the way they once did when they were younger. Some even suffer communal shunning from those whom they have loved.
I'm fortunate to not have been disfellowshipped. In fact, I haven't done anything to be DF'd for. Yet that does not stop rumors, hurtful gossip, and even some friends and family from shunning.
What a shame.
Anyways, I would love to talk to you about some of your points if you are open for a civil discussion. Not so much a debate, but just an interchange of ideas. I welcome your viewpoint (not many active JW's that AREN'T looking for support to leave on here now-a-days), and hope you will actually speak. feel free to PM me if you prefer.
Take care.
