Dawg recently had a topic where he said that he had forgone any attempt to argue doctrine with the Witnesses. He made that comment in regards to a JW who came on the board a few days ago taking an anti-trinitarian approach and claiming that most apostates embrace the trinity doctrine once they leave. My response, which I feel applies in the context of your topic as well, was as follows:
It’s funny that you mention this because I spent a considerable part of the day thinking about this very thing. I think you have to keep the concepts that underlie the Jehovah’s Witness world view in mind when dealing with them. They have become convinced that: (1) the Bible is the inerrant word of God, (2) Armageddon is just around the corner, and that the (3) the only way to survive Armageddon is to be an active member in good standing with the Jehovah’s Witness religious organization (4) which is the only religious organization on the planet that has God’s blessing and (5) is the only channel that He’s using to communicate his will to mankind. Once they accept these basic premises, NOTHING you say will convince them to leave. You can’t argue logic because they are trained to disregard logic and obey the organization first. Remember those precious reminders about how Abraham obeyed Jehovah despite how illogical the command to kill his own son might have seemed to him?
In order to get people to accept those premises they begin by teaching them simple doctrines, such as the rejection of the traditional Christian concept of the trinity, which appears to be a slam dunk, at least when exclusively using their religious literature. Since the majority of those JWs not born in are recruited whey they are at emotional low points in their life and already searching for God or “the truth,” it only takes a few of these “slam dunk” doctrines to get them hooked. First they roll out the beliefs on the trinity, the immortal soul, paradise earth, and so on. Then the recruit becomes convinced that the witness must have the truth because these beliefs are clearly right and they are a rejection of mainstream Christianity. The “where else can we go” mentality begins to sink in, and then they just accept all of the other stuff that has little or no support (the faithful and discreet slave teaching, 1914, etc.) later once they have already become convinced that the witnesses have the truth. At this point, circular logic becomes firmly entrenched and logic will NEVER convince any witness that has reached this level to leave.
For instance, if the society says apostates are mean, evil, deceitful people, in the mind of a loyal JW they are. Why? Because the FDS says so. And the FDS was appointed by God. And God’s word, the Bible, is infallible. And if I want to survive Armageddon I must obey the FDS. And I must obey because the FDS says to, etc. Besides, where else will I go? Mainstream Christendom embraces all of these false doctrines that only the JWs reject. You get the point.
From my perspective, the only way to use logic to get a JW to leave the religion is to catch them when they have become disillusioned with the religion or are otherwise in a position where they are willing to begin to entertain the idea that maybe things are not truly as the FDS says they are. If you can start to put some chinks in the protective armor of their underlying premises, then you might be able to make logic work for you. But a JW will only allow anyone to put chinks in their armor if they are willing to let you do so, provided that they are a true, blue believer. Otherwise, the witness will dismiss what you say and repeat the “obey the slave” mantra in his mind.
Back to the original JW poster, although I didn’t read his post, I assume that he’s arguing about the trinity because that doctrine forms part of the most basic, core doctrines that a person learns and accepts when in the process of embracing JWism. If he’s a legitimate believer (and I always doubt how a true believer can bring themselves to post on JWD), he’s simply trying to bring us apostates back to square one and become JWs again. He’s expressing the most basic doctrines that are used to lead people down the path of embracing Jehovah’s Witness religious thought. Perhaps he thinks that if we can be reminded of how solid the JW’s anti-trinity teaching is, we’ll somehow go down the same road he went down when becoming a Witness. Or, perhaps, he’s just using this topic, which I thought was the easiest point to argue while out in service, in an attempt to win a debate against the dreaded apostates. Whatever the case may have been, I agree with your point overall. Arguing dogma with a Witness doesn’t work, and it doesn’t work because of the existence of those underlying, airtight premises that they accept, premises that only lead to circular reasoning and the dismissal of any arguments that go against the teachings of the FDS.