pbrow: I am not minimizing the point we both agree with... JWism does indeed steal peoples lives. But it does so by voluntary compliance by the individual dubs.
and
Skedaddle... I too am a born in. My excuse of being brainwashed ended (legally) that is, when I turned 18. No doubt we were indoctrinated. I was so weak minded that it took me 12 more years to get out! That is on me. Who else was going to "do my thinking for me?"
I admire your determination to be personally responsible for your own actions, pbrow. But your thinking is very black and white.
Are all humans born with excellent reasoning abilities? My university study topic (this semester) has told me that humans are not good (naturally) at reasoning things out. So there's another opinion that is worth considering.
In the congregations of JWs, that you my have associated with, were all the people in those congregations equal in thinking ability? I doubt that they were. My personal assessment is that in most of the congregations with which I was associated, more that 60% did not fully understand the reasons for their basic beliefs. More, why are most witnesses drawn from the lower socio-economic groups? These are the precise groups that may have lower reasoning abilities? Its curious that this was also case in early Christianity, at least in the opinion of Paul. Recall the verses:
"...there were not many wise according to the flesh, ... 27but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise." (1 Corinthians 1:26,27)
Paul attempts to turn that into a virtue, but within about 100 years, the church had turned to platonic thinking (the very thing Paul was likely speaking of) to solve some of their doctrinal hassles.
Why does the GB insist that going to university, where you are more likely to be taught to question things, is likely to turn you away from faith? Come to that, why do fewer people with tertiary education become witnesses?
If we are all responsible entirely for our own actions, why is financial fraud a crime, and spiritual fraud is not?
I may be one of the few people who I could judge to be truly personally responsible for dropping my previous belief that there was no god, and becoming a witness. But, if we could sit and chat personally, you'd likely finish up agreeing that in my life at the time (and only 16/17 years of age), only basic education (very difficult for working class people to attend university when I was young) that emotional played an important role in my decision. Nonetheless, if there had been no churches peddling their fraudulent beliefs, especially a church that believed that all Christians were obligated to become footstep followers of Jesus, I may not have made the stupid mistake that I made.
You can extend my last thought. Try this. If there had been no Jewish religion, then Jesus may not have become deluded and died at a relatively young age. Luke 21:32 indicates his personal belief that he lived in the generation that would see the Divine Kingdom established. We've all been there, haven't we?
