Does anyone know anything about Jehovahs Witness and their beliefs?

[BobBong]

I beleive they are evil as far as good/evil is concerned. God does not want religeon in the first place, second they are evalangistic..or whatever.. so they are shoving it in ppls faces. I got one so pissed off he just kept yelling at me about how "good" his religeon is..its like uh you wanna talk about the happiness in ur life? JEHOVA YEAHHH!!!

You don't need to be ignorant about it man... it's really no different from catholicism or christianity in terms of promotion. That's the entire point of a religion, to promote its beliefs. A Jehovah's witness promotes their religion just as much as any other religion. Getting in their face because they're convinced that their religion is the best thing since creamed cheese is just as pig headed and ignorant as religion itself.

[thepope]

Yep, i was raised JW(by my mom and gradparents) untill about 12, my dad was never religious and i started staying home because he didnt go. I have no religion as of yet, just living life trying to find my niche.

Hehe, dont mind the screen name

[Breukelen advocaat]

The Jehovah's Witnesses have a HUGE Watchtower Kingdom Hall in Brooklyn (which I think may still be their world headquarters), and other smaller facilities.

I don't really care what they believe, but I got fed up with them waking me up on the weekends by ringing my door buzzer. Some years ago, I had a small sign made up that said "NO JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES", with the word "AWAKE" (the name of one of their publications) in the middle, encircled in red and crossed out with a line across the word. I don't have time right now, but I'll scan it soon and post it.

They are not allowed to have blood transfusions - and this is very dangerous. Some of them hold off on necessary treatment for themselves and/or their children.
http://www.watchman.org/jw/jwtransfusions2000.htm

[thepope]

The Jehovah's Witnesses have a HUGE Watchtower Kingdom Hall in Brooklyn (which I think may still be their world headquarters), and other smaller facilities.

I don't really care what they believe, but I got fed up with them waking me up on the weekends by ringing my door buzzer. I had a small sign made up that said "NO JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES", with the word "AWAKE" (the name of one other their publications) in the middle, encircled in red and crossed out with a line across the word. I don't have time right now, but I'll scan it soon and post it.

They are not allowed to have blood transfusions - and this is very dangerous. Some of them hold off on necessary treatment for themselves and/or their children.
http://www.watchman.org/jw/jwtransfusions2000.htm

Actually, just recently, theyve said you can(semantics/loopholes/technology). It even talks about it in that link.

[BobBong]

The Jehovah's Witnesses have a HUGE Watchtower Kingdom Hall in Brooklyn (which I think may still be their world headquarters), and other smaller facilities.

I don't really care what they believe, but I got fed up with them waking me up on the weekends by ringing my door buzzer. Some years ago, I had a small sign made up that said "NO JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES", with the word "AWAKE" (the name of one of their publications) in the middle, encircled in red and crossed out with a line across the word. I don't have time right now, but I'll scan it soon and post it.

They are not allowed to have blood transfusions - and this is very dangerous. Some of them hold off on necessary treatment for themselves and/or their children.
http://www.watchman.org/jw/jwtransfusions2000.htm

Yea.. i can personally vouche for waking and pissing a few people up and off early saturday mornings...it's no wonder i got some of the reactions i did...
The blood transfusion thing is also a touchy subject.. yes.. there's been situations in the past that have allowed for people to suffer because of not doing a blood transfusion...this is simply what they believe.. and quite honestly.. it's not really a bad idea to decline extra blood as almost all major surgeries can be done without the use of extra blood.. it's safer, and the recovery time is a lot less.. because there's less chance for that additional blood to be rejected by the body.

It comes down to personal choice with blood transfusions.. i've even met non witnesses that completely agree with not using blood transfusions if it can be avoided.. and in most cases now, it can be avoided.

[andyandy]

my opinion on JW.....

religion should be a personal experience....not something you believe because you've been forcefed its dogma as a child....
religious beliefs are as much to do with geography as they are with rational opinion. if ur born in palestine then ur likely to be a muslim, in japan ur likely to be buddhist, US christian, Indian Hindu....it no different to supporting the same football (or soccer for u guys) team as your dad....
as a result i find the moral highground that JW take in trying to convert "non-believers" pretty ignorant.....although no more so than evangelicalism or Catholicism......

Believe what you want, but believe it because you think it to be true....not because of what you've been told....

[BobBong]

Believe what you want, but believe it because you think it to be true....not because of what you've been told....

That's right. Believe it because you actually DO believe it. Never direct your life in a direction that you KNOW you won't be comfortable with. You set yourself up for ultimate unhappiness... Religion should be a choice. It rarely is a choice in every country across this planet because that's simply how religion works. The unfortunate thing about life is not everyone experiences the same things in the same setting, or mindset as the next person. So learning..."life lessons" is very slow for most people. Some don't learn them at all.

I don't regret what the religion gave me.. a respect for life,death,love even a respect for anger. I don't steal from people, i don't kill the dude two floors below me for the shit he's put me through and i certainly know how to control my emotions. So yea.. some good has come from it. Unfortunately.. decisions get made and opinions change. Feelings develope and ideas are planted.

Life changes. It always will...that is, until you die.:dance: Enjoy it while it lasts. There's no sense in being unhappy in your life.. even the poorest of people manage to live out their lives with a smile on their face.

[FieldofHerb22]

All I know is they wake you up early in the morning "spreading the word."

[BobBong]

All I know is they wake you up early in the morning "spreading the word."

To bad that word isn't "Legs" :thumbsup:

[Euphoric]

Occurring within all religions, the phenomenon called "conversion" is actually nothing more than mind-control, programming, or brainwashing-- frightening a repentant, submissive person or group into a state of terror and subsequent release. Counterfeit "conversion" experiences were, for example, widely experienced in nineteenth century America, especially in what were called "revivals." Even today, "revivals" of one form or another are used by all so-called Christian faiths in manipulating obedient followers.

"Conversion" is an artificial, deleterious state induced in a submissive person by a self-serving religious leader. As the basis of his 1914 book entitled The Psychology of Religion, Dr. Edwin D. Starbuck examined a significant number of persons who had undergone the "conversion" experience. He found that


"conversion does not occur with the same frequency at all periods in life. It belongs almost exclusively to the years between 10 and 25. The number of instances outside that range appear few and scattered. That is, conversion is a distinctively adolescent phenomenon."

Eight Marks of a Mind-Control Cult

Brainwashing has become almost a household word in the last two decades or so. In 1961, Robert J. Lifton wrote the definitive book on the subject, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, after studying the effects of mind control on American prisoners of war under the Communist Chinese. Lifton outlines eight major factors that can be used to identify whether a group is a destructive cult or not. Any authoritarian religion should be held up to the light in order to determine just how destructive their influence is on their members. Judge for yourselves.

Milieu Control
"Milieu" is a French word meaning "surroundings; environment." Cults are able to control the environment around their recruits in a number of ways, but almost always using a form of isolation. Recruits can be physically separated from society, or they can be warned under threat of punishment to stay away from the world's educational media, especially when it might provoke critical thinking. Any books, movies or testimonies of ex-members of the group, or even anyone critical of the group in any way are to be avoided.

Information is carefully kept on each recruit by the mother organization. All are watched, lest they fall behind or get too far ahead of the thinking of the organization. Because it appears that the organization knows so much about everything and everyone, they appear omniscient in the eyes of the recruits.

Mystical Manipulation
In religious cults, God is ever-present in the workings of the organization. If a person leaves for any reason, accidents or ill-will that may befall them are always attributed to God's punishment on them. For the faithful, the angels are always said to be working, and stories circulate about how God is truly doing marvelous things among them, because they are "the truth." The organization is therefore given a certain "mystique" that is quite alluring to the new recruit.

Demand for Purity
The world is depicted as black and white, with little room for making personal decisions based on a trained conscience. One's conduct is modeled after the ideology of the group, as taught in its literature. People and organizations are pictured as either good or evil, depending on their relationship to the cult.

Universal tendencies of guilt and shame are used to control individuals, even after they leave. There is great difficulty in understanding the complexities of human morality, since everything is polarized and oversimplified. All things classified as evil are to be avoided, and purity is attainable through immersion into the cult's ideology.

The Cult of Confession
Serious sins (as defined by the organization) are to be confessed immediately. The members are to be reported if found walking contrary to the rules.

There is often a tendency to derive pleasure from self-degradation through confession. This occurs when all must confess their sins before each other regularly, creating an intense kind of "oneness" within the group. It also allows leaders from within to exercise authority over the weaker ones, using their "sins" as a whip to lead them on.

The "Sacred Science"
The cult's ideology becomes the ultimate moral vision for the ordering of human existence. The ideology is too "sacred" to call into question, and a reverence is demanded for the leadership. The cult's ideology makes an exaggerated claim for possessing airtight logic, making it appear as absolute truth with no contradictions. Such an attractive system offers security.

Loading the Language
Lifton explains the prolific use of "thought-terminating cliches," expressions or words that are designed to end the conversation or controversy. We are all familiar with the use of the cliches "capitalist" and "imperialist," as used by antiwar demonstrators in the 60's. Such cliches are easily memorized and readily expressed. They are called the "language of non-thought," since the discussion is terminated, not allowing further consideration.

In the Watchtower, for instance, expressions such as "the truth", the "mother organization", the "new system", "apostates" and "worldly" carry with them a judgment on outsiders, leaving them unworthy of further consideration.

Doctrine Over Person
Human experience is subordinated to doctrine, no matter how profound or contradictory such experiences seem. The history of the cult is altered to fit their doctrinal logic. The person is only valuable insomuch as they conform to the role models of the cult. Commonsense perceptions are disregarded if they are hostile to the cult's ideology.

Dispensing of Existence
The cult decides who has the "right" to exist and who does not. They decide who will perish in the final battle of good over evil. The leaders decide which history books are accurate and which are biased. Families can be cut off and outsiders can be deceived, for they are not fit to exist!

http://www.hermes-press.com/Perennia.../altstates.htm
http://www.freeminds.org/psych/psych.htm