Jehovas Witnesses

>>2577086
>SJW

>>2577086
I pass some on the way to work, and on occasion when the light is red, I've had them pass literature in my face.

I come from a Jewish theological framework, not a Christian one, and some of their claims, like the tetragrammaton being completely unpronounceable and the pronunciation of almost all Hebrew words being forgotten because of the lack of vowels in Torah scrolls, or some of the other notions as to how the "real Jews" worshiped, are pretty fanciful.

From a historical standpoint, they're kind of hilarious. They were wrong about so many apocalyptic predictions that they eventually proclaimed that one of them was right and that no one noticed. It's hard to take any group with that history seriously.

Religiously, they're pretty much like any other fundie group founded in America during the late nineteenth century. Founded by laypeople and theologically kind of problematic. They also do operate very much like a cult in many cases.

>>2577174
Wrong about the 144,000
Wrong about 1914
Wrong about 1935
Still wrong today, but still gathering idiots into their fold.

It is ponderous. I do give them credit for having the balls to knock on people's doors relentlessly; that's not an easy thing to do. Most people don't want to be that despised in society.

>>2577086
They won't fuck off. They come by at least once a month. Gotta admire their fervor but I like being a Presbyterian.

>>2577086
Creepy cult.

But on the other hand, none of them have ever hassled me personally...

Not OP, I grew up as one. Left them in 2008.

AMA

If you are going to be a Biblical literatist, and not just an asspained dum dum, JW is the only way to go.

All other fundamentalists are just incapable of dealing with doubt. Since Protestantism detaches faith from an active moral life and, without the lived religion, their faith is nothing but metaphysical ideas that one must hold to for salvation and thus any doubt about metaphysics shakes the very foundations of belief. So they turn to Fundamentalism to try to shoo off the natural and inevitable doubts. Biblical literatism for most Protestants just a rhetorical method for ignoring the fundamental amorality of their teachings.

Not JW's though. They take literatism to it's complete, logical, and incredibly stupid end point. For that, I respect them.

>>2577382
Why did you leave?
Where you born into a JW family or did you ''convert'' to JW?

>>2577135
I'm >>2577382.

I was told that it's something like "yah-way" but they can't be sure, then digging around their literature, I saw something about a Spanish monk who's supposed to have latinised it into Jehovah. I was never told it was unpronounceable, I know religions are known for erring with faith over logic but anyone can see the pointlessness in a language that is unspeakable...

The thing is while they like to present a universal image, they still differ. I remember when I visited Canada and European countries as a boy (I'm English), thinking how strange they did things in those countries.

>>2577395
I can only speculate, there were a lot of things going on at the time, dealing with being a teenager, I have siblings that had left before. I just said I'm not going and you can't make me. I was miserable and indulged myself.

The thing is as well, between being told you're not allowed to talk to people outside of "the truth," as they refer to their cult/religion, unless proselytising or it's necessary for whatever reason, and not feeling a connection to any of the witnesses or gaining any sort of happiness or relief from their company, I was desperately alone. So I thought if I'm gonna be alone anyway, fuck going to meetings and preaching and all that bollocks, I may as well stay home.

I was born into it, my father is a convert and my mother's parents are converts.

>>2577086
Don't mean to hijack your thread, just thought this is something that doesn't get talked about on /his/ much and I may as well offer.

But in response to your question I'd say I think they're harmless. I wouldn't go so far as to pity them but I don't hate them like I used to when I left. They're often very scared and damaged people that just want to get through life having tasted acceptance, even if it is from something external, and having an answer for unbearable metaphysical questions.