And where is the line drawn between what is normally considered to be a religion and what is normally considered to be a cult in which cult in which a person cannot make sound decisions due to being surrounded by the cult’s social and familial pressures and cult restricting education?
Obviouisly a person’s belief system guides that person in a certain direction. This stands for pretty much everyone. Where I take issue, however, is when an organization manipulates a person such that the person is unlikely to freely develop a belief system, and instead becomes indoctrinated into a system that does everything it can to prevent the person from questioning, learning, and developing.
In short, if a person is able to look at all the options, and freely pick between them, then I am willing to respect that person’s decision and respect that person’s religion. If a person is not able to look at all the options, and is not able to freely pick between them, then I am not willing to respect that person’s decision, and I am not willing to respect that person’s cult.
Given JW’s emphasis on disfellowship (extreme shunning), general isolation from the overall apostate/non-JW community (they will knock on your door, but you won’t find them on your ball team or bridge club or Rotary club), and rejection of apostate/non-JW education and general apostate/non-JW intellectual discourse and reading, I believe JW is a cult, and that JW members are not necesarily are capable of making free and informed decisions due to the control the cult has had in forming their beliefs.
Now let’s take this, and then look back on my query if such extreme religious beliefs are simply symptoms of mental illness. I submit that profound religous experiences are simply the result of a jigging of neuro-transmitters in the brain (have a boo at Laurentian University’s Michael Persinger’s work on elector-magnetic and chemical influences on the brain with respect to religious experiences). The combination of the physically scrambled functioning of the person’s brain, combined with the effects of the cult environment makes for a very nasty combination that effectively removes the person’s ability to make a free and informed decision.
By the way, there was an interesting thread in which a devout JW (who left when no one bought his line, but otherwise was very well spoken and would have been a good SDMB contributor had he stayed) and I (who thinks religious belief is the result of a brain fart combined with social pressures) discussed religion. In it I set out the following concering cult tactics (note: disfellowship is the JW terms for extreme shunning, aposte is the JW terms for a non-JW, and my cites are all from JW publications that are intended to direct JWs): Why do we believe in God, when there is no scientific evidence of its existance - #138 by Muffin - Great Debates - Straight Dope Message Board
*That’s where I have concerns about cults, for once a sense of close personal community is developed, that tremendously valuable sense of personal community can be held for ransom by forcing a person to either toe the official line, or else be shunned by that community – including one’s close friends and one’s family. When it comes to that point, one is not truly free to choose one’s own path. It is emotional blackmail.
For example: *
[INDENT]The Watchtower September 15, 1981, page 25
“A simple ‘Hello’ to someone can be the first step that develops into a conversation and maybe even a friendship. Would we want to take that first step with a disfellowshipped person?”
Watchtower 1988 April 15 p.27
“The situation is different if the disfellowshipped or disassociated one is a relative living outside the immediate family circle and home. It might be possible to have almost no contact at all with the relative. Even if there were some family matters requiring contact, this certainly would be kept to a minimum, in line with the divine principle: “Quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a greedy person [or guilty of another gross sin], . . . not even eating with such a man.”—1 Corinthians 5:11.”
“Understandably, this may be difficult because of emotions and family ties, such as grandparents’ love for their grandchildren. Yet, this is a test of loyalty to God, as stated by the sister quoted on page 26.”
Watchtower 1963 July 15 p.444
“The wrongdoer has to realize that his status is completely changed, that his faithful Christian relatives thoroughly disapprove of his wicked course and show this disapproval by limiting contacts to only those which are unavoidable…”
Kingdom Ministry 2002 August p.3
“God’s Word states that we should ‘not even eat with such a man.’ (1 Cor. 5:11) Hence, we also avoid social fellowship with an expelled person. This would rule out joining him in a picnic, party, ball game, or trip to the mall or theater or sitting down to a meal with him either in the home or at a restaurant.”
Watchtower 1952 March 1 pp.131, 134
“We might wonder, then, since this congregation which God is developing or bringing into existence is based on love, why anyone should ever want to talk about disfellowshipping or putting people out of this congregation. There certainly must be some reason. Well, the reason for disfellowshipping is that some persons get into this congregation of God that do not love Christ. … Those who are acquainted with the situation in the congregation should never say ‘Hello’ or ‘Goodbye’ to him. He is not welcome in our midst, we avoid him. … Such an individual has no place in the clean organization or congregation of God. He should go back to the wicked group that he once came from and die with that wicked group with Satan’s organization.”
*That’s how I find most Jehovah’s Witnesses – reluctant to use critical thinking. *
The Watchtower, August 1, 1980, p. 19:
“Thus, the one who doubts to the point of becoming an apostate sets himself up as a judge. He thinks he knows better than his fellow Christians, better also than the ‘faithful and discreet slave,’ through whom he has learned the best part, if not all that he knows about Jehovah God and his purposes.”
The Watchtower, March 15, 1986, p. 12
“Do you wisely destroy apostate material?”
The Watchtower, March 15, 1986, p. 14
“Why is reading apostate publications similar to reading pornographic literature?”
The Watchtower, March 15, 1986, p. 17
“Beware of those who try to put forward their own contrary opinions.”
I have regularly attend various religion’s/sect’s ceremonies, repeatedly sat with elders of other religions to receive their teachings, and studied various religions and religious texts both on my own, in unstructured groups, and in formal academic settings. If you were to do this on a frequent and ongoing basis, would that put you at risk of disfellowship?[/INDENT]I question whether anyone fully inculcated into such a belief system would be fully and freely capable of making an informed decision that was contrary to that cult. Sometimes our belief systems control us rather than guide us. I am of the opinion that JW is such a system.