Arigatomina wrote:I have more fun talking to Catholics and Jehova's Witnesses - because they like to argue and convert and that makes for great debates.
My dad married a woman who was one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and yeah, I'll give them that. They do like to argue. They might be more knowledgeable than your average religious person (it's a common practice to read the entire Bible once a year, studying is every day, not to mention three to four meetings a week.) but they will never think for themselves, or question what the organization accepts as right. If proven wrong, or asked a question they don't know, they'll request time to study that and "get back to you." I got that several times, and I was only 13 at the time. (The answer I ended up getting for "Where did God come from?" was "It's not in his plan for us to know that.") There's just no room for personal opinion or speculation.
I had trouble being forced to follow that religion, considering how strict it is, especially being a teen and having lived the way I wanted previously. Suddenly, I couldn't celebrate any holidays, read books or watch movies that clashed with the Bible ( that included any science fiction..or pretty much any fiction. I was generally limited to the Bible, books the organization published, and movies that they produced) and I wasn't allowed to listen to the radio, so I had a choice of classical music or hymns. And I was not allowed to associate with anyone that was not one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Anyone else is considered a bad association. So, basically, you could try to convert people, but not be friends with them. Unless they convert.
I usually got forced into going to sleepovers with the young people and I was the only one of them that had ever been "worldly" as they call it, and so they tended to still keep me at a distance, like I had some sort of disease. I can see why most people view Jehovah's Witnesses as a weird cult or sect. Needless to say, after I wasn't required to follow this religion, I didn't. And it left a bad taste in my mouth for all others.