Jehovah's Witnesses...
Offline Howdy. I decided to post this in here so that my responses would come from Atheists/Agnostics, which i believe would be less prone to bias than responses from people of other religions.
I recently had a lengthy discussion with some JW's at the door, lasted about an hour. I wasn't going to bother but i got suckered in to a debate after they asked why i was an Atheist and figured now would be a good chance to learn about their religion as it is one i haven't really bothered to look into. They gave me one of their little booklets to read and i told them they can come back sometime to continue the debate as they ran out of time.
What i'm looking for is some information about their religion. One of the things they told me is that God's name was Jehovah and this can be seen in a REAL bible, or in other words, one that hasn't been edited. If this is the case, why aren't all Christians JW's too? How can there be a dispute over God's name if it is there in black and white in the bible?
Aside from that and the usual debates one gets into with religious folks, what else can be specifically argued with JW's?
Thanks in advance for any replies. 
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OK where to start?
Right to start with the JW's have got things spectacualarly wrong not once not twice not thrice but many mnay times. They have predicted with all confidence that the world would end in
1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975 and 1994
The current position on when the world will end is "sometime soon". 1975 is perhaps the best example of the JW's armagedon priction cockups it was widely printed in watchtower press that JW's should prepare for the rapture on this date. They have subsequentaly tried to recall all such literature and to basically pretened it never happened.
So their complete and utter failure to predict the end of teh world is perhaps some reason to pause for thought.
Other things they won't tell you in the initial sales pitch
You can't celebrate birthdays. Its something to do with King Herod cutting off John the baptists head on his birthday.
You can't celebrate Christmas as it has its roots in a pagan festival (this is actually true)
You cant have a blood transfusion. There is some bullshit scriptural reference that apparently means god wants your kid to die from their inhuries rather than have a simple blood transfusion (thsi has happened BTW)
You may or may not be allowed to have an organ transplant. They decided that the Bible said no on this matter in 1967 but have since changed thier mind in 1980 its now just frowned upon by most.
You will be activly discouraged from having non JW friends.
If you leave the JWs after being a member, or if you step out of line you will be disfellowshiped. This means that no other JW will be allowed to even speak to you even if this happend to be your brother you sister or mother. (this has happened)
You can't vote anymore
You can't can serve in the armed forces
If you are a woman you can't speak or teach at some of their meetings as women are untrustworthy creatures according to the bible.
Homosexuality is considered a terrible sin.
They tend to miss all this lot out of the initial pitch and introduce their more radical ideas, like letting your loved ones die for the need of simple blood transfusion, till they have sucked you into their cult. The JW's are a cult. They practice all the major cult mind control techniques and are a rather sinister and nasty organisation. I know all this becasue sadly my brother got sucked into this cult some 4 years ago.
I always thought about answering the door naked or dressed as the devil when they ring the bell. Or drunk with a bottle and offering them a chug. Or if you tell them you're disfellowshipped they'd leave you alone. I actually told someone at work these ideas, and she told me she had an uncle who was drunk and naked and answered the door for them "What the fuck do you want?" They actually got out a piece of chalk, drew an "X" on his porch and never came back. That had to be funny.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Some good ideas so far, thankyou very much.
There is no 'J' sound in Hebrew. The 'J' entered English from Latin translations, if I remember correctly.
JW's are nice mix of an old Christians heresy known as Arianism and 19th century apocalypticism. Arians deny that Jesus is the same substance as God. They believe Jesus is the highest and best of Jehovah's creation, but is a creation nonetheless. Arianism was condemned at the Council of Nicea and Jesus was declared to be of the same substance as God (i.e. was fully God). Arianismm, though condemned, never died and is routinely reborn in weird Christian circles like the JW's.
The apocalypticism is consistent with some of the other Christians sects focused on the end of the world that were born in the 19th century (seventh day adventists are another fine example).
The believe the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is God's mouthpiece to the world and it has pretty much the final say in all things.
They're a weird group for sure and they're only trained to do a few things so if you try to engage them in a debate its easy to fluster them and get them off course. Of course, once you do that, they'll purposely avoid your home forever.
In addition to what others have said, I'll add that they're yet another version of a 19th century Christian sect based on a new reading of the Bible and claiming that they have the only true and correct reading and all other Bible readings are wrong.
I have a copy of one of their internal prostelytizing uinstruction documents, "Reasoning from the Scriptures," that I think I'm probably not supposed to see. It reads like a shopping list of logical fallacies, starting with "we know the Bible is true because it says so." Here's an excerpt that shows the Q&A training style that it's written in:
It's all kind of ludicrous in this same kind of way, with every suggested reply having some variation on, "Yes, I can see where you would think that, but the Bible says you're an idiot according to the book of Yahoos 7:18..."
But it does demonstrate that they are painfully based on their particular reading of the book, which includes things like (1) no hell, unsaved people just cease to exist (2) resurrection of the physical body and (3) only the top-scoring 144,000 people get to go to heaven and be with God, all other resurrectees have to hang out in a paradise on Earth, etc.
But since they are so Bible-centric, that's probably the best path of questioning if you want to seriously challenge them. The list of counterarguments against Bible validity is necessarily extremely limited, and it puts a stop to all their arguments that are Bible based.
Here's a brief summary of their official pro-Bible arguments, many familiar and all pretty simple to refute:
-the Bible is true because it says it's true
-the Bible is true because it explains world conditions
-the Bible is true because it tells us the purpose of life
-the Bible is true because it tells us how to fulfill our desire for righteousness (?)
-the Bible is true because it has true prophecies in it
-the Bible is true because it contains science facts that the authors couldn't have known about
-the Bible is true because some guy once wrote that it has never been changed
...and here's the arguments and counterarguments suggested:
"I don't believe in the Bible," reply "Let's read the Bible together"
"Bible is contradictory" reply: "No it isn't" and move conversation to specific contradictions that you explain away with context appeal
"Men wrote the Bible" reply: "Yes, but it was *inspired* by God."
"Everyone interprets the Bible differently" reply: "But *ours* is the only right one."
"Bible is not practical" reply with an example of something, like War, that it would be practical to change, and point out where the Bible says War is bad.
"Everyone has a different opinion," reply "Since God knows everything, only His opinion counts."
"The Bible is a White Man's book" (yes this is actually in there) reply "God is impartial."
"I only believe the KJV" reply with an offer to use the KJV instead.
"After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up." -Stephen Colbert
My best friend since junior high school was raised Jehovah's Witness (luckily, he isn't anymore) so I know first hand how completely screwed up they can be. Everything said above about their restrictive beliefs regarding blood transfusions, birthdays, etc. is true...there are also a couple of other things. He was not allowed to take part in anything patriotic. This meant that he was not to recite the pledge of allegiance at school (I didn't either, but I had my own reasons) or play the national anthem (we were in the school band together). Also, the JWs that I've known (and I've known several besides the aforementioned friends) didn't celebrate ANY holidays whatsoever...no x-mas, birthdays, easter, Veteran's Day or St. Patrick's Day.
Luckily, the several that I was friends with weren't "militant" JWs, but I had run ins with a few of them...one in particular, but that's a story for another day. Long story short, my family was accused of kidnapping a JW teenager that we'd never even met before...damn those people are crazy.
You can't rationally argue out something that was not rationally argued in.