I speak from experience as my family was raised in this religion. So, if any of you out there want to chime in, feel free. It is open for discussion.
Please do yourself a favor and do some research before you get into a debate with JWs. Yes they are nice people, but they don't have the freedom to think critically for themselves, that is if they want to stay in the "flock". They are regurgitating the same information that is found in all their literature. Is there anything wrong with that? No. But you may find yourself running in circles when debating with them. But of course, every one has their own freedom of belief and expression. It's just that they're goal is to convert you and they will say whatever you need to hear to make that happen.
My father is still to this day and has been since he was 19, he’s such a robot, I don’t even know who he really is. He doesn’t really know how to act because he is told what to do by “The Watchtower”. He can’t hold conversations for long without resorting to his iPad and showing you something from the JW website. It’s sad. I wanna have a relationship with my dad, but I’m disappointed when I go over there.
The founder Charles Taze Russell was a mason, and in spite of the JWs not recognizing the cross, among other symbolism, there is a pyramid and a cross on his grave sight. hmmm.....
I’m grateful to say I’m not locked up in that organization anymore and I am free to live this life that I have been given with the free will that has been gifted to me. To be able to think for myself, to love who I want, to hang out with who I want, to do what I want with my time, energy, and resources, to further my career on my own terms without having to check in to see if it’s ok with the “elders”. It’s not God, it’s men that made themselves into Gods. You are not separate from God. God is within not without.
In memory of Tamara Hodge. My baby sister that died as an infant because my dad was instructed by these men who call themselves elders, to refuse an operation that could have saved her life because of their interpretation and translation of the "Bible" said so. However, today, the operation would have been ok. Oops!