Why do we get TTATT and others don't?

by quest81 45 Replies latest jw friends

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  Ucantnome

  Why do we get TTATT and others don't?

  I think we are all different with different lives and circumstances and various reasons as to why we believe.

  When I left it had a connection to something many years earlier and in the years between I had examined my faith and concluded it was sound. In those years some left, as an example I think some left after 1975 and although I believed it ended 6000 years of a 7000 year creative day it wasn't enough for me to doubt the faithful and discreet slave class commission and having Jehovah's holy spirit . Then a Watchtower article altered my view and conclusion and I found I left. Others came to a different conclusion when I discussed it with them.
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  smiddy

  I`m not sure whether this has been said before , but pride is another reason ,.Some people just can not bring themselves to accept they have been lied to for so many years by an organization they have put so much trust into , especially a religious organization .

  And to admit that now , would make them seem like fools to people , and peers that know them .

  So what do they do ? , they bury their head in the sand , they do not want to face the facts.

  smiddy
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  dozy

  Virtually all of us believe in wrong things - a recent survey said that more than 50% of Americans believed in at least one false conspiracy theory and over 90% of people believe in at least one demonstrably wrong fact. I guess JWs just take this to a slightly higher level than the population at large.

  I think many JWs on a certain level know that there is something wrong ( I know I did for years ) but are afraid to admit it to themselves. Many have so much invested in the religion ( family , social life , maybe employment ) that they exist in a kind of state of subconscious denial.

  It takes a certain kind of curious person allied to usually some kind of "tipping point" that makes a person leave a religion / cult like the WTBTS. For me it was a combination of my kids reaching a certain age where I was expected to start "bringing them up in the truth" , a lot of problems in the congregation including child abuse and a close friend who was an elder suddenly fading that triggered my eventually leaving "the truth". Without these triggers - I'd probably still be in - albeit as a weak nominal JW.
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  Louise

  I think there comes a time when you realise that there is just got to be something more to life than the faith and it's god, and so the search begins. It starts because YOU want to find out more.

  You are open and willing to read new things, to discuss, to research and you don't have to have all the answers.

  You no longer walk around with blinders on.
  
  
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  done4good

  Oubliette - There are a large number of manipulative techniques which do not require disconfirming evidence and a corresponding "doubling down" on the part of the person being manipulated.

  I agree with this. There certainly are other important manipulation factors involved.
  

  What I am mostly referring to is the "glue" that makes one's belief rather impervious to contrary evidence. In my own experience, (and from what I have seen from many on this board as well), I saw things that were not "right" years before I left. Things that I know now, would have been obvious to me had I not already had the mental investment in the belief system. Cognitions are very powerful, especially for thinking type people. Thinking types have a low tolerance for dissonance in this area, (Feeling types may rationalize more easily). So one ends up faced with a choice, either make the painful change of accepting that one's belief system is wrong, or simply push the disconfirming evidence away. Since this happens primarily subconsciously, that latter is almost a given.

  This is a subtle, yet considerable factor as to why otherwise intelligent people cannot see something obvious, such as TTATT. Fear is a big factor, however the fear we are discussing in this context is mostly existential in nature. One is mostly fearful of losing their understanding of the way the world works, even though they almost certainly do not recognize it as such.
  

  d4g
  
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  Vidiot

  quest81 - "Why do we get TTATT and others don't?"

  Because we were members who defined the word "truth" correctly and valued it.
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  James Brown

  People don't like change. They are in their comfort zone and don't want to leave. And some have a vested interest in maintaining the lie.

  Their work life and all their friends can be tied up with the deception of the watchtower.

  So they live their life in denial.

  I think some must also believe. They do not entertain information that disproves their position.

  They are closed minded.

  They feel if they were to peek behind the curtain, their house of cards would fall down and they

  would not know how to cope with life.

  They need the structure of the organization. They need the unnecessary business of being a witness

  to give their life meaning.
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  FayeDunaway

  People who have had doubts their whole lives (like myself) often just try to go through the motions and be good sons and daughters for their parents and to not let them down. For me, I would have just kept going along with it, except for 2 factors. 1.(and this sounds cheesy) I fell in love with Jesus along the way, by reading the New Testament, and couldn't reject him at another memorial. And 2. My kids were getting older and I didn't want them to feel pressured to be baptized and repeat this cycle. Like dozy said above, those were my tipping points.
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  3rdgen

  Excellent answers. Something else I have noticed is that some don't want to see TTATT because staying in is for them a form of doing penance. Watchtower and most forms of Christianity teach that humans are born "sinful". Add to that the plethora of do's and don'ts in the Bible. Heck, even thinking could be a sin. (coveting neighbors wife etc.)

  Since Jw's are not taught the doctrine of "grace" but instead, "works" there are those who think they must spend their life making up for their sins.

  The question becomes how many meetings and hours of FS does it take to atone for each specific sin? The least they could do is provide a chart or something.
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  talesin

  Again, CD theory explains why many people continue to hold on to beliefs that are demonstrably wrong.

  This is true, and one reason why I think 'born-in' people can have a harder time accepting TTATT, even when they know it consciously.

  Their CD is so great that they are unable or unwilling to embrace the concept that they have been taught to believe in a LIE.

  I compare it to "The American Dream" - virtually a whole culture who believe that if you work hard, get an education and keep your nose clean, that you are guaranteed success. AHAHA! That is CD on a large scale - and, as with the JWS, the American people have had this concept pounded into their heads since birth.