How would YOU explain cognitive disonance to a Jehovahs Witness on your doorstep

by smiddy 35 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Phizzy

  I think this is a good explanation of what Cognitive Dissonance is, and its effect upon the mind:

  "Cognitive dissonance is the term used to describe what happens to a person when he accepts multiple, conflicting information at the same time. Rather than have to deal with conflicting thoughts, a person almost "separates" himself from reality. He starts to deny anything is wrong and continues to tell people, "Everything is fine. Just wait until I get there. Then you'll see I was right." In reality, this leads to both a further detachment from reality and a further attachment to the group's values. And if a person were to question the conflicting information presented to him, he would probably be told, "Your question means you don't understand the material. Continue learning and then it will become clear." This "separation" occurs at about the same time that a person starts to lose his critical thinking..."

  So, what we need to present to the JW who has lost his/her critical thinking skills is two conflicting beliefs that they hold now, and show that one cancels the other.

  Pick what you like really, there are a host of them, just one, God is a god of love, yet he will destroy 7billion plus people at the Big A.
• 

  Terry

  I used an example in my book (which will definitely be finished before the month is over) of the Rain Dance.

  A primitive tribe has a problem. The drought is threatening their crops and without crops theywill perish.

  Enter the local religious hero: the Shaman!

  The Shaman will dance the holy dance and down will come the rain and save the village!

  The holy man dances. And he continues to dance. Day after day.

  Outsiders laugh at this because they have superior technical knowledge. There is NO CONNECTION between the dance and the weather!

  Now why do you suppose, without all their meterology, they cannot dissuade the Shaman or the village from the crazy idea that dancing BRINGS rain?

  The simple answer is this. The Shaman will continue UNTIL IT DOES RAIN as he has always done in the past.

  To stop is apostacy. To stop is an insult to tradtion. To stop is to give up hope. To stop is to break faith.

  The longer he dances, the more faith and hope are tied up in the outcome.

  All the knowledge (meterology) in the worlld cannot touch the emotional investment of the village or the holy man dancing and dancing for rain.

  The outsider walks away shaking his head.

  "Those stupid people!"

  Jehovah's Witnesses have been dancing for Armageddon and Paradise for over 100 years. Why oh why would they stop now?
• 

  Phizzy

  Another series of questions,

  "When you became a JW, was it the truth?"

  "does truth change?"

  "How come the Juy 15th WT changes what you learned was "the truth" when you joined (or grew up) ?"

  "Where did it come from, what you thought was truth, but now is not, god or men ?"

  "how can you be sure that what is taught now is not simply the thoughts of men ?"
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  Calebs Airplane

  It is NOT possible to explain this on your door step... While you attempt to explain this, the JW will wondering what subject he needs to look up in his Reasoning book to refute whatever it is he thinks you're saying... This will end with the JW saying something like: "If you wish, I can research this matter further and return next week with a Biblical answer to that question".... Of course, 9 times out of 10, he'll forget this conversation even happened and will probably never return.
• 

  bigmac

  if i ever get another visit--i had 1 in 10 years-----i want to ask the caller if they believe ONLY jw's will survive armageddon---see if they answer--or wriggle.
• 

  Fernando

  Cognitive dissonance is a nagging feeling of mental discomfort when my behaviour is not aligned with my beliefs.

  One example is knocking on people's doors pretending to be a "publisher of the good news" when the "good news" according to Paul, Moses, Isaiah and Psalms is not in my heart and not on my lips.

  One can learn more about CD by reading up on CBT (Psychology).
• 

  Narcissistic Supply

  Jehovah witness A Failed Social Experiment? Has the entrapment of 7 million people by a JW narcissist gone too far?

  How many people must be discarded by this clan? How enclosed self centered and fear based must they be to continue to entrap people?

  Do you have to sell your soul to these narcissists to win their approval? How many millions of people do they have to socially discard to make people wake up?

  How much heavy handed social manipulation is enough? When do you say that’s enough you bastards? You crossed the line.

  It’s estimated there are tens of millions socially discarded people from the jehovah’s witnesses. With 600,000 people per year quitting the jehovah’s witnesses they have to add the same number just to have zero growth.

  And it is all about numbers with the jehovah’s. It’s all about attracting people to the social experiement.

  It’s about peaking their curiosity and slowly revealing things over the course of 6 months to a year. Once you have committed this amount of time to group of neeandrathals you might not leave. And this is what the scoundrels are banking on.

  These people will not stop and they will not take no for an answer when it comes to your children. They want to “CAPTURE THE LITTLE ONES AT ALL COST.” And they will stop at nothing to do this.

  It doesn’t matter what they do or where they go but the one game that the jehovah’s witnesses allow in their household is the game of capturing the little ones.

  It’s not really a rhetorical question of WHICH HOLIDAY SUPERSCEDES WHICH. THE JEHOVERS HAVE THEIR HOLIDAY WHERE THEY ENTRAP YOU AT A CONVENTION OR WHAT THEY CALL ASSESSORY GIFT GIVING SEMINAR WHERE THEY TEACH YOU ALL OF THE MARKETING INS AND OUTS OF THE CULT. IT’S THE ONLY REAL HOLIDAY THEY ALLOW BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO BRING YOUR CHECKBOOK AND BUY ALL THERE CRAP.

  But I digress.
• 

  Bugbear

  JW:s (some of them) say they believe in the Bible. The Bible contains a lot of crap of misinformation, one if the most serious one in the time schedule.

  If only 8 persons survived the flood 4.300 years ago, how come that the Egyptians could build the enormous pyramids and other buildings, only one 100 years after the flood? (The old Kingdom of Egypt is securely dated in every way to that period).(In fact the Sumerer kingdom is even older and secure with handwritings f.ex. The Gilgamesh eposes, which tells another story of the flood.) History facts found in later days have convinced scholars that the Bible could only be red in a literary way. What knowledge have the GB that is superior the knowledge of the united university all over the world?

  Bugbear
• 

  mindnumbed

  truthhurts13 ... thanks for the laugh (not that I personally agree)
• 

  Iown Mylife

  Remember the old "read the WT literature and it's just like going to college" -- i feel like reading what you all have written is being in a great learning environment - I appreciate you all so much!

  The cog diss i had going on for years before leaving was over the Love Among Ourselves blather. That was a lie.