“Dismissing servant”: “Facts just scare the sh*t out of them. Thats the core of cognitive dissonance.”
Unfortunately, I must say that you are right in that respect. Although logic is at the forefront of humanity’s spectacular physical achievements and emperical scientific knowledge, it is apparently the emotional part of the brain’s functioning (i.e., lower-order, primal, and often somewhat nonesensical cognitive functioning) which actually ends up winning out and getting the upper hand. I learned fairly recently from a documentary relating to the brain that we may think that it is the logical, prefrontal cortex that is “running the show,” but, in fact, it is really the emotional components and systems (such as the limbic system, the fear-based amygdala, the hippocampus, etc.) which actually drive us. And often these emotional elements – the fight/flight survival response, the libido drive – override and win out over logic and self-restraint.
In the case of the JW promoter, the compulsion to be part of the group and seek its approval, as well as the fanciful desire to actually live forever petting those panda bears with their resurrected loved ones, tries to stifle the logical reasoning and comparison skills of the emperical part of the brain.
Sometimes, though, there can eventually be a break between logic and emotion, which can allow the facts to come pouring in – and be acknowledged. This certainly can, and does, happen. After all, it DID happen to many of us.
